The bad news has been so unrelenting in last couple of weeks that it is causing a noticeable amount of resignation, panic and defeatism on the left, but the Russia investigation has not gone away and there’s one thing the president absolutely cannot afford to see happen:
Michael Cohen — President Donald Trump’s longtime personal attorney and a former executive vice president at the Trump Organization — has always insisted he would remain loyal to the president.
He was the fix-it guy, the pit bull so fiercely protective of his boss that he’d once described himself as “the guy who would take a bullet” for the president.
But in his first in-depth interview since the FBI raided his office and homes in April, Cohen strongly signaled his willingness to cooperate with special counsel Robert Mueller and federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York — even if that puts President Trump in jeopardy.
“My wife, my daughter and my son have my first loyalty and always will,” Cohen told me. “I put family and country first…To be crystal clear, my wife, my daughter and my son, and this country have my first loyalty.”
That’s a pretty clear signal that he’s going to flip unless Trump can help his family. But it got worse.
But Cohen did not praise the president during our conversation — and pointedly disagreed with Trump’s criticism of the federal investigations…
…When I asked Cohen how he might respond if the president or his legal team come after him — to try and discredit him and the work he did for Mr. Trump over the last decade — he sat up straight. His voice gained strength.
“I will not be a punching bag as part of anyone’s defense strategy,” he said emphatically. “I am not a villain of this story, and I will not allow others to try to depict me that way.”
That’s a long way from promising to take a bullet for the president. He called Trump “a villain.” And he wasn’t exactly trying to flatter him either, as you might expect him to do if here were still angling for a pardon:
On issue after issue, Cohen did, however, separate himself from President Trump -– starting with the president’s criticism of how the government has conducted its investigation.
After federal agents searched Cohen’s New York properties, Trump described the raid as a break-in, an “attack on our country, in a true sense. It’s an attack on what we all stand for.”
“I don’t agree with those who demonize or vilify the FBI. I respect the FBI as an institution, as well as their agents,” Cohen told me. “When they searched my hotel room and my home, it was obviously upsetting to me and my family. Nonetheless, the agents were respectful, courteous and professional. I thanked them for their service and as they left, we shook hands.”
Cohen also refused to criticize the Mueller investigation.
“I don’t like the term witch hunt,” he said, adding that he condemned Russia for interfering in the 2016 election.
“As an American, I repudiate Russia’s or any other foreign government’s attempt to interfere or meddle in our democratic process, and I would call on all Americans to do the same,” he said.
And in a direct rebuttal to President Trump, who sent out a tweet last week repeating Vladimir Putin’s claim that Russia did not interfere in our election, Cohen added this: “Simply accepting the denial of Mr. Putin is unsustainable.”
He’s not confessing, but he is promising to cooperate with the Mueller investigation and he only predicts that he himself will be exonerated in the Russia affair, without making the same assertion for his former boss.
Cohen also repeated his previous denials of any personal involvement with Russian attempts to interfere in our election, declaring that he never went to Prague, as alleged in the Steele dossier, and never colluded with the Russians in any way.
Although he has not been interviewed yet by Mueller’s team, he says he has provided documents and added that he would fully cooperate with them, just as he says he has with the Senate and House committees investigating the matter.
“I appeared under oath before the House Select Intelligence Committee for over six hours and to the Senate Select Intelligence Committee for over eight hours,” he says.
Cohen believes Mueller will not find any evidence that he had any illegal or improper dealings with the Russians.
Cohen would not defend the actions of Jared Kushner, Paul Manafort or Donald Trump Jr., not would he answer when asked if he knew whether Trump Sr. knew about the infamous meeting with the Russians in Trump Tower.
But Cohen did criticize those members of the Trump campaign who participated in that now infamous Trump Tower meeting in June of 2016 with several Russians after being promised dirt on Hillary Clinton.
“I believe it was a mistake by those from the Trump campaign who did participate,” he said. “It was simply an example of poor judgment.”
When I asked Cohen if President Trump knew about that meeting before it happened, he declined to answer.
“I can’t comment under advice of my counsel due to the ongoing investigation by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Southern District of New York,” Cohen said.
I don’t know that Trump can get himself out of this jam. If Cohen shares what he knows about the president, that’s going to dramatically change the political environment in this country. And I’m almost certain that it’s going to happen.
