In May, the president acknowledged the $130,000 payment to Stormy Daniels, but he denied the affair. He also admitted that he reimbursed Cohen through a “monthly retainer” that did not come from his campaign.
During the interview, Schiff added that the court filing suggested that the “president of the United States not only coordinated, but directed an illegal campaign scheme” to influence the result of the 2016 election.
He also emphasized that the Justice Department has no problem proving its argument that the payments were “intended principally to affect the election.”
Schiff wants to see the “full picture” of Trump’s misconduct
When asked if the president’s action meets the standard for an impeachable offense, Schiff replied, “I think we have to look at the campaign law violations and the context of other allegations of wrongful conduct by the president.” He noted that a separate filing from Special Counsel Mueller on Cohen also included relevant information against Trump.
“We also learn from Michael Cohen that at the time during the campaign when Donald Trump was the presumptive Republican nominee and he was telling the country he has no dealing with Russia, in fact, they’re having private conversations seeking to enlist the Kremlin help in a project that could make him tens or hundreds of millions of dollars. A project that might need Putin’s approval while they are arguing that sanctions on Russian should go away; that’s pretty breathtaking,” said Schiff.
