--- title: Read Michael Cohen's Opening Statement About Donald Trump description: Michael Cohen, former personal lawyer of President Donald Trump, testified before the House. Read a transcript of his opening statement here canonical: https://time.com/5539765/michael-cohen-testimony-transcript/ author: Katie Reilly article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2019-02-27T14:03:05.000Z article:modified_time: 2024-01-24T11:22:39.000Z article:section: Politics og:title: Michael Cohen Testifies That President Trump is a 'Con Man,' a 'Cheat' and a 'Racist.' Read His Opening Statement og:description: Trump's longtime personal attorney testifies before the House og:url: https://time.com/5539765/michael-cohen-testimony-transcript/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt78fd939ac2c73891/698945e1656a3f124bbd6b43/michael-cohen-house-testimony-transcript.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3642 og:image:height: 2049 og:image:alt: Former Trump Lawyer Michael Cohen Appears Before Closed Senate Intelligence Committee og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Michael Cohen Testifies That President Trump is a 'Con Man,' a 'Cheat' and a 'Racist.' Read His Opening Statement twitter:description: Trump's longtime personal attorney testifies before the House twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt78fd939ac2c73891/698945e1656a3f124bbd6b43/michael-cohen-house-testimony-transcript.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Michael Cohen Testifies That President Trump is a 'Con Man,' a 'Cheat' and a 'Racist.' Read His Opening Statement > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: September 2026. ## TIME Newsletters: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition TIME publishes seven free email newsletters, written and edited by TIME journalists, reaching more than 1.1 million engaged readers. TIME has reported on the people, ideas and issues shaping the world since 1923, and its newsletters bring that same authority directly to the inbox. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=f626cbab-051b-41d5-b321-0ae053e6fe0c&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1)  by [Katie Reilly](https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/)  ## Katie Reilly Updated: Jan 24, 2024 11:22 AM UTCPublished: Feb 27, 2019 2:03 PM UTC  Michael Cohen (R), former attorney and fixer for President Donald Trump, speaks to the media at the Hart Senate Office Building after testifying to the Senate Intelligence Committee on Capitol Hill on Feb. 26, 2019. Michael Cohen (R), former attorney and fixer for President Donald Trump, speaks to the media at the Hart Senate Office Building after testifying to the Senate Intelligence Committee on Capitol Hill on Feb. 26, 2019. Mark Wilson—Getty Images  by [Katie Reilly](https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/)  ## Katie Reilly Updated: Jan 24, 2024 11:22 AM UTCPublished: Feb 27, 2019 2:03 PM UTC [Michael Cohen](http://time.com/5538748/michael-cohen-congress-testimony/), the former personal attorney of President Donald Trump, testified publicly Wednesday that the President is “a racist,” “a con man” and “a cheat,” in remarks before the House Committee on Oversight and Reform. “I am ashamed that I chose to take part in concealing Mr. Trump’s illicit acts rather than listening to my own conscience. I am ashamed because I know what Mr. Trump is,” Cohen said Wednesday in his opening statement. “He is a racist. He is a con man. And he is a cheat. He was a presidential candidate who knew that Roger Stone was talking with Julian Assange about a WikiLeaks drop of Democratic National Committee emails.” In his dramatic testimony, Cohen accused Trump of indirectly encouraging him to lie to Congress about the timeline for work on a Trump Tower project in Moscow that continued through the 2016 presidential campaign. “Mr. Trump knew of and directed the Trump Moscow negotiations throughout the campaign and lied about it,” Cohen said. “He lied about it because he never expected to win. He also lied about it because he stood to make hundreds of millions of dollars on the Moscow real estate project.” Cohen presented a [personal check for $35,000](https://www.cnn.com/2019/02/27/politics/read-check-trump-cohen/index.html) signed by Trump in 2017, reimbursing him “for the illegal hush money I paid on his behalf.” Cohen had [previously implicated Trump](http://time.com/5477719/michael-cohen-sentenced-prison/) in the hush money payments to two women, aimed at keeping them quiet about alleged affairs during the final weeks of the 2016 campaign. Ahead of the House hearing, the White House has condemned Cohen and downplayed his longtime connection to the President. In a statement on Tuesday, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders called him a “disgraced felon.” Trump, who is [currently in Vietnam for a summit](http://time.com/5537936/donald-trump-kim-jong-un-hanoi/) with North Korean leader [Kim Jong Un](http://time.com/5539703/donald-trump-kim-jong-un-meeting-vietnam/), accused Cohen of “lying in order to reduce his prison time.” Meanwhile, House Republicans have already questioned whether the testimony will be credible, given that Cohen pleaded guilty in November to lying to Congress in previous testimony. > [](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1100683974899363840) Read Cohen’s full opening statement here: --- > “” --- _With reporting from Alana Abramson._ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5539765/michael-cohen-testimony-transcript/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5539765/michael-cohen-testimony-transcript/"},"headline":"Michael Cohen Testifies That President Trump is a 'Con Man,' a 'Cheat' and a 'Racist.' 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