Presidential Wednesday
President Trump (and the United States of America) had a really bad day Wednesday. The talks with North Korea broke down, with both Mr. Trump and Mr. Kim cancelling meetings and heading out of Hanoi. They had reached the inevitable sticking point: nothing Mr. Trump could offer was enough for Mr. Kim to give away his nuclear capacity; it is all North Korea has. Air Force One revved up two hours early for home.
For any President, and particularly one whose reputation is that of the “great deal maker,” a failed summit is a bad day. And, regardless of how you feel about Mr. Trump, the world became a lot more dangerous Wednesday. We can expect North Korea to continue to work on their technical abilities to use nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles, something that the world ultimately will find difficult to tolerate.
But Mr. Trump’s failed summit was really the least of his worries on Wednesday. Back here at home, the day was given over to the House Oversight Committee questioning of former Trump personal attorney Michael Cohen. Cohen is a disgraced man; sentenced to three years in federal prison for multiple crimes including income tax evasion and bank fraud. But his most serious crimes were committed in the name of aiding the Trump Presidential campaign, and his testimony and evidence were an indictment of the President himself in those crimes.
Mr. Cohen made a compelling case that the President conspired with Cohen and members of the Trump Organization in the last days before the election, to buy off the story of porn star Stormy Daniels’ affair with Mr. Trump. This was an all out effort to keep it out of the press; on top of the Access Hollywood tapes the affair would have cost Trump the Presidency.
The actual “catch and kill” buying off of Ms. Daniels’ story wasn’t illegal. What violated the law was the spending of $130,000 for the campaign, without declaring it as a campaign finance donation. Mr. Cohen spent $130,000 of his own money, raised from a home equity loan; it was never listed as a contribution (and if it had been, it would have been over the allowable limit by $128,000.) Then, through the artifice of “payment for legal consultation” Mr. Cohen was reimbursed by the Trump Organization in a series of monthly checks. Cohen testified that the checks were paid monthly in an effort to reduce the amount of tax required on this “income.”
The checks were written and signed by Donald Trump Junior, Alan Weiselberg, Trump Chief Financial Officer, and by the President of the United States, Donald J. Trump. Mr. Cohen (and the Federal Prosecutors both in New York and Washington) have copies of the signed checks. In a simple criminal conspiracy, two or more people have to agree to commit an illegal act, or take legal action for an illegal purpose. Part of Mr. Cohen’s prison sentence is for violating Federal Campaign Laws. Trump Junior, Weiselberg and the President and Cohen are all equal participants in the crime – thus unindicted co-conspirators.
Some of the Republican members of the committee did their best to mark Cohen as a criminal (true) and a liar (also true.) They brought up his previous perjury to Congress, where he stated lies that benefited the President’s story. They marked him as a tax evader (true) and a disgraced lawyer (true.) But with all of the insults and Jim Jordan and Mark Meadows’ foaming at the mouth, they failed to do the one thing they had to do to protect Mr. Trump: they failed to shake Cohen’s factual accounting of the story. Cohen, disbarred on Tuesday, going to jail in May, came across as a man with nothing to lose by telling the truth: and he had the checks.
There’s a Saturday Night Live line, lampooning the famous Lester Holt interviewwith the President, where Trump stated that he fired FBI Director James Comey because he wanted to end the “Russia thing.” Michael Che, the actor playing Holt, turned to the camera and said “…so did I get him, is it all over?” He then receives a call, and is told that absolutely nothing matters.
Did Michael Cohen “get” the President with his testimony, or does nothing really matter?
Michael Cohen alone will not end the Trump Presidency. But this was the first time the Trump corruption had a face, and a voice. Conspiracy to avoid election finance law, in another era might have brought down a Presidency, but it won’t do it today. The United States has somehow grown accustomed to this kind of deceit from the President; we have accepted that he can lie to us about almost anything, including what is true and what is not. A significant portion of the nation expects him to be with porn stars, and lie about it, and cheat to cover it up.
But what the Cohen testimony does anticipate is what the multiple Federal investigations might reveal. Disgraced perjurer, tax evader and disbarred lawyer; he represent the tip of the iceberg in how the Trump Organization did business, and how they approached every opportunity. Cohen is going to jail, but he might get some company in the not to distant future. And maybe then, it really will matter.
