House Democrat Says He’s Not Serious About Calling Hannity in Cohen Case
WASHINGTON — Rep. David Cicilline (D-R.I.), a key House Democrat who sits on the Judiciary Committee, says that he is not serious about calling Sean Hannity as a witness in the Cohen case, even though he suggested in a tweet that the Fox News personality should testify under oath.
On Thursday, Hannity said on Fox News that Donald Trump’s former attorney Michael Cohen told him that he made the decision to pay hush money to Stormy Daniels and did not tell Trump. Hannity made the remarks during an interview with the president.
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Cicilline then tweeted, “Sean Hannity is now volunteering himself as a witness. I look forward to his testimony.”
But Cicilline said on CNN on Monday that his point was not that Hannity will be called but that he was “putting himself in the position of being a witness in this case.”
He added, “If he has information to share he ought to do it before Congress under oath. I think we know that is not true because we have a tape recording of the president discussing those hush payments, so we know Mr. Cohen was testifying truthfully.”
“My point was if he has things to say, he ought to say it under oath before Congress rather than as a commentator on Fox News trying to defend the president.”
Cohen is scheduled to resume his testimony on Wednesday in a closed door appearance before the House Intelligence Committee.
In his testimony last week before the House Oversight Committee, Cohen claimed that Trump directed him to use his personal funds from his home equity line of credit to pay Daniels and to “avoid any money being traced back to him that could negatively impact his campaign.”
“I did that too, without bothering to consider whether that was improper, much less whether it was the right thing to do or how it would impact me, my family or the public,” Cohen said.
Trump and his legal team have called Cohen a liar.
The Wall Street Journal first reported that Cohen arranged for the payments in January 2018, but it was not until August, when Cohen plead guilty in a New York federal court, that he implicated Trump in the hush money arrangements.
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