2016 ELECTION/HILLARY CLINTON/MICHAEL COHEN/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “U.S. President Donald Trump’s former personal lawyer Michael Cohen accused him of breaking the law while in office and said for the first time that Trump knew in advance about a WikiLeaks dump of stolen emails that hurt his 2016 election rival Hillary Clinton. In a dramatic televised hearing in Congress on Wednesday, Cohen said Trump approved hush payments to cover up extra-marital sexual relationships in violation of campaign finance laws, and signed a personal check for $35,000 in 2017 to reimburse Cohen for at least one of those payments. Cohen, 52, was a close aide of Trump for years and his testimony could increase the legal and political pressure on the Republican president, but he did not appear to reveal a ‘smoking gun’ that would sink his former boss. Cohen told a House of Representatives committee he had no direct evidence that Trump or his campaign colluded with Moscow during the election campaign.”
–Nathan Layne, Ginger Gibson, “Ex-lawyer Cohen assails ‘conman’ Trump, gives no direct evidence of collusion,” Reuters, February 27, 2019 10:06 pm