Incoming House Oversight chair wants Cohen to testify in January

The incoming chairman of the House's top watchdog committee said Sunday he wants Michael Cohen, President Donald Trump's former attorney, to testify before Congress in January.

"I'm hoping that Mr. Cohen will come before the Congress, where he can tell the American public exactly what he has been saying to Mueller and others, without interfering with the Mueller investigation," Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), the next chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, said in an interview with CNN's "State of the Union." "I think the American people just voted for transparency and integrity in our hearings. They want to hear from him."

"I certainly would like to see him come in the month of January ... before the Congress, and so that the people's representatives will have an opportunity to ask him questions," he said.

Cohen was sentenced to three years in prison last week after pleading guilty to eight federal crimes, including charges related to making or helping carry out hush money payments to women who claimed to have had affairs with Trump. Federal prosecutors in New York allege Trump directed Cohen to make the payments.

Cohen's sentence is the longest handed out so far stemming from special counsel Robert Mueller's probe into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential campaign.

Cummings called the former Trump attorney potentially appearing before Congress "a watershed moment," likening it to White House counsel John Dean's testimony amid the Watergate scandal in the 1970s.

"Remember John Dean, with regard to the Nixon tapes and the testimony that he provided, he changed the course of America," Cummings said. "A lot of people said that he would not — called him a liar and everything else. But the fact is, is that he came forward.

"And I think, surely, Mr. Cohen should come forward and let us know what he has on his mind," Cummings added. "But I think the public needs to know exactly what happened. And I think that he can shed light on it."

Though he argued "the evidence is piling up," the Maryland Democrat also said kicking off impeachment proceedings against Trump would be "premature" and that Mueller should be allowed to "complete the job."

Cummings added that his committee will "more than likely" look into Trump's inaugural committee amid reports it has come under federal scrutiny for its spending and whether its donors sought to influence administration policy.