satisfaction of doing so? in other words could this work towards what s the benefit to michael cohen of talking more? the answer to that question depends on what robert mueller s objective is and the other districts that are prosecuting, the southern district of new york, for example. if they consider this a form of cooperation, depending on the information cohen provides, there s an opportunity for a defendant after he s sentenced to continue to cooperate under a particular rule of criminal procedure and defendants sometimes will plead guilty and be sentenced and then after sentencing they can show the government even more cooperation and further reduce their sentence. danny, thank you for you coverage of this. thank you for joining us quickly to give us some interpretation of the fact that michael cohen is responding to an invitation by the house oversight committee to talk to them in closed session. we have statements from elijah cummings and adam schiff welcoming that testimo
seeing it is really important. the public education part, she s completely right, is very dramatic. and i hope there will be a big viewership not just for michael cohen but i hope they will be calling a lot of other witnesses and subpoenaing documents like who did don jr. call when he was setting up the trump tower meeting? there s a black number. i want to know whose phone that was. stay with me for a second, jill. i just want to read the statement from elijah cummings, who is the chair of the house oversight reform committee i m sorry, this is the statement if michael cohen to elijah cummings, 6789 in furtherance to my commitment to cooperate and provide the american people with answer i presented the invitation to appear to appear before. i look forward to having the privilege of being afforded a platform with which give a
given so much power to the president. thank you for your reporting on this charlie. he s the author of a book power wars. covering this other story from capitol hill where michael cohen is going to be testifying before the democratically controlled congress. pete williams justice correspondent joins me. what do you make of this that michael cohen is going to accept the invitation of the house oversight committee to testify? right. it will be a public session the committee says so he ll be testifying not in a closed session but in a public session. i guess it s not surprising that i think part of his goal here is to begin to, as he said in court documents to turn his life around. he wants to try to begin to rebuild his reputation, i think, is part of what this is. you may recall that he said in court filings and when he made his guilty plea statement in
following statement which says in furtherance of my commitment to cooperate provide the american people with answers, i have accepted the invitation by chairman cummings to appear publicly on february 7th before the committee on oversight and government reform. i look forward to having the privilege of being afford a platform in which to give a full and credible account of events. heidi przybyla is still with me. this is not a piece of news we were expecting but folds into what you were talking about in terms of this new democratic house working fast in serious fashion to uncover things. in the case of michael cohen where we ve followed this very publicly what do these committees think they get that the courts didn t get, the mueller investigation didn t get, the southern district of new york didn t get. they will get confirmation for themselves of who individual one is. who is the person that directed what is now considered a fraud on the american people, a felony to commit campaign
he would like to question matt whitaker. acting attorney general. the questions we will ask him will be about his expressed hostility to the investigation. how he can possibly supervise it, when he s come out and said that the investigation is invalid. nadler s committee plans to take the lead on trump s immigration policy. focusing on the forced family separation, and the deaths of immigrant children in u.s. custody. chairman richard neil of the house weighs and means committee has one key target. the president s tax returns. under irs rules, congressman neil is one of only three people who can ask the treasury department for his tax returns. he s the only democrat. the president has an opportunity to diffuse this. and just release the forms as every other candidate for president has done. finally, the committee on oversight and government reform has the broadest jurisdiction to investigate the president.