December 2, 2018

Rep. Jerry Nadler, who will lead the House Judiciary Committee in January tells NBC's Meet the Press that Trump has continually lied to the American people on big and small issues and with the Cohen revelations after his new plea deal he may still be compromised by the Kremlin.

Michael Cohen has now admitted that the Trump organizations including Donald was still negotiating with the Kremlin to build a Moscow Trump tower after Trump told the American people no such business dealings were happening over and over again.

Rep. Jerry Nadler, the ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee joined Meet The Press earlier today.

Chuck Todd said, "Congressman, I want to start with Michael Cohen. He pled guilty to lying to Congress about the Trump Organization's effort to build a Trump Tower in Moscow back in 2015, 2016. This was happening at the same time that Donald Trump was running for president."

He continued, "Here's what a former federal prosecutor, Ken White, observed in The Atlantic. And I'm curious if you agree. "This conclusion, at least, is inescapable. The president, who has followed this drama obsessively, knew that his personal lawyer was lying to Congress about his business activities and stood by while it happened." Do you agree with that assessment? And does that look like obstruction of justice to you?"

Rep. Nadler replied, "Well, I do agree with that assessment. And you know, we have a president who lies incessantly to the American people about big matters and small matters, who surrounds himself with people who lie incessantly to the American people. And the key fact now is that the time when he can get away with lying to the American people all the time and evading accountability is, is coming to an end."

He continued, "The fact that he, that he was lying to the American people about doing business in Russia and that the Kremlin knew he was lying gave the Kremlin a hold over him. And one question we have now is, does the Kremlin still have hold over him, because of other lies that they know about?"

Dmitry Peskov, Mr Putin’s spokesman, confirmed these allegations and had the emails to prove them.

Todd said, "So the fact that the Kremlin, which overnight, has confirmed that there were some emails and a phone call between the Trump Organization and the Kremlin, and we only find out about it now, you believe that that is proof that there might be leverage?"

Rep. Nadler replied, "There certainly was leverage during that, during the campaign period and until recently. Because they knew that he was lying. They knew that he had major business dealings, or that Cohen, on his behalf, had major business dealings in Moscow during the campaign, and that he was lying about that."

He continued, "There may be other things that they know that give, that give them leverage. One question has always been, why was the president so obsequious to Putin from the beginning of the campaign up to the present day? And it may be that it's because the Kremlin has leverage over the president, which is a terrible thing, if true."

It was always quite bizarre how Trump treated Putin — leader of a hostile nation to the U.S. — as his better, and never wavered in his effusive praise of the Russian president. He made fools of our own intelligence services, defending Russia against their claims that Russia hacked and interfered with the 2016 presidential election.

Now we knew why — at least, partially.

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