Exclusive: House Majority Leader Tom Emmer is urging the Justice Department to “take immediate action” to prosecute former Trump attorney Michael Cohen, who admitted to false statements and theft during the former president’s unprecedented criminal trial. requesting.
Fox News Digital on Wednesday exclusively obtained a letter sent by Emmer, R-Minn., to Attorney General Merrick Garland, announcing multiple criminal referrals from congressional committees related to allegations Cohen told Congress. He called on the Justice Department to “take immediate action” regarding the matter. Emmer also requested information about top Manhattan prosecutor Matthew Colangelo, who served as a senior Justice Department official in the Biden administration before joining Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s team.
Michael Cohen was Bragg’s “star witness” in the unprecedented criminal trial against Trump, who pleaded not guilty to all charges.
The former Biden Justice Department official currently prosecuting Trump once received compensation for “political consulting” from the Democratic National Committee.
In his letter to Garland, Emmer said Cohen “has proven to be a pathological liar, especially to Congress.”
Congressman Tom Emmer speaks after a House Republican caucus meeting at the Capitol on September 19, 2023. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
“In November 2018, Mr. Cohen admitted to giving false testimony before the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence,” Emmer wrote. “Since then, Republican members of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee, the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, and the House Judiciary Committee have perjured themselves and knowingly made false statements during testimony in Congressional hearings and affidavits. He has been indicted by the U.S. Department of Justice on at least three occasions for doing so.
This fall, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Turner (R-Ohio) and House Republican Conference Chair Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) announced that Mr. Cohen would appear in his 2019 deposition. A criminal referral letter was sent to the Ministry of Justice with evidence that he had committed perjury. Earlier this month, House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) and Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) also testified in separate testimony before their respective committees in 2019. Mr. Cohen was referred to criminal prosecutors on suspicion of making false statements during the recording.
Donald Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen has finished testifying in the New York v. Trump trial. (Getty Images)
In testimony before the House Oversight Committee in 2019, Emmer said Cohen “repeatedly maintained that he was not seeking a job in President Trump’s White House, despite evidence from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York that ‘Mr. Cohen had spoken privately to friends.’ … He expected to be given a key role and title in the new administration.”
Top Republican doubles down on calls for Justice Department investigation of Bragg’s ‘star witness’ Michael Cohen
During the New York v. Trump criminal trial, Emmer accused Cohen of “lying to Congress” after a witness “testified directly to Cohen’s anger over not getting a job in the Trump administration in December 2016.” This has been further substantiated.”
Cohen testified on the stand that he had “talked with a number of people about working with President Trump in the White House,” and said he “wanted to be considered” by the chief of staff “for ego purposes.”
While on the witness stand in New York v. Trump this month, Cohen also admitted to stealing tens of thousands of dollars from the Trump Organization.
Attorney General Merrick Garland (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
“In other words, the prosecution’s star witness has admitted to more serious felonies than those with which prosecutors have charged former President Trump,” Emmer said in a letter to Garland.
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Emmer called on the Justice Department to “take immediate action on criminal referrals” and said it appears President Biden’s Justice Department is “already colluding” with Bragg in the case against Trump. He declared, citing Mr. Colangelo’s name.
“Given that Matthew Colangelo left his position as a senior Justice Department official to prosecute his former boss’ political opponents, it appears that the Biden Administration’s Justice Department is already working in collusion with the Manhattan District Attorney in the case against former President Trump,” Emmer wrote.
He continued: “Further efforts to protect Mr. Cohen, the district attorney’s star witness, only reinforce the impression that the Department of Justice is engaged in a two-tier system of justice.”
Prosecutor Matthew Colangelo speaks in a Justice Department video. (Ministry of Justice/YouTube)
Mr. Colangelo was the top prosecutor on Mr. Bragg’s team and worked in the Biden administration as an acting deputy attorney general at the Justice Department. He then became Principal Deputy Attorney General and helped oversee multiple divisions, including the civil rights, civil rights, antitrust, and tax divisions.
Mr. Colangelo joined Mr. Bragg’s office in December 2022. Trump was indicted in April 2023.
House Republicans go after ‘convicted liar’ Michael Cohen, ask Justice Department to investigate recent lies
Fox News Digital exclusively reported that Colangelo received thousands of dollars for “political consulting” from the Democratic National Committee in 2018.
Emmer demands that Garland provide documents regarding Colangelo’s employment and provide a written response as to “why he did not move forward with indicting Mr. Cohen despite criminal charges from multiple Congressional committees.” did.
After sending the letter to Garland, Emmer told Fox News Digital that Cohen was “not only a liar and a thief, but he is the only person convicted in Alvin Bragg’s witch hunt against President Trump.” he said.
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“We will do everything in our power to get tough on Joe Biden’s corrupt Department of Justice until Cohen is behind bars where he belongs and the public gets the answers they deserve about the shady characters orchestrating the biggest fraud in American history,” he said.
