Democrats said they are planning to re-interview witnesses who provided testimony to the House Intelligence Committee following Thursday’s news that President Trump’s former personal attorney Michael Cohen pleaded guilty for misstatements he made to Congress.
“I think it may just be the tip of the iceberg,” Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-Texas) said in an interview with Hill.TV, referring to other witnesses who “have not been fully truthful” in their testimony before the House and Senate Intelligence committees’ investigations into Russian interference in the 2016 election.
House Democrats will have investigative and subpoena powers in January when they take control of the chamber.
When asked if other witnesses might have lied, Rep. Jackie Speier (D-Calif.), another member of the House intel panel, told Hill.TV: “Yes, I think there’s no question.”
“We haven’t decided who we are going to call back, but there are a number of people we are confident lied to Congress that need to be called back,” she added.
Castro named one potential witness: Roger Stone.
“Based on what I heard, when we were listening to witnesses in the investigation, and what has come out in media reporting, there are inconsistencies with others,” he said. “One of them is Roger Stone.”
Between now and January, Democrats will need to scour transcripts of the earlier interviews to look for discrepencies, according to Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.), another member of the Intelligence Committee.
“We’ve taken hundreds of hours of testimony,” he said. “I think we need to go back to that testimony, look at it in light of the new facts and, by the way, make it public and provide it to the special counsel, because I doubt very much that Michael Cohen is the only one who lied to the Congress.”
“He wasn’t the only person close to the president who was asked questions about that development,” Himes said.
House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) told reporters Thursday that Cohen’s plea deal is one more reason for Congress to protect special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation.
“It appears that there’s something to cover up, so we ought to make sure that the Mueller investigation can continue to get to the facts,” Hoyer said. “The American public deserve the truth.”
Democrats and some Republicans may try to include a measure to protect the Mueller investigation in a must-pass spending bill next month.
— Molly K. Hooper
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