PLEA DEAL ‘FIRST THING THAT DIRECTLY TOUCHES’ TRUMP
President Trump’s former personal lawyer Michael Cohen yesterday pleaded guilty to federal campaign finance charges and made statements implicating the then-candidate — which experts say could have massive repercussions for Trump’s presidency.
“It’s the first thing that directly touches the president,” said Alan Dershowitz, a Harvard Law professor emeritus who has staunchly criticized the ongoing probes of Trump and his campaign.
Cohen struck a plea deal to federal charges including campaign-finance fraud stemming from hush money payments to porn actress Stormy Daniels and ex-Playboy model Karen McDougal. The 51-year-old lawyer said in federal court in New York yesterday that he made the payments to influence the election “in coordination and at the direction of a candidate for federal office,” without directly naming Trump. His lawyer later said Cohen was referring to Trump.
The president and his associates have been the subjects of a special counsel investigation since last spring to determine if Trump’s campaign worked with Russian agents to influence the 2016 campaign. While Cohen’s case did not involve any allegations of Russian influence, the charges were brought by fed-
eral prosecutors in New York after Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s team referred the case to them. As part of his plea agreement, Cohen agreed not to challenge any prison sentence from 46 to 63 months.
Mueller’s investigation also made the news yesterday as a jury came back in its favor, convicting former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort of eight financial crimes, though the jury couldn’t reach a verdict on another 10 charges.
Trump told reporters before a campaign rally after the guilty dispositions that he feels “badly for both” men, and said these cases have “nothing to do with Russian collusion.”
“Where is the collusion? They’re still looking for the collusion,” Trump said during the rally last night in West Virginia.
Cohen’s plea follows months of federal scrutiny and a falling-out with the president, for whom he previously said he’d “take a bullet.”
Cohen’s attorney, Lanny Davis, tweeted after the hearing, “Michael Cohen took this step today so that his family can move on to the next chapter. This is Michael fulfilling his promise made on July 2nd to put his family and country first and tell the truth about Donald Trump. Today he stood up and testified under oath that Donald Trump directed him to commit a crime by making payments to two women for the principal purpose of influencing an election. If those payments were a crime for Michael Cohen, then why wouldn’t they be a crime for Donald Trump?”
Civil-rights lawyer Harvey Silverglate told the Herald it was “pretty striking” to hear Cohen implicate the president in sworn testimony, and acknowledged it could take a political toll on Trump and the Republican Party in upcoming elections.
But Silverglate predicted, “He will let all these cases play out and then he will pardon everybody — including himself.”
Silverglate said of Cohen, “When a guy has the sword of Damocles hanging over his head, he’ll say anything. I can’t wait until this circus is over.”