Michael Cohen, President Donald Trump’s former personal attorney, watched former special counsel Robert Mueller’s highly anticipated testimony Wednesday in a packed common room of inmates a federal prison in New York.
In a statement provided to CNN, Cohen — writing from Federal Correctional Institution Otisville in Orange County, New York — expressed disappointment with Mueller’s “reluctance” to extrapolatebeyond the report he released in April.
“Mr. Mueller today had the world stage to answer questions regarding obstruction of justice and witness tampering. Sadly, his reluctance just continues to leave the debate open and those responsible free from prosecution … for the moment,” he said. “The American people deserve more!”
Cohen is currently serving a three year sentence in the New York facility. In August 2018, he pleaded guilty to tax evasion, false statements to a bank and campaign finance violations tied to hush money payments he made or orchestrated on behalf of Trump. In February,he testified about Trump’s involvement in hush-money payments to women and his knowledge of longtime Trump confidant Roger Stone’s efforts to contact WikiLeaks.
In his testimony Wednesday before the House Judiciary and Intelligence committees, Mueller offered mostly terse responses to pointed questions from lawmakers in an attempt to let his report guide his testimony.
While Mueller refused to entertain questions about the Steele dossier — an opposition research document put together by former British spy Christopher Steele — as it related to his investigation, Cohen added Wednesday the testimony “confirmed” allegations made in the document against him were false.
“The allegations raised against me in the Steele dossier were blatant lies,” Cohen said. “At least today’s hearings confirmed this. If our elected officials want more information or clarification they know where to find me…”
