Former Trump Lawyer Michael Cohen Agrees to Testify to Congress – The New York Times

“I want to make clear that we have no interest in inappropriately interfering with any ongoing criminal investigations,” he said in a statement.

Mr. Cummings said in a brief interview on Thursday that he had known Mr. Cohen would come for some time and had spoken with him briefly when arranging the hearing.

“He’ll have a chance to tell his side of the story, and we’ll have a chance to question him. The American people deserve that.”

In a CNN interview in December, Mr. Cummings compared Mr. Cohen’s appearance to that of John Dean, President Richard Nixon’s White House counsel, who in 1973 appeared before a special Senate committee investigating the Watergate scandal in which he implicated himself, top administration officials and the president himself in a cover-up of the 1972 break-in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters.

“This is a watershed moment,” Mr. Cummings said, invoking Mr. Dean, who he said “changed the course of America” with his testimony.

It was unclear if Mr. Cohen’s agreement to testify before the Oversight Committee will preclude appearances, in public or private, before other House panels.

The newly installed chairmen of at least two other panels, the Judiciary and Intelligence committees, have said they want to speak with Mr. Cohen about his work on behalf of Mr. Trump. Representative Adam B. Schiff, Democrat of California and the Intelligence Committee chairman, said in an interview last week that he was in touch with Mr. Cohen’s lawyer about a possible appearance.