EXCLUSIVE: House Majority Whip Tom Emmer is demanding that the Justice Department “take immediate action” to prosecute ex-Trump lawyer Michael Cohen for making false statements and admitting to theft during the unprecedented criminal trial of former President Trump.
Fox News Digital exclusively has a letter from Emmer, R-Minn. received, sent to Attorney General Merrick Garland on Wednesday, urging the DOJ to “take immediate action” on the many criminal referrals from congressional committees regarding alleged lies Cohen told to Congress. Emmer also demanded information about Manhattan's top prosecutor, Matthew Colangelo, who served as a senior Justice Department official in the Biden administration before joining Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's team.
Michael Cohen was Bragg's “star witness” in the unprecedented criminal trial against Trump, who pleaded not guilty to all charges.
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In the letter to Garland, Emmer says Cohen “has proven himself to be a pathological liar, especially to Congress.”
Representative Tom Emmer speaks after a Republican caucus meeting at the Capitol on September 19, 2023. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
“In November 2018, Mr. Cohen pleaded guilty to lying to the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee,” Emmer wrote. “Since then, he has been referred to the U.S. Department of Justice on at least three separate occasions by Republicans on the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability, House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, and House Committee on the Judiciary for committing perjury and knowingly committing of false statements during his testimony at a Congressional hearing and testimony.”
This fall, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Turner, R-Ohio, and House Republican Conference Chairman Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., sent a criminal referral to the DOJ with evidence that Cohen committed perjury during a deposition in 2019. Earlier this month, House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., and Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, also sent a criminal referral for the alleged false statements of Cohen during a separate statement in 2019 before their panels.
Donald Trump's former lawyer, Michael Cohen, concluded his testimony in the NY trial against Trump. (Getty Images)
During his testimony before the House Oversight Committee in 2019, Emmer said that Cohen “repeatedly claimed that he did not seek employment in President Trump's White House, despite evidence from the United States Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York showing that 'Cohen privately told friends … that he expected to have a prominent role and title in the new government. ''
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During the NY criminal trial against Trump, Emmer said that Cohen's “lie to Congress was further corroborated” when a witness “gave a firsthand account of Mr. Cohen's anger in December 2016 over not getting a job in the administration.” Trump.”
While on the stand, Cohen testified that he had “had conversations with many people about working with President Trump in the White House” and “would have liked to be considered for chief of staff from an ego standpoint.”
Cohen also admitted during his time on the stand in New York v. Trump this month that he stole tens of thousands of dollars from the Trump Organization.
Attorney General Merrick Garland (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
“In other words, the prosecution's key witness has admitted to committing a more serious crime than what the prosecution accused former President Trump of,” Emmer wrote to Garland.
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Emmer demanded that the DOJ “take immediate action on the criminal referrals,” stating that President Biden's DOJ “already appears to be colluding” with Bragg in the case against Trump, pointing to former senior DOJ official Colangelo .
“The Biden administration's DOJ already appears to be cooperating with the Manhattan district attorney in the case against former President Trump, as Matthew Colangelo has left his position as a senior Justice Department official to pursue his former political rival boss,” Emmer wrote.
“Any further attempt to protect the prosecution's key witness, Mr. Cohen, only increases the appearance that the DOJ is engaged in a two-pronged application of justice,” he continued.
Prosecutor Matthew Colangelo speaks in DOJ video. (Ministry of Justice/YouTube)
Colangelo, a top prosecutor on Bragg's team, worked in the Biden administration as acting attorney general at the Justice Department. He later became the chief deputy attorney general and helped oversee multiple departments, including the Civil, Civil Rights, Antitrust, and Tax departments.
Colangelo joined Bragg's office in December 2022. Charges were filed against Trump in April 2023.
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Fox News Digital exclusively reported that Colangelo received thousands of dollars from the Democratic National Committee in 2018 for “political advice.”
Emmer demanded that Garland turn over documents related to Colangelo's employment, and provide him with a “written response as to why” he “has not moved forward with charges against Mr. Cohen, despite criminal referrals from multiple congressional committees.”
After sending the letter to Garland, Emmer told Fox News Digital that Cohen “is not only a liar and a thief, he is the only person guilty of a crime in Alvin Bragg's witch hunt against President Trump. ”
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“We're going to use every tool at our disposal to clamp down on Joe Biden's corrupt justice system until convict Cohen is behind bars where he belongs and Americans get the answers they deserve about the shady cast of characters trying to do just that.” doing. “To pull off the greatest sham in American history,” he said.
