President Trump’s former personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, will voluntarily testify on February 7 before the House Oversight & Government Reform Committee. There may be some things that Robert Mueller instructs the committee not to ask or that Cohen is instructed not to answer, but the hearing will be highly anticipated and likely to create some tectonic political shifts. On no account will be good news for the Trump administration.
Yet, they have a nearly a month to prepare. And, after some jousting and negotiation, Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio managed to secure the ranking or senior Republican position on the panel. He will be the point man for discrediting anything that Cohen might say.
It won’t be a difficult task, considering that Cohen has already been convicted of lying to Congress and that the Southern District of New York is angry with him for refusing to divulge to them all the crimes he’s witnessed in his life. Cohen isn’t an ideal witness and he should expect some very rough treatment.
No one knows his soft spots better than the president and Trump will no doubt consult extensively with Jordan over the next several weeks. We’ll probably start to see some damaging story lines emerge on right-wing media platforms well in advance of the hearing.
The stakes will be as high as they get, and it should a spectacle to rival the Watergate Era testimony of John Dean. The conductor of the show will be Rep. Elijah Cummings of Maryland. I already have my calendar marked.
With the reported 17 and counting new lawyers hired on to the WH, reportedly to gear up on protecting Executive privilege it’s going to be bloody. And that’s a good thing.
. . . on Mueller crew ( + SDNY, etc.), I forget? Trumpies hoping to go mano a mano with them? Good luck with that!
I hear that some prefer the contemporary spelling for the first name: Gym Jordan.
. . . responding to Trump’s ridiculous, lying, fearmongering “border security” “speech” here.
“Pelosi blocked individual House members from each having a staffer who could see classified information. She uses the classification system to centralize power against the Dem caucus.”
https://twitter.com/matthewstoller/status/1083493089614934016
I was assisting defense counsel on a felony conspiracy trial in Federal Court once and there were about 10 defendants each with their own lawyer. The girlfriend of one of them turned states’ evidence and testified against them. And each lawyer got up and attacked her credibility and they all said the same thing that GOP Congressmen will try and do.
They say “You stood up and lied and committed crimes! Why should anybody believe you now? You’re a convicted criminal! You got a sweetheart deal! You have no credibility and nobody should believe a thing you say!”
And all she said was “I’m guilty. I did it and so did he (pointing at the defendant).” They couldn’t make a dent in her. She said “They caught me. I lied and committed crimes and sold drugs and they caught me and the only thing I could do is give up and tell the truth and cooperate.”
And the jury had Zero trouble believing her. It’s tough to discredit someone who says “hell yes I’m guilty! And so is he. They just caught me. Now he’s still trying to deny it. But, he’s just as guilty as me. Maybe more, because he told me to do it.”
It didn’t work for the Republicans during the Watergate hearings, and it won’t work now. The only reason Trump has even 1% chance of riding this out is that he has Fox News that will lie endlessly and spin everything and distract with shiny objects.
Without that, Trump would already be gone. But, to say “this is bad for Trump” underestimates the downside by several orders of magnitude.
Cohen has already answered these questions publicly. He was asked “why should we believe you now?” and he said “the special prosecutor knew the evidence that they had against me. They told the court what I did and I did it.”
He couldn’t lie to them because, like good prosecutors everywhere, they never asked him a question where they didn’t already know the answer. And if he lied, he was screwed.
Paul Manafort didn’t understand that rule, and only destroyed himself without helping Trump at all. But, Cohen is slightly smarter than that. He’s not going to come off like John Dean. He’s still a slime ball, and he’s going to come off like a slime ball.
But, that only makes it worse for Trump. It’s not going to be a good look when the public gets a load of what this guy has to say in detail.
Yes, and Dean is probably a good historical reminder in that he was challenged until the tapes arrived that supported him.
Cohen’s prosecutors had and have tapes and a serious boatload of backup evidence in the files and records. Trump doesn’t.
Anyone taking bets on what percentage of Cohen’s testimony will be lies?
I’d like to get a bet down on 99% He may tell the truth about his name or the day of the week.
That would make no sense for him (from his perspective) to do that given his lies would easily be exposed. Why would he do that at this stage?
Pathological liars have to lie. It’s like an alcoholic drinking.
I think he’s mainly morally impaired not mentally impaired.
I assume he’ll almost completely truthful since he’s already going to jail and he wants to apply for a reduced sentence after a year in prison.
Why would someone volunteer to testify before Congress in public after he’s already been convicted just to tell lies? Mueller and Company already have the goods on him.
He’s broken free of the DT cult and wants to put a hurt on his former boss. Lying wouldn’t accomplish that.
Maybe that’s it. But there are probably more acts that could be charged, we just haven’t seen or heard it all yet, & he may want to get ahead of any more freight trains.
Precisely.
I am sure that tacit deals have been struck. This is simply the result of more Justice Dept. backroom work.
Business as usual in the Swamp.
Limit damage to the deep state but screw your enemies.
Business as usual.
AG
P.S. Make no mistake about it, Donald Trump is an enemy of the deep state. The only difference between his enmity and that of others who want positive reform is that all he wants to do is to completely take over.
It’s a gang war.
That’s a very good point that the Trump Administration will try to prime Jordan to discredit Cohen but this goes two ways. Cohen and Trump were tightly locked for a long time so he knows things that Wrestler Jordan has no idea about Expect flame outs.
Well, with the Justice Boofer “hearings” have had a preview of how Repubs on every committee will act from now on: they will do everything they can to ensure that Committee X cannot arrive at the truth or obtain accurate information from witnesses. They have no interest in “getting to the bottom of this”, as they comically maintained in January 2017 when all the news of the National Trumpalists’ Putin Connection began to surface. The goal(s) will be time-wasting, obfuscation and Trumper-defense whenever a Repub committee member speaks.
Chair Cummings best have some rhetorical strategy ready for Jordan & Company’s certain obstructionism, histrionics, conspiracy-nonsense and truth-concealment. All Dem chairs best heed this advice.
Repubs: Party over Country, Always.(tm)
The idea that Trump will give Jim Jordan tips and advice on Cohen’s weak spots is actually pretty funny. Trump has become largely incoherent and muddled, not to mention distracted lately. I don’t how much actual use he’ll be to Jordan.
IIt strikes me that the opportunity for revenge, or for inflicting any kind of cruelty, still may have the power to focus Trump mightily despite his general deterioration.
Indeed.
There it is.
A gangster with age-related mental and emotional difficulties is still dangerous. Maybe even more dangerous, especially when he’s…at the very least…the titular boss of all bosses of a gang with the firepower of the U.S. military.
Bet on it.
AG