The House Intelligence Committee is investigating lawyers tied to Donald Trump over allegations that they “reviewed, shaped and edited” former presidential fixer Michael Cohen’s false testimony to Congress.
Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) asked four attorneys who have worked for the president or his family members to provide documents and sit for interviews related to the claims made by Cohen, Trump’s former longtime personal attorney who is serving a three-year federal prison sentence for financial crimes and lying to Congress about negotiations surrounding the construction of a Trump Tower in Moscow.
The attorneys — Jay Sekulow, Alan Futerfas, Alan Garten and Abbe Lowell — rebuffed Schiff’s demand for documents, which was first sent on March 14 and obtained by POLITICO on Tuesday. The New York Times first revealed the letters.
“Instead of addressing important intelligence needs, the House Intelligence Committee appears to seek a truly needless dispute — this one with private attorneys — that would force them to violate privileges and ethical rules,” Trump attorney Patrick Strawbridge said in a statement on behalf of the four attorneys. “As committed defense lawyers, we will respect the constitution and defend the attorney-client privilege — one of the oldest and most sacred privileges in the law.”
Their lawyers told Schiff on April 5 that his request does not have a “proper legislative purpose,” and their clients would therefore refuse to submit to Schiff’s demands for documents and witness interviews.
Cohen told lawmakers earlier this year that the attorneys in question helped to edit his false testimony to the Intelligence Committee about the timing surrounding the negotiations for the Trump Tower Moscow project.
In a follow-up letter on May 3, Schiff said some of the attorneys’ clients “may have engaged in discussions about potential pardons in an effort to deter one or more witnesses from cooperating with authorized investigations.
”Additionally, special counsel Robert Mueller’s report on his investigation into Russian election interference said that Cohen had “almost daily” contact with Sekulow, who served as Trump’s personal attorney throughout the Mueller probe. The day before Cohen submitted his false testimony, according to Mueller, he and Sekulow had several phone conversations.
Mueller’s report also stated that Sekulow declined the opportunity to provide more information to investigators about his conversations with Cohen.
Schiff said in a statement to POLITICO that it would be “negligent” for the committee not to investigate those issues.
“If any individual is allowed to lie to our committee or encourage others to do so, hide behind inapplicable privileges, or otherwise fail to provide anything less than full cooperation, other witnesses will be emboldened to similarly obstruct, both now and in the future,” Schiff added. “We must not allow that to happen.”
Darren Samuelsohn and Kyle Cheney contributed to this report.
Article originally published on POLITICO Magazine