Former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen will testify publicly before Congress next month

Associated Press/Craig Ruttle

Michael Cohen, President Donald Trump's former lawyer, leaves federal court after his sentencing in New York, Wednesday, Dec. 12, 2018.

• Michael Cohen, President Donald Trump's former personal lawyer, will testify publicly before the House Oversight Committee on February 7.
• On December 12, Cohen was sentenced to 36 months in prison after pleading guilty in August to eight federal crimes, including two large payoffs to silence women who claimed to have affairs with Trump.
• Cohen also plead guilty to lying to Congress in 2017 about the Trump Organization's efforts to build a Trump Tower in Moscow during the 2016 election.

Michael Cohen, President Donald Trump's former personal lawyer who was recently sentenced to three years in prison, will testify before the House Oversight Committee in February, in a dramatic early move from Democrats as they prepare to ramp up investigating the president.

"In furtherance of my commitment to cooperate and provide the American people with answers, I have accepted the invitation by Chairman Elijah Cummings to appear publicly on February 7," Cohen said in a statement to the New York Times.

"I look forward to having the privilege of being afforded a platform with which to give a full and credible account of the events which have transpired," he added.

Cohen's public testimony could spell trouble for Trump, given Cohen's extensive knowledge of and participation in illegal hush money payments, the Trump campaign's contacts with Russia, and the Trump Organization's efforts to build a Trump Tower in Moscow.

Read more: Everything Michael Cohen told Mueller about the Trump campaign's contacts with Russia, according to the memo that could land Cohen a 'substantial' prison sentence

In August, Cohen plead guilty to federal tax fraud, bank fraud, and violating federal campaign finance law, including payouts to Karen McDougal and Stormy Daniels, two women who claim to have had affairs with Trump.

Federal prosecutors said in their sentencing memo for Cohen that he made the payments "in coordination with and at the direction of" Trump, establishing him as an unindicted co-conspirator in the case.

On November 30, Cohen struck a deal to plead guilty to one count of lying to Congress in exchange for cooperating with special counsel Robert Mueller.

Cohen admitted to falsely stating in his September 2017 congressional testimony that the Trump Organization ended talks to build a Trump Tower in Moscow sometime in January 2016.

Mueller's sentencing memo for Cohen said Cohen provided 70 hours of official testimony on a variety of subjects, including the Trump Tower deal, the Trump campaign's communications with Russia-linked individuals, and the "circumstances" of preparing his false congressional testimony.