DPCC Incoming Chair Cicilline: Democrats Will Get the Work Done for the American People

Dec 14, 2018
Press Release

 

 

 

WASHINGTON, DC – Congressman David Cicilline, Incoming Chair of the House Democratic Policy and Communications Committee (DPCC), appeared on CNN Right Now With Brianna Keilar to discuss President Trump’s involvement in Michael Cohen’s crimes. Cicilline highlighted that Democrats will hold the Trump Administration accountable - while also staying focused on driving down health care costs, rebuilding the infrastructure of our country and tackling the pervasive corruption in Washington. Below are excerpts from the interview. Click here to watch the video.

 

“No, the President doesn't have a point here. Look Mr. Cohen acknowledged in open court that he was directed to commit these felonies at the direction of the President of the United States. This is the President of the United States directing another individual to commit two felonies. And you have to wonder you know if the claim was ‘I didn't know when I directed him to do it, it was against the law’ then why did you concoct this elaborate scheme to hide these payments to make up a fake reason for them and to create fake accounts.  So this all supports Mr. Cohen's claim that the President directed him to do this for one reason: to prevent this from coming out in the final weeks of the campaign. It's now confirmed from National Enquirer that they were aware that the purpose was to prevent the stories from coming out during the campaign and damaging Mr. Trump's candidacy. He can’t assign the blame to this to Mr. Cohen. He’s accepted his responsibility and pled guilty to these offenses, but in his elocution, he made it clear that this was done at the direction of the President who benefitted from his conduct.”

 

“The President has made the suggestion that while other people file campaign reports late and they get a fine. Those are different offenses. These are two crimes. They are felonies. They are not civil infractions. They are not campaign violations. They are felonies and they relate to violations of campaign finance law. I think it's a President's effort to minimize what is very serious conduct because we now have a witness who has testified in open court that the President of the United States directed to commit two felonies, which is obviously very serious.”

 

“We should remember the President also made false statements about the subject of that meeting, assisted in the preparation of a statement which put forth a false explanation about Russian adoptions. There is a lot here to learn about. Again, it's more evidence that this President rather than directing everyone involved in the investigations to be forthcoming and tell the truth was aware that people were saying things consistent with the untruths or the lie he had been telling about the meeting. So I think there’s a lot of additional questions that we are going to have in the Judiciary committee to understand what happened here. We intend of course to do responsible oversight. That's the constitutional obligation. We going to get the work done for the American people, drive down costs, rebuild the infrastructure of our country and take on Washington, but at the same time we fulfill those responsibilities, we will fulfill our to hold the administration accountable and get to the bottom of this stuff.”

 

“I hope so. I hope the committee will further its oversight responsibilities, bring a number of witnesses before the committee either for interviews or testimony. The American people deserve to know what happened here, to know all the facts. We’ll obviously want to make sure we do it in a way that doesn't interfere in any way with the ongoing criminal investigation by the special counsel or by the southern district of New York. We’ll have to do it in close coordination to  make sure we are not interfering with their ongoing investigations.”

 

“There are two reasons for that. One, we want to make sure we stay focused on the urgent priorities of the American people elected us to get done and that we ran on. I just articulated those. So we want we to be clear about that. On the other hand we have invested a lot in protecting the work of the special counsel and making certain that he has the resources he needs to complete this work. He’s already indicted three dozen individuals and companies and had some guilty pleas. So I think it's very important that we await the final conclusion of that work that will be valuable to the American people and very valuable to our decisions moving forward. We think it's important to get that report and that we read it and that we take appropriate action.”

 

“No look, if the report in fact shows conspiracy between the Trump campaign and high level Russian officials to attack our democracy; that were intended to interfere with American democracy, we have no choice.”

 

“I think if it’s Russian intel actors conspiring with the Trump Campaign officials to interfere with the outcome of our election, we have no choice. We have a sworn duty to defend our democracy, to uphold the rule of law. While we won't be delighted in taking these actions, we are duty-bound to do that. So if that report requires removal of this President, I don't think anyone will hesitate to do it. We have to wait for the report, but wherever the facts take us, we ought to be prepared to do it however difficult it might be. We have a solemn responsibility to defend the rule of law , to defend our democracy and take whatever action that report warrants, period.”