Day 457: Trump’s Tacit Admission of Guilt
Just two days ago, we posed the question: if Donald Trump is truly innocent, then what is his team worried about his lawyer, Michael Cohen, revealing to federal prosecutors?
Well, Trump’s Sunday tweets go beyond sources and top aides and reveal the psyche of the man himself. He’s just as nervous as they are.
Maggie Haberman, who has been as dialed in as any reporter across the country since the election, co-wrote a piece for The New York Times detailing Trump’s often bullying relationship with Cohen. The piece paints Trump as constantly belittling Cohen and generally treating him like he was merely lucky to be in the same room as Trump.
Trump’s tweets are the opposite: they fawn on Cohen, praising his family and worth ethic. But Trump’s last two sentences reveal why Trump has changed his tune on Cohen, and also foretell something far bigger.
“Most people will flip if the Government lets them out of trouble, even if it means lying or making up stories. Sorry, I don’t see Michael doing that despite the horrible Witch Hunt and the dishonest media!” Trump decried.
Trump is publicly and pathetically begging Cohen not to flip. He’s on his proverbial hands and knees on social media. His tweets might as well read, “Please take the fall for me, Mike. I know I tussled your hair and kicked you in the shins in the past but I really liked you. Do me a solid.”
Trump knows that Cohen — who’s being investigated for bank fraud and violation of campaign finance laws related to a hush payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels, who alleges an affair with Trump — faces serious prison time related to cleaning up a Trump mess.
Cohen, as Trump’s attorney, is far more limited than others on what he can reveal, but any attorney-client privilege is broken if Trump and Cohen are part of the same criminal conspiracy. Trump has certainly been advised that privilege likely does not extend to any Daniels payoff if there were campaign finance violations or bank fraud since both Cohen and Trump were almost certainly in cahoots (unless of course Cohen took out a six-figure mortgage on his personal home to pay off someone who claims they slept with his boss and negotiated a hush agreement all without said-boss knowing).
If the various federal investigations were truly a witch hunt, an innocent person would probably say something like, “There’s nothing to flip on because I’ve done nothing wrong and can’t wait for my name to be cleared!” Instead, Trump claims that he doesn’t see Cohen flipping. The only logical inferences that can be drawn from that are that Cohen has something to flip and Trump is terrified.
457 days in, 1005 to go
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