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Michael Cohen really wants to be on the right side of history. 

“Over the weekend, Michael Cohen, the former Trump lawyer who famously facilitated a $130,000 payout to the adult-film star Stormy Daniels, demonstrated the ostensibly civic side of his personality. “The #MidtermElections2018 might be the most important vote in our lifetime,” Cohen tweeted on Sunday morning. ”#GetOutAndVote#VoteNovember6th.” The message came days after Cohen’s attorney, Lanny Davis, confirmed that his client had indeed re-registered as a Democrat in advance of the forthcoming midterm elections. It was Cohen’s second go around on the left. He had voted for Obama in 2008 and remained registered as a Democrat until 2017—despite the fact that he was already serving as the Republican National Committee’s deputy finance chair, and only after Steve Wynn, then the R.N.C.’s finance chairman, insisted that he switch.

So he was a Democrat on November 8, 2016-who’d he vote for? LOL

Last week it was reported Cohen is now a Democrat. Just like James Comey who as a life long Republican-who handed the election to Donald Trump-is now calling for a Democratic Congress as a necessary check on Trump. 

When he started talking about ‘family and country’ and hired Lanny Davis I’d asked if he’d joined the #Resistance. (Find chapter Mike). At this point it’s what the lawyers call asked and answered. 

“Former FBI chief Comey urges voters to support Democrats, rips Trump”

“Policy differences don’t matter right now,” Comey said. “History has its eyes on us.”

Apparently Jeff Flake didn’t get the memo. Note though that even now Flake-who totally failed his chance to show that his alleged resistance to Trump was in anyway meaningful-he had insisted that the investigation of Kavanaugh be real and not just going through the motions and when it became clear that wasn’t the case he helped McConnell and friends ”plow him through’ anyway.-is still trying to retroactively put himself on the right side of history by after utterly failing in any way to put a check on Trump in two years as a Senator-the only class of people who had the actual ability to restrain Trump the last two years was the GOP Congress which utterly failed to do so, now raising the possibility that Trump should be primaried in 2020.

Sorry Senator, but I’ll believe you mean it when you actually do it at this point.

But it is notable that no one-not even Trump’s bagman in Cohen and the FBI Director who handed him the Russia House or the GOP Senator who allowed Trump to put appoint the Supreme Court ‘Justice’ who just might shield Trump from Russia are now retroactively going as far as possible to wipe themselves of any association with Trump.

What more can Comey do than call for a Democratic Congress? What more can Cohen do than become a Democrat and campaign for the #BlueWave and a Democratic Congress-ie, an #AccountabilityCongress? And what more can Flake do than-after, ahem, flaking out for two years-calling for a Republican-himself?-to primary Trump in 2020. In a few years you won’t get anyone admitting to be part of the Trump treason train.

But the big Cohen news is how many hours he’s already testified.

“Other than a few tweets and statements, Cohen has remained relatively quiet since pleading guilty, in August, to violating campaign laws by paying off women who claimed to have had affairs with Donald Trump at what he said, in open court, was the “direction” of the then-candidate. Behind the scenes, however, Robert Mueller’s special investigation into collusion and obstruction of justice continues apace. So does the Southern District’s probe into campaign-finance violations. Despite having no formal cooperation agreement with the government, Cohen has willingly assisted and provided information critical to several ongoing investigations, according to two sources familiar with the situation, in a string of meetings that have exceeded more than 50 hours in sum. (A spokesman for the S.D.N.Y. declined to comment. A spokesperson for the special counsel’s office declined to comment. Cohen declined to comment.) These conversations are the latest manifestation of Cohen’s brand of patriotism. In June, Cohen told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos that he would no longer be protecting Trump or the Trump family. “To be crystal clear,” he said, “my wife, my daughter, and my son, and this country have my first loyalty.”

