January 18, 2019

Trump, Cohen, and the ‘Russian Deal’

A questionable report claims Trump directed Cohen to lie to Congress.

There is a rumor of more trouble in Trumpville today — additional fallout from the Clinton/Demo Party collusion to set up Donald Trump for a post-election takedown.

Regarding Robert Mueller’s investigation and the convictions of Trump’s former campaign manager, Paul Manafort, and Trump’s lawyer, Michael Cohen, I wrote last August that the investigation doesn’t “have anything to do with ‘Russian collusion,’ but the worms are out, and in the case of Cohen, so much for ‘lawyer-client privilege.’ … As his former attorney, Cohen knows where, on Trump’s behalf, he hid corporate and personal legal skeletons.”

To date, Trump’s Cohen problem has centered on campaign-finance issues. But in late November, when it became clear that Cohen’s plea deal included perjury charges related to his congressional testimony about the timing of discussions about a future Russian building project, there were questions about why Cohen would lie about the timing.

Now, there is a BuzzFeed report that Cohen lied at Trump’s direction. According to the Washington Examiner’s Timothy Carney, “President Trump now stands accused of directing his former lawyer, Michael Cohen, to lie to Congress about Trump’s attempt to court Vladimir Putin during the campaign and build a hotel in Moscow.”

Predictably, the Leftmedia promptly piled on! But caveat emptor… Recall that BuzzFeed was also first to publish the now-infamously fake Trump/Russia dossier, a new low for “tabloid journalism,” but one that accelerated the Trump investigation.

During his presidential primary campaign, Trump asserted that he had no “business” in Russia at the time. It can be argued that it was fair enough for Trump to make that claim, because an ongoing conversation about the prospect of a future project does not constitute “business” in the present, as if Trump owned a property in Russia at the time. Trump has admitted he had conversations with Russia about a project.

However, given that Cohen admitted to lying to Congress about when the 2016 discussions regarding a potential future project in Russia ended, if there is irrefutable evidence that Trump instructed Cohen to lie to Congress about it, as BuzzFeed claims, that does constitute suborning perjury — a serious offense.

But, in a rare response regarding what would constitute a leak about Cohen’s testimony, Peter Carr, spokesman for Robert Mueller’s office, said, “BuzzFeed’s description of specific statements to the Special Counsel’s Office, and characterization of documents and testimony obtained by this office, regarding Michael Cohen’s Congressional testimony are not accurate.”

Andrew McCarthy writes, “Clearly, Mueller did the right thing. The reporting had triggered a frenzy of commentary by Trump critics that impeachment was imminent, and even many chagrined Trump supporters conceded that, if the report was true, the presidency was in grave peril. Had Mueller stood idly by, the administration, and thus the governance of the nation, would have been engulfed in a ruinous storm of suspicion. It is not the special counsel’s job to correct bad reporting, but it would have been irresponsible to stay mum in these circumstances if the story was false.”

According to Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani, “Any suggestion — from any source — that the president counseled Michael Cohen to lie is categorically false. Michael Cohen is a convicted criminal and a liar. … Today’s claims are just more made-up lies born of Michael Cohen’s malice and desperation, in an effort to reduce his sentence.”

But Georgetown Law professor Jonathan Turley cautions: “I think that Giuliani is trying to preempt the Michael Cohen [congressional] testimony. People are kidding themselves if they think the Buzzfeed story is going to be 100 percent wrong. I think that Michael Cohen is going to Congress to incriminate the president. Now that doesn’t mean that it’s true but you can anticipate that he’s going to bring details including this one. That dealings and discussions may have continued much later than we currently think. So I think that Giuliani was trying to preempt that story.”

Turley continued: “Where I think Giuliani is wrong is that when he says there’s nothing wrong with the president talking to Cohen. Legally that’s true. Cohen was his attorney and he was talking to him about that. But tactically it would have been moronic that … and I blame really his counsel on this. The president should not have been sitting down with his lawyer to talk about testimony affecting him in front of Congress. It’s begging for this type of allegation.”

That notwithstanding, with Democrats in control Congress, expect to hear a renewed chorus of howls to investigate and impeach Trump.

(Updated.)

Who We Are

The Patriot Post is a highly acclaimed weekday digest of news analysis, policy and opinion written from the heartland — as opposed to the MSM’s ubiquitous Beltway echo chambers — for grassroots leaders nationwide. More

What We Offer

On the Web

We provide solid conservative perspective on the most important issues, including analysis, opinion columns, headline summaries, memes, cartoons and much more.

Via Email

Choose our full-length Digest or our quick-reading Snapshot for a summary of important news. We also offer Cartoons & Memes on Monday and Alexander’s column on Wednesday.

Our Mission

The Patriot Post is steadfast in our mission to extend the endowment of Liberty to the next generation by advocating for individual rights and responsibilities, supporting the restoration of constitutional limits on government and the judiciary, and promoting free enterprise, national defense and traditional American values. We are a rock-solid conservative touchstone for the expanding ranks of grassroots Americans Patriots from all walks of life. Our mission and operation budgets are not financed by any political or special interest groups, and to protect our editorial integrity, we accept no advertising. We are sustained solely by you. Please support The Patriot Fund today!


The Patriot Post and Patriot Foundation Trust, in keeping with our Military Mission of Service to our uniformed service members and veterans, are proud to support and promote the National Medal of Honor Heritage Center, the Congressional Medal of Honor Society, both the Honoring the Sacrifice and Warrior Freedom Service Dogs aiding wounded veterans, the National Veterans Entrepreneurship Program, the Folds of Honor outreach, and Officer Christian Fellowship, the Air University Foundation, and Naval War College Foundation, and the Naval Aviation Museum Foundation. "Greater love has no one than this, to lay down one's life for his friends." (John 15:13)

★ PUBLIUS ★

“Our cause is noble; it is the cause of mankind!” —George Washington

Please join us in prayer for our nation — that righteous leaders would rise and prevail and we would be united as Americans. Pray also for the protection of our Military Patriots, Veterans, First Responders, and their families. Please lift up your Patriot team and our mission to support and defend our Republic's Founding Principle of Liberty, that the fires of freedom would be ignited in the hearts and minds of our countrymen.

The Patriot Post is protected speech, as enumerated in the First Amendment and enforced by the Second Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America, in accordance with the endowed and unalienable Rights of All Mankind.

Copyright © 2024 The Patriot Post. All Rights Reserved.

The Patriot Post does not support Internet Explorer. We recommend installing the latest version of Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox, or Google Chrome.