Tuesday was the worst day of Donald Trump’s presidency and that’s saying something.
Paul Manafort was found guilty of five tax fraud counts, one count of failing to file a financial document with the government and two counts of bank fraud. Just minutes later, Michael Cohen pleaded guilty to eight counts, including campaign finance violations he says were committed at the direction of Donald Trump. Cohen also said he acted “for the purposes of influencing the election”.
Bottom line: two of the people closest to the President’s campaign are going to prison. And there is no way you can spin that. Unless he pardons them, they are going to jail.
“He testified under oath that Donald Trump directed him to commit a crime by making payments to two women for the principal purpose of influencing an election”, Cohen’s attorney Lanny Davis said on Tuesday evening, before asking America the following question:
If those payments were a crime for Cohen, then why wouldn’t they be a crime for Donald Trump?
Spoiler alert: they are a crime for Donald Trump. Donald Trump was accused of committing crimes in open court by his former attorney. Period.
Later on Tuesday, Davis told MSNBC that Cohen has information that would be of interest to Mueller and he’d be “more than happy to tell the special counsel all that he knows.” Davis also said this:
Cohen has knowledge not just about the obvious possibility of a conspiracy to collude and corrupt [America’s democracy] in the 2016 election, but also knowledge about the computer crime of hacking and whether or not Mr. Trump knew ahead of time about that crime and even cheered it on.
Here’s the clip:
As for whether Cohen would accept a pardon, the answer is apparently “no.” Here’s what Davis told NPR on Wednesday:
I know that Mr. Cohen would never accept a pardon from a man that he considers to be both corrupt and a dangerous person in the oval office. And he has flatly authorized me to say under no circumstances would he accept a pardon from Mr. Trump, who uses the pardon power in a way that no president in American history has ever used a pardon — to relieve people of guilt who committed crimes, who are political cronies of his.
He told ABC News the same thing.
Donald Trump is beside himself.
“If anyone is looking for a good lawyer, I would strongly suggest that you don’t retain the services of Michael Cohen!”, the President said on Wednesday morning.
Remember, it was just four months ago when Trump said this:
I would appear the President miscalculated – and “big league.”
As for what kind of “moron” would hire Michael Cohen in the first place, well, look in the mirror, sir. Look in the mirror.
I just checked The New York Rules of Professional Conduct, and those rules don’ include the activities of bagman and thug.
Therefore, it is clear that Cohen was not acting as Trump’s lawyer at the time that Trump directed him to commit felonies on his behalf and therefore I don’t understand why Trump is attacking Cohen’s lawyering.
If anything, Trump should be crying that,
“IF YOU’RE LOOKING FOR A GOOD BAGMAN OR THUG, HIRE MICHAEL COHEN, BECAUSE I USED HIM FOR YEARS WITH GREAT SUCCESS UNTIL I WENT PUBLIC WITH MY CRIMINAL ACTIVITIES AND THEN THEY WENT AFTER HIM TO GET TO ME.”
I only want one thing for Christmas this year Santa… just one thing.
If this fake president had paid off these two women (as he may have paid many others before them) before he began his campaign to lie, cheat and steal to win (as he may have done his entire life) then he would not have this felony hanging over him today. (However, I bet there are more crimes to be discovered soon so it could easily end up being a really Merry Christmas, calhoo25.)
If Cohen really had any scruples before (he got caught) accepting that big payoff bribe to commit this crime, then he would not be headed to jail. Now he is out for revenge on trump and this time the payoff could be less to no jail time. Future resume, disbarred lawyer.
Now, here comes Manafart, keeping his mouth shut so far. What are his options? Spill his guts and tell all he knows and has done could easily result in some prison time and then maybe Russia gets revenge on his family? Keep his mouth shut and do his time and then his family lives (happily?) ever after. Nice choice.
stay tuned.
So Cohen no good because he talked and Manafort is a good man because he didn’t. So Trump is admitting that Manafort has information that could hurt him.
That’s a fair way to look at it. Another way is this: Cohen tells lies to get a deal from DOJ. Manafort refuses to lie to get a deal from Mueller.
Perhaps, but then the government says there are tapes made by Cohen that are proof of these crimes. Time will tell all.
You’re singing tot he choir. Just playing devil’s advocate. When it’s Trump speaking, I know it’s on the wrong side and worst side of things.
There’s not a chance …. not a single chance, that the prosecutors in the Southern District gave Cohen such an easy plea deal without him having first given up the farm to Mueller as part of reconciling Cohen’s actionable criminality occurring outside the Southern District. If anybody thinks that Cohen started to engage in criminal conduct for and with Trump for the first time in the run up to the election, they simply have not been paying attention.
Manafort is probably gonna end up dead if not locked up in some high security site. It won’t be ‘the deep state’ that sprinkles a little sarin in his oatie-bloaties, but it will be some ‘state’ that does, if one can call Russia a state.