Cohen: Trump called Black Americans ‘stupid,’ said countries run by Blacks are ‘sh*tholes’

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As Michael Cohen prepared to testify before the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, he has released an incredibly blunt 20-page opening statement, which charges that President Trump is a racist.

In the first minute of his testimony, he stated flatly about the president: “He is a racist, he is a con man, he is a cheat.”

Cohen, Trump’s former personal attorney who was sentenced in December to three years in prison for several federal crimes that include violating campaign finance laws during the 2016 presidential race; lying to Congress about it during past testimony; tax evasion, and what a judge called a “smorgasbord” of other crimes connected to the president’s campaign.

READ MORE: Michael Cohen spills all the tea on Donald Trump’s racist language: ‘Black people are too stupid’ to vote for him

As Wednesday’s testimony got underway, he told Congress that he intended to set the record straight about his involvement with Trump. “It is painful to admit that I was motivated by ambition,” he said, contritely. “It is even more painful to admit that many times I ignored my conscience and acted loyal to a man when I should not have.”

According to the statement, released Wednesday to the New York Times, the president’s former “fixer,” shared an anecdote about a conversation he had with Trump during a cab ride.

“While we were once driving through a struggling neighborhood in Chicago, he commented that only Black people could live that way. And, he told me that Black people would never vote for him because they were too stupid. And yet I continued to work for him,” Cohen recalls.

READ MORE: Former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen meets with Rev. Al Sharpton, reportedly says he is opposed to president’s actions

“He once asked me if I could name a country run by a black person that wasn’t a ‘sh*thole,’” he continues. “This was when Barack Obama was President of the United States.”

Last January, Trump reportedly referred, during a meeting on immigration policy, to immigrants from Africa, Haiti and other poor nations in racially derogatory terms.

In addition to charges of racism, Cohen’s opening statement also characterizes the president as “a conman” and “a cheat,” who lied to both the country and his wife, First Lady, Melania Trump.

“He asked me to pay off an adult film star with whom he had an affair, and to lie to his wife about it, which I did,” Cohen concedes. “Lying to the First Lady is one of my biggest regrets. She is a kind, good person. I respect her greatly – and she did not deserve that.”

In the testimony, Cohen plans to allege that during the 2016 elections, he witnessed Trump taking an incriminating phone call from political consultant and Trump friend Roger Stone, who was on speakerphone.

“Mr. Stone told Mr. Trump that he had just gotten off the phone with [WikiLeaks editor] Julian Assange and that Mr. Assange told Mr. Stone that, within a couple of days, there would be a massive dump of emails that would damage Hillary Clinton’s campaign,” read his prepared testimony.

Trump allegedly responded with, “Wouldn’t that be great.”

Cohen was indicted last month by Special Counsel Robert Mueller in a criminal investigation over Russian interference in the 2016 election.

If true, Cohen’s account would technically be the first time anyone directly confirmed that the President had advance knowledge of the WikiLeaks dump of Clinton emails.

Cohen is expected to surrender to federal authorities on May 6 to begin serving his three-year prison term.

You can read his full Congressional testimony here.

READ MORE: Ex-Trump lawyer Cohen pleads guilty in hush-money scheme