FBI comes for Trump's personal lawyer and hush-money man Michael Cohen
Somehow, Trump’s previously covered-up affair with a porn star just got even worse for him.
The story of Trump’s longtime personal lawyer Michael Cohen — aka, Trump’s “fixer” — trying to cover up Trump’s affair with porn star Stormy Daniels just got worse. Much worse.
On Monday, the FBI raided Cohen’s office and hotel room and seized “records related to several topics including payments” to Daniels.
The story first broke in January that Trump’s lawyer had paid $130,000 in hush money to Daniels, just weeks before the 2016 election. While Cohen tried to brush it off at the time, saying that Trump “denies any such occurrence,” he has since admitted he did make the payment.
Since then, multiple lawsuits have been filed by Trump, Cohen, and Daniels. All the while, Cohen has maintained that using his home equity to make the payment on Trump’s behalf is just what any good lawyer do.
Trump had, until last week, kept quiet about the allegations. But on Friday, during a chat with reporters aboard Air Force One, he managed to open his mouth and shoot himself in the foot.
Despite suing Daniels for supposedly violating a non-disclosure agreement that prohibited her from discussing the affair, Trump said he had no knowledge of it. Daniels’ attorney, Michael Avenatti, explained that Trump had defeated his own argument with his casual denial.
“If the president didn’t know anything about the payment, then he didn’t know anything about the agreement, and in that case you can’t have an agreement,” he said.
And if that’s the case, Cohen could have legal problems of his own, ranging from violating ethical codes of conduct to illegal campaign contributions.
As shady and dishonest as Trump is, his attorney isn’t much better.
In 2015, when the Daily Beast reported that Trump’s first wife, Ivana, claimed he had raped her when they were married, Cohen defended Trump by insisting that legally, “You cannot rape your spouse. And theres very clear case law.”
But Cohen went a step further, also threatening the reporter.
“I’m warning you, tread very fucking lightly, because what I’m going to do to you is going to be fucking disgusting,” Cohen said. “You write a story that has Mr. Trump’s name in it, with the word ‘rape,’ and I’m going to mess your life up… for as long as you’re on this frickin’ planet.”
This is how Cohen earned himself the nickname of Trump’s “pit bull.” And according to Cohen’s attorney — because Trump’s lawyer needs his own lawyer now — Cohen has “fixed” all kinds of problems for Trump.
Who can say what that really means? That he regularly threatens people on Trump’s behalf? That he has made multiple hush money payments to try to cover up Trump’s sordid affairs and other behavior? Or maybe worse?
What is known is that the feds are now coming through all kinds of documents, including communications with Trump and tax documents. Whatever dirty little secrets Cohen has kept for his client all these years may not remain secret much longer.
And that is definitely not good news for Trump or his fixer.
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