Well, it looks like Michael Cohen is going to jail.
Over the weekend, Donald Trump got “two scoops” of bad news on the legal front:
- The New York Times published a series of articles detailing White House Counsel Don McGahn’s “extensive cooperation” with the special counsel probe and;
- Michael Cohen was said to be close to reaching a plea deal with prosecutors who have zeroed in on a $20 million bank fraud.
The McGahn news subsequently got worse and on Tuesday, Cohen pleaded guilty to several counts of bank and tax fraud and also to campaign finance violations.
Reports out over the weekend indicated that prosecutors were taking aim at potentially unscrupulous practices around Cohen’s involvement in the taxi cab hustle. Specifically, the government was investigating possible tax fraud related to some $20 million in loans to a taxi business he and his family own. As the New York Times reported, “the bank loans under scrutiny came from two financial institutions in the New York region that have catered to the taxi industry, Sterling National Bank and the Melrose Credit Union.”
What was a bit strange is that Cohen didn’t miss any payments and the banks in question never suffered any losses. Is it normal for prosecutors to charge someone with bank fraud when no losses have been incurred? Well, that depends on whether the person in question has committed other crimes, and prosecutors have also been investigating Cohen for possible violations of campaign finance laws in connection with covering up Trump’s porn star hookups.
On Tuesday, Cohen surrendered to the FBI ahead of his 4 PM hearing.
His plea deal with federal prosecutors will reportedly include three to four years worth of jail time and a large fine. “Cohen has been concerned about asset forfeiture, leaving his family with nothing”, CNN reports, adding that “prosecutors made clear that there was a bigger risk should he go to trial and be found guilty, that he would have forfeit assets.”
Both the DOJ’s Tax Division and the IRS had to approve the deal. Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein’s office was reportedly consulted as well, but in the end, the timing of the guilty plea was down to negotiations between New York prosecutors and Cohen’s lawyers.
Cohen’s trials and tribulations began in earnest back in April when he was the subject of an FBI raid conducted on orders from Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein (a.k.a, “Mr. Peepers“) after Robert Mueller referred evidence to federal authorities in New York.
Shortly thereafter, Cohen found himself fighting tooth and nail to fend off a deluge of truly horrible press and damning revelations about payments made to a consulting firm he ran — payments which included money linked to a Russian oligarch with whom Cohen met at Trump Tower just 11 days before the inauguration.
In June, ABC reported that Cohen is likely to cooperate with federal prosecutors and in July, Trump’s former fixer indicated he is not in fact prepared to go down with his former boss’s ship, telling George Stephanopoulos that when push comes to shove, “my wife, my daughter and my son have my first loyalty and always will.”
That said, Cohen’s plea deal is said not to include cooperation, suggesting that either he had a change of heart about his willingness to flip on the President, Mueller didn’t view him as a valuable witness, the two sides couldn’t come to terms, or potentially, all three. Here’s the Times:
The charges against Mr. Cohen were not a surprise, but he had signaled recently he might be willing to cooperate with investigators who for months have been conducting an extensive investigation of his business dealings. But any bid to negotiate a plea deal under which he would provide information to federal prosecutors in Manhattan in the hopes of a lesser sentence appears to have broken down.
Clearly, the situation is “fluid”. Other media outlets haven’t yet committed to saying, definitively, that Cohen doesn’t intend to cooperate in some way with the government.
Irrespective of what happens, this is in no way, shape or form “good” news for the President. It is obviously a positive development if Cohen doesn’t cooperate, but the fact that he’s pleading guilty to tax fraud and campaign finance violations means this is yet another instance of a Trump associate facing serious allegations of wrongdoing, further undermining the “witch hunt” narrative and adding to the list of confidants implicated in criminal activity.
Take it away, Diane…
https://twitter.com/Diane_7A/status/1031981029081448449
https://twitter.com/Diane_7A/status/1031963565752836096
My financial planner tells me that the long-term direction of the market is always upwards and not to worry about politics because it doesn’t affect the underlying economic fundamentals. That means I don’t have to worry about the slow-motion trainwreck of all time in D.C. affecting my retirement portfolio, right?
Right!
If you are reading H’s posts you’ve missed something. Politics affects everything economic.
David you might wanna stick around and follow H’s work for a few days; then you will appreciate the relationship between economic decisions and the politics narrative