Michael Cohen, Phony

Like Vladimir Putin and Elon Musk before him, Michael Cohen has been giving people two faces for the price of one.

When Cohen testified before Congress in 2019 after pleading guilty to helping Trump, as his fixer, commit all sorts of crimes - like intimidating Trump's mistresses from coming forward about their relationships with Trump and intimidating Trump's detractors to prevent them from speaking out about him (like former Republican operative Cheri Jacobus), he expressed anger and regret for ever having gotten involved with the business mogul.  He described with great passion how his misdeeds cost him so much because he believed in what Trump was doing (whatever that was) and how he felt he had been taken like so many Trump "University" graduates stuck with diplomas that had all the validity of a certificate from Ace Obedience School.  After serving time in prison for his violations of the law, he went full tilt boogie on bashing Trump, going on all sorts of media outlets and doing his own podcast on the MeidasTouch Network.  This not-so-nice Jewish boy became a symbol of a widely-held belief among Roman Catholics, the power of redemption.

Then the roof caved in. 

When investigative reporter Tara Palmeri, digging more deeply into the case of noted sex criminal Jeffrey Epstein, asked Cohen about his and Trump's connections to the late financier, he got bitterly defensive and lashed out at her as if she had just asked him to pull down his pants.  And Palmeri wasn't the only reporter Cohen blew up at over the Epstein question.  He'd done that with at least three other reporters.  Soon and sure enough, Cohen all but recanted his testimony to New York State Attorney General Letitia James and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, saying he had been "coerced" to provide selective information relevant to their cases against Trump. 

Cohen didn't find redemption because he converted to Catholicism (for the record, he didn't) or because he suddenly saw the light in a manner reminiscent of the end of a sitcom episode (guest starring Joyce Bulifant).  He found redemption because he was caught.

And this phony redemption allowed Cohen to make lots of money going after Trump like the attack dog people wish Chuck Schumer or Hakeem Jeffries were.  He was embraced by a bunch of white bourgeois liberals who should have known better.  And it was all a lie.  He didn't publicly turn against Trump because of conviction.  He publicly turned against Trump because he was convicted.   But playing the wronged Mafia lawyer who's since gone straight is a lucrative business.

Or, rather, it was.  Cohen was fine so long as someone didn't ask him about Jeffrey Epstein, because it's becoming more obvious by the nanosecond that he knows a lot more about Epstein than he's willing to admit, and what he knows likely involves personal dealings with both Epstein and Trump.  By insisting that Letitia James and Alvin Bragg coerced him into giving selectively parsed testimony, Cohen not only revealed himself as an unrepentant grifter (sorry - not sorry), he revealed himself as someone who wanted to get back into Trump's good graces.  And he apparently did.  Trump has pledged to investigate James and Bragg and place them where Cohen used to be - behind bars.

I listened to some of Cohen's podcast rants when I started relying on podcasts for news in place of the bankrupt legacy media, but his schtick wore very thin very quickly, and I stopped listening to him because I was tired of his loud-mouthed Long Island accent.  I stopped listening to him for all the wrong reasons; it never occurred to me that he had knowledge about Jeffrey Epstein that he likely never would have divulged, or that until someone thought to ask him about it, he was safe from having to divulge it and could make bakeries full of dough for as long as no one did.  It never occurred to the Meiselas brothers at MeidasTouch, either, until they dropped Cohen once his statement about James and Bragg came out.  They did not explain why they dropped Cohen.  They didn't need to.

But then, it never occurred to a lot of people, particularly people in the New York or Washington social scenes, that Cohen had privileged information about Epstein he was prepared to take to his grave - something an intelligent primary school student in the north of England could have figured out.

Michael Cohen did, though, ultimately see the error of his ways.  Except that the error was dissociating himself from Trump.      

Trump Indicted

I still plan to write less often on my blog, but of course I have to address the indictment of Donald Trump.

Trump was indicted  by the Manhattan District Attorney's office on over 30 counts - some say 34 - in a case of giving hush money to a porn star to cover up a sexual encounter with her and falsifying business records to cover it up and possibly falsifying records to cover up the cover-up, which Michael Cohen took care of in his stead and already did time for.  The basic falsification charge is a misdemeanor.  But Trump is also apparently being charged with, according to CNN, "falsifying a record with the intent to commit another crime or to aid or conceal another crime," which would be a violation of campaign finance law - and a felony.

Some say that this successful effort of Trump to cover up his affairs (another woman, a Playboy model, is involved) before the 2016 presidential election unfairly influenced the decisions of the electorate of whom to vote for and thus cost Hillary Clinton the Presidency.  No, I don't think so.  Many Trump supporters hated Hillary Clinton so much, they would have voted for Trump even if he been involved in a three-way with these two women.  But the campaign finance violation charge is still pretty serious.

But not as serious as Trump's obvious crimes in inciting an insurrection, holding on to government documents in Mar-a-Lago, and trying to overturn the election in Georgia - all of which are still pending and which could get Trump indicted yet again.  

