The House intel committee is reportedly investigating whether lawyers tied to Trump helped shape Michael Cohen's false testimony

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The House intel committee is reportedly investigating whether lawyers tied to Trump helped shape Michael Cohen's false testimony

adam schiff

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  • The House Intelligence Committee is reportedly investigating whether four lawyers connected to President Donald Trump's family helped craft the false testimony Michael Cohen gave to Congress in 2017.
  • As part of the special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation, Cohen pleaded guilty last year to lying to Congress when testifying about the Trump Tower Moscow project.
  • House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff reportedly sent lengthy document requests to the four lawyers - Jay Sekulow, Alan Futerfas, Alan Garten, and Abbe Lowell - on May 3.
  • "Among other things, it appears that your clients may have reviewed, shaped and edited the false statement that Cohen submitted to the committee, including causing the omission of material facts," Schiff wrote to the lawyers in a letter sent on May 3, according to The New York Times.
  • Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

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The House Intelligence Committee is investigating whether lawyers connected to President Donald Trump and his family helped craft the false testimony that Michael Cohen gave to the panel in 2017, The New York Times reported.

Citing a series of undisclosed letters from House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, The Times reported that the committee sent document requests to four lawyers tied to Trump: Jay Sekulow, who represents Trump; Alan Futerfas, who represents Donald Trump Jr.; Alan Garten, the top lawyer at the Trump Organization; and Abbe Lowell, who represents Ivanka Trump and senior adviser Jared Kushner.

"Among other things, it appears that your clients may have reviewed, shaped and edited the false statement that Cohen submitted to the committee, including causing the omission of material facts," Schiff wrote to the lawyers in a letter sent on May 3, according to The Times.

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Schiff's document requests came after Cohen, who served as Trump's longtime lawyer and fixer before pleading guilty to several felonies in 2018, told lawmakers earlier this year that the lawyers edited the false testimony he gave to Congress in 2017.

"Trump's personal lawyers reviewed and edited my statement to Congress about the timing of the Moscow Tower negotiations before I gave it," Cohen said in February.

Cohen's 2017 testimony centered around the Trump Organization's efforts to build a Trump Tower in Moscow at the height of the 2016 election. In late 2018, as part of the special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation, Cohen pleaded guilty to lying to Congress about the timeline of the proposal and the level of involvement in the project by the Trump family.

Cohen testified in detail to the House Oversight Committee in February about the Trump Tower Moscow proposal, the lies he claimed to have told on Trump's behalf, and other potential criminal wrongdoing on the part of Trump and his family members. Among other things, Cohen told the panel Trump's lawyers dangled a potential presidential pardon to secure his loyalty.

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