As the nation waits to see what will come of a probe into Trump’s actions in 2016 surrounding payments to Stormy Daniels, Republican officials are speaking out about possible ulterior motives by prosecutors and witnesses.

On Monday, Congressman Thomas Massie (R-KY) published a video of a hearing with Michael Cohen from February 2019. Massie questioned Michael Cohen before the Congressional Oversight Committee regarding his work as an attorney for former President Donald Trump.

Massie stated:

Disbarred attorney Michael Cohen is the least credible witness I ever questioned during my time on the House Oversight Committee. He admits that as President Trump’s attorney, he took unsolicited actions and offered “legal advice” without concern for underlying legality.

Cohen, despite being a convicted felon, is the key witness for the Manhattan DA in its investigation of Trump’s payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels, legally named Stephanie Clifford, in 2016.

Toward the end of Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, Cohen paid Clifford $130,000 to not disclose her affair with Trump that occurred a decade before. The payment, which was both legal and possibly morally objectionable to many conservative voters, was then reimbursed to Cohen in multiple installments from Trump.

According to the Associated Press:

[Manhattan District Attorney] Bragg’s office has apparently been examining whether any state laws were broken in connection with the payments or the way Trump’s company compensated Cohen for his work to keep the women’s allegations quiet.

In the video posted by Massie on Monday, the Congressman asks Cohen:

“Mr. Cohen, can you just clarify, did you say that at times you would do what you thought Mr. Trump wanted you to do, not specifically what he told you to do?”

 

Cohen: “At times, yes.”

 

Massie: “So you just went on your intuition?”

 

Cohen: “I don't know if I would call it intuition, as much as I would just say, my knowledge of what he wanted, because it happened before, and I knew what he had wanted.”

 

Massie: “Does a lawyer have a duty to provide his client with good legal advice?”

 

Cohen: “Yes.”

 

Massie: “Were you a good lawyer to Mr. Trump?”

 

Cohen: “I believe so.”

 

Massie: “When you arranged a payment to Ms. Clifford, you say in your testimony—I'm going to quote from your testimony—that you did so, quote, ‘without bothering to consider whether that was improper, much less whether it was the right thing to do.’ You said that—unquote. That's your testimony today. You said you didn't even consider whether it was legal. How could you give your client legal advice when you're not even considering whether it's legal?”

 

Cohen: “I did what I knew Mr. Trump wanted. This conversation with Mr. Trump–”

 

Massie: “I didn't ask–”

 

Cohen: “started–”

 

Massie: “I didn't ask whether you were a good fixer. I asked whether you were a good lawyer.”

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY), and House Administration Committee Chairman Bryan Steil (R-WI) wrote a letter on Monday to Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, requesting that he testify regarding his prosecutorial authority and potential indictment of Trump.

The letter stated: 

The facts of this matter have not changed since 2018 and no new witnesses have emerged. The Justice Department examined the facts in 2019 and opted not to pursue further prosecutions at that time. Even still, according to reporting, the investigation “gained some momentum this year,” and your office “convened a new grand jury in January to evaluate the issue.” The only intervening factor, it appears, was President Trump’s announcement that he would be a candidate for President in 2024.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy tweeted:

Here we go again — an outrageous abuse of power by a radical DA who lets violent criminals walk as he pursues political vengeance against President Trump.

 

I’m directing relevant committees to immediately investigate if federal funds are being used to subvert our democracy by interfering in elections with politically motivated prosecutions.

Rep. Jim Jordan tweeted on Monday:

It’s a sad day for our country when a prosecutor ignores the crime in his city to go after a political opponent living in another state.

Trump has stated that he expects to face criminal charges. He posted over the weekend that illegal leaks from the Manhattan DA’s office showed that he “will be arrested on Tuesday of next week”:

Now illegal leaks from a corrupt & highly political manhattan district attorneys office, which has allowed new records to be set in violent crime & whose leader is funded by george soros, indicate that, with no crime being able to be proven, & based on an old & fully debunked (by numerous other prosecutors!) fairytale, the far & away leading republican candidate & former president of the United States of America, will be arrested on tuesday of next week. Protest, take our nation back!

Trump called out District Attorney Bragg for interfering with an election on Sunday, writing on Truth Social:

It is the district attorney of manhattan who is breaking the law by using the fake and fully discredited testimony (even by the SDNY!) of a convicted liar, felon and jailbird, Michael Cohen, to incredibly persecute, prosecute, and indict a former president, and now leading (by far!) presidential candidate, for a crime that doesn’t exist. Alvin Bragg should be held accountable for the crime of “interference in a presidential election.”

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (Trump’s governor, as he is a Florida resident) stated on Monday in a news conference:

I’ve seen rumors swirl. I have not seen any facts yet, and so I don’t know what’s going to happen. But I do know this: The Manhattan district attorney is a Soros-funded prosecutor and so he, like other Soros-funded prosecutors, they weaponize their office to impose a political agenda on society at the expense of the rule of law and public safety.

 

…If you have a prosecutor who is ignoring crimes happening every single day in his jurisdiction and he chooses to go back many, many years ago to try to use something about porn star hush money payments, that’s an example of pursuing a political agenda and weaponizing the office. And I think that’s fundamentally wrong.

DeSantis is expected to run for President in 2024 against Donald Trump, and has stayed silent until Monday on the Trump probe.