I saw chatter on CNN that Cohen was reaching out to Trump for a pardon. Wake up CNN, those cards aren’t on the table.
Cohen may be asking for legal fees from Trump but that seems weak considering the rest of his comments. He’s talking to the FBI & Prosecutors, hat in hand, simple as that. Trump has lost this ally.
With the seizure of Manafort & Cohen’s recording devices it’s becoming more and more evident that Manafort may have taped the Trump Tower mtg, that Cohen taped instructions by phone from Trump or even that they discussed the Tower mtg, but the Nixon-tape irony is circling. The only sure thing is an up periscope day from Mueller’s team would be appreciated.
And where has Rudy G been hiding?
Paul Manafort is what you look like when you’re waiting for a pardon and/or you’re waiting for the go-ahead from Russian mafia that it’s ok to flip.
The contrast with Michael Cohen couldn’t be starker, and Cohen looks just like Rick Gates did a few days/weeks before he flipped.
Yes, but one thing they both share is the bizarre number of recording devices, now in the hands of the prosecutors.
And where has Rudy G been hiding?
His job is done, Remember he said he would rap the whole thing up in a couple of weeks…
Attending conferences and galas for terrorist Iranian organizations with no real constituency in Iran.
My tv told me that he was busy prepping Trump for his face to face with Mueller and this would be the week where that would happen.
I’m as desperate for encouraging news as anyone else. But until you can name the actual dozen-plus Republican senators who will vote to convict – knowing that even a hint of apostasy will mark them for destruction in their next primary – I think you must admit that Mueller will not save us.
It has got to be stark financial crimes with an air tight paper trail. The GOP will look the other way on any and all political/treason crimes.
Financial crimes aren’t actually ‘crimes’.
When you worship money, when money is your God, a lot of what the rest of us might consider corruption or white-collar crimes are actually covered by the free exercise clause of the First Amendment.
It’s like that Native-Americans-and-peyote thing.
In a failed state, one has to set their sights somewhat lower, for their mental health if nothing else. Only the most optimistic among us think that ever more Mueller revelations will have much effect on the “thinking” of The 46%, or even on two (resigning) Repub senators. Collusion and lawbreaking by numerous members of Trump’s team of imbeciles has already been extensively revealed. Useless Repub “statesmen” like Corker or Flake (who hate the man and have nothing to lose politically) don’t make the slightest comment.
But knowing what our illegitimate political criminal and his barge of loathsome mediocrities, toadies, quislings, plutocrat enablers and nepotism recipients actually pulled in hopes of getting this horrible monster “elected” is of immense value, at the very least for posterity and the leadership of responsible nations with serious governments.
Because of the enormous lack of contemporaneous transparency, it took decades for history to document the rise of Herr Hitler and the pervasive criminality of Der Fuhrer and the Third Reich. So we are faced with a very long-term project here, all thanks to the American “conservative” movement and its braindead followers.
Really hope you are right. It will take irrefutable, damning proof to make anything stick. But when Cohen says “just poor judgement” by the Trump crew, he doesn’t sound like a great witness.
I can see the chyron on Fox already: “just poor judgement, nothing more”
Mueller is not going to put Cohen on the stand just to regurgitate the kind of anodyne statements he made in the interview. By the time he is formally interviewed Mueller’s team will have damning evidence. Whether that evidence includes potential crimes by Trump and family, we don’t know but his testimony include any “bad judgment”. They will be much more devastating. That’s how these things work.
That said, there is only the remotest possibility of a Trump conviction in Congress.
Agree with all you said. Not sure I’m seeing much in terms of what Michael Cohen said to George S.
Hope I’m wrong.
Not expecting Mueller to “save” us. I doubt much will come out of his investigations in terms of Trump. There may be some more criminal charges and jail time for those “around” Trump. I’m not expecting Mueller’s investigations to result in Trump’s impeachment.
Nah guh happen. Not now, not ever.
“I doubt much will come out of his investigations in terms of Trump.”
Much has already come from this investigation. Dozens of indictments, multiple guilty pleas. You think Flynn, Gates, and Papadopoulos aren’t providing substantial information to the prosecutors in exchange for their guilty pleas, and that Cohen won’t have even more to share when he begins cooperating?
You think the fact that Trump’s campaign manager has been shown in court documents to have been neck-deep in corrupt dealings with a foreign adversary isn’t “much”?
