A Long List Of Michael Cohen’s Credibility Issues
Michael Cohen, President Donald Trump’s disgraced and disbarred former personal lawyer and fixer, used internationally televised testimony last week to finger Trump with a series of accusations, including that the president engaged in possible criminal conduct, used racist language, and was misleading about his net worth.
Cohen spoke about two months before he is scheduled to begin his three-year prison sentence, spotlighting the massive credibility issues for the convicted criminal and accused liar.
Below, in no particular order, are seven major credibility issues faced by Cohen.
1 – In November, Cohen pled guilty to, among other things, lying to Congress in two separate prosecutions.
2 – Cohen pled guilty to violating campaign finance laws and financial crimes, including multiple counts of tax evasion and bank fraud.
Despite being a convicted fraudster, Cohen was the Democrats’ star witness at last week’s hearing at which most allegations relied on Cohen’s own word.
3 – The 40-page sentencing memo from New York prosecutors in Cohen’s campaign finance case paints Cohen as a deceiver who repeatedly lied.
The same memo laments that the Court “had to press Cohen to acknowledge that he understood he was lying to a bank.”
4 – Manhattan prosecutors further say Cohen possesses a fleeting sense of wrongdoing, little remorse and a tendency to place blame on others.
5 – The Southern District of New York also charged that Cohen lived a “double life.”
6 – In 2017, Cohen declared, “I’m the guy who would take a bullet for the president.” Less than a year later, however, Cohen accused the president of wrongdoing in testimony and in a series of interviews and other public statements.
7 – As an attorney, Cohen secretly taped his own client, Trump, and released one of those recordings to the news media.
An Outlandish Prediction If Trump Loses In 2020
Since last week, the news media has been busy churning out content echoing a talking point propagated during Congressional testimony by Cohen, claiming that Trump will not allow a peaceful transition if he loses the 2020 election.
Journalists and pundits utilized Cohen’s remarks to warn about such outlandish post-election scenarios as Trump using the U.S. military to cling to power, raising a private army of mercenaries or deliberately igniting a civil war.
In his closing remarks before the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, Cohen stated: “Given my experience working for Mr. Trump, I fear that if he loses the election in 2020, there will never be a peaceful transition of power.”
After Cohen’s testimony, John Dean, President Richard Nixon’s former White House counsel, wrote an op-ed for the New York Times in which he drew parallels with his own defining testimony against Nixon. Dean used the column to say that he shares Cohen’s fears. Dean opined that Cohen’s warning about a violent transition “was the most troubling – actually, chilling – thing he said in his five hours before the committee.”
In a piece published in the Miami Herald and other publications, syndicated columnist Leonard Pitts Jr. warned, “Should Trump lose in 2020, a smooth transition is not guaranteed.” Pitts claimed that Trump’s supporters could turn violent if he loses the 2020 election.
In a stroke of originality, Moveon.org activist Robert Reich, Bill Clinton’s former Secretary of Labor, wrote a piece for the Guardian titled, “If Trump loses, we know what to expect: anger, fear and disruption.” The alarmist Reich implies that a Trump loss in 2020 could prompt a civil war.
Showing no concern for Cohen’s track record of deceit, Reich declared: “We should take seriously Michael Cohen’s admonition that if Trump is defeated in 2020, he will not leave office peacefully.”
Over at MSNBC, “Morning Joe” regular Donny Deutsch cited Cohen’s comments to suggest, like the others, that Trump could ignite a civil war.
At Truthout.com following Cohen’s warning, a column by William Rivers Pitt was titled, “Trump May Want to Be President Forever. Take the Threat Seriously.” Pitt wildly suggests a “private army” could be called upon to wreak havoc if Trump loses.
The talking point that Trump would not bow out peacefully following any election defeat was circulating even before Cohen’s testimony. Two weeks ago, CNN.com ran a piece by law professor Joshua A. Geltzer headlined, “What if Trump refuses to accept defeat in 2020?”
Geltzer theorized Trump could potentially use the U.S. military to hold onto power after a defeat at the ballot box. “He’s the commander in chief of the most powerful military on Earth. If he even hints at contesting the election results in 2020, as he suggested he might in 2016, he’d be doing so not as an outsider but as a leader with the vast resources of the US government potentially at his disposal.”
Geltzer takes his outlandish theory so seriously he recommends that Congress ask military leaders to declare on record they will not allow Trump to use the military to stay in office following any election defeat.