Rep. Mark Meadows Demands Postponement, Accuses Cohen of Violating Rules in Hearing Fireworks

Rep. Mark Meadows (R-NC) interrupted Michael Cohen’s testimony before the House Intelligence Committee as soon as it started this morning, as he claimed the Cohen violated congressional rules by not submitting his testimony 24 hours in advance.

“Rule 9 F of the committee rules say that any testimony from your witness needs to be here 24 hours in advance,” the House Freedom Caucus chairman stated to the committee’s chair Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD). “The committee, the chairman knows well that at 10:08 we received the written testimony and then we received evidence this morning at 7:54.”

“Now, if this was just an oversight, Mr. Chairman, I could look beyond it, but it was an intentional effort by this witness and his advisors to once again show his disdain for this body,” he added. “And with that, I move that we postpone this hearing.”

Cummings replied by noting he got Cohen’s testimony to his colleagues across the aisle “pretty much the same time that we got it.”

Meadows fired back by accusing the witness of violating the rule intentionally.

“If it was not intentional, I would not have a problem,” he said. “I’m not saying it was intentional on your part. I’m saying it’s intentional on his part.”

He then accused John Dean — the White House Counsel for Richard Nixon amid the Watergate scandal — of giving Cohen advice on cable news last night to hold his “statement as long as you can so the other side can’t chew it up is important as well.”

After the committee’s chair shrugged him off again, Meadows’s conservative ally Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) jumped in to attack CNN.

“You know who had this material before all the members of the committee?” Jordan seethed. “CNN had it before we did. CNN had [it] before we did.”

Watch above, via CNN.