Trump’s ex-lawyer Michael Cohen subpoenaed by Senate Intelligence committee to testify

586

President Donald Trump’s former personal lawyer Michael Cohen was subpoenaed by the Senate Intelligence Committee to testify in mid-February, a source familiar with the matter told CNBC on Thursday.

A spokeswoman for the committee’s ranking Democrat, Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, declined CNBC’s request for comment.

Cohen had been scheduled to testify in a public hearing before the Democrat-led House Oversight and Reform Committee on Feb. 7. But on Wednesday, Cohen postponed that hearing, citing ongoing “threats” against his family allegedly made by Trump and his current lawyer, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani.

Cohen had been scheduled to testify in the House a month before he was due to enter a federal prison to begin serving a three-year sentence for crimes he pleaded guilty to, including ones that implicated Trump directly.

Earlier Thursday, Davis called for Trump to be censured by the House of Representatives for “witness tampering,” as well as calling for a criminal probe of Trump’s current personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani.

“Today I am calling for an immediate House resolution against Trump for congressional witness tampering and obstruction due horrible multiple threats to Michael’s family, and an immediate criminal investigation and possible indictment of Giuliani for the same conduct, since he does not have likely presidential immunity,” Davis said in a statement to CNBC.

On Twitter and in interviews since Cohen’s sentencing in December, Trump has made comments about Cohen’s father-in-law Fima Shusterman.

Shusterman was placed on probation in the mid-1990s after pleading guilty in a case in which he was charged with conspiring to defraud the IRS. Shusterman has not been charged by authorities with any organized crime activity or for any crime involving Cohen.

Days before Cohen was scheduled to be sentenced in federal court in Manhattan, Trump referenced Shusterman and Cohen’s wife, Laura, while raging against his former fixer in a pair of tweets.

In January, Trump took another shot at Cohen’s father in law during an interview with Jeanine Pirro on Fox News.

Cohen “should give information maybe on his father-in-law, because that’s the one that people want to look at,” Trump said, “because where does that money — that’s the money in the family.”

It was not immediately clear whether Cohen’s testimony would occur in a closed session, or one that would be open to the public.

CNBC’s Tucker Higgins contributed to this report.

This is breaking news. Please check back for updates.

Comment via Facebook

Corrections: If you are aware of an inaccuracy or would like to report a correction, we would like to know about it. Please consider sending an email to [email protected] and cite any sources if available. Thank you. (Policy)