Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD) made the stunning allegation Friday that President Donald Trump’s lawyers gave “false statements” to government ethics officials regarding hush-money payments to adult film actress Stormy Daniels.

Cummings, chairman of the House Oversight and Reform Committee, lodged the charge in separate letters to White House Counsel Pat Cipollone and to the Trump Organization.

“It now appears that President Trump’s other attorneys—at the White House and in private practice—may have provided false information about these payments to federal officials,” Cummings wrote.

The letter includes documents that he says show Trump lawyers “repeatedly provided false information to ethics officials” about the nature of payments to Cohen.


“This raises significant questions about why some of the President’s closest advisers made these false claims and the extent to which they too were acting at the direction of, or in coordination with, the president,” the lawmaker wrote.

Cummings renewed a demand that the White House hand over documents about Trump’s payments to his former personal lawyer Michael Cohen — payments which were ultimately intended “to silence women alleging extramarital affairs” during the 2016 campaign. He notes that Trump has thus far failed to comply.

Trump fixer Michael Cohen has been sentenced to serve three years in prison after admitting his part in the hush-money payments.

He is also due to testify before Congress prior to March 6, when is scheduled to report to prison. The new allegations from Cummings will likely be a critical part of his hearing.