The Elephant in the Room

Schrödinger’s Lawyer

From New York Magazine, by Eric Levitz:

“So: Michael Cohen was simultaneously Trump’s trusted attorney, whose scrupulous commitment to abiding by the law the president had no reason to doubt — and, also, a pseudo-attorney whose primary responsibility was protecting Trump’s public image (i.e., the kind of person who might arrange a legally dubious payment to an adult-film actress to protect the GOP nominee’s public image in autumn 2016). The classic “Schrödinger’s lawyer” defense.”

The Man in the Mirror

From Charles P. Pierce at Esquire:

“Cohen’s guilty plea — his second in four months — is the latest development in a wide-ranging investigation by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III into Russian interference in the 2016 election. Activity in that probe has intensified this week, as one planned guilty plea was derailed and, separately, prosecutors accused Trump’s former campaign chairman Paul Manafort of lying to them since he pleaded guilty…Trump has repeatedly said he had no business dealings in Russia, tweeting in July 2016, “For the record, I have ZERO investments in Russia,” and telling reporters in January 2017 that he had no deals there because he had “stayed away.”

It always was about the money. The president* always defined himself by it. It was the comforting myth of his public existence, the fairy tale he told himself so he could sleep at night through all the failure and bankruptcy and the whoring after cash, dirty or laundered, all over the world. Take away the money—or, more accurately, the perception of the money—and there simply is nothing left of the man. Take away the money, and he can’t see himself in the mirror. So he would do anything, including imperil his presidency and, therefore, the country, to save himself from the horrible realization that the money was all there was to him and there wasn’t any money anymore.

What the hell? What was the presidency to him but another mirror in which he still could see a man made of money?”

“The Ship Be Sinking.”

From Charles P. Pierce at Esquire magazine:

“This is a mortal blow to the administration*, which may stagger around for a year or so before it falls over and crushes people, but there is no way I can see that this gets any better for the president* or the people around him. The president* and his fixer paid off Stormy Daniels, and also paid off a tabloid media company, in order to bury stories about the president*’s wandering Donald, and did so in direct violation of even those campaign finance laws that Anthony Kennedy left in place. That’s an open admission of a crime involving the President* of the United States and, as CNN analyst Jeffrey Toobin pointed out, that’s something that never happened even during Watergate.  In the immortal words of Micheal Ray Richardson, the ship be sinking.”

Couldn’t happen to a nicer bunch of rats.

Three Things Trump Got Wrong in One Tweet

Trump’s tweet about Michael Cohen taping their conversation:

“Inconceivable that the government would break into a lawyer’s office (early in the morning) — almost unheard of,” Mr. Trump wrote on Twitter. “Even more inconceivable that a lawyer would tape a client — totally unheard of & perhaps illegal. The good news is that your favorite President did nothing wrong!”

#1–The FBI (the “government” he mentions here) did not “break into” Cohen’s office. They had a legal search warrant and Cohen himself has said they were professional and respectful while they went about their business. Search warrants are not “unheard of.”

#2–It is legal in the state of New York for one person to tape a phone conversation with another person without letting them know they’re being taped. Cohen used to do this in service to Trump all the time and Trump himself has been known to tape conversations.

#3–The good news is that our “favorite President” (not) most likely did something wrong or else he wouldn’t be in such a lather.