We won't know exactly what the charges are until Trump is arraigned this coming Tuesday, but the Republicans are already defending Trump and dismissing Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and threatening to investigating him.  And to be honest, this indictment will help Trump politically.  Not only will this be a good fundraising tool for his presidential candidacy, but the case itself is so convoluted and complicated, Bragg may not be able to get a conviction in court.

Nevertheless, the indictment of Trump is a start.  A sitting or former President has never happened before.  But do not assume that this is the beginning of the end for Trump.  It may in fact be the beginning of a second wind . . .leading to a second presidential term. 

All Trumped Up

"Death and destruction."  That's what Donald Trump promised from his supporters if he gets indicted.  

And even though he has three or four potential indictments awaiting, he singled out Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg (below), investigating a case involving hush money to a porn star to cover up Trump's affair with her, by calling him a "degenerate" and a "psychopath" for even thinking of indicting him. 

Soon after Trump's social media eruption promising death and destruction, Bragg started getting threatening letters, including one laced with anthrax-like powder that proved to be just talcum powder.

Meanwhile, in Washington, special prosecutor Jack Smith successfully compelled Trump lawyer Evan Corcoran (above) to testify against Trump on the Mar-a-Lago documents case.  Corcoran, the son of a Republican three-term U.S. Representative from Illinois, did so mainly under protest, having cited the attorney-client privilege issues, but the judge dismissed that due to prima facie evidence that Trump committed a crime.  Smith hopes to wrap up the document case early and possibly recommend to Attorney General Merrick Garland that Trump be prosecuted for withholding government documents at Mar-a-Lago.  But because of the Biden and Pence document cases - you know about them, I won't repeat them - Garland, also known as Hamlet on the Potomac, may decide not to prosecute Trump to avoid apparences of favoritism toward Biden on the documents issue and then will likely choose not to prosecute Biden or Pence - both under investigations of their own - as well.   

I'm getting tired of all this . . . 

Trump Nothingburger

Waiting for Donald Trump to be indicted for approving hush money from campaign funds to a porn star has been like waiting for Geraldo Rivera to open Al Capone's vault.  You feel obliged to pay attention, but you know in your heart that you're not going to be satisfied.

The grand jury investigating Trump in Manhattan was never going to indict Trump this week.  Next week, maybe.  This week, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg is still dotting his i's and crossing his t's before he makes such a decision based on evidence we know nothing about per laws that keep evidence before a grand jury a secret while the grand jury is deliberating.

So who said that Donald Trump would be indicted this week?  Donald Trump.  It was he who raised the expectation that he would be arrested on March 21 on his own social media platform and got the news media to pay attention to him and echo his prediction.  In fact, he didn't know when he would be arrested, but we all know when he would not be arrested: March 21.  Thus the news media were suckered into giving him more free press, and the reporters and pundits got played again, waiting for an indictment like Vladimir and Estragon waiting for Godot or Linus waiting for the Great Pumpkin.  Meanwhile, Trump gained many more contributions for his presidential campaign as a result of his shenanigans and pulled father ahead of Florida governor Ron DeSantis in Republican presidential primary polls. 

And shame on the pundits who talked about what an historic moment it would be when Bragg indicted Trump and thus became the first prosecutor to indict a former U.S. President.  The only thing historic about this past week was how Trump managed even while under investigation to make himself the center of attention for his own benefit.  The press promised us a gourmet meal and we ended up with a nothingburger.  

And please don't start speculating about next week.  We're only going to get played yet again.

More Trial by Combat?

Donald Trump is likely going to avoid indictment in the Mar-a-Lago document case, seeing as the revelations of documents found in the homes of Joe Biden and Mike Pence have made Trump's transgressions look less serious.  The grand jury in Georgia investigating Trump's interference in that state's 2020 election promises "massive" revelations, which is likely made moot by a pending bill in the Georgia state legislature to allow the removal of black district attorneys like Fani Willis investigating white Republicans like Donald Trump (and grand jury forewoman Emily Kohrs' Valley Girl-like demeanor in TV interviews on the subject likely didn't help matters any).  With those investigations seemingly stuck in limbo, the first indictment Trump likely faces is an indictment incoling hush money given to a porn star he had a tumble in the hay with?

This case is so inconsequential, even the Justice Department wouldn't take it.  Yet Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who likely had a strong case against Trump for financial malfeasance before he decided there was no there there and dropped it (which caused several jaws to drop), is likely going ahead with an indictment that, like the twin impeachments, will inevitably lead to an acquittal.

Or maybe I'm wrong.  Why would Trump encourage his supporters to protest if he is indicted?   

And if that happens, we could get a riot that burns down Times Square.  Even though there have been riots in New York as in other cities, I can't ever recall a riot in modern times that leveled Midtown Manhattan.  Downtown Newark, yes.  Midtown Manhattan, no. 

And if that happens, the outcomes of the documents and election interference issues will be completely irrelevant, because Trump may be indicted for inciting yet another riot.