"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,” House Oversight Committee Chairman Rep. Elijah Cummings said. | Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP Photo Congress Cummings: 2 Trump attorneys may have lied about Cohen payments

House Oversight Committee Chairman Elijah Cummings said on Friday that his panel received new documents showing that two attorneys for President Donald Trump may have lied to government ethics officials about Trump fixer Michael Cohen’s payments to women alleging affairs with the president ahead of the 2016 election.

“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 (D-Md.) wrote in a letter to White House Counsel Pat Cipollone.


Cummings named Sheri Dillon and Stefan Passantino as the two attorneys who might have made false statements to the Office of Government Ethics (OGE), citing documents the committee obtained from the office.

Dillon did not immediately respond for comment. Attempts to reach Passantino were unsuccessful.

“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 chairman wrote.

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According to Cummings, Dillon “repeatedly stated to federal officials at OGE that President Trump never owed any money to Mr. Cohen in 2016 and 2017.” Passantino, who served as deputy White House counsel for compliance and ethics, reportedly told OGE that Trump and Cohen had a “retainer agreement” — a claim that was later contradicted by federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York.

Additionally, Cummings said in the letter that Cipollone “failed to provide any” of the documents the committee demanded when it launched its probe last month into the hush-money payments. Cohen pleaded guilty to campaign finance violations and said he made the payments “in coordination with and at the direction of” Trump.

Cummings said Dillon’s and Passantino’s alleged false statements raise questions about “the extent to which they too were acting at the direction of, or coordination with, the president.”

In a separate letter, Cummings revealed that the Trump Organization refused to comply with the committee’s request for documents. The letter was addressed to Alan Futerfas, who represents the Trump Organization and Donald Trump Jr.

Cummings quoted Futerfas as saying he would not provide documents because they “have previously been provided to, and are currently in the possession of, the authorities.”

“We understand from various public statements that the committee has no interest in interfering with ongoing inquiries,” Cummings quoted Futerfas as saying.

In his own letter, Cummings assured Futerfas that “Congress takes great care not to impair the outcome of criminal cases while exercising its own constitutional authority to conduct robust oversight.”

As they pursue myriad probes into the Trump administration and the president’s finances, House Democratic committee chairs have vowed that they would not interfere with ongoing criminal probes, including those being conducted by special counsel Robert Mueller and Southern District of New York prosecutors.

Futerfas did not immediately respond for comment.

