I think the biggest take-away from Micheal Cohen’s testimony yesterday is that most of Congress is not great at hearings and could do with hiring some experts to handle that stuff for them.
It’s notable that the best questioning sessions came from folks who were 1. Democrats, and 2. had a prosecution background. (With the exception of Ocasio-Cortez, that gal apparently just does her homework.)
These two points underline a problem with hearings like this. The first problem is that the opposition party is generally just at the hearing to score points or obfuscate the truth. The second problem is that congresspeople Mostly don’t know how to do this job.
It seems like you could go a long way towards solving both problems by having involved congresspeople represented by prosecutors and hearings rules that center discovering the truth.
- Politico: Michael Cohen’s most fiery accusations against Trump
- Vox: Why Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s Michael Cohen questioning mattered
- Washington Post: 5 key takeaways from the Michael Cohen hearing
- Lawfare: The Cohen of Silence Breaks: What to Make of Wednesday’s Testimony
- TPM EdBlog: Looking at the Cohen Testimony Big Picture
Notes & Thoughts 