Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) was in fine form at the top of Michael Cohen’s Wednesday hearing, claiming that a vast left-wing network had conspired to ensure that Donald Trump’s former fixer could testify before the House Oversight Committee about the President’s misdeeds.
Cohen’s attorney Lanny Davis orchestrated the whole affair, according to Jordan, the ranking Republican on the committee, who called Davis “the Clintons’ best friend, loyalist, operative.”
Other schemers bent on bringing down the President, in Jordan’s telling, included billionaire donor Tom Steyer, who has advocated for Trump’s impeachment, House Oversight Committee Chairman Elijah Cummings (D-MD), Fusion GPS and Democrats at large.
From Jordan’s perspective, the Cohen hearing was Democrats last-ditch effort to take down Trump after the FBI’s 2016 probe of the campaign failed to stop him from becoming president.
“They just want to use you, Mr. Cohen,” Jordan said in his opening statement. “You’re their patsy today. They’ve got to find somebody somewhere to say something so they can try to remove the president from office. Because Tom Steyer told them to. Tom Steyer organized a town hall in Manhattan.”
“Guess where?” Jordan said, continuing on this odd tangent. “Chairman Cummings’ district in Baltimore. The best they can find to start this process, Michael Cohen. Fraudster, cheat, convicted felon and in two months a federal inmate. Actually they didn’t find him. Lanny Davis found him. I’ll say one thing about the Democrats. They stick to the play book.”
Jordan and other Republicans on the committee complained that Cohen, who pleaded guilty to lying to Congress about the Trump Organization’s dealings in Russia, was again allowed to testify before Congress. The Ohio Republican told Cummings that his “chairmanship will always be identified with this hearing.”
“Remember how all this started,” Jordan said. “The Clinton campaign hired Perkins law firm, who hired Glenn Simpson who hired a foreigner Christopher Steele who put together the fake dossier the FBI used to get a warrant to spy on the Trump campaign. But when that whole scheme failed and the American people said we’re going to make Donald Trump president, they said we’ve got to do something else.”
“So now Clinton loyalist, Clinton operative Lanny Davis has persuaded the chairman of the oversight committee to give a convicted felon a forum to tell stories and lie about the president of the United States so they can all start their impeachment process,” Jordan continued.
Jordan than yielded his time early, before deciding he wasn’t quite done with his diatribe yet. He asked Cummings for permission another point, but was denied.
“You yielded back, sir,” Cummings said before moving on to swear Cohen in. “You yielded back.”
