Lanny Davis: Michael Cohen’s Closed-Door Testimony ‘Could Be Game-Changing’

Appearing on MSNBC Thursday evening, Lanny Davis, an attorney for former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen, told host Rachel Maddow that his client’s closed-door testimony before the House Intelligence Committee this week was potentially “game-changing.”

A partial transcript is as follows:

RACHEL MADDOW: Let me ask you about the intensity of Mr. Cohen’s experience, right now. We saw that he spoke with the House Intelligence Committee today behind closed doors, but then they announced that he’s coming back next week. Had that been the original plan or was that a change that was made today?

LANNY DAVIS: It was not the original plan. In a way, Michael was more effective today than he even was yesterday, when he exceeded all of our expectations in working with him, because today, new information was developed that really could be game-changing. And Chairman Schiff and everybody in the room who wasn’t a partisan Republican praised him for his honesty and forthrightness, and the development of this information is the reason that he’s coming back next Wednesday.

MADDOW: Obviously, you can’t tell us in detail about the nature of the testimony. That’s why it was behind closed doors, but in general terms, when you say new information was developed, was this information that’s core to the Russia investigation or is this new information about the kinds of things that he talked about in detail yesterday?

DAVIS: I would say it’s not core to the Russia investigation, but Mr. Trump has missed the big picture. There is plenty of evidence about a conspiracy to collude with Russia, but this is about lying and obstruction of evidence. And I think that the Trump White House and Mr. Trump himself doesn’t seem to have read the definition of obstruction of justice or of suborning perjury. That’s about the best I can tell you, but it’s pretty explosive.