Read Highlights From Michael Cohen's Public Testimony

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Michael Cohen, President Donald Trump's former lawyer and "fixer," testified before the House Oversight Committee on Wednesday. Among the bombshells in his testimony is that Trump was aware of Roger Stone's efforts to reach out to WikiLeaks before it released damaging information about Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign, Cohen said Wednesday in his opening statement.

Cohen also called Trump a "racist, a conman and a cheat." He answered a number of questions about Trump, testifying that there are matters he cannot talk about as they are currently under investigation by federal prosecutors in New York. He further testified that Trump wanted to coordinate public messaging on the payment he made to adult film star Stormy Daniels.

The public testimony began at 10 a.m. and is Cohen's second appearance on Capitol Hill after a closed door testimony with Senators on Tuesday. (You can video of the full hearing on Patch)

You can read Cohen's full opening statement here.

Here are some highlights from the hearing:

Trump Wrongdoing Under Investigation By SDNY: Cohen

Rep. Raja Kirshnamoorthi, an Illinois Democrat, asked Cohen when he last had contact with Trump or with someone acting on his behalf.

Cohen answered that it was within two months post the raid of his home and generally around early fall of 2018. Asked what Trump or the person acting on Trump’s behalf communicated to him, Cohen said that “this topic is actually something that’s being investigated right now by the Southern District of New York.”

He added that prosecutors at the office had asked him not to discuss and not to talk about these issues.

“Is there any other wrongdoing or illegal act that you are aware of regarding Donald Trump that we haven’t yet discussed today?” Krishnamoorthi asked.

“Yes and again those are part of the investigation that’s currently being looked at by the Southern District of New York,” Cohen testified.

Trump Wanted To Coordinate Public Messaging On Hush Money Payment: Cohen

Katie Hill, a California Democrat, asked whether Cohen’s statement to reporters on Feb. 13, 2018 — the day after The Wall Street Journal Story about the $130,000 payment to Stormy Daniels — was false.

The statement said that “neither the Trump Organization nor the Trump campaign was party to the transaction with Ms. Clifford, and neither reimbursed me for the payment, either directly or indirectly.”

Cohen said that the statement was not false and he “purposefully left out Mr. Trump individually from that statement.”

“Why did you say it that way?” Hill asked.

“Because that’s what was discussed to do between myself, Mr. Trump and Alan Weiselberg,” Cohen said.

“So it was carefully worded?” Hill asked.

“Yes ma’am,” Cohen said.

Hill then asked about a phone call a Vanity Fair reporter overheard while interviewing Cohen the next day on Feb. 14, 2018.

“Did the president call you while you were having a meeting with the reporter?” asked Hill.

“Yes,” Cohen said.

“Did the president call you to coordinate on public messaging about the payments to Miss Cliffords in or around February 2018?” Hill asked.

“Yes,” Cohen said, adding that the president asked him to say he was not knowledgeable about the reimbursements or about Cohen’s actions.

Prague

Cohen was asked if he had ever visited Prague in the Czech Republic. He said that he had not.

The Prague visit centers around a claim in the dossier compiled by the former British spy Christopher Steele. According to The Daily Beast, the dossier alleges that Cohen met with Kremlin representatives in Prague.

Cohen pleaded guilty in Manhattan to eight felony counts in Aug. 2018, including campaign finance violations related to what prosecutors say were hush money payments in the lead up to the 2016 presidential election made to women who said they had affairs with Trump. In a separate case brought by Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller III, Cohen pleaded guilty in Nov. 2018 to one count of making false statements to Congress.

Cohen was sentenced in December and is facing three years in prison. In the sentencing memo, federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York said that with respect to both payments made to women, Cohen "acted in coordination with and at the direction of Individual-1." In court filings, "Individual-1" is used to describe President Trump.

Trump is currently in Vietnam for a second summit with North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un.

Cohen had postponed his February congressional testimony, originally set for Feb.7, due to ongoing threats against his family from Trump and and Rudy Giuliani, his lawyer, Lanny Davis, said in a statement at the time.

On Tuesday, Rep. Matt Gaetz, a Florida Republican and close ally of Trump, tagged Cohen in a tweet and asked if his wife and father-in-law knew about his "girlfriends."

"Maybe tonight would be a good time for that chat," Gaetz wrote. "I wonder if she’ll remain faithful when you’re in prison. She’s about to learn a lot..."

Many interpreted the tweet as being an apparent threat to Cohen.

Gaetz was later asked by NBC News whether his tweet amounted to witness tampering, to which he responded that his tweet was "witness testing." When pressed by an NBC News reporter about whether Gaetz had information that would come out on Wednesday, he responded "we'll see."

"Can you give us a sense?" the reporter asked.

"My sense is that it's going to be a very bad day for Michael Cohen tomorrow," said Gaetz.

Gaetz has since deleted the tweet and apologized.

In a statement, Cohen's attorney Lanny Davis said they would not be responding to Gaetz's "despicable lies and personal smears, except to say we trust that his colleagues in the House, both Republicans and Democrats, will repudiate his words and his conduct.

"I also trust that his constituents will not appreciate that their congressman has set a new low — which in today’s political culture is hard to imagine as possible.”