Mr. Trump and Mr. Cohen previously represented to the American people that Mr. Cohen acted on his own and Mr. Trump knew nothing about the agreement with my client, the $130k payment, etc. As I predicted, that has now been shown to be completely false. #basta
— Michael Avenatti (@MichaelAvenatti) April 26, 2018
How is this man not in jail or impeached yet:
Donald Trump said Thursday that attorney Michael Cohen “represented me” by cutting a deal with porn star Stormy Daniels in 2016, after the president previously said he didn’t know about the “hush money” payment.
Trump also tried to distance himself from Cohen, who is currently under federal criminal investigation related to his business dealings.
“Let me just tell you, Michael is in business — he is really a businessman, a fairly big business, as I understand it,” Trump told the hosts of “Fox & Friends” in a phone interview. “I don’t know his business, but this doesn’t have to do with me. Michael is a businessman. He has got a business. He also practices law.”
Trump said Cohen represented “a percentage of my overall legal work — a tiny, tiny little fraction.”
“But Michael would represent me and represent me on some things. He represents me like with this crazy Stormy Daniels deal, he represented me,” he said.
Any lawyer who agrees to represent this moron is a fool. And that’d not even taking into consideration he probably won’t pay his bill.
Yarrow
Michael Avenatti has to be loving every minute of this.
Cole, how is Lily? We need a pupdate! Preferably with the photo because those brown eyes are such a tonic.
Coffee at dawn ☕
Lily pic?
Felony Govt (formerly Old Broad in California)
That Fox interview was apparently a real shitshow. I can’t stand to watch him so I don’t know details. But yeah, way to completely contradict what he previously said. He just made Avenatti’s case.
Yarrow
@Felony Govt (formerly Old Broad in California): You don’t have to watch him because he just called in by phone. You just get to watch the F&F hosts’ faces get sadder and more worried as it goes on. It’s hilarious.
LAO
This is a very big deal (and a big blow to Cohen’s privilege argument re: the files seized pursuant to the search warrant.) The parties are in court today and the SDNY has already submitted papers quoting Trump’s appearance on Fox & Friends. It’s remarkable, I now believe that Cohen will flip on Trump, something I hadn’t expected would happen.
jonas
This is so fucking hysterical, I don’t know where to begin. Michael Avenatti must be having the time of his life. Gonna be even more fun to watch whoever does the afternoon presser have to try to walk this back.
LAO
@Felony Govt (formerly Old Broad in California):
He may have just made the AUSA–SDNY’s case as well.
Corner Stone
That F&F call in interview was batshit bonkers. He switched topics in a run-on shambolic manner without even finishing a sentence of what he started with. No segues or lead ins or prompts from the Fox dupes. And besides the admission of the Stormy thing, Trump admitted to all of America that he intends to obstruct justice by interfering at the DoJ any time he feels like it.
Kay
It’s something, though, isn’t it? It’s lies within lies as part of other lies. They can’t help themselves. He HAS to boast about his lawyer’s “big business”, which seems to be money laundering with a small part of his practice devoted to hush money paid to sex workers. He’s a criminal. He has no legitimate work.
Amir Khalid
Meathead? I don’t remember Michael Stivic ever being this stupid.
Felony Govt (formerly Old Broad in California)
@Yarrow: Thanks! Now maybe I need to go find a clip of it. That horrible sing songy voice of his though…
psycholinguist
@jonas: First thing I thought watching that interview was there ain’t gonna be a presser today, folks…
jonas
@LAO: Trump probably thought he was doing Cohen a favor by making any seized records relating to the Daniels payoff a/c privileged. Oops.
efgoldman
@LAO:
Can his Teevee spewage be introduced in court? In civil depositions? In a criminal proceeding? Seems to me the latter is a reach.
Corner Stone
@LAO:
If Cohen has one reputable attorney on his team that person has handcuffed themselves to Cohen and swallowed the key. He or she is going to physically drag Cohen to Mueller’s office and beat him with a copy of Black’s Law until Cohen signs a deal.
Yarrow
@LAO: Really? I figured Cohen would flip on Trump from the beginning. Trump’s loyalty only goes one way. Cohen himself may be dumb but if he’s hired even a moderately competent lawyer they’ll have figured this out pretty quickly.
