Democrats on the House Oversight Committee have reached out to ex-President Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen about appearing at next week’s impeachment inquiry hearing, a source familiar with the discussions told Fox News Digital.
Oversight Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., is leading an impeachment inquiry into President Biden over accusations he used his position as vice president to enrich himself and his family, which both he and the White House have denied.
The next hearing is scheduled for Wednesday.
Michael Cohen is ex-President Trump’s former lawyer. (AP Photo/Stefan Jeremiah, File)
Democrats on the panel hope that a potential Cohen appearance could turn the spotlight at the highly-publicized event onto Trump, according to the source.
They “believe Cohen could help focus the hearing on Donald Trump by delivering first-hand testimony on Trump’s foreign business deals while he was president,” the source said.
The source said Democrats think Cohen’s appearance and testimony could also force Republicans to respond in real time, and on camera, to criticism that they ignored allegations that Trump profited from countries like China while in office.
Fox News Digital reached out to House Oversight Committee Democrats about Cohen.
House Democrats are eyeing Cohen as a witness in a hearing for the GOP’s impeachment inquiry into President Biden. (SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images)
Cohen, Trump’s former lawyer, was once one of his fiercest defenders, even serving part of a three-year prison sentence over charges linked to his defense of the ex-president. Cohen has become a vocal critic of Trump’s since his November 2021 release and admitted to investigators in 2018 that he arranged hush money payments to two women on Trump’s behalf. Trump has publicly denied wrongdoing.
House Republicans are investigating whether Biden was part of an influence-peddling scheme with relatives including his son, Hunter Biden, specifically scrutinizing the younger Biden’s business dealings with China and Ukraine.
Hunter Biden recently turned down House Republicans’ invitation to appear at the same hearing that Democrats are in communication with Cohen about.
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Hunter Biden, son of President Biden, turned down an invitation to appear at next week’s hearing. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
In a letter sent to Oversight committee investigators earlier this week, Hunter Biden’s lawyer Abbe Lowell said that a scheduling conflict prevented their appearance, while also criticizing the hearing itself.
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“Your blatant planned-for-media event is not a proper proceeding but an obvious attempt to throw a Hail Mary pass after the game has ended,” Lowell wrote.