If you watched Michael Cohen testify before the House Oversight Committee on Wed. Feb 27th or have seen portions of it on your favorite news feed, you will have undoubtedly witnessed the well-choreographed outrage by most Republican members.
“Waste of time!” “We have more important things to do!” “Why are we listening to the testimony of a convicted felon?” “I’m outraged” “Liar, liar, pants on fire” “Democrats have sunk to a new low!”
Above: Jim Jordan (R-OH) standing, Mark Meadows (R-NC) seated left. Chief Cohen antagonists.
Republican outrage was completely manufactured but what was real was their fear of the truth. The witness that precipitated these intense reactions was Michael Cohen, Donald Trump’s personal lawyer of 10 years. Cohen is going to prison for three years for a litany of felonies: fraudulent bank loans, tax evasion, campaign finance violations and lying to Congress.
Republicans howled that this man was not a credible witness. Yet after eight months of working with the Special Prosecutor, Mueller’s team has found Cohen’s cooperation valuable enough to recommend his sentence be substantially reduced. Furthermore, Cohen’s testimony to the House Oversight Committee, was under oath this time. Unlike when Republicans ran the committees — there were few if any subpoenas, testimony’s under oath or witnesses for that matter. 
If Cohen lied again, committee chairman Elijah Cummings (D-MD) (left) assured Cohen he would be charged with additional felonies which would greatly increase his current three-year sentence. Even then, in anticipation of Republican ridicule, Cohen brought documents, cancelled checks, Trump financial statements, tape recordings as evidence to support his claims and gave the committee a long list of potential corroborating witnesses.
If Republicans were earnest about wasting time, we should all agree to have Donald Trump testify under oath. Let’s hold Trump to the same standard and see if the evidence supports his testimony. He won’t do it nor will his lawyers allow him to do it because he’d commit perjury in the first 60 seconds and at least once a minute thereafter!
Committee Republicans spent most of their speaking time attacking Cohen and spent ZERO time defending Trump against the dozens of salacious allegations Cohen made: Trump’s a racist, liar, tax evader, bank fraud, racketeer, campaign finance lawbreaker and conman. To repeat, Republicans attacked Cohen’s credibility BUT AT NO POINT DID THEY CHALLENGE HIS SPECIFIC ACCUSATIONS. What does that say?
Above: Mark Meadows (R-NC) presents Lynne Patton (standing) in a feeble and racist attempt to prove Trump isn’t a racist.
Several Democrats on the committee pushed back against the Republican attacks. One legislator bluntly reminded Republicans that for the first time, Americans were hearing details of the President’s business and criminal practices because, for 2 years, Republicans refused to call witnesses, issue subpoenas, or even investigate leads. Another Democrat explained such hearings were “required by the constitution” as a means for Congress to provide proper oversight of the Executive branch. She ended by saying “we took an Oath of Office!” Another great example of Republicans being devout Constitutionalists only when it suits their cause.
Unfortunately what the Democrats failed to point out or bring up later was the Republican’s past use of investigative Congressional committees and Special Prosecutors during the Bill Clinton Whitewater/Lewinsky affair and more recently in the Hillary Clinton Benghazi/Email debacle.
In the Whitewater real estate development, a Special Prosecutor was appointed in 1994 to investigate the Clintons and others and that Prosecutor (actually two – the first one, Ken Starr, resigned in 2000 and was replaced by Robert Ray) didn’t release a final report until 2000, roughly 6 years later. Just as a comparison, the Mueller commission hasn’t even hit their 2 year anniversary yet.
In 1995, Republicans gained control of the Congress and immediately began aggressive investigations into Whitewater. According to Wikipedia, the Republican Congress launched a 13 month investigation that included 250 witnesses over 60 sessions. The result? Not one criminal or impeachable charge came out of it.
Counter that with the Michael Cohen hearing. This was the first Democrat-lead hearing into Trump’s alleged criminal and illegal activities. One hearing and the Republicans were already screaming “Waste of time!”? No thanks to the former Republican-led Congressional Committees, the Special Prosecutor has issued 34 indictments in the Russia/Trump investigation which include six of Trump’s close campaign advisors and/or administration officials. Of those six, five have pleaded guilty.
Or consider the Benghazi/Email investigations of Hillary Clinton. There were ten separate investigations into the attack on the U.S. embassy in Benghazi, Libya in 2012 and the related Clinton email controversy. 
Six of those investigations were led by Congressional Republican committees. While the early investigations attempted to legitimately determine “what went wrong and how can we do better in the future?”, the duplication of investigations by Republicans were clearly seen as an attempt to find something, anything to damage the Obama Administration and in particular, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. The investigations on Benghazi lasted into 2014 (2 years) and the Email Controversy until 2015. Neither Clinton nor anyone else has been charged in connection with the Benghazi or Clinton email investigations.
Republicans are well-versed at wasting time and tax-payers money holding excessive, unnecessary and fruitless investigations. They have no standing to complain about the Cohen hearing.
Let’s take a giant step back and look at the bigger picture surrounding the Cohen testimony. Michael Cohen was Donald Trump’s personal attorney for 10 years. He was Trump’s primary lawyer. He was also Trump’s fixer. Who needs a “fixer” unless you’re a habitual lawbreaker? Cohen testified that nothing went on at the Trump Organization without Trump knowing about it. Trump therefore knew about the hush-money Cohen paid to Trump’s mistresses. 
He knew about the bribes Cohen paid to municipal officials in real estate deals. Trump knew about “Catch-‘N-Kill” payments Cohen arranged with David Pecker and the National Enquirer. Trump knew about the bloated and inflated financial statements Cohen submitted to banks and lenders in Trump’s behalf.
Did Trump ever attempt to fire Cohen for his illegal activities? NO. Did Trump ever reprimand Cohen for conducting illegal business dealings? NO. Why? The only reason is that Cohen was doing exactly what Trump wanted him to do. Every invective Republicans used against Cohen: pathological liar, tax cheat, campaign finance violator, financial fraud, shyster…….all of them apply also to his boss, Donald Trump.
Ask yourself, how would Republicans respond if Cohen was Barack Obama’s attorney? Or Hillary Clinton’s? Or if the Russians had helped Clinton win the Presidency? Do you really think the Republicans would persecute the underlings but ignore the Mob boss?
It is only with the audacity of the Republican’s double standard that they could so demonize Cohen and not only ignore the same evilness in Trump, but defend him, support him and worse, enable him.
What line of attack are Republicans going to use when Alan Weiselberg, Donnie Junior, Jared and Ivanka testify before Congress? Yes, they are all liars, scum-bags and frauds. But what do you call someone who deliberately surrounds himself with people of that ilk? You call him Donald Trump of course. You also can call him GUILTY.
La Resistance American 