--- title: House Leaders Rebuke Trump After Comments on Cohen Testimony description: The Chairmen of three House committees issued a statement after Trump commented on Michael Cohen's scheduled testimony before Congress. canonical: https://time.com/5501575/trump-house-leaders-cohen-testimony/ author: Alejandro de la Garza article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2019-01-13T21:40:13.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T22:29:21.167Z article:section: Politics og:title: House Leaders Demand President Trump Respect Their 'Investigative Efforts' After Michael Cohen Comments og:description: Cohen is scheduled to testify before the House Oversight Committee in February og:url: https://time.com/5501575/trump-house-leaders-cohen-testimony/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb267d64fdadac204/69894331457a527a66d604e9/adam-schiff.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: House Democrats Hold Party Caucus On Capitol Hill og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: House Leaders Demand President Trump Respect Their 'Investigative Efforts' After Michael Cohen Comments twitter:description: Cohen is scheduled to testify before the House Oversight Committee in February twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb267d64fdadac204/69894331457a527a66d604e9/adam-schiff.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # House Leaders Demand President Trump Respect Their 'Investigative Efforts' After Michael Cohen Comments  by [Alejandro de la Garza](https://time.com/author/alejandro-de-la-garza/)  ## Alejandro de la Garza Jan 13, 2019 9:40 PM UTC  House Intelligence Committee ranking member Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) arrives for a Democratic caucus meeting in the U.S. Capitol Visitors Center November 14, 2018 in Washington, DC. House Intelligence Committee ranking member Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) arrives for a Democratic caucus meeting in the U.S. Capitol Visitors Center November 14, 2018 in Washington, DC.Getty Images  by [Alejandro de la Garza](https://time.com/author/alejandro-de-la-garza/)  ## Alejandro de la Garza Jan 13, 2019 9:40 PM UTC Democratic chairmen of three House committees issued a strongly-worded joint statement Sunday, warning President Trump against possible attempts to obstruct justice. Trump called in to an interview with Jeanine Pirro on Fox News Saturday night to respond to [a New York _Times_ report](http://time.com/5501269/fbi-trump-mueller-russia-probe-new-york-times/) that the FBI launched an investigation into the President’s relationship with Russia, days after he fired former FBI Director James Comey. While speaking with Pirro, Trump broached the subject of his former lawyer Michael Cohen’s [scheduled testimony](http://time.com/5499699/michael-cohen-publicly-testify-before-congress/) before Congress. “\[Cohen’s\] in trouble on some loans and fraud and taxi cabs… and in order to get his sentence reduced he says ‘I have an idea. I’ll give you some information on the President,'” Trump said. “He should give information maybe on his father-in-law, because that’s the one that people want to look at, because where does that money, that’s the money in the family. And I guess he didn’t want to talk about his father in law.” Rep. [Elijah E. Cummings](http://time.com/5484111/elijah-cummings-trump-oversight-letters/)(D-MD), Rep. [Adam Schiff](http://time.com/5190983/rep-adam-schiff-central-character-trump-russia-fight/) (D-CA) and Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) issued a joint statement warning the President not to interfere with a congressional witness. “Our nation’s laws prohibit efforts to discourage, intimidate, or otherwise pressure a witness not to provide testimony to Congress,” the statement reads. “The President should make no statement or take any action to obstruct Congress’ independent oversight and investigative efforts, including by seeking to discourage any witness from testifying in response to a duly authorized request from Congress.” Cummings is the chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform and Schiff is the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee. Nadler is the Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee. “The integrity of our process to serve as an independent check on the Executive Branch must be respected by everyone, including the President,” read the joint statement. Fima Shusterman, Cohen’s father-in-law, loaned at least $20 million to a Chicago cab operator, according to [the Chicago _Sun-Times_](https://chicago.suntimes.com/chicago-news/trump-lawyers-family-lent-20m-to-wife-of-chicago-cab-mogul). FBI warrants that were used to raid Cohen’s law office and home last April mentioned that operator. Cohen is scheduled to testify Feb. 7 before the House Oversight Committee. [Many expect](http://time.com/5499699/michael-cohen-publicly-testify-before-congress/) the hearing to center on elements of Trump’s personal life and business dealings that have come under scrutiny in recent months, including hush-money payments and a proposed Moscow real estate deal. Cohen was sentenced to [three years in prison](http://time.com/5477719/michael-cohen-sentenced-prison/) last month and renounced his loyalty to the President, saying, “I felt it was my duty to cover up his dirty deeds.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5501575/trump-house-leaders-cohen-testimony/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5501575/trump-house-leaders-cohen-testimony/"},"headline":"House Leaders Demand President Trump Respect Their 'Investigative Efforts' After Michael Cohen Comments","datePublished":"2019-01-13T21:40:13.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T22:29:21.167Z","description":"Cohen is scheduled to testify before the House Oversight Committee in February","url":"https://time.com/5501575/trump-house-leaders-cohen-testimony/","keywords":["trump","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb267d64fdadac204/69894331457a527a66d604e9/adam-schiff.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Alejandro de la Garza","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/alejandro-de-la-garza/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb267d64fdadac204/69894331457a527a66d604e9/adam-schiff.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"House Democrats Hold Party Caucus On Capitol Hill","caption":"House Democrats Hold Party Caucus On Capitol Hill","creditText":"Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/trump/","name":"trump"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5501575/trump-house-leaders-cohen-testimony/","name":"House Leaders Demand President Trump Respect Their 'Investigative Efforts' After Michael Cohen Comments"}}]}] ```