@Felony Govt (formerly Old Broad in California): Check two threads down. Several linked in comments.
Kay
@LAO:
It’s just so funny how so many of Trump’s lies are told because he has to prop up the central lie- that he’s a billionaire businessman. I think he’d rather go to prison than have that lie revealed. It’s at the core of everything he does- an elaborate structure built to prop up the lie he tells himself. I think it’s why he so often appears to speak contrary to his own shorter term self-interest. He has to protect that bigger fairy tale.
Corner Stone
@Felony Govt (formerly Old Broad in California):
You should listen to a little of it because Trump gets more strident with every topic he touches on. Unlike a spring uncoiling it sounds like his knickers are getting twisted ever tighter with each word he says.
SiubhanDuinne
Lily plzkthxbai
LAO
@efgoldman: The attorney-client privilege lies with the Client. Trump largely denied that Cohen was his lawyer (expect for the Daniels deal), therefore any other files dealing with Trump or the Trump Organization aren’t protected by the attorney-client privilege because the client has denied the professional relationship. I wish I could go down to the SDNY today to watch the hearing.
LAO
@Yarrow: I really didn’t think Cohen was going to flip because of Trump’s pardon power (and yes I understand the difference between state and federal charges), he’s been a very devoted lackey.
Jeffro
While this morning‘s events were hysterically funny on their own, put everything in the reverse – pretend for a moment that this was president Hillary Clinton calling into an MSNBC show and admitting her lawyer paid off the porn star she had the affair with, THEN threw that same lawyer under the bus and you will have to go home for the day .
Some alien race somewhere is watching this reality show and they couldn’t change the channel if they tried
Kay
If Pruitt lies today (and he will, already has) Congress should enforce their own rules and sanction him.
They don’t seem to be aware that allowing people to go in there and lie their asses off makes them powerless and irrelevant.
They make their own rules. They should protect their own institutional integrity. No one else will. No one else cares.
Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady)
I just watched a 5 minute clip of the Fox and Friends interview. Holy crap, the fool was ranting. The hosts couldn’t get a word in. There’s a moment when the blond lady gives up and puts her list of questions down on the table.
Yarrow
@Kay: It’s vanity and pride. Just like how he spends so much time on his hair and even got women to pull on it at rallies during the campaign to “prove” it’s real. He keeps having to prop up the lie and does more outrageous and ridiculous things to keep it from being uncovered.
Washburn
Interview was playing at gym this morning while I was on stairclimber and I switched over
Sent my heart rate from 95-100 up to 120-125.
Dave
@Felony Govt (formerly Old Broad in California): It was bad enough that the FOXBOTs were clearly uncomfortable. And basically hung up on him. The one woman held it together much better than the two dudes but then any on air talent at FOX that is a woman probably has massive reservoirs of experience to draw on when it comes to dealing with loud mouth, narcissistic, no nothing old white men.
efgoldman
@LAO:
I understand that, and that Cohen and Weasel Face are screwed but good. The question is, can shit he says on the Teevee (not in court, not sworn, obvs) be introduced as evidence against him.
LAO
Apparently, Daniels filed a motion to interview in the SDNY case — tweet includes a link
Yarrow
@LAO: I understand that way of thinking. I figured that’s how it would go initially, as it seems to have done. But then events would happen in short order to make it clear that wasn’t a good move. Seems to be working that way. But who knows. Cohen is dumb and he may be like Trump and won’t listen to his lawyers.
Isn’t Cohen married and has kids? Maybe a part of him is loyal to them too.
LAO
@efgoldman: Sure, why not. It’s an admission against his interest. Statement’s don’t have to be sworn to be introduced into evidence.
Kay
@Jeffro:
I think about it all the time. Hillary was never President so instead I think if Obama had done this, because that’s a real and recent comparison. I cannot imagine the screeching, the thousands of words of opinion, the whole “debate” on what it “means” for the country. Trump has so lowered standards they don’t exist anymore.
