Michael Cohen goes for the triple play against Donald Trump

| 1:50 pm EST February 21, 2019
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Last night we learned that Special Counsel Robert Mueller will supposedly be issuing his final report on Donald Trump as soon as next week, and in what doesn’t seem like a coincidence, we learned that Michael Cohen is definitely testifying against Trump next week. Cohen had been stalling, seemingly with the approval of House Democrats, but now he’s ready to reveal all. It turns out he’s going for the triple play.

House Oversight Committee Chairman Elijah Cummings announced last night that Michael Cohen will publicly testify in front of the television cameras next Wednesday. Then Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi revealed that Cohen will also be testifying before the House Intelligence Committee next week. But that’s not the entire story.

It turns out Michael Cohen will testify privately before the Senate Intelligence Committee on Tuesday, then publicly before the House Oversight Committee on Wednesday, then privately before the House Intelligence Committee on Thursday. To be clear, public testimony is largely for the benefit of educating the public, while private testimony generally involves the discussion of ongoing criminal cases and/or secret information and is for the benefit of pointing congressional investigators in the right direction. So why is it a big deal that Cohen is doing all three committees in rapid fashion?

For the past few weeks it’s been clear that someone – either Robert Mueller, the SDNY, or both – has been encouraging Michael Cohen to stall his scheduled congressional testimony. Whenever Cohen cited his shoulder issues, or the threats Donald Trump was making against his family, House Democrats seemed just fine with the postponements. Now we know why: the investigation has reached a point where Cohen can truly dish on things, and so he’s going all-out.