REUTERS/Carlos Barria
Michael Cohen, the former personal attorney of U.S. President Donald Trump, testifies before a House Committee on Oversight and Reform hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., February 27, 2019
- In his Wednesday testimony before the House Oversight Committee, Michael Cohen revealed that federal prosecutors in New York have an active investigation regarding President Donald Trump that has not been made public.
- In December, Cohen was sentenced to three years in prison after pleading guilty to tax fraud, bank fraud, and campaign-finance violations in the Southern District of New York.
- Federal prosecutors said he made the payments "in coordination with and at the direction of" Trump, establishing the president as an unindicted co-conspirator in the case.
- On November 30, Cohen struck a deal to plead guilty to one count of lying to Congress in exchange for cooperating with special counsel Robert Mueller.
- Follow along with Cohen's testimony here.
In his Wednesday testimony before the House Oversight Committee, Michael Cohen revealed that federal prosecutors in New York are investigating President Donald Trump for other 'illegal acts' that he was unable to discuss, as they are the subject of a criminal probe.
Rep. Raja Khrisnamoorthi of Illinois first asked Cohen when his last communication with Trump or someone acting on Trump's behalf. Cohen said his last communication with Trump or a Trump associate was last fall, but declined to expand on the conversation.
"Unfortunately, this topic is actually something that's being investigated right now by the Southern District of New York, and I've been asked by them not to discuss it, not to talk about these issues," Cohen said.
Krishnamoorthi then asked Cohen if the former Trump lawyer knew of "any other wrongdoing or illegal act regarding Donald Trump" that Cohen hadn't discussed in his testimony.
"Yes, and again, those are part of the investigation that's currently being looked at by the Southern District of New York," Cohen said.
In August of 2018, Cohen pleaded guilty to tax evasion, bank fraud, and campaign-finance violations in the Southern District of New York. The violations were related to payments to buy the silence of two women, Karen McDougal and Stormy Daniels, who say they had affairs with Trump.
Read more: The most shocking statements and allegations from Michael Cohen's bombshell congressional testimony
Prosecutors also struck a non-prosecution agreement with American Media Inc., the parent company of the tabloid The National Enquirer, which paid $150,000 to buy the rights to McDougal's story, which the company never published.
Trump's team has contended that the president did not know that the payments were illegal and that the payments were made to protect his businesses and not to influence the election.
The non-prosecution agreement, however, states that AMI "further admitted that its principal purpose in making the payment was to suppress the woman's story so as to prevent it from influencing the election."
Prosecutors in the Southern District of New York are also reportedly launching a criminal probe into whether the Trump inaugural committee misspent some of the $107 million it raised, improperly sold tickets to foreign nationals, and whether it brokered special access to the administration for top inaugural donors.
Read more:
- LIVE BLOG: Former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen testifies before Congress in blockbuster hearing
- The most shocking statements and allegations from Michael Cohen's bombshell congressional testimony
- Michael Cohen says Trump 'is a racist' who once asked him to 'name a country run by a black person that wasn't a shithole'
- Michael Cohen said Trump 'frequently' told him that Donald Trump Jr. has 'the worst judgement of anyone in the world'
- Read Michael Cohen's full testimony to the House Committee on Oversight and Reform
- How Michael Cohen went from saying he would 'take a bullet' for Trump to implicating him in federal crimes