House Democrats just opened direct probes of Trump's alleged direction for Cohen to lie about Russia
Democrats in the House are moving quickly to determine if there is any basis behind reports that Donald Trump instructed Michael Cohen to lie to Congress about a real estate project in Russia. Both the House Judiciary Committee and the House Intelligence Committee have announced plans to investigate whether or not Trump directed Cohen to lie.
Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler has stated that they know that Trump “has engaged in a long pattern of obstruction,” and noted that “Directing a subordinate to lie is a federal crime.” Nadler has promised that the Judiciary Committee will “get to the bottom of it.” Even before the Buzzfeed article appeared, Nadler told CNN that if necessary, his committee would subpoena the Mueller report in order to make sure any information it contains becomes public.
At Intelligence, Chairman Adam Schiff tweeted that the allegations that Trump “may have suborned perjury before our committee in an effort to curtail the investigation and cover up his business dealings with Russia” are among the most serious charges considered so far. Schiff also states that the Intelligence Committee “will do what’s necessary to find out if it’s true.”
The Washington Post reports a number of other Democratic senators and representatives noting the importance of verifying this report.
Rep. Ted Deutch: If this is true, what it means is this is more evidence that the president has violated his oath of office. If he told Michael Cohen to lie to Congress, if he suborned perjury, this is as serious as it gets.
Some of the responses were even more explicit in spelling out the results of such action.
Rep. Joaquin Castro: If the Buzzfeed story is true, President Trump must resign or be impeached.
But while Democrats are taking this seriously and expressing serious concern, Republicans are responding as they usually do to an outrage by Trump—with absolute silence.
