Lanny Davis, Cohen’s legal adviser and spokesman, traveled to Capitol Hill in recent days to discuss security and other logistical issues surrounding his client Michael Cohen. | Joseph Kaczmarek/AP Mueller Investigation Cohen’s adviser presses lawmakers on safety concerns after Trump attacks

A legal representative for Donald Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen expressed concern to congressional investigators this week about his clients’ safety and urged Republicans to rein in the president’s attacks on his former fixer.

Lanny Davis, Cohen’s legal adviser and spokesman, traveled to Capitol Hill in recent days to discuss security and other logistical issues in meetings with House Oversight and Reform Committee Chairman Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) and Democratic committee aides. He said he pressed Republicans on Trump’s repeated tweets about Cohen’s family — particularly his client’s father-in-law — urging them to get their party leader to tone down his rhetoric about Cohen.


“I’m very concerned about the president of the United States acting like a mobster,” Davis said in a short phone interview Friday, just before an MSNBC appearance. “It’d not be any difference if the ‘don’ called somebody telling the truth a ‘rat’ and attacked the family and sent the implicit message to beware.”

Minutes later, Davis went on MSNBC to reiterate that message: “Family is out of bounds. There is only one person in this country — one president in our history — that would threaten family as a tactic to make fear of somebody he calls a ‘rat’ by telling the truth. And that’s President Trump, and the Republicans should be holding him accountable.”

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Oversight Democratic and Republicans aides declined to comment for this story. But Democratic sources and one lawmaker on the panel told POLITICO that Democratic investigators were thinking about ways to push back on Trump and ensure Cohen’s safety.

Davis’ meeting with Hill staff come amid reports that his client is getting cold feet about testifying before Congress on Feb. 7.

Last Saturday, Trump suggested on “Fox News” that Cohen’s father-in-law was in legal jeopardy, and that Cohen should flip on his dad to get a shorter prison sentence. (Cohen is going to jail on March 6 after he pleaded guilty to charges of tax evasion and lying to Congress.)

"He should give information maybe on his father-in-law, because that's the one that people want to look at,” Trump said.

Despite push back from Hill Democrats, who called Trump’s remarks a veiled threat on the family members of their new star witness, Trump doubled-down Friday morning, accusing Cohen on twitter of “lying to reduce his jail time! Watch father-in-law!”

The tweet comes a few weeks after Trump initially called Cohen, who’s cooperating with the FBI and special counsel Robert Muellers’ Russia probe, a “rat,” language traditionally used by Hollywood mafia bosses before execution of a strayed group member.

Cohen has implicated the president in hush payments made to women during the 2016 presidential campaign alleging they had affairs with Trump. He’s also reportedly told prosecutors that Trump’s business dealings with Russia were much stronger than he claimed during the 2016 campaign.

On Thursday night, BuzzFeed reported that Trump directed Cohen to lie to Congress about those Russia business ties. Mueller’s spokesman nearly 24 hours later issued a rare statement disputing several aspects of the media report. BuzzFeed responded to say it stood by its story. Davis said Cohen played no role in the BuzzFeed story and otherwise declined to comment on the article.





Davis also said Friday that no decision had been made yet on whether Cohen will indeed appear before Congress.

“I don’t know if we’re ready to cancel,” Davis said. “He’s very fearful.”

In the meantime, Davis is encouraging Congress to do something to rein in Trump’s attacks on his clients.

“The tweet today by Trump, something has to be done by both parties in Congress to say, ‘You’re out of bounds.’”

House Democrats plan to discuss their options for responding to Trump and protecting Cohen in the coming days. Rep. Gerry Connolly, a senior Oversight panel member, said his party should go back and review how Congress protected witnesses during a series of sensitive hearings they had in the 1960s on organized crime and the mafia.

“It’s not even a veiled attempt at intimidation of a witness and obstruction of the process of witnesses wanting to come forward to testify before the legislative branch of government,” the Virginia Democrat said Friday. “It’s a repugnant act on the part of the president who clearly is afraid of public testimony by Mr. Cohen under oath.”

Asked whether he thought his GOP counterparts on the committee might use their relationships with Trump to get him to back off—ranking Republican Jim Jordan and panel member Mark Meadows are close allies of the president—Connelly said no.

“Both of them have become such apologists for this president that I think they would be impervious to those pleadings,” he said.

Davis said he’s spoken with Hill aides about the logistics of Cohen’s testimony, including keeping him protected that day.

“We’re certainly hoping to have security provided to him. Something will be done to help him get in and out,” Davis said.

But Cohen’s concerns aren’t limited to his appearance on Capitol Hill. Davis in his MSNBC appearance noted that there were Trump supporters all around as well as foreign actors who may want to do the bidding of the president, who have all but put a target on his client.

While it’s too early in the congressional oversight process for Democrats to bring Cohen in at the start of the new session, it makes sense logistically before the former Trump lawyer starts serving his sentence, said David Weinstein, a former federal prosecutor in Miami.

“It’s easier to bring him in now when he’s a public person who’s free to move about the country with limitations than it is to bring him in with a U.S. Marshall escort, the Bureau of Prisons and shackles,” he said. “Now is the time to get him in and lock him into testimony.”

Davis said he didn’t know yet if Cohen would also be appearing before the Senate Intelligence committee.

