Comey’s description of Trump is actually quite apt
Given Trump’s bankruptcies and shady entities like Trump University, which led to a $25 million settlement being paid to former students, investigators may be building a case that no amount of tough talk from Cohen will fix.
Worse for Trump is the prospect that the feds now have possession of recordings of conversations Cohen made while working the phone. Press accounts indicate this was one of his habits, and that he played them for the boss and others in order to demonstrate his achievements.
My personal experience with Cohen was partly scary and partly comical. Worried about the book I was writing about Trump, he called to demand the manuscript. When I refused, he insisted to know if I was writing about Trump’s sexual affairs or whether I would suggest Trump was a racist. I wouldn’t answer.
Finally, he complained about the title, “Never Enough,” before chuckling and confessing it was an accurate description of Trump’s approach to life.
Blocked by me, he then turned to my publisher, where the conversation ended with a declaration that, “You just bought yourself a f---ing lawsuit.” No suit was ever filed, but I can only hope the FBI raids turned up recordings of Cohen speaking with me and the publisher’s lawyers.
Our experience, it turns out, was mild for Cohen. In a call to another reporter he said, “I’m warning you, tread very f--ing lightly, because what I’m going to do to you is going to be f---ing disgusting. You understand me? … I’m going to mess your life up … for as long as you’re on this frickin’ planet … you’re going to have judgments against you, so much money, you’ll never know how to get out from underneath it.”
But no boss or mobster depends on just one man like Cohen; he’s got lots of loyal flunkies willing to threaten anyone who stands in the big man’s way.
Besides Cohen, the most visible aide to private citizen Trump was a tall, muscled, former New York City cop named Keith Schiller who gained national fame for roughing up people during the presidential campaign.
As the Daily News reported, he got physical with a protester on the sidewalk outside Trump Tower, cuffing him on the head as he grabbed for his placard. In another incident, he pushed television reporter Jorge Ramos out of a press conference as the Univision anchor was asking a question.
Schiller’s manhandling of Ramos was an unprecedented display of force at a press conference, but consistent with the Trump way. Six weeks ago in Panama, in the Trump International Hotel in Panama City, guards working with the Trump Organization got into a physical confrontation with men working for the hotel’s majority owner, who was trying to fire the Trump Organization from its role as the property’s manager. Police intervened and had to handcuff one of the Trump men in order to calm the situation.
Alarming as it may seem to have men employed by the President’s company fighting in one of his buildings, the scuffle was just the most visible sign of the problems in Panama. The building itself is believed to provide money-laundering services for criminals who buy units with illegally-obtained cash. The real estate can then be sold and the money is magically legitimate.
Ordinary investors in the property are unhappy with what’s gone on there and want to take it over. In typical power-play fashion, the Trump Organization recently wrote to the president of Panama asking for him to take the extraordinary step of intervening in the business dispute, which is currently in the Panamanian courts.
One campaign-finance expert called this a “not so subtle attempt to use the weight of Trump’s presidency for personal gain.”
The unseemly outreach aligns with Trump’s lifelong penchant for violating norms simply because he could. When he became President, Trump defied custom, chose to keep all his businesses intact and maintained the stream of profits flowing to himself.
This set up clear expectations that those who would like to curry favor with the President know they should stay at Trump hotels in Washington and New York and buy $200,000 memberships at his Mar-a-Lago resort. And if you believe that he’s not receiving business updates from his children, then you haven’t been paying attention.
Children and closely-held aides like Cohen are expected to protect bosses no matter what. However, there would be no movies and TV shows about the mob without the dynamic of betrayal. When pressure is brought to bear, it’s only natural for people who value themselves, their families and their reputations to consider becoming what the mob would call a “rat.”
After all, you can only give so much reflexive loyalty, and can only risk so much for one person for so long.
This is where the mob boss methods break down. At some point, the instinct for self-preservation kicks in. Jim Comey has, no doubt, seen it happen many times before with guys far tougher than Trump and Cohen. Bob Mueller probably has seen it too. D’Antonio is author of “The Truth About Trump.”