Don’t get sucked in by conservative propaganda.
Remember the Steele memos state that Cohen was the person who paid the hackers. If true, Mueller wants to know who told Cohen to pay the hackers and where did the money come from. I do not care that the people that love the donald don’t care….I want to know.
Just as important, who directed Cohen to meet. If it was someone on the campaign and if that someone was Trump that’s game, set, match for Mueller’s investigation.
We should never forget that for 10-15 years Donald Trump was Cohen’s HERO. He worshipped Trump. I don’t remind everyone about that because of the likelihood of him flipping, or the ridiculous statement `I would take a bullet for him’. That’s nonsense.
I remind everyone of that because it’s a look into Cohen’s character. Anybody who would spend a week around Trump and walk away `ya! That’s my man!’ Is somebody with NO character, no ethics, no moral center. He has ZERO, NONE, loyalty or love of this country.
Of course he is going to flip.
Trump collects disgusting people the way I collect slivers. He’s now trying to wrap that in a `love of country and family’ package.
He’s disgusting.
.
. . . pastimes go, that one seems a bit . . . odd?
Isn’t nalbar a carpenter? I have this vague memory….
And a carpenter collects slivers as a magnet collects metal shavings.
I’m lucky enough to have been reading Hoarse Whisperer on twitter. From him we get to learn what it it like to interact with a narcissist. Recently he reminded folks that narcissists are loyal to no one, ever. When a narcissist kicks someone to the curb, that someone learns they weren’t valued. The first thing they do is seek out others who were betrayed by the narcissist. Witness Cohen seeking out Tom Arnold, of all people, someone else on the outs with DT.
One person has an entire Rolodex of people who have been knifed in the back: Cohen is responsible for many of those figurative stabbings. He was the fixer after all. Cohen knows where the bodies are buried.
Whether or not he was at the Dump Tower meeting is the least of his concerns.
Cohen is a user and an opportunist. He’s like a remora on a shark: he lived on scraps from the big fish and never felt fear of being eaten.
But he got sloppy, believing that nothing would challenge him and no one could get close to him and his criminal activities. And he got cocky, too, leaving himself open to multiple charges. He put on his martyr face for a while, but when the big shark didn’t protect him, he started to figure out that he was dead in the water.
There is a lot of inside info we don’t know. But just like noose tightened on Manafort and other Trump allies, so will the noose on Cohen. He doesn’t have the integrity or guts to go to the guillotine for Trump. I hope he talks. A lot.
Given the sloppiness of Trump’s D-League Crime Family, I still think Mueller has had the entire administration dead to rights for months.
But
A) like all investigators he doesn’t want such a sloppy bunch of two-bit, brain dead, criminals he’s chasing to walk, so he’s building as airtight a case as he can.
and
B) bringing down the Trump’s two-bit clan of street hustlers without doing serious damage/sending a message to election meddling Russian/Foreign oligarchs and our own fascist oligarchs (Mercer, Koch, et al.) would only ensure their continued ratfucking of our governmental institutions.
There is a much larger threat to our nation than President Stupid.
I’m trying to think this through with a brain that’s been addled by our current heat wave, too much work, and not enough caffeine.
If I were a decision maker in a Russian intelligence or criminal organization, would Cohen and Manafort be more useful to me alive – as scapegoats, someone to take the fall to protect my most highly placed asset?
Or, would it be better to have them unable to take the stand – permanently? Accepting, of course, that any “wet work,” as I think the KGB used to call it, will bring lots of unwanted attention to my organization.
I’m not being rhetorical – I would really like to know what the legal and analytical minds here think about this. In any case, I hope federal authorities are taking steps to preserve the health of all of their witnesses.
I doubt Russian intelligence or any other involved state representatives have much to worry about. Every knows what they did and also knows they can’t truly touch them without invading the country.
As for a cabal of extra-national oligarchs and organized criminals (but I repeat myself) that everyone already knows were involved, it probably comes down to how safe their personal fortunes are from seizure and ability to still freely move about the globe as respected members of the wealthy ruling class.
Finally, the Republican Party is going to need more and more money going forward to keep themselves in power. Republican voters finally got the President they have dreamed about for decades and they are only going to want a more Trumpy Trump in succeeding elections which means they won’t be growing their tent anytime soon.