• Late last night, Cohen attorney‘s Michael Monico also sent a letter to Cummings, clarifying that Cohen never asked President Trump to grant him a pardon, despite Trump tweeting that Cohen had "directly asked" for one.
• Cohen's attorney Lanny Davis told Axios that Cohen and his legal team "blame ourselves, not anybody else" for not clearly explaining the time frames of Cohen's statements, which he called the "two Michael Cohens." But he maintained that Cohen "never directly asked Donald Trump for a pardon. That's a true statement."

Cummings later responded in a statement:

“Our practice on this Committee is to give witnesses an opportunity to clarify their testimony, and that is what Mr. Cohen has done. I do not see the need for further action—at least at this time. However, I understand that Mr. Cohen may have answered more detailed questions on this same topic the day after our hearing when the Intelligence Committee had him in for a closed session. We will review that transcript when it becomes available and determine whether any additional steps are required."

Davis also issued a statement:

“Mr. Cohen’s letter to the Chairman last night addresses the issue raised by Mr. Jordan. As the letter stated, Mr. Cohen’s testimony was truthful. The letter provided greater time frame context for that testimony.

“Isn’t it interesting that neither Mr. Jordan nor any Republican on the committee has ever mentioned the hush money check signed by President Trump, shown on TV during the hearing, proving that the president committed a felony as part of the Stormy Daniels illegal hush money scheme? Federal prosecutors have stated that scheme was directed and coordinated by President Trump. Why does Mr. Jordan ignore this?”

Davis distinguished between the Cohen who consistently lied for Trump vs. the one who exited a joint defense agreement with the president's lawyers and turned against Trump last June. But he maintained that Cohen "never directly asked Donald Trump for a pardon. That's a true statement."

"He was at the time part of a joint defense agreement, what some people call a liars' club … he sent one of his lawyers over to talk to Mr. [Rudy] Giuliani to discuss the option [of a pardon] because it was being dangled out of the water like a piece of bait by Mr. Trump … and he explored that option. But that was the Michael Cohen who is lying."

• Davis said the "second Michael Cohen," who called him last year and told him that he was "tired of lying for Donald Trump," and after that he never explored a pardon.
• The letter from Monico also states: "In retrospect, while the sentence could have been clearer regarding the time frames, the sentence is true, and Mr. Cohen stands by his statement."

The bottom line: There is nothing illegal about a subject in a criminal investigation seeking a presidential pardon. The issue is whether Cohen, who will begin a three year prison sentence in May, lied to Congress when said he had "never asked for, nor would I accept, a pardon" from Trump.

• Additionally, offering the prospect of a presidential pardon to discourage someone from assisting investigators could also be seen as witness tampering or obstruction of justice.

Editor's note: An earlier version of Davis' quote included the phrase, "When Mr. Cohen stopped, and decided he wanted to get out of the club..."

• The authors, both conservatives who supported Kavanaugh's confirmation, said they conducted over 150 hours of interviews with more than 60 key players.
• Regnery Publishing, a conservative book publisher, has the project.
• Hemingway and Severino told Axios' Alayna Treene that the book will describe conversations in the White House as they fought to get Kavanaugh on the bench; scenes from the Senate as Chuck Grassley, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, struggled to keep Republicans from voting against the judge; and Kavanaugh's personal approach to the tumultuous confirmation process.
• They wouldn't say who they interviewed or whether Kavanaugh participated.

Hemingway and Severino told Axios they decided to write the book as a counter to books coming from the Washington Post's Ruth Marcus and New York Times reporters Robin Pogrebin and Kate Kelly.

• "Seeing how the media, including some of the authors of these books, treated the confirmation during the process itself, there’s not a lot of trust that they would treat this fairly," Hemingway said.

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