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After all, the premise of him being the John Dean of Watergate 2.0 is that he’s flipping on Trump. But at this point we don’t know that. It seemed plausible to infer it from some of the things that he’s said and done recently-he’s clearly gone out of his way to say things that makes it sound as if he turned on the faux ‘President’-like when he criticized his despicable zero tolerance immigration policy or Trump’s attacks on the media.

To be sure, that’s a little rich for Cohen-the man why threatened a Daily Beast reporter that if he ever reported Ivanna Trump’s deposition from 1990 alleging her husband marital raped her, he would do something ‘disgusting’ to this reporter and ‘take away every penny you still don’t have.’

But the meaning of this criticisms was clear-he’d done a 180 in a very short time from I’d take a bullet for the President to it’s all about family and country. 

Then there was his leaking of the tape that proved Trump did know about the payment to Karen McDougal beforehand, contrary to what both Trump-and previously Cohen-had been asserting for half a year. And, of course, he hired Lanny Davis-who was Clinton’s lawyer during Lewinskygate and is a long time friend of the Clintons.

But there was never clear and direct evidence that he actually had flipped or even if he was planning on flipping. Michael Avenatti claimed that Cohen was really playing for a pardon. How he knows that, I don’t know. It’s clear that Avenatti had some conversations with Cohen and had actually planned to meet him in late July then abruptly called off the meeting declaring that Cohen was just looking for a pardon. 

UPDATE: If anything can be definitively put to bed it would seem to be the idea Cohen sought a pardon.

For his part, Lanny Davis denied this, and Cohen himself recently told a friend that he doesn’t think Trump will pardon him. 

In any case, if Cohen wants  to be John Dean 2.0, now is the time to make a deal-assuming Mueller’s even interested in one.

Back when the story broke that he’d told friends he doesn’t expect a pardon he hadn’t actually been charged with anything. He has now.

On Thursday night, August 16, the news had broke that Cohen had actually resisted the idea of making a payment to Stormy Daniels until the Hollywood Access video broke which changed his mind. 

“On Thursday, the Wall Street Journal issued a new report about former Donald Trump attorney Michel Cohen and the 2016 hush payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels: Cohen initially rejected the request for money from Daniels’ attorney, but changed his mind after the “Access Hollywood” tape came to light.”

This revelation makes it more likely that he will be charged.

“The new revelation about Cohen refusing to pay Daniels in September 2016 is big, circumstantial evidence that could further open up Cohen to facing criminal campaign finance charges. This could also reach all the way to Trump himself.”

And lo and behold, the very next day it was reported that he is being investigated for bank fraud and then yesterday a report broke that says federal prosecutors will file charges against Cohen possibly by the end of August. 

“The US Attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York has been investigating Cohen for possible bank and tax fraud and campaign finance violations related in part to a $130,000 hush money payment made to silence porn star Stormy Daniels’ allegations of an affair with Trump. Trump has denied an affair.”

“Investigators are also examining more than $20 million in loans obtained for Cohen and his family’s taxi companies, The New York Times reported Sunday night, citing people familiar with the matter.”

And this would be very bad news for so-called ‘President Trump.’

“Criminal charges against Cohen would be a major setback to President Donald Trump because Cohen has long been in his inner circle. Cohen has prided himself over the years on his reputation as Trump’s pit bull and once said he “would take a bullet” for Trump.”

“But Trump’s longtime consigliere has since broken allegiance with his former boss. Cohen has expressed a willingness to cooperate with the investigation, but it isn’t clear if prosecutors are interested in a deal or what information he has to offer them. The US Attorney’s office operates under the guidelines of the Justice Department, which advises against indicting a sitting president.”

Rudy Giuliani is taking a lot of guff over his ‘postmodernist moment’ on Chuck Todd-‘truth is not the truth’

You can see this in the latest version of Trump Russia White House’s alternative facts or that was the largest crowd ever to see an inauguration period. 

https://twitter.com/AaronBlake/status/1031203209656893441?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1031203209656893441&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Flastmenandovermen.com%2Fwp-admin%2Fpost.php%3Fpost%3D38314%26action%3Dedit

But the one thing he’s right about is the real question is to impeach or not to impeach. 

UPDATE:  Thankfully we finally got a clear, unequivocal answer this September: to impeach.

Back to CNN:

“The Cohen investigation was referred to the Southern District of New York by special counsel Robert Mueller. Should Cohen seek to make a deal to avoid indictment, it could require him to cooperate with any investigation prosecutors wish, including the Russia probe.”

“As of last week, Cohen hadn’t met with prosecutors in New York, according to people familiar with the matter.”

The charges are being finalized but their timing is ‘fluid.’

“The prosecutors who have been investigating Cohen have been mindful of the election cycle when weighing when to charge him, a person familiar with the matter told CNN, and as a result have considered bringing charges either before September or waiting to do so until after the midterm elections.”

Right because you don’t want to do anything to effect an election-unless Hillary Clinton is running. And it sure is great to hear that investigators will be awfully careful not to hurt Trump’s chances after learning from the way they hurt Clinton’s.

UPDATE: There’s been this debate on how quickly the Dems should write articles of impeachment and vote to impeach. While I’ve been writing this book over the course of 21 months I’ve been consistent on this question: they should impeach Trump as close to the election as possible-preferably 11 days before the election like the Comey letter. It seems that perhaps Pelosi and Friends are beginning to realize that this is not something you want to rush-impeachment has been the only  weapon that’s consistently able to take back the news cycle from Trump.

End of UPDATE

“Cohen’s attorney, Lanny Davis, declined to comment when contacted by CNN. A spokesman for the US attorney’s office also declined to comment.”

“According to the Times, investigators are trying to determine whether Cohen misrepresented the value of his assets to obtain the loans from two financial institutions that have catered to the taxi industry. They are also scrutinizing whether he failed to properly report his income from taxi medallions to the Internal Revenue Service, the Times reported.”

He misrepresented the value of his assets to get a bank loan? What a coincidence-Trump’s campaign manager is about to be indicted for bank fraud and Trump himself was unable to prove he was a billionaire in his failed libel suit against Tim O’Brien. 

Trump himself has also refused to release his tax returns which strongly suggest he’s failed to pay taxes for many years.

Back to CNN:

“CNN previously reported that Cohen is under investigation for possible bank and tax fraud, that his taxi medallions are a focus of the investigation, and that one of the banks that made the loans was Sterling National Bank. The Times, citing financial records and people with knowledge of the matter, reported that the other financial institution is the Melrose Credit Union.”

The Palmer Report: