President may be facing his biggest legal trouble
Bill Press says the raid on Michael Cohen is, in some ways, worse for Donald Trump than the Russia probe.
Remember the “Peanuts” comic strip? While I loved all the characters — Charlie Brown, Lucy, Snoopy, Linus — my favorite was “Pig Pen,” the little boy who couldn’t stay clean and looked like a walking dust storm. He asked Charlie Brown one day: “You know what I am? I’m a dust magnet.”
Today, “Pig Pen” has a big brother. His name is Donald Trump. He walks around with a dark cloud around him, too. Except, he doesn’t attract dust. He attracts lawsuits. Trump’s in so much legal trouble today he needs a whole law firm to defend him, yet he can’t find a single lawyer willing to do so.
For starters, his legal woes include three ongoing lawsuits on the #MeToo front. Former porn star Stormy Daniels is suing him to get out of what she contends is an invalid nondisclosure agreement so she can tell her story of an alleged affair with Trump in 2006 and 2007. Former Playboy model Karen McDougal is seeking to get out of her own NDA so she can tell her story, too. Meanwhile, a defamation lawsuit, brought by Summer Zervos, a former contestant on “The Apprentice,” is winding its way through New York state Supreme Court, despite efforts by White House lawyers to block it.
Those three lawsuits in themselves would be enough to keep a pride of lawyers busy. But let’s not forget this: the president of the United States is also under criminal investigation by the FBI. Special Counsel Robert Mueller plays his cards close to the vest, but we know that he and his team are investigating possible wrongdoing by Trump on two fronts: collusion with Russia to meddle in the 2016 election and obstruction of justice in the firing of former FBI Director James Comey.
That investigation is serious. It’s been going on for over a year. And, when Mueller’s already charged 22 individuals or entities, five of whom have pled guilty, it’s harder and harder for Trump to dismiss the Mueller investigation as “A TOTAL WITCH HUNT!!!”
Think that’s bad? It is. But now comes another bombshell: news that the FBI has raided the home, office and hotel room of Michael Cohen, Trump’s longtime friend, personal attorney and “fixer.” Their target? Documents related to “hush money” paid in 2016, while Trump was running for president, to keep the two women named above, Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal, from talking.
For Donald Trump, in some ways, this is even worse than the Russia investigation. Mueller may have already snared Trump’s campaign manager, deputy campaign manager and national security adviser. But there’s nobody closer to Trump, or nobody who knows more about him, than Michael Cohen. Plus, this was not a Robert Mueller-directed raid. Yes, questions were raised about the payments to Daniels and McDougal as part of his investigation. But Mueller handed the matter to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who turned it over to the U.S. attorney in the Southern District of New York, who referred it to a federal judge for a search warrant. All three approved and authorized the raid on Cohen’s papers. They would not have done so without compelling evidence of a crime committed. By Cohen, or Trump, or both.
At the very least, this latest legal tangle means that Donald Trump not only faces, all at the same time, three lawsuits from woman accusers, plus an FBI criminal investigation into possible collusion with Russia or obstruction of justice, but also, as of this week, possible criminal charges by the U.S. attorney in New York for conspiring with Michael Cohen to cover up payments made to silence two women in order to influence the outcome of the 2016 election, and failing to report it as a campaign contribution. And this is the man who was going to drain the swamp?
In retaliation, outraged at what he considers not just another strike against him, but “an attack on the country,” Donald Trump now threatens to outdo Richard Nixon’s Saturday Night Massacre by firing everybody connected with the raid on Cohen: Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, Special Counsel Robert Mueller and maybe even Attorney General Jeff Sessions. And if he does so, cowardly Republicans in Congress will loudly proclaim their outrage, and then do absolutely nothing.
Alarmed by Trump’s declared war on the Justice Department, many legal experts warn of a looming constitutional crisis. They’re wrong. We’re not on the brink of a constitutional crisis. We’re already in the middle of one. Other nations have faced this test. Now it’s our turn: Can our democratic institutions survive the repressive tactics of a strongman?
Bill Press is syndicated by Tribune Content Agency. His email address is bill@billpress.com.