US President Donald Trump's former lawyer Michael Cohen, giving testimony on Capitol Hill, has not been able to provide any evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian officials during the 2016 election.
Cohen has been giving testimony described as "explosive" by mainstream media to the House Oversight Committee about his "suspicions" that Trump could have worked with Russia during the campaign - but when probed, was not able to provide any evidence to back up those suggestions.
CBS reporter Bo Erickson tweeted during the hearing that Cohen "cannot cite any real examples of Russian collusion" with the Trump campaign "even though he was one of [Trump's] closest allies."
"If [Cohen] doesn't know about any collusion, who does?" Erickson tweeted.
Republicans on the committee have castigated Democrats for inviting a "convicted perjurer," who they say cannot be trusted, to give testimony. Cohen pleaded guilty last November to making false statements to Congress about a potential deal to build a Trump Tower hotel in Moscow, later admitting that he lied to "protect" Trump.
During the hearing, Rep. Jim Jordan accused Cohen of being aggrieved with Trump because he didn't get a job at the White House - a claim which Cohen denied.
While Republicans immediately took an adversarial tone with Cohen, Democrats on the committee have been pushing him to produce information implicating Trump in a conspiracy to steal the election with help from Russia.
Committee Chairman Elijah Cummings said Democrats will continue to call Trump's associates before Congress to testify in their "search for the truth" for the foreseeable future, taking advantage of the fact that the party now holds majority powers in the House of Representatives.
Tweeting before the hearing, Trump himself accused Cohen of "lying in order to reduce his prison time."
Gilets Jaunes' List of Demands
Economy/WorkPolitics
- A constitutional cap on taxes - at 25%
- Increase of 40% in the basic pension and social welfare
- Increase hiring in public sector to re-establish public services
- Massive construction projects to house 5 million homeless, and severe penalties for mayors/prefectures that leave people on the streets
- Break up the 'too-big-to-fail' banks, re-separate regular banking from investment banking
- Cancel debts accrued through usurious rates of interest
Health/Environment
- Constitutional amendments to protect the people's interests, including binding referenda
- The barring of lobby groups and vested interests from political decision-making
- Frexit: Leave the EU to regain our economic, monetary and political sovereignty (In other words, respect the 2005 referendum result, when France voted against the EU Constitution Treaty, which was then renamed the Lisbon Treaty, and the French people ignored)
- Clampdown on tax evasion by the ultra-rich
- The immediate cessation of privatization, and the re-nationalization of public goods like motorways, airports, rail, etc
- Remove all ideology from the ministry of education, ending all destructive education techniques
- Quadruple the budget for law and order and put time-limits on judicial procedures. Make access to the justice system available for all
- Break up media monopolies and end their interference in politics. Make media accessible to citizens and guarantee a plurality of opinions. End editorial propaganda
- Guarantee citizens' liberty by including in the constitution a complete prohibition on state interference in their decisions concerning education, health and family matters
Foreign Affairs
- No more 'planned obsolescence' - Mandate guarantee from producers that their products will last 10 years, and that spare parts will be available during that period
- Ban plastic bottles and other polluting packaging
- Weaken the influence of big pharma on health in general and hospitals in particular
- Ban on GMO crops, carcinogenic pesticides, endocrine disruptors and monocrops
- Reindustrialize France (thereby reducing imports and thus pollution)
- End France's participation in foreign wars of aggression, and exit from NATO
- Cease pillaging and interfering - politically and militarily - in 'Francafrique', which keeps Africa poor. Immediately repatriate all French soldiers. Establish relations with African states on an equal peer-to-peer basis
- Prevent migratory flows that cannot be accommodated or integrated, given the profound civilizational crisis we are experiencing
- Scrupulously respect international law and the treaties we have signed
Comment: There's a simple reason the U.S. won't cooperate with the Russians on cybersecurity: they're the biggest cyber-criminals on the planet, and any treaty on the subject would automatically put them in violation of whatever the terms would be. Just like with the INF, the Americans accuse the Russians of violations when they themselves are the ones acting in bad faith.