Callum Borchers states the obvious in the Washington Post but in a very concise and satisfying way:
President Trump has not been tweeting like a man with nothing to fear.
Over the weekend, he tried to project confidence that his longtime personal lawyer, Michael Cohen — under federal investigation for possible bank fraud, wire fraud and campaign finance violations — will not flip to avoid legal trouble. But in doing so, and skipping a denial of wrongdoing, the president implied two things.
One is that Cohen would need to strike a deal with prosecutors to avoid charges or prison time. Trump’s tweet did not even entertain the idea that the investigation will turn up nothing because Cohen committed no crimes.
The second is that Cohen possesses damaging information about the president. Trump said he believes Cohen will keep his mouth shut, not that Cohen can talk all he wants because there is no dirt to dish.
I wish I could somehow get every American to read those words over and over again until each and every person in this country internalized their meaning.
After all, maybe Donald Trump is correct and Cohen will need to strike a deal but will instead do hard time to protect his friend, the president. That would be a somewhat mystifying decision on Cohen’s part, but it’s not out of the realm of possibility. But why does the president need this kind of protection? Why do we have a president that’s this criminally exposed?
Do we really need to see what Cohen has to say to know that something is already catastrophically wrong with this picture?
Trump did allow that Cohen might make up lies about him in an effort to get himself out of trouble, so he has devised a fallback position. But even this isn’t very satisfying. Trump said he only hires the best people, but his personal lawyer is a crook who would present false evidence against him? That’s literally the best that Trump can do here?
So far, the White House won’t rule out a pardon for Cohen, and dangling that possibility may be their best hope for preventing him from cooperating and testifying. But they can’t pardon state crimes, and Cohen may have violated a boatload of crimes from New York to Delaware to Nevada and California. If Cohen accepts a pardon, he also loses his right to plead the fifth amendment since he that’s a defense against self-incrimination. But you can’t be legally incriminated for a crime that you’ve been pardoned for committing.
Finally, this all presupposes that the government needs Cohen to cooperate. I’m sure they’d love to have him tell all he knows, but they have his laptops, emails, cell phones and legal records. If he doesn’t want to talk, the evidence they already have will do the talking for him.
Cohen knows this, and if doesn’t understand it all just yet, his attorneys will soon explain it for him. They’ll try to suppress the evidence, but if they fail there is no one, including the president, who thinks that this is just some witch hunt. This is the real deal, and there’s nothing Trump can do now to contain it.
It’s clear that Mueller and SDNY attorney’s, as well as Schneiderman are working to spread the exposure of Trump and anyone in his shadow.
When the Federal charges come it won’t be surprising if some are withheld and then shared with state prosecuting teams for them to charge out.
Even now Trump has so many boxes around him his options are minimal. The question of ‘does a Trump pardon trump obstruction of justice’ is working its way to the starting line.
And then there’s Michael Avanatti who has proved already he’s a force to be reckoned with.
avanatti continues to prove himself the type of pit bull lawyer that everyone assumed trump employed in abundance, in contrast to the only ones trump really knows — low-rent paper tigers.
All correct, but the only thing wrong with your conclusions (about how the public; Trump supporters etc. “must” react) is that you’re overlooking the way that the mob ethos has been expanded to include them.
Meaning, when the FBI is after the mob (like, in the movies) they know they’re breaking laws but they still regard it as an unwarranted personal attack by a bunch of awful people. Scorsese gets this perfectly: “Why don’t you go down to Wall Street and get some real criminals,” the crowd sneers at the Feds arresting De Niro at the end of GoodFellas; Joe Pesci’s brother spits in the sandwiches that his restaurant gives to the cops who stop by (“Assholes”), etc. It’s understood. Tony Soprano develops a rapport with Agent Harris over the course of seven seasons, respecting him, but it’s only because 1) Harris is Italian, favoring the meats from the neighborhood butcher where Tony spends his time, and 2) Tony is unusually smart. But most of the time it’s understood that those guys are creeps; jerks; it’s unfair etc.
I’m saying that Trump supporters now think this way, about Trump. It’s incredible that this is true of an American President, but I’m afraid it is: even if his activities are illegal it’s still a “partisan witch hunt.”
Come to think of it, didn’t Nixon’s die-hard defenders think the same way?
while everyone naturally assumed that trump was talking about competence, it’s become abundantly clear that he values only servility.
in fact i originally wrote “loyalty” but decided it wasn’t precise enough.
. . . street of “loyalty” Trump demands of underlings (which, to him, = everyone) while reciprocating with . . . nothing whatsoever. You’re no longer of use to me? You’re on your own. Was nice knowin’ ya.
Trump mouths “loyalty” (see recent nice things said about Cohen). Push to shove? Fuhgeddaboutit!
Why do we have a president that’s this criminally exposed?
Because he’s a criminal.
The Base didn’t give a crap during the election, and they have normalized having “a crook” in the White House.
But, yeah, it is remarkable that the debate about Trump’s presumed innocence has moved to whether his “fixer” lawyer will “flip” on him.
The tacit admission there is stunning, though at this point I think that the Base would even try to shrug off the pee tap being posted on YouTube.
the base gifted him a permanent mulligan before the election …
!!!GOD CAN USE THIS MAN!!!
Yes, indeed. God “can use” the moral reprobate unbeliever, as well as the virtuous man of righteousness!
It’s a wonderful system!
Thanks, Christianists…..
until a democrat runs …
It’s irritating, isn’t it?
To know that with all the corruption with this administration, from the heads of the EPA, Interior, etc, all the way to Trump, and his daughter and her husband being right down the hall, that as soon as a Democrat gets in, both the media and the republicans will erase all memory of it. They will immediately go back to being sanctimonious moral arbiters.
.
. . . cover it.
As we sit watching the performance of Waiting for Kimba, it’s interesting to contemplate to what degree The 46% “know” that they have placed the nation into the hands of an (obvious) political criminal. And the question after that is: if they know, do they care?
Ultimately we will likely conclude that The 46% will do anything to keep the government out of the hands of the various demographics that make up the Dem party, (blacks, Latinos, feminists, gays, urbanites, etc) and that any candidate that can do that deserves (and will maintain) their unwavering support, until the inevitable Gotterdammerung.
In measuring national political failure, the tipping point has been reached.
“I wish I could somehow get every American to read those words over and over again until each and every person in this country internalized their meaning”
Let me fix that for you:
I wish I could somehow get every American to read those words over and over again until each and every person in this country internalized their meaning – but it is a waste of time because 40% of the country doesn’t give a shit.