| *** BREAKING OVERNIGHT: The U.S.-North Korea denuclearization summit in Hanoi, Vietnam, fell apart after President Trump and Kim Jong Un came to an impasse over specifics of verifiable denuclearization and sanctions relief. “It was a very productive two days, but sometimes you have to walk,” Trump told reporters. “Basically they wanted the sanctions lifted in their entirety, and we couldn’t do that.” He said there are no current plans for a third summit. Transcript HERE. *** Michael Cohen on Wednesday revealed there’s an active investigation into President Trump at the Southern District of New York (SDNY) and provided a roadmap for prosecutors and lawmakers probing the president’s personal finances, business empire and associates. Over the course of seven explosive hours of public testimony on Capitol Hill, Trump’s one-time “fixer” accused the president of financial crimes, and in some cases provided documentation he said would back up his allegations. Trump, speaking to reporters today in Hanoi, said he watched some of Cohen’s testimony and believes “he lied a lot,” but not in his assessment that the Trump campaign never colluded with Russia. The president did not comment specifically about Trump Organization business practices that prosecutors in New York are investigating with Cohen’s cooperation. House Republicans made the strategic decision on Wednesday to attack Cohen’s credibility, rather than defend the president. GOP lawmakers cast Cohen as embittered, for being denied a job at the White House, and called him an opportunist, a liar and a tool of Trump’s Democratic opponents. Cohen will begin a three-year prison sentence in May for, among other crimes, lying to Congress. But Cohen’s overall testimony was immeasurably damaging for Trump and his family business. As a separate probe by the Justice Department’s special counsel begins to wrap up, Cohen’s mesmerizing testimony, broadcast live by the networks and other news outlets, raised the specter of new legal jeopardy for a president who campaigned on bringing his business acumen into the Oval Office. The Hill: Top moments from the Cohen hearing. The Memo: Five takeaways from Cohen’s testimony. House Oversight and Reform Committee Chairman Elijah Cummings said Cohen’s testimony “is not the end of the process, but the beginning.” Here are some highlights from a dramatic and emotional day of testimony and cross-examination between Republican lawmakers and the Democrats’ star witness. New revelations and allegations > Under questioning from Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.), a member of the House Oversight and Reform Committee, Cohen said he couldn’t discuss all of the illegal acts Trump has committed because “those are part of the investigation that is currently being looked at by the Southern District of New York.” Cohen said he’s in “constant” contact with the SDNY about the investigation. He also said that he handed over to authorities a recorded conversation between himself and someone else he did not name as evidence in that probe. > Cohen accused the president of bank and insurance fraud. He said Trump would routinely inflate the worth of his assets in financial documents to insurance companies and banks or to lock down business deals. He submitted Trump’s personal financial statements with Deutsche Bank to the committee. > Cohen accused the president of tax fraud, saying his former client routinely deflated the value of his assets when reporting to the IRS. > Cohen pleaded guilty to two campaign finance violations for election-year payments he made on behalf of his candidate client to silence two women who claim to have had affairs with Trump. The president has denied the affairs and initially denied knowledge of the payments. But Cohen submitted a check he received from Trump that he said was partial reimbursement for the money routed to the women. Cohen says he has other checks signed by the president and Donald Trump Jr. that were issued as reimbursements but made to look like retainers. Russia While Cohen may have bolstered investigations into Trump’s businesses, the allegations against Trump’s alleged ties to Russia suffered a hit. > Cohen said he had no knowledge of collaboration between members of the Trump campaign and Russian officials. > The president’s former “fixer” said he was present when Roger Stone called Trump to give him a heads-up that WikiLeaks was about to publish stolen Democratic emails. Stone and WikiLeaks deny they were ever in contact. Stone has been charged by the special counsel for making false statements and obstructing an investigation, but not for conspiracy. > Cohen says Trump pursued a real estate project in Moscow throughout the 2016 campaign, despite the president’s denials that he sought to do business in Russia. Cohen pleaded guilty to lying to Congress about the timeline of the Trump Tower Moscow project, but testified under oath on Wednesday that the president did not direct him to lie about the deal. Rather, Cohen suggested that Trump’s legal team had a hand in his dishonest testimony, but he did not provide corroborating evidence. Trump lawyer Jay Sekulow vehemently denied the allegation. > Cohen said he did not visit Prague to meet with a Russian official during the campaign, as reported, disputing a key assertion included in the campaign-year “dossier” prepared by British spy Christopher Steele. What’s next > Cohen will meet behind closed doors with the House Intelligence Committee on Thursday, his third consecutive day of congressional testimony. > Cohen implicated many members of Trump’s inner circle, from the president’s children to his longtime associates – such as Trump Organization chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg, who has an immunity deal with prosecutors – and Trump Organization secretary Rhona Graff. Will Democrats begin hauling them in for testimony? Esquire: Weisselberg is the key to Trump’s finances. > Cohen’s allegations had some Democrats fanning the fire for impeachment. Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) isn’t ready to go there, but the left-wing of her caucus is applying pressure. > Wednesday’s hearing was likely a proxy for what lies ahead, as Democrats use their newfound power in the House to damage the president through investigations and public spectacles. Trump’s allies, led by Reps. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and Mark Meadows (R-N.C.), will not go down without a fight. The hearing was ugly and at times personal. At one point, freshman Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) accused Meadows of committing a “racist act” for bringing a black woman to the hearing to rebut Cohen’s claims of racism against the president. Cummings intervened before launching into an emotional closing statement. “We have to get back to normal.” — Cummings
Perspectives and Analysis:
Noah Bookbinder, CREW: What we have learned from Cohen so far. Noah Rothman: Cohen’s cynical ploy to join The Resistance. Franklin Foer: A moral indictment of Trump. Karen Tumulty: The most revealing insight of Cohen’s testimony. Jim Jordan: Cohen is delusional. Jennifer Rubin: The worst moments for Trump and the GOP he corrupted Ken White: Republicans committed a classic cross-examination blunder. Bloomberg: Trump’s shifting net worth may bear clues for investigators. The Associated Press: Cohen hearing stokes touchy topic of impeachment. The New York Times: The breakup of a New York relationship. 
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