The Washington Post Editorial Board takes on the Michael Cohen, remember, he’s going to jail and one the convictions is for lying to Congress, hearings, and think they have the goods!
Michael Cohen’s hearing was explosive — but not for what was new
FORMER TRUMP lawyer Michael Cohen’s Wednesday hearing before the House Oversight Committee was explosive not for what was new — but, depressingly, what was not new to anyone watching this administration with clear eyes. The takeaway: President Trump is a liar with a defective character — and, possibly, a criminal.
Corroborating allegations previously revealed in court documents, the president’s former fixer said Mr. Trump was deeply involved in the felony campaign finance violation to which Mr. Cohen pleaded guilty in a Manhattan courtroom. Mr. Cohen said Mr. Trump asked him to pay adult-film star Stormy Daniels $130,000 shortly before the 2016 election to keep her silent about an alleged affair. Mr. Cohen provided a copy of a check, signed by the president, reimbursing him for the illegal payoff. “I am going to jail in part because of my decision to help Mr. Trump hide that payment from the American people before they voted a few days later,â€Â Mr. Cohen said. “He knew about everything.â€
Mr. Cohen also insisted that Mr. Trump got advance notice in July 2016 from GOP trickster Roger Stone that WikiLeaks was planning to publish documents damaging to Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton. If true, this means Mr. Trump lied to the country when he denied ever speaking with Mr. Stone, who is now under indictment, about WikiLeaks.
Mr. Cohen offered a similar account of the president’s dishonesty on the question of whether Mr. Trump pursued a Trump Tower in Moscow during the campaign. “Mr. Trump knew of and directed the Trump Moscow negotiations throughout the campaign and lied about it,†Mr. Cohen said. He stipulated that Mr. Trump did not order him to lie to Congress about the matter, as Mr. Cohen did, but explained that he “made clear to me, through his personal statements to me that we both knew were false and through his lies to the country, that he wanted me to lie.â€
Even if any of this was true, the only thing that would be even reasonably close to a criminal violation is the Stormy Daniel payoff, but, there’s zero proof that the payoff happened the way Liar Cohen stated, nor is there any proof that any of the other things happened the way he said. Which wouldn’t be illegal anyhow. Remember, the WP was protecting Hillary, who actually did violate numerous federal laws, including ones ones on national security, in the straight news, the op-eds, and the editorials.
Mr. Cohen also offered a dishearteningly believable account of Mr. Trump’s character. Calling the president “a racist,†“a con man†and “a cheat,†Mr. Cohen recounted that “while we were once driving through a struggling neighborhood in Chicago, he commented that only black people could live that way. And he told me that black people would never vote for him because they were too stupid.â€
The WP also believed what Jussie Smollett was claiming.
Rather than ignore Mr. Cohen’s allegations, House Republicans might have taken his warning, learned over a decade carrying water for the president: “The more people that follow Mr. Trump, as I did blindly, are going to suffer the same consequences that I’m suffering.â€
Orange Man Bad! I wonder if the WP will ask about the collusion where Cohen spent time talking to Democrats to get his testimony correct
"What did you talk to Mr. Schiff about?"
Cohen: "I spoke to Mr. Schiff about topics that were going to be raised at the upcoming hearing."
"Woah. Not just what time to show up? Actually what you're going to talk about?" pic.twitter.com/c07dRqbQ8A
— Rep. Jim Jordan (@Jim_Jordan) February 27, 2019
That would be collusion and witness tampering. Of course, if we’re to believe Cohen on those things, then what about him saying he’d never been to Prague, or even Czechoslovakia, which would drive a stake into the heart of collusiondrive a stake into the heart of collusion
Michael Cohen denied he’s ever visited Prague and the Czech Republic despite an explosive claim made in the infamous Russia dossier.
The dossier contains allegations against several of Trump’s campaign officials and associates of having secret contacts with Russians during the campaign. The dossier also claims Cohen secretly met Russian officials in Prague to coordinate Kremlin interference in the election and do damage control if the alleged collusion was exposed or if Clinton won.
Huh.
Remarkably Cohen's testimony exonerates Trump. He says Trump never directly told him to lie, he has no evidence of collusion, and Trump only worked on the Moscow project because he thought he wouldn't win, which means he wasn't trying to leverage the presidency for financial gain
— The Honorable Matt Walsh (@MattWalshBlog) February 27, 2019
So, what was the point of the hearing? An attempt to embarrass Trump? Why would they think Trump would care? Why would they think anyone other than political junkies would be interested in this? Further, most know who Trump is. They don’t care. They care that he’s getting things done and trying to get things done that can make their lives better and hold off the creeping Modern Socialism of the Democratic Party.
It was a sad day for the world yesterday as the Democrats chose to upstate President Trump with this farce of a hearing trying to denigrate his credibility while he was trying to negotiate an end to decades long bad behavior by the North Koreans and bring them into the fold of the rest of the worlds citizens.
Instead of letting Trump attempt to work a deal they insisted on doing everything imaginable to self-destruct the summit between Kim and Trump for their own political gain. The losers are the democratic party and the Asian community of nations who continue to deal with an unstable dictator who is developing Nukes to further destabilize the region.
It matters not what the democrats found in the Cohen hearings that could not wait a day or two. This hearing was scheduled to help ensure Trump failed while the dictators of the world are more and more emboldened by acts of the American Congress to run out the clock and get a president in office who is either now a lame duck in the case of Trump being reelected or is a Democrat who continually shows a lack of willingness to confront abhorrent behavior in favor of concessions and favors.
Trump did not lose yesterday. The world lost. The Democrats lost. And while yes it was embarrassing to Trump and will almost certainly lead to louder cries for impeachment there was nothing in the hearing that could be construed as Donald J. Trump violated the law as president which is the most important outcome of the hearing.
But Impeachment is political. It is not about if Trump actually broke a law so much as it is about the fact the Democrats are incapable of biding their time for 4 or 8 years. In the meantime the real losers with the Washington D.C. dysfunction is the rest of the world. Most notably the European Union which is steadily being destabilized by Russia while Asia is being destabilized by China and North Korea.
As president Trump focuses on dealing with issues and problems, the democrats focus on the politics of destruction and the world loses as the most powerful leader of the world is rendered impotent on the world stage thanks to a party more interested in power than they are in solving problems.
As for the coming elections. The moment they impeach Trump they guarantee themselves a blood bath in the 2020’s which is exactly what Trump wants. He want’s to be impeached, will rely upon at least 33 GOP senators to say no and then go on to win in 2020 as his numbers will increase dramatically because the circus around the impeachment will shine more unfavorable light on the Left.
And who wins? Not the world. Not the EU and certainly not the Korean peninsula.
…Calling the president “a racist,†“a con man†and “a cheat,â€
… And… President of the United States.