Defiance of Trump on his darkest day
Beleaguered President could be impeached Lawyer admits he paid Stormy £101k hush money Now he vows to spill secrets of White House
DONALD Trump laughed off the bleakest day of his presidency yesterday as the threat of impeachment loomed closer.
His opponents declared it ‘a Watergate moment’ as his long-time personal lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen offered himself as a supergrass.
Mr Cohen once vowed he would take a bullet for Mr Trump – but is now said to be ‘more than happy’ to spill all the President’s secrets to prosecutors.
Mr Trump reacted in typical mocking fashion, tweeting: ‘If anyone is looking for a good lawyer, I would strongly suggest that you don’t retain the services of Michael Cohen!’
In court, Mr Cohen directly accused the President of being his partner in the criminal act of paying hush money to alleged former mistresses.
after a decade in the tycoon’s inner circle, he is also offering to ‘tell everything that he knows’ to special counsel Robert Mueller, who is investigating collusion between the Kremlin and the 2016 Trump election campaign.
as the net tightened around Mr Trump, Democrat Senator Richard Blumenthal tweeted: ‘ The White House is looking increasingly like a criminal enterprise. This is a Watergate moment.’
a White House source admitted it was ‘a bad day for the home team’, but Mr Trump, in a series of tweets, accused Mr Cohen of ‘making up stories in order to get a deal’ to limit his jail time. last night he insisted he only found out about the payments by Mr Cohen after they were made.
He told Fox news: ‘ They weren’t taken out of campaign finance … they came from me.’
Mr Trump’s most dangerous crisis to date began on Tuesday when Mr Cohen admitted to campaign finance violations for arranging hush money of £101,000 for porn star Stormy Daniels and further cash for Playboy model Karen McDougal during the 2016 election.
Mr Cohen told a Manhattan court Mr Trump had ‘directed’ him to arrange the payments.
Mr Trump did not appear to dispute this but argued in a tweet that violating campaign finance rules was ‘not a crime’. and he asserted his predecessor Barack obama’s campaign finance violations in 2012 were ‘easily settled’.
But he suffered a second blow on Tuesday as his former campaign chairman Paul Manafort was found guilty on eight fraud charges in a separate court case in alexandria, Virginia. Mr Trump branded it ‘a witch hunt’ and praised Mr Manafort saying: ‘Unlike Michael Cohen, he refused to “break” – make up stories in order to get a “deal.” Such respect for a brave man!’
Yesterday Mr Cohen’s own lawyer, lanny Davis, came out all guns blazing in a tour of US television breakfast shows. He said: ‘The President directed [Mr Cohen] to commit a crime – meaning the President committed the crime and covered it up. If he were not President, he clearly would be indicted and jailed for that crime.’
He said Mr Cohen ‘has knowledge that would be of interest’ to the inquiry into Russian links to the Trump campaign. analysts said the chances of Mr Trump not completing his term were now ‘significantly higher’.