The Real Concern Over Michael Cohen's Plea Deal

Michael Avenatti, Stormy Daniels' attorney, left, watches as Michael Cohen, center, President Donald Trump's personal attorney, leaves federal court in New York, Thursday, April 26, 2018. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)

Upon hearing the news that former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen had reached a plea deal with Robert Mueller for lying to a Congressional committee about the timing of discussions to build a Trump Tower in Moscow, Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz called into Fox News during Bill Hemmer’s show. (Cohen told the Senate Committee he and Trump had last spoken of the project in January 2016, when in fact, they had spoken about it in June 2016.) Dershowitz said the following: (Emphasis mine)

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I think the weakness of Mueller’s substantive findings are suggested by the fact that he has to resort to false statement prosecutions, which really shows that he didn’t start with very much, and that the very fact that he’s conducting an investigation has created these crimes. These are not crimes that had been committed prior to his appointment, they’re crimes that were committed as the result of his appointment, and that raises some questions about the role of special prosecutors in creating crimes, or creating opportunities for crimes to be committed.

In the end, I don’t think Mueller’s going to come up with very much, in terms of criminal conduct, that existed before he was appointed, and that’s pretty shocking.

Dershowitz is correct. None of Trump’s associates have been charged with crimes having to do with collusion with the Russians. From General Michael Flynn to Jerome Corsi, Mueller and his minions, unable to find proof of Russian collusion, but desperate to charge them with crimes, have trapped these men by setting up scenarios where they appear to have lied to investigators.

The concerning issue here is the possibility that Trump, in his recent written responses to Mueller, may have said the last time he and Cohen spoke of this project was in January 2016. If he did, Mueller might try to charge Trump with perjury. This is a real danger. Knowing the way Mueller operates, this may have been his plan all along.

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Rudy Giuliani “told The New York Times that Trump’s memory of the Trump Tower project jibed with Cohen’s account, and that the president had described, in his written answers to Mueller, his conversations with Cohen about the project before it died.”

“The president said there was a proposal, it was discussed with Cohen, there was a nonbinding letter of intent and it didn’t go beyond that.” Giuliani told The Times, while declining to reveal either the wording of Mueller’s questions or of Trump’s answers.

When questioned about this by NBC News today, Giuliani said, “Trump’s written answers to Mueller about building a Trump Tower in Moscow were consistent with what Cohen said in court.”

Hopefully, Trump’s attorneys, did not allow Trump to include precise dates of discussions with Michael Cohen. Knowing that Cohen was already facing other charges and was desperate to reduce his prison sentence, I’m sure they must have anticipated something like this.

In the event that they hadn’t thought of it and there does turn out to be a discrepancy between Trump and Cohen on dates, it would turn into a he said, she said situation. And Michael Cohen isn’t exactly the most credible person. Rush Limbaugh spoke about this on his show today and described what this scenario might look like.

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Intelligence guided by experience tells me that Cohen probably is ticked off at Trump, probably thought he was one of Trump’s close confidants. Never was. Probably ticked off because he thinks Trump threw him overboard. So now he’s got a little bit of get-even-with-’em-ism here. And Mueller is dangling all kinds of benefits — less jail time, more freedom, “Just tell me what I want to hear, that Trump knew about the Russian meeting. Just tell me that. That’s all you gotta do.”

Cohen says, “That’s it? That’s all I gotta do?” “Yep.” And he does it. “I lied to Congress. When I was talking to Congress, that’s when I was lying. I’m telling Mueller the truth.”

Were you lying then or are you lying now Michael Cohen?

Anyway, the left is thrilled by today’s developments. Here is a tweet from former US Attorney (SDNY) Preet Bharara, who was fired by Trump.

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I’m sure his gleeful sentiments are echoed by liberals throughout the country.

And the never-ending investigation continues.

 

 

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