Two top House Republicans on Wednesday asked the Department of Justice to investigate whether Michael Cohen—who will likely be a witness in former President Donald Trump’s New York trial—committed perjury in his testimony to Congress.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.), who previously referred Mr. Cohen to the DOJ for criminal prosecution in 2019, wrote that Mr. Cohen allegedly “lied again before the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence in a 2019 deposition” and that his “testimony is now the basis for a politically motivated prosecution of a former president and current declared candidate for that office.”
They added that during that testimony, he made “willfully and intentionally false statements of material fact that were contradicted by the record established by the Justice Department.”
Mr. Cohen, a former lawyer to President Trump, is expected to testify in the ongoing “hush money” trial involving the former president in which he is accused of falsifying business statements for payments made during the 2016 election.
Mr. Cohen had testified in Congress that he did not try to get a job in the Trump White House, but the Republican lawmakers pointed to evidence from federal prosecutors that found Mr. Cohen told friends that “he expected to be given a prominent role and title in the new administration.”
Among other issues, the two Republicans claimed Mr. Cohen lied when he told Congress that he did not have any reportable contracts with foreign governments. They said he entered into contracts in 2017 “with entities owned in part by foreign governments.” They did not go into details.
The most recent example was in October, said Mr. Jordan and Mr. Comer, when Mr. Cohen allegedly “admitted to lying to Congress” during testimony in a separate civil case against President Trump that was brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James.
According to their letter, at the time, Trump lawyer Alina Habba asked Mr. Cohen if he was honest in front of the House Intelligence Committee in February 2019. He said “no.”
“So you lied under oath in February of 2019? Is that your testimony?” she asked him. “Yes,” Mr. Cohen replied.
