RUSH: There are so many contradictions here. He claimed that it was his idea for Trump to run for president in 2011. Then he quoted… He said (paraphrased), “Go look at this website from 2012 and you’ll see that there’s already positive public opinion for Trump running for president. I did that!” Jim Jordan said, “You? We didn’t know this! You’re responsible for Trump running?”

Keep something in mind: Cohen said earlier that Trump didn’t want to win! He never expected to win! Running for president was some sort of gigantic marketing campaign, a gigantic infomercial or something. He never expected to win! And then he says that Trump would do anything to win! He’s ruthless! He’ll stop at nothing to win! Now we’re being told that it was his dream to be president as far back as 2011. Remember Trump came down the escalator at Trump Tower in June of 2015. Cohen just said it was four years earlier and that was his idea!

Now, Cohen has also lied in a big way under oath today. During Republican questioning earlier this morning, one member of Congress said (summarized exchange), “You really wanted to be chief of staff, right? You really wanted to be in the administration? And that’s why you’re here today, right? Because you got passed over, because you’re not in the administration. Trump didn’t offer you anything, and your nose is out of joint and you’re here because you’re ticked off that after all the work you’ve done and all the loyalty, you were not given an administration job.”

Cohen said, “No, sir. No, sir. I didn’t want to go to work for the administration. I had no desire to work for the administration! I wanted more independence than that.” Well, shortly after that, Eric Trump tweeted, “Michael was lobbying everyone to be chief of staff. It was the biggest joke in the campaign and around the office. Did he just perjure himself again?” And then Donald Trump Jr. tweeted, “Nailed it. It really was the biggest joke of the entire transition. The beginning of his bitterness was when he realized it was never gonna happen.”

So Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. are claiming that Cohen was desperate to be chief of staff — desperate to move up, desperate to be hired by Trump to actually matter in the administration — and wasn’t. But we don’t have to rely on just these two guys. Are you ready for this? If you go consult the sentencing report for Cohen from the Southern District of New York… I’ll remind you again: Cohen said today he did not seek, he did not want, and he had no ambition for a job in the White House. But the Southern District sentencing report says this.

Quote, “During and after the campaign Cohen told friends and colleagues, including in seized text messages, that he expected to be given a prominent role and title in the administration.” Cohen today said that he was “blindly loyal” to Trump, and that was one of his big mistakes. But on page 24 of the Southern District sentencing report, it says this: “This was not an act of blind loyalty. Cohen relished the status of ultimate fixer.” The Southern District even says that he lied at his sentencing.

He blamed his accountant for underreporting income to the IRS when the Southern District says that he did not provide his accountant with the information the accountant needed about his income. The guy is lying through his teeth today, folks. You know, I think it was Jim Jordan, but it may have been Mark Meadows. But it was Jim Jordan who was really jamming (paraphrased exchange), “You really wanted to be in the administration, and you didn’t get it, and that’s why we’re here today. Right, Mr. Cohen?

“You wanted to step up with the president. You wanted a plum job. You wanted counsel or something in the administration, and you were passed over, and you didn’t get it, and that’s why you’re here today!” And Cohen said (sputtering), “No, I had… No, I — I — I didn’t want that! I — I specifically didn’t want to be in the Trump administration.” Yet the Southern District New York sentencing report is as plain as day: “During and after the campaign, Cohen told friends and colleagues…” This would be during the transition.

“During and after the campaign, Cohen told friends and colleagues, including in seized text messages, that he expected to be given a prominent role and title in the administration.” Now, stop and think about that for a second. This guy was telling everybody that he was a big guy. He was telling everybody that he was the president’s right-hand man, that he was gonna be moving up and he was gonna have some big gig. Now Trump Jr. and Eric Trump are saying he was openly lobbying for chief of staff, and he got shut out. He got nothing.

And here he is today spilling his guts, getting all of that resentment and hatred for Trump out on behalf of the Democrat Party.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: I have a couple sound bites. I tell you what, we’ll put a link to the sentencing report from the SDNY up at RushLimbaugh.com. I’ll do that at the next break. I’ll send it up to Koko so you can reference the SDNY sentencing document yourself. In it you can clearly see that Cohen lied through his teeth today about not wanting to be part of the Trump presidential administration.

Anyway, here’s Thomas Massie. Thomas Massie is a Republican from Kentucky, and he is questioning Cohen about Hillary Clinton’s emails.

MASSIE: You said, and this is also in your testimony, in the days before the Democratic convention you became privy to a conversation that some of Hillary Clinton’s e-mails would be leaked, is that correct?

COHEN: Correct.

MASSIE: Okay. Was that in — you said late July, do you know the exact day?

COHEN: I believe it was either the 18th or the 19th and I would ask that it would be on the 19th.

MASSIE: But it was definitely July.

COHEN: I believe so, yes.

MASSIE: Do you know that was public knowledge in June? This was, Mr. Assange, and I’d like to submit this – unanimous consent to submit this for the record.

CUMMINGS: Without objection so ordered.

