Three Remarkable Things About Michael Cohen's Plea

[babylonsister]

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2018/11/three-remarkable-things-about-michael-cohens-plea/577015/?utm_source=fbb&fbclid=IwAR31k6-aNGIANQ42vR2_a_-1dSDtjmXAfC3fuhZCXK4XLfvpmNBtJMoN8cU

Three Remarkable Things About Michael Cohen's Plea
These developments would, under normal circumstances, end a presidency.
4:30 PM ET
Ken White
Attorney and former federal prosecutor


Michael Cohen’s decision to plead guilty to lying to Congress on Thursday was remarkable for three reasons.

The first was that Cohen walked into a Manhattan federal courtroom unannounced. He did it by surprise. We live in a political environment characterized by constant leaks, each choreographed more carefully than a public announcement. The drama of learning what’s going to happen at an event, rather than before the event, has mostly disappeared. But Cohen’s plea, a momentous development in Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation, happened with no warning. That reflects admirable discipline in Mueller’s office.

The second remarkable thing was that the plea happened at all. Cohen already pleaded guilty in August to eight federal felonies, including tax fraud, bank fraud, and campaign-finance violations. That plea already ended his career and exposed him to at least several years in federal prison. By contrast, Cohen’s new plea is to a lone count of lying to Congress in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1001 —a weapon Mueller has wielded ruthlessly against President Donald Trump’s followers, including Michael Flynn, George Papadopoulos, Rick Gates, and Paul Manafort. The conviction won’t increase Cohen’s sentence, and the additional felony count won’t have any perceptible impact on his life. If anything, by adding a cooperation term to his plea agreement, it gives him an opportunity to reduce his sentence.

snip//

Cohen’s case lets Mueller do the same thing—tell a story, make a report. The Information—the charging document to which Cohen pleaded, waiving his right to indictment by grand jury—asserts that the Trump Organization planned a hotel in Russia, communicated with Russian officials about it, and even contemplated sending Trump himself for a visit to Russia well into 2016, contrary to Cohen’s congressional testimony that the plan was abandoned in January 2016. The significance is not just that Cohen lied to Congress. The significance is what he lied about: the fact that Team Trump continued to pursue Russian opportunities well into the campaign. Not only that, but the Information also asserts that Cohen kept Trump (whose identity is not at all concealed as “Individual 1”) and others within the campaign informed about his progress in Russia.

The third remarkable thing about Cohen’s plea was its substance. The president of the United States’ personal lawyer admitted to lying to Congress about the president’s business activities with a hostile foreign power, in order to support the president’s story. In any rational era, that would be earthshaking. Now it’s barely a blip. Over the past two years, we’ve become accustomed to headlines like “President’s Campaign Manager Convicted of Fraud” and “President’s Personal Lawyer Paid for Adult Actress’s Silence.” We’re numb to it all. But these are the sorts of developments that would, under normal circumstances, end a presidency.

They still might. Cohen admitted that he lied to Congress to support President Trump’s version of events. He notably did not claim that he did so at Trump’s request, or that Trump knew he would do it. But if Cohen’s telling the truth this time, then this conclusion, at least, is inescapable: The president, who has followed this drama obsessively, knew that his personal lawyer was lying to Congress about his business activities, and stood by while it happened.

And that’s not all. Cohen’s plea is only one shoe dropping in a boot warehouse. Who else lied to Congress about the pursuit of a hotel deal in Russia? Donald Trump Jr.? Did the president himself lie about it in his recent written answers to Mueller’s questions? (His lawyers claim that his answers matched Cohen’s.) Even if the pursuit of the hotel deal wasn’t criminal (and there’s no evidence that it was), everyone in Trump’s orbit who made statements about it—whether under oath or in interviews with the FBI—is in jeopardy today.

They’re not just in danger from Mueller, either. In just weeks, a Democratic majority will take over the House of Representatives. Control of committees will shift, and subpoenas will fly like arrows at Agincourt. Each hearing will present new terrible choices: Take the Fifth, tell uncomfortable truths, or lie and court perjury charges? Each subpoena is a new chance for frightened Trump associates to make new bad decisions like the ones that have felled Cohen and Manafort and Gates and Flynn and Papadopoulos.

I wouldn’t expect President Trump’s agitated tweets to stop anytime soon.

[mercuryblues]

1. On the contrary

trump's agitated tweets are going to get more insane. He is on a downward spiral.

[Honeycombe8]

2. The walls are closing in.

Like an old horror movie, where someone is trapped in a room, with the walls gradually moving in. As angry and persistent as Trump is, he is human and must be feeling some bit of terror at this point.

This is supposedly the tip of the iceberg coming from Cohen. He testified for 70 hours before the Grand Jury.

[lindysalsagal]

3. ...and still the house gop looks the other way. Nothing to see here!

How much does this dead fish on the livingroom floor have to stink before they decide he's just not worth it????

The taint will be fatal....

[GusBob]

4. The POTUS watched as his lawyer lied to Congress to protect him

About business dealings with a hostile foreign power. Knowing he was lying

This is treason

[erlewyne]

5. I am watching Maddow

She got a man from Buzzfeed on who said Cohen is doing his patriotic duty.
And, I believe that. Cohen has a conscience and is tired of lying for Trump
who does not have a conscience, Cohen knows his goose is cooked and
the easy way out is to quit lying. You got to watch it.

[Hermit-The-Prog]

6. theatlantic has been solid throughout this ordeal

The Atlantic has been doing real journalism throughout this illegitimate regime. Noteworthy, in this age of spin.