“Cohen’s disclosures to investigators remain an enigma, but his proximity to the president and his family make him a valuable witness. As The Wall Street Journal first reported earlier this month, and two sources independently confirmed to me, Trump directed Cohen to enforce the non-disclosure agreement with Daniels after the paper first broke the news of its very existence. Trump then deputized his son, Eric Trump, who is currently minding the family business, to coordinate the legal response to confidential arbitration proceedings, which would have prevented Daniels from telling her story publicly. (Daniels taped an interview with 60 Minutes in March. Trump has denied the affair.) Using his Trump Organization e-mail address, Eric approved the statement that the company’s lawyers offered the Journalabout the arbitration. (Eric Trump did not respond to a request for comment, nor did a representative from the Trump Organization. The Trump Organization had publicly denied any role in the arbitration, and the president had vowed to cut ties with his business once he took office.) On Monday, a court dismissed the defamation suit brought against Trump by Daniels, ordering her to pay reasonable attorney’s fees.”

As the author of this piece-Jane Emily Fox-pointed out on Maddow last night, the fact that Eric Trump is now the last remaining Trump kid to get dragged into the middle of Trump Sr’s legal tempest speaks volumes. While Cohen and Flynn cooperated once the investigation threatened their families, Trump is perfectly willing for them to get sucked into this legal rabbit hole acting on his behalf. Indeed, as I argued in a previous chapter (find Mike) it’s not clear -based on his own track record-that he would’t even let them serve jail time for him.

UPDATE: As it turns out neither Donald Jr or Kushner were charged by Mueller-though there are a number of spinoff investigations. Nadler has vowed to ask Mueller to explain his declination decision regarding Don Jr.

If nothing else, Cohen likely has impressed Mueller in terms of his willingness, indeed, downright eagerness to cooperate. And based on what Donny Deustch states Cohen said to him this is very worrisome for Team Treason Trump.

Put this in a different chapter?

By the way, there’s been a good deal of confusion on what Cohen and Lanny Davis are up to recently. You had the story that Cohen could corroborate that Donald Jr told his father about the Trump Tower meeting with the Russians in June, 2016-as noted in chapter (find chapter).

Then Davis went so far as to hint that Cohen had proof of Trump coordinating with Russian hackers-find chapter Mike.

However, Davis later pulled back from that and he then volunteered publicly that he was one of the sources for the story that Cohen could verify Jr told his Dad about the Trump Tower meeting with the Russians and that he was no longer sure if the story is true or not. 

It was a strange dog’s breakfast of a narrative from Davis and not clear what he was really doing there. But while the media has presumed that he’s telling the truth now it’s always possible he was telling the truth before but Mueller warned him he’d gotten too far out on his skis. After Davis seemed to suggest Cohen could prove Trump coordinated with Russian hackers, legal experts like Seth Abramson and friends warned him he was not helping his client.

So it’s quite plausible that Davis had to put the toothpaste back in the tube-and as the MSM seems to have just accepted that there’s no truth in what he said initially-their penchant for always giving the benefit of the doubt to Trump-the toothpaste seems quite secure in its tube for now.

However, another hot button issue I’ll admit I don’t have an answer for is why Cohen and Davis continue to insist he never went to Prague. 

UPDATE: With the Mueller Report now out and Cohen’s public testimony before Congress in March we know that Cohen believes-though doesn’t know for a fact-that he overheard Trump and Don Jr discussing the Trump Tower Russia meeting. He reasons in much the same way Bannon did to Michael Wolff-that no way would Jr not tell his father this. Cohen argues-something that Omarosa has also stated-Trump told people that his namesake son has the worst judgment in the world and Jr would never have been trusted to do something like this on his own.

Cohen argues persuasively that Trump likely told Jr to take both Kushner and Manafort with him-we now know the extent to which Manafort was involved in the collusion side of the equation-the MR chronicles Gates told Mueller Manafort was euphoric about the DNC leaks-we also know that in his August 2, 2016 dinner with Konstantin Kilimnik they discussed Wikileaks and the DNC leaks.

Seth Abramson has argued-to my mind very persuasively-that Manafort was the senior campaign staffer from July 23 who directed Stone to find out what else Assange had.

Cohen also revealed to Mueller and Congress he overheard Stone tell Trump about the coming DNC dump on about July 18-19.

As for going to Prague that remains a black box. Cohen insists it never happened. The question the Dems need to ask Mueller when they finally interview him-perhaps a question more for Schiff’s Committee than Nadler’s?-is what efforts did Mueller take to corroborate the claim about Prague?

Did he ask Cohen about it?

 

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October 28, 2016: a Day That Will Live in Infamy Copyright © by . All Rights Reserved.

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