MASSIE: Mr. Assange reported to the media on June 12th that those e-mails would be leaked. So, I’m not saying you have fake news, I’m saying you have old news and there’s really not much to that.

RUSH: It’s not a crime anyway. This is the whole thing. It’s not a crime that Trump would be interested in a document dump involving Hillary Clinton. He’s running against her. And Cohen said (paraphrasing), “Well, Roger Stone called Assange and then Roger Stone called Trump and told Trump that Assange told him that this big email drop with Hillary was coming and it was in July.” And we all knew that in June.

Folks, this guy is worse than a rat. And he’s worse than a snitch. He has this 20-page opening statement in which he seemingly admits every lie and every transgression and is now doing everything up-and-up for his family, for his beloved wife and beloved children and for the goodness and graciousness of America. He’s lying through his teeth even on these hearings while under oath! And he’s trying to act like stuff that was public knowledge in June was still unknown to anybody in July and that Donald Trump is somehow guilty of something because he was interested in what WikiLeaks was gonna dump.

We were all interested in what WikiLeaks was gonna dump. And when WikiLeaks did dump and we found out it was the Podesta emails, a lot of us were cheering because this is the kind of stuff that does not happen to Democrats very often. They never get hoisted up on their own petard like this. And then it was doubly juicy because they wouldn’t let the FBI examine their server after it had been hacked. And you know why. There’s a lot to remember here.

The reason why Debbie “Blabbermouth” Schultz who was also questioning Cohen — she was the chairman of the DNC at the time — the reason she didn’t let the FBI forensically examine their hacked server is because that server contained all the evidence of how they rigged the primaries for Hillary via the delegate count against Crazy Bernie. And that’s what she didn’t want anybody to learn.

All of this collusion with Russia and rigging elections, it all happened on the Democrat side. And this is just the latest phase of the Mueller investigation and everything else about this that’s designed to cover up what Hillary Clinton really did. And now Hillary Clinton’s right-hand man, Lanny Davis, has Cohen as his client, and this is the ongoing effort of Mrs. Clinton to get revenge against Trump for having the audacity to run against her and defeat her.

Up next, Mark Meadows, North Carolina, is asking Cohen about his contracts with foreign entities and this is the response here.

MEADOWS: I’m concerned about your lies today. Under your testimony just a few minutes ago, to me, you indicated that you had contracts with foreign entities and yet we have a truth in testimony disclosure form which requires you to list those foreign contracts for the last two years, and you put NA on there, and that’s a criminal offense to not have that accurately. So when were you lying? Either in the testimony to me earlier today or when you filled out the form?

CUMMINGS: Gentleman’s time has expired. Mr. Cohen, you may answer his question, and then whatever you wanted to stay on that other —

COHEN: His question is — unfortunately, I — I don’t have an answer for his question.

RUSH: Of course. I don’t have an answer. When was I lying? I don’t know. I don’t have an answer for that. By the way, this is one of the things Paul Manafort’s in jail for. Failing to legally register as a foreign agent or as a foreign representative. In Manafort’s case, it’s of Ukraine. And Mark Meadows has since tweeted out that he has made a criminal referral to judicial authorities, legal, law enforcement authorities about this.

(impression) “Under your testimony a few minutes ago, you indicated you had contracts with foreign entities, and yet we have a truth in testimony disclosure form which requires you to list those foreign contracts for the last two years. You put NA on there. It’s a criminal offense to not fill that form out accurately, so where you were lying earlier in the testimony, or when you filled out the form were you lying?”

(impression) “Uh, unfortunately I don’t have an answer.” He was saved by the bell there with Elijah Cummings. The question is over, the gentleman’s time is expired.

Here is Jay in Providence, Rhode Island, as we head back to the phones. Glad you waited. Your turn. You’re up.

CALLER: Rush, I got another real lowlife lie that you may not have caught. I think it was Monday you had some calls on the Charlottesville hoax and considerable discussion on the phony claim that Trump was referring to the anti-Semitic tiki torch Nazis having good people rather than those supporting the Confederate statues and how could anybody claim that when Trump was own grandchildren and son-in-law and his daughter’s converted to Judaism, they’re all Jewish, and he’s been the most pro-Israeli president in history, how could anybody believe that?

Well, unbelievably — I don’t know if you caught it — Cohen in this morning’s congressional testimony actually repeated and cited Charlottesville as the reason he, Cohen, felt he had to come forward and expose Trump. Well, that’s the biggest dead giveaway that this is nothing more than a Democrat hit job. Because Cohen, it shows he’s colluding with the Democrats as their puppet. Think about it. Cohen, himself Jewish, closely knowing and working with Trump and his family for 10 years in New York City actually saying he, Cohen, believes in the Charlottesville hoax, that he believes Trump is an anti-Semitic bigot and racist. I mean, get real! That one remark exposes Cohen as the fraud that he is! And remains. How can he say that?

RUSH: That is a great observation. You’re absolutely right that it also shows collusion. Because we know that Charlottesville is one of these Democrat bugaboos. It’s one of their fallback positions when all else is failing, let’s go back to Charlottesville, let’s go back to Trump is a racist. I don’t know Cohen from my left shoe. But my guess is that Cohen hasn’t thought about Charlottesville on his own ever. But Lanny Davis would be obsessed with Charlottesville. And Lanny Davis’s assistants would be obsessed with Charlottesville. And Adam Schiff and Elijah Cummings would be obsessed with Charlottesville, and all of these other Democrats would be.

So I think you’re right on the money with this. The fact that Cohen is now talking about, “Well, I had to come forward. When I saw my president, anti-Semitism in Charlottesville,” that’s not his observation. I guaran-damn-tee you it’s not. He didn’t care about stuff like that. For Cohen, who is – look, this guy was a thug fixer.

You know what the biggest embarrassment of this is today, as far as I’m concerned? How did Trump ever hire this guy? This is another one of the things that makes me question some of the staffing decisions. The biggest thing to me today is how did this guy – (interruption) well, now, who would ever think their lawyer would sell ’em out? But that’s not what I’m talking about! I saw some people on Fox earlier today, Chris Wallace was describing this guy as the meanest bullying thug that he had ever encountered in a presidential assistant.

He talked about he wanted to get an interview with Trump all during the campaign for months and months and months and that this guy is who he had to go through and this guy was a reprobate, that this guy was an absolute thug. And then Judge Napolitano came in there and echoed the sentiment.

But, now, don’t misunderstand. To me, what Cohen is saying and the allegations he’s making, he’s continuing to lie. This idea — the caller is exactly right here — Jay in Providence, Rhode Island, is exactly right — for Cohen to bring up Charlottesville is, to me, proof positive that he’s being coached and that his testimony was written by Lanny Davis and he’s just had to remember the lies that are in that statement so that he can be consistent with them today.

But how this guy ends up — you know, he probably was a good fixer and so forth. And I understand your point, whoever thinks their lawyer is gonna sell ’em out and turn tail and violate attorney-client privilege. I’m not talking about that Trump should have had the foresight to see that he would do that. It’s a way of my categorizing what this guy’s saying about Trump and the allegation is not really all that damaging, to me. But the fact that he was even nearby is a puzzlement. But he was. I mean, it can’t be denied.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: There’s another easy way to know that Cohen is lying. By the way, even CNN has pointed out Cohen’s lie that he didn’t want to be part of the administration. CNN’s not happy. If Cohen is starting to lie and it can be demonstrated, then that ain’t good. And how do we know Cohen’s lying? Because his lawyer is Lanny Davis! These people on the Democrat side have been lying about Donald Trump since before he was elected!

The entire narrative that led to the Mueller investigation, Trump-Russia collusion, is a lie! Everything about this is rooted in a lie, and that kind of lie needs supporting lies. And therefore, Cohen is perfectly suited for this role. Here’s the segment that happened right back at the bottom of the hour here. I saw it. I was a little late getting back, because this is when Cohen claimed credit for starting Trump’s presidential campaign in 2011. Jim Jordan said, “You started the campaign?”

COHEN: That’s correct, in 2011.

JORDAN: You started the campaign for the president of the United States for Donald Trump?

COHEN: I certainly did, sir.

JORDAN: Now, that’s news.

COHEN: ShouldTrumpRun.com.

JORDAN: Wow.

COHEN: 2011. It was my idea. I saw a document in the newspaper that said, “Who would you vote for in 2012?”

JORDAN: Michael Cohen —

(crosstalk)

COHEN: Six percent of the people said —

JORDAN: Michael Cohen said —

COHEN: Michael Cohen. Six percent of the people —

JORDAN: Michael Cohen —

COHEN: — turned around and said they’d vote for Donald Trump.

JORDAN: The reason Donald Trump is president is ’cause of Michael Cohen, right?

COHEN: So I brought it into his office, and I said to him, “Mr. Trump, take a look at this.” And he said, “Wow. Wouldn’t that be great?” And with that is where it all started.

JORDAN: Yeah. Okay. Like, I am sure he had never thought of anything like that until you came along.

RUSH: He ran for president on the Reform Party years before this and got out of the Reform Party because David Duke was a member! Now, this… This is delusional. You know, we’re dealing with… If you’ve ever wondered what a psychopathic liar is, if you’ve ever wondered what a congenital liar is, you’re looking at it here — and the Democrats know it! He’s going to jail for having lied to Congress, and he is their star witness! After all of this! After all of the Mueller investigation!

After everything at the FBI, Comey, McCabe, Rosenstein. After every effort they made — Clapper, Brennan, Lisa Page, Strzok Smirk, all of these people — it’s now down to Michael Cohen? Because everybody else has bombed out. Everybody else has failed in the effort to get Trump’s numbers down to the twenties or thirties, and so now they’re scraping the bottom of the barrel: Michael Cohen, shepherded by Lanny Davis and the rest of the Democrat Party. This just sounds sleazy. (impression) “Yep, my idea! Yep. Yep, 2011. Yep! My idea. Go look at it. My idea for campaign. President! United States. ShouldTrumpRun.com. My idea.”

(laughing)

You’ve gotta love this.