Where will all the lying end?
... it is quite the turnaround that now Cohen has become the one repeatedly making that famous promise: ‘‘But wait ... there’s more.’’
Michael Cohen’s testimony to Congress was more than just a tawdry credibility battle between a perjurer and a president, to be scrutinised on the basis of which of them is the least untrustworthy. His depictions of President Donald Trump as a racist, conman and cheat provided the componentry for a compelling, if dispiriting, piece of theatre and perhaps history in the making.
In times past it would have been incendiary. But American politics has become such a vortex of mendacities that the damnation after damnation issuing from the president’s former lawyer, belatedly confessing to the lies he says he told, the payoffs he says he made, the threats he says he issued and the conversations he says he heard, all need to be tested against the parallel possibilities they are fake news, merely old news, or actually revelatory.
Was there anything here to budge Trump’s supporters, or opponents, from entrenched positions? Possibly not. But Cohen’s account was replete with intimations of the trouble ahead for the president.
It coincided with Trump’s meeting in Vietnam with Kim Jong-Un, who may have found himself struggling to engage Trump’s full attentions at their meeting (if that’s particularly his desire) as Cohen’s humiliating assessments swirled in the news cycle.
Although there was much here to enrage Trump himself, the matters Cohen says he still cannot discuss, as they are in the hands of special counsel Robert Mueller and federal prosecutors, will most likely have the president fearful.
Among tantalising pointers to the continuing investigations was that when asked if he was aware of any further illegal activity or wrongdoing by Trump that had not been publicly discussed, Cohen said yes. He indicated that information about his final contact with Trump last year was in the hands of investigators. He did not suggest he had proof of whether Trump’s team co-ordinated with Russia’s interference in the 2016 elections, but gave what seemed a Watch This Space nod towards Mueller’s door.
By Cohen’s account Trump did not expect to win the presidency and be held accountable for all he was doing. And promising. Rather, the campaign was about brand-building and Cohen says that, as a candidate, Trump was privately calling it the greatest infomercial ever.
If so, it is quite the turnaround that now Cohen has become the one repeatedly making that famous promise: ‘‘But wait ... there’s more.’’
The president says Cohen is a liar. Cohen says he certainly was – the president’s liar. He was then able to agree with so many of the assaults on his character made by Congressional Republicans, selling the message that lying was one of the character flaws – or loyalty tests, if you must – that inner-circle status with Trump required.
Cohen’s accusations included that Trump’s 2016 election denials of business interests in Russia were barefaced lies. He told of arranging hush money payments to women on Trump’s behalf and lying at his behest to the first lady about it.
Some analysis suggests the cheque to pay off Stormy Daniels may be the felony offence that could most directly and expeditiously lead to a prosecution. It’s at times like this we might recall that, when the Feds got Al Capone, it was on tax, not that other stuff.