Dem lawmaker on Cohen’s Trump revelations: ‘Walls are closing in on Trump’

A Democratic lawmaker predicted Friday that President Trump will take increasingly aggressive steps against the special counsel probe after his longtime attorney claimed Trump had advance knowledge of a meeting with a Russian lawyer offering dirt on Hillary Clinton in the run-up to the 2016 election.

Rep. Denny Heck (D-Wash.), a member of the House Intelligence Committee, told CNN’s “OutFront” on Friday that “the walls are closing in” on Trump and his associates, predicting it could cause the president to act out of desperation.

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“I don’t think Mr. Cohen has tremendous incentive to lie at this point. He did before, but I don’t think he does now,” Heck said, referring to Trump’s former longtime attorney Michael Cohen.

“I think in fact what’s happening is the walls are closing in on President Trump. He knows it, and we’re going to see increasing[ly] desperate rhetoric, behavior on his part.”

“The walls are closing in on President Trump … we’re going to see increasingly desperate rhetoric and behavior on his part.” – @RepDennyHeck https://t.co/Jhztl58bTT pic.twitter.com/t6EEDJSndv

— OutFrontCNN (@OutFrontCNN) July 27, 2018

Heck argued that Cohen’s claim this week that Trump had advance knowledge of the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting between a Russian lawyer and Donald Trump Jr. was similar to the revelation earlier this year that Trump had known about a payment made to adult film star Stormy Daniels and had reimbursed Cohen for the payment.

“This reminds me of the allegations that President Trump didn’t know about the payoff to Stormy Daniels,” Heck said. “Except, as it turns out, Michael Cohen did have proof. So I’m just sitting here like everybody else, waiting for the next shoe to drop.”

Cohen shocked many in Washington this week with the revelation that he had secretly recorded multiple conversations with Trump. CNN aired a recording made by Cohen of the attorney and Trump discussing a payment for the rights to the story of Karen McDougal, an ex-Playboy model who claims she had an affair with Trump in 2006.

On Thursday, CNN reported that Cohen claimed Trump had advance knowledge of the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting where Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya was expected to offer dirt on Clinton, despite past denials from Trump and the White House.

The president insisted in a series of tweets Friday that he did not know about the 2016 meeting involving his son Donald Trump Jr. while accusing Cohen of making up the claim to get himself out of legal trouble amid scrutiny from federal investigators in New York.