Rep. Harriet Hageman (R-WY) slammed Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY) over a controversy surrounding his alleged links to Judge Juan Merchan and former Trump attorney Michael Cohen.
The controversy could continue to raise a conflict of interest for Goldman, who said on MSNBC this week that he prepared Cohen for testimony. While many interpreted that as Goldman saying he prepared Cohen to testify this week in the ongoing criminal trial against former President Donald Trump in New York, Goldman’s office later clarified that he was referring to testimony in other prior matters on which Goldman worked in an official capacity.
“Congressman Goldman was referring to his February 2019 deposition of Michael Cohen, when the Congressman was Director of Investigations for the House Intelligence Committee overseeing an investigation into Donald Trump’s financial ties to Russia,” Goldman’s communications director Madison Andrus told Breitbart News on Wednesday afternoon. “The Congressman has had nothing to do with the Manhattan District Attorney’s prosecution of Donald Trump.”
Deepening the controversy for Goldman is the fact he also paid more than $157,000 to a political consulting firm that employs Judge Juan Merchan’s daughter, Federal Election Commission disbursement filings obtained by Breitbart News show.
“Mr. Goldman, the novice representative from New York, actually does have a personal stake in this case,” Hageman said during a committee hearing on Wednesday.
“He has stated that he has been involved with the Bragg case, helping to prepare Mr. Cohen for his testimony. So he is quite closely aligned with an admitted and convicted liar and perjure,” she continued.
“He’s also paid the Judge Merchan’s daughter’s firm over $150,000 for her services,” Hageman added. “So I think we’ve got quite a conflict of interest from Mr. Dan Goldman, the novice representative from New York.”
Democrat Del. Stacey Plaskett of the Virgin Islands asked that Hageman’s statement be struck from the record, and she accused Hageman of violating a House of Representatives rule prohibiting personal attacks.
“I would ask that the statements regarding the conflict of interest related to Mr. Goldman be stricken down,” Plaskett requested.
House Judiciary Committee’s Special Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government Chair Jim Jordan (R-OH) refused Plaskett’s request.
Wendell Husebo is a political reporter with Breitbart News and a former GOP War Room Analyst. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality. Follow Wendell on “X” @WendellHusebø or on Truth Social @WendellHusebo.