Trump "flips" on Cohen!

[kentuck]

Before Cohen could "flip" on Donald Trump, it appears that Trump has beaten him to the punch? For the last week, there has been much discussion about whether Cohen is going to "flip" on Donald Trump?

This morning, Trump came on FOX News and made some surprising, if not shocking, comments. He said Cohen was only involved in a tiny, tiny fraction of his legal matters, including the "crazy Stormy Daniels thing".

He said that Cohen was his own businessman. It really didn't involve him (Trump). It was obvious that he was putting distance between himself and Michael Cohen.

Will it work for Trump? Will he be able to keep himself separated from the "business deals" of Michael Cohen? Is his identity camouflaged in the business deals as it was in the Stormy Daniels matter?

It does appear that Trump is attempting to distance himself from Cohen. Cohen must be cursing under his breath?

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

1. Trump is an idiot (but we already knew that).

By claiming Cohen was hardly ever his lawyer and was just doing business on his own, he flushed most of his attorney-client privilege arguments down the sewer. I'll bet his real lawyers cringed when they heard that.

[kentuck]

3. He also flushed Cohen's arguments for attorney/client privileges down the sewer...

It could be argued that Cohen is more dependent on attorney/client privilege than Trump at this moment in time.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

6. The privilege doesn't belong to Cohen, the attorney. The privilege belongs entirely to the client,

and Cohen is now in the awkward position of being unable to assert it on his "client's" behalf, except possibly with respect to the Stormy Daniels matter. Even there, although Spanky has admitted Cohen was (is?) his lawyer for that matter, we don't know yet whether the crime/fraud exception will apply. The documents themselves should indicate for which matters Cohen was acting as an attorney and for which he was acting as a business associate or "fixer." Furthermore, the attorney-client privilege does not apply to any conversations where a third party was present. So if Cohen gave legal advice while someone else, e.g., Don Jr., was present, there's no privilege, and the same applies to written communications copied to someone other than the client. It's a good thing the special master will be able to decide what's privileged and not Spanky himself.

[kentuck]

7. Can he still take the Fifth Amendment?

On all matters, not just the Stormy Daniels part?

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

8. Sure, on any matter that he thinks might incriminate him.

Which is probably a lot. But for right now he's taking the 5th in the Stormy case, which is a civil lawsuit, because answers he might give at a deposition or in a trial in that case could tend to incriminate him in the criminal matters being investigated in the Southern District of New York.

[RockRaven]

2. LOL

at Trump identifying the Stormy Daniels thing as one of *his* legal matters after denying it a dozen different ways for so long.

[kentuck]

4. He wants Cohen to take the fall...

...with a promise of a pardon.

[TexasProgresive]

5. Hmm Cohen is just a coffee attorney.

[MineralMan]

9. Trump expects absolute loyalty from people, but has none to offer

from himself. He is loyal to nobody. He doesn't understand the concept of giving loyalty - only the concept of receiving it. He demands, but does not give.

[ProudLib72]

10. I'm expecting a certain David Dennison to eventually admit

that he has never even heard of this Donald Rump fellow.