AOC gets Michael Cohen to admit Trump committed tax fraud while under oath

The Bronx congresswoman was brief, but direct in getting the embattled lawyer to admit his knowledge of President Trump's finances

Blue Telusma

Feb 28, 2019

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Even New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s biggest critics may have to begrudgingly acknowledge the way that she grilled Michael Cohen about Donald Trump’s finances this week was a master class in political poker playing.

According to legal website Law & Crime, on Wednesday, even though their exchange was brief, Ocasio-Cortez still managed to getting the president’s former “fixer” to admit — under oath — that Trump often devalued his assets in order to avoid paying taxes.

“To your knowledge, was the president interested in reducing his local real estate bills, tax bills?” the Bronx congresswoman asked, to which Cohen replied, “Yes.”

The inquiry was inspired by multiple news reports that Trump had lowballed the value of his golf courses in Bedminster, N.J., and Jupiter, Florida.

“And how did he do that?” Ocasio-Cortez pushed.

“What you do is you deflate the value of the asset and then you put in a request to the tax department for a deduction,” Cohen responded.

“Who else knows that the president did this?” she continued.

“Allen Weisselberg, Ron Lieberman and Matthew Calamari,” said Cohen.

https://twitter.com/ProfessorCrunk/status/1101122058380034048

“And where would the committee find more information on this? Do you think we need to review his financial statements and his tax returns in order to compare them?” she asks revealing what she’d been after all along.

“Yes,” conceded the disgraced lawyer. “And you’d find it at the Trump Org.”

Ocasio-Cortez along with fellow freshman congresswomen Rashida Tlaib and Ayanna Pressley have all been given a seat on the House Committee on Oversight and Reform. And her pointed line of questioning was clearly laying the groundwork for the committee to subpoena Trump’s long-hidden tax returns.

If there are any receipts discovered that prove Cohen told the truth during this specific part of his testimony, it would make a compelling case for wire fraud and could finally force the president to share his taxes, which he so far has been able to sidestep despite multiple calls for it.