The Wall Street Journal is reporting that President Donald Trump's former personal attorney Michael Cohen will testify this week that he witnessed Trump engaging in criminal conduct after he was elected president.
Cohen, who worked for Trump for more than 10 years, will tell the House Oversight Committee on Wednesday that Trump arranged payments to two women in the weeks before the 2016 presidential election, and that the criminal conduct he is referencing has something to do with those payments, the Journal is reporting.
The Journal does not name its source for the story.
The New York Times is reporting that Cohen plans to say that the idea to pay the two women to keep quiet about the affairs was initiated by Trump in the runup to the election.
The payment, made through Trump’s campaign, is a violation of federal campaign laws.
Federal law bars direct corporate contributions to federal candidates. The money paid to one of the two women was moved through a limited-liability company called Essential Consultants. Cohen created the company a few weeks before the election.
The Journal story also claims that Cohen will make public some of Trump’s private financial statements, and testify that, at times, Trump avoided paying property taxes.
Cohen is scheduled to testify privately Tuesday before the Senate Intelligence Committee, publicly before the House committee on Wednesday and privately before the House Intelligence Committee on Thursday.
In August, Cohen implicated Trump in two federal crimes when he told prosecutors that it was Trump who had directed hush-money payments to former adult film star Stormy Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, and former Playboy model Karen McDougal.
Both women claimed to have had affairs with Trump before he became president.
Cohen is set to begin a three-year prison term on May 6 after pleading pleaded guilty to eight federal crimes in August, one being lying to Congress in testimony in November 2017.
According to the Journal story, Cohen will apologize for lying to protect Trump and repeat that he wouldn’t accept a pardon from Trump should he offer one.
Cohen was to have testified before the committee on Feb. 7 but canceled that appearance after he said his family was being threatened. Cohen's attorney, Lanny Davis, said the threats were coming from Trump and Rudy Giuliani, one of the president's attorneys.
Trump has denied he did anything wrong in regard to the campaign finance violation.
Follow live updates of Cohen's testimony on Wednesday by clicking here.
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