Checks, Lies, and Audiotape

The golden age of television has become the golden age of C-Span. On Wednesday, Americans were glued to their screens as Michael Cohen testified in front of the House Oversight Committee. As expected, the hearing was partisan, with one side trying to find out the truth about Donald Trump and the other side trying to point out the past lies of Michael Cohen. If your jaw hadn’t already been on the ground for two years, it would have dropped as we repeatedly heard one side of the aisle insist that they won’t take the word of a liar — and they were saying that in defense of Donald Trump. Yes, Michael Cohen is a liar, a bully, and a convicted felon. Everyone knows testimony from bad guys is the backbone of much of the criminal justice system. You don’t get good people to flip. To pretend otherwise is an oversight too preposterous to stomach — even coming from members of a committee with oversight in its name. So far, the line of the testimony came from Cohen when he addressed Trump’s advocates: “I’m responsible for your silliness because I did the same thing that you’re doing now for ten years. I protected Mr. Trump … I can only warn people the more people that follow Mr. Trump as I did blindly are going to suffer the same consequences that I’m suffering.” Here’s the latest on the hearing from The Guardian, CNN, and WaPo.

+ Many of Cohen’s key claims came in his opening statement, and include: Trump told him to lie about the Stormy Daniels payment, Trump knew in advance about the Wikileaks email dump, and Trump was pushing for the Trump Tower Moscow deal long after he told Americans he had no dealings with Russia. Cohen referred to Trump as “a racist, a conman, a cheat.” Many experts described Michael Cohen’s written opening statement as shocking or stunning. The sad, pathetic truth is that it is not stunning at all. It’s an acknowledgment of the obvious. Full disclosure: I have Confirmation Bias: I’m biased towards believing things that confirm what I can see with my own eyes. From Wired, here are five key takeaways from Cohen’s testimony so far.

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