UPDATE 3: Cohen emerges after about nine hours with the Intel committee and addresses reporters waiting for him.
UPDATE 2: MSNBC correspondent:
UPDATE: While Cohen continues to meet with Senators and staff, Trump loyalist Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) launches a personal attack on Twitter:
On the professional front, Cohen, who heads to prison May 6, officially has been disbarred.
The decision, which follows his felony conviction for lying under oath, was announced in documents filed Tuesday by Manhattan’s Appellate Division, First Department and the Attorney Grievance Committee.
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It appears the ruling was not scheduled for dissemination until Thursday, Feb. 28, which is the date they are stamped.
The Attorney Grievance Committee moved to strike Cohen’s name from the roll of attorneys following his August 2018 guilty plea to charges of making false statements, tax evasion of and campaign finance violation, per the docs.
The committee again requested in December his name be stricken following his second conviction on charges of making false statements to the U.S. Congress.
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While lawyers are automatically no longer able to practice law following felony convictions, Cohen’s name remained in the New York city rolls until Tuesday.
Michael Cohen has been disbarred (NY Post)
Michael Cohen's highly anticipated testimony tour started today with what is expected to be a marathon session behind closed doors with the Senate Intelligence Committee.
Senators will sit in on the meeting as staffers ask the president's former personal lawyer a well-organized set of questions.
[Chairman Richard Burr (R-NC)] said no topics will be off limits and Cohen “should expect to get any question from anywhere about anything.”
Burr said committee members know a lot more than they did when they first interviewed Cohen, who later pleaded guilty to lying to the House and Senate intelligence committees about abandoning a proposal for a Trump Tower in Moscow in January 2016. Cohen has since acknowledged he continued pursuing the project for months after that.
Burr suggested that the committee will take steps to ensure Cohen is telling the truth.
“I’m sure there will be some questions we know the answers to, so we’ll test him to see whether in fact he’ll be truthful this time,” Burr said.
The Senate and House Intelligence Committees have more leeway to ask Cohen about Russia-related matters since they are conducting closed-door sessions so what the public hears Wednesday likely will be limited on that front.
Cohen is only expected to discuss matters related to Russia in the closed-door interviews with the intelligence committees, as House Oversight and Reform Chairman Elijah Cummings has said he doesn’t want to interfere with Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election and links to Trump’s campaign.
Members of the Oversight panel are expected to ask questions about the campaign finance violations, Trump’s business practices and compliance with tax laws and “the accuracy of the president’s public statements,” according to a memo laying out the scope of that hearing. The hearing’s scope does not include Russia.
An unidentified source told NBC News what Cohen plans to reveal Wednesday.
Cohen will detail his allegations of the president's lies, racism and cheating as a private businessman while Cohen spent a decade working for him ...
Cohen will also give lawmakers information about Trump's financial statements and might actually provide the statements ... This information would require the president's long-held secret tax returns in order to verify, providing an avenue for the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform to request those returns. The source noted the allegation that Trump deflated the value of his properties in some cases to reduce his property taxes.
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The source said Cohen will address his motives for lying on behalf of Trump and why he lied to Congress about the Trump Tower Moscow negotiations — a charge to which he pleaded guilty late last year. Cohen will additionally discuss whether anyone told him to lie. After Cohen pleaded guilty, Trump defended his efforts to build a Trump-branded tower in Russia while running for president of the United States as "very legal" and "very cool."
The White House's strategy is to discredit Cohen as an unreliable witness in advance of his appearances.
“Disgraced felon Michael Cohen is going to prison for lying to Congress and making other false statements," [White House press secretary Sarah] Sanders said. "Sadly, he will go before Congress this week and we can expect more of the same. It’s laughable that anyone would take a convicted liar like Cohen at his word, and pathetic to see him given yet another opportunity to spread his lies.”
Lanny J. Davis, a lawyer and adviser to Mr. Cohen, declined to discuss details of Mr. Cohen’s testimony, saying only that Mr. Cohen “worked very hard on this moment to not only tell the truth, but to back it up with documents.” Mr. Davis said Mr. Cohen’s response to questions about his truthfulness will be “I take full responsibility, I lied in the past; now you have to decide if I’m telling the truth.”
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The person briefed on Mr. Cohen’s plans said he is planning to bring documents that will illustrate his claims. The person familiar with the plans indicated that Mr. Cohen will present other documents beyond the financial statements, but the person did not specify what those might be. The documents will be shared in a way for the viewing public to see them, the person said.
He is prepared to describe Mr. Trump making racist statements, as well as lying or cheating in business. Last fall, Mr. Cohen told Vanity Fair that Mr. Trump frequently used racist language, telling the magazine that his former boss said during the 2016 campaign that “black people are too stupid to vote for me.”
Cohen expected to claim lying, racism and cheating by Trump (AP)
Cohen will tell Congress of alleged Trump criminal conduct, source says (NBC News)
Planned in Michael Cohen’s Testimony: A Litany of Accusations Against Trump (NYT)