Michael Cohen subpoenaed to testify before Senate Intelligence Committee

After Cohen passed on the House Oversight Committee’s hearing yesterday, the Senate Intel Committee subpoenaed him today to come before their committee before he goes to jail:

FOX NEWS – The Senate Intelligence Committee on Thursday issued a subpoena to Michael Cohen to appear before the panel, a day after the former Trump attorney postponed scheduled testimony before another congressional committee.

Cohen’s attorney and communications adviser Lanny Davis told Fox News that the committee, led by Chairman Richard Burr, R-N.C., and Ranking Member Mark Warner, D-Va., served his client with a subpoena Thursday morning.

The committee’s decision to subpoena Cohen comes after Davis announced on Wednesday that a public hearing before the House Oversight Committee, slated for Feb. 7, would be postponed due to alleged threats from the president and his attorney, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani.

“Due to ongoing threats against his family from President Trump and Mr. Giuliani, as recently as this weekend, as well as Mr. Cohen’s continued cooperation with ongoing investigations, by advice of counsel, Mr. Cohen’s appearance will be postponed to a later date,” Davis said Wednesday.

He added, “This is a time where Mr. Cohen had to put his family and their safety first.”

Davis, who said Cohen “looks forward to testifying at the appropriate time,” claimed Trump and Giuliani had threatened Cohen, who was recently sentenced to three years in prison.

Burr and Warner did not confirm the existence of a subpoena and declined to comment when asked whether the committee issued one to Cohen on Thursday. It is unclear when Cohen could appear before the Senate Intelligence Committee to testify. Cohen does not have to report to prison until March 6.

Cohen previously testified in private before the same committee in August 2017. In November, as part of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation, Cohen pleaded guilty to lying to Congress during that deposition.

On Capitol Hill Thursday, when asked about Cohen, Warner told reporters: "He lied to the committee."

"He has an enormous number of unanswered questions about Trump Tower and a variety of other items that we'd be interested in," Warner said.

Cohen lied about the timeline of a Trump real estate project in Moscow, claiming that his communications with Russia on the deal ended in January 2016—prior to the Iowa caucuses. In his guilty plea, he acknowledged that he had communications with Russian official about a potential Trump Tower project in Moscow up until June 2016—when Trump had already secured the GOP nomination for president.

Cohen hired Davis in July to represent him in the federal criminal investigation into his personal business dealings and involvement in arranging hush-money payments to former Playboy model Karen McDougal and adult film star Stormy Daniels in the weeks leading up to the 2016 presidential election in exchange for their silence about alleged sexual encounters with Trump.

You might be wondering if Cohen is going to say he can’t attend that hearing either, but according to his lawyer Cohen will attend:

Former Donald Trump attorney Michael Cohen will comply with a subpoena from the Senate Intelligence Committee to testify before that panel, Cohen’s personal lawyer Lanny Davis said Thursday.

“Of course he will honor the subpoena,” Davis said on MSNBC when asked if Cohen would testify. “But what he will do as a result of the subpoena is a legal issue that would come down to reasonable discussions.”

Something tells me Cohen won’t be giving the committee very many answers, and perhaps he’ll even plead the 5th to keep from having to answer anything.

I guess we’ll find out in February…