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REP. ADAM SCHIFF, D-CA.: Well, if Mr. Cohen misled the Congress about the president’s business dealings in Russia deep into the campaign, it also means that the president misled the country about his business dealings and that the Russians were apparently attempting to gain financial leverage over the potential president the United States. This just underscores how important for us to finish the investigation, to determine what financial links the Russians have to the president and the Trump organization, to determine whether they continue to hold leverage. So, clearly, we have a lot more work to be done. And just as clearly, the president has misled the country about his financial dealings with the Russians.
CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR: So, how important is it at this juncture this development?
SCHIFF: I think it’s very important. It shows that certainly Mr. Cohen is providing deep cooperation with the special counsel even as Mr. Manafort is not. We will be very interested at the appropriate time and inviting Mr. Cohen to come back to our committee to share any additional information and insights to clarify his prior testimony before our committee. So, there’s a lot more that warrants investigation here.
AMANPOUR: The kind of picture you’re drawing is of Michael Cohen coming back to Congress and potentially hours if not days of what could be incredibly damaging testimony, public testimony, about this whole affair.
SCHIFF: Well, what I’m saying is this, if Mr. Cohen is stating now that he misled the Congress about the extent of nature and duration of the Trump organization’s business efforts in Russia, denials the president made about business interests in Russia turned out to be false, then it means that the financial entanglement is more than we knew in terms of Trump and Russia. It also underscores the imperative of finding out do the Russians continue to hold some financial leverage over the president. After all, if the president was willing to mislead the country about efforts to get a Trump Tower deal in Moscow during the presidential campaign, is he still willing to mislead the country about financial connections that continue to this day?
AMANPOUR: This is now a double whammy. We’ve heard from the Mueller investigation that they are no longer interested in Paul Manafort and have ended his plea deal because they say he keeps lying. We now have this are unbelievably fast revelation about Michael Cohen. What you think is at the root of this? Do you feel that Mueller is trying to accelerate the — you know, the presentation of his findings?
SCHIFF: Well, it certainly looks like there is a proliferation of activity in the Mueller investigation. As you point out, Manafort caught lying and exposed to the court you have Corsi backing out of a parent — to plea deal and now, you have Michael Cohen in court, why is this all happening now with such rapidity? One concern I have is, is this a result of the appointment of Whitaker
About This Episode EXPAND
Christiane Amanpour speaks with Ali Shihabi, founder of the Arabia Foundation, about U.S./Saudi relations; and U.S. Rep Adam Schiff about Michael Cohen’s guilty plea. Hari Sreenivasan speaks with Paul Salopek, journalist and National Geographic Fellow, who is trekking across the globe on the route our ancestors took to tell the stories he learns along the way.
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