I keep thinking about that parsing of Obama’s public statements. The legalistic defining of every word- was it strictly, 100% TRUE? There’s just none of that anymore. It’s gone. We went from a ludicrously high standard for honesty to none at all, in one month.
jonas
@LAO: Exactly, so Trump fucks both himself and Cohen in one go — there’s no way the NDA with Daniels stands up now. Avenatti’s going to beat Cohen like a rented mule with this and Daniels gets to write a best-seller about what it’s like doing the icky with the tangerine jackass. AND Trump simultaneously nixes a/c privilege on most of the rest of Cohen’s stuff. Everyone in the SDNY office must have just spewed coffee across their keyboards this morning.
LAO
@Yarrow: I have to say, it’s not a lawyer’s job to twist the arm of his/her client to cooperate with the government. We lay out a cost-benefit analysis (and there are risks to cooperation) and the client decides. Cooperation doesn’t guarantee a full “get out of jail card.”
bemused
@Yarrow:
This is intriguing. Avenatti was on Morning Joe, asks Mika to name Cohen’s 3 clients, her answer Trump, Broidy and Hannity. Avenatti said, no, no, no, Cohen’s clients were Mr. Trump, the Trump organization and Sean Hannity. Broidy was not disclosed in open court as one of Cohen’s clients. So where did the $1.6 million payout go?
Yarrow
@jonas: It really is a thing of beauty. If Stormy Daniels’ NDA gets overturned then expect a lot of other women to come forward as well. What about all the women Trump (Cohen, probably) supposedly paid to have abortions and keep quiet.
gene108
@Yarrow:
Getting to be a bit of a media whore, for me. He was on multiple CNN and MSNBC shows last night. I hope he doesn’t lose focus on the case.
Corner Stone
@Kay:
From the lead up that is being reported, Pruitt intends to blame everything on his staff. That should fly really well.
LAO
@gene108: You don’t become a trial lawyer because you’re shy and retiring.
Kay
@Yarrow:
I wonder though if we over-think it. Maybe he’s really just that shallow and vain and all of the lies and subterfuge are 100% about his personal vanity. Maybe it’s not like “oh, he’s so dumb he keeps contradicting himself on television which puts him in hot water as to this legal case”- maybe his priority is not staying out of prison or even hiding illegality- his priority is protecting the 50 year old lie that is the center of his being because without that lie he just collapses like a popped balloon.
patrick II
I haven’t read every post here, but I have seen no one comment on Sessions refusal to acknowledge recusal in the Cohen case or whether he had talked to Trump about it. Sessions is walking a fine line here between getting fired and the ethical requirement of recusal. Not to mention, of all of the cases, it seems interference in the Cohen case would be very desired by Trump. But I am not sure, given the high visibility of the case, how much Sessions could do to harm it the case even if he isn’t recused.
Doug R
@bemused:
The implication is the Elliot Brody payment of $1,600,000 was for trump’s shenanigans
patrick II
@Washburn:
Maybe being on a stairclimber had something to do with that?
Yarrow
@LAO: Yes, understood. Cooperation would just mean possibly a better chance of getting leniency. A presidential pardon is another version of a “get of jail free card.” Cohen is probably thinking of both options. Could have thought the pardon was a better bet and then today happened.
My popcorn stash is way too low.
Doug R
@gene108:
https://twitter.com/MichaelAvenatti/status/988387923803258880
“To those that are critical of the number of my TV appearances, note: 1. As soon as things stop happening in the highly active cases, I will stop appearing; 2. I accept only 30% of my invites and 3. Don’t watch if you don’t like it (minority). #basta”
LAO
@Yarrow:
I just re-upped. Let me know where to send, I can get it out this afternoon.
gene108
@Kay:
Some old timer Republicans (if there are any left) might care about institutional integrity, but everyone else elected from the Tea Party wave or a bit earlier knows their bread is buttered by the Kochs, Mercers, et. al. and not the institution they “serve”. Stay loyal to the big money, and you are set for life. Cross the big money and your life is ruined.
Pruitt works for the same pay masters as most Congressional Republicans, so there’s no reason for them to give a damn what he does. They are playing for the same side.
Yarrow
@gene108: I understand that take, but my view is that he’s doing so much media because Trump is a creature of media. It’s how he can goad Trump into doing dumb things that will in turn benefit his client. If you look at his Twitter feed, prior to him taking the Storm Daniels case he hadn’t tweeted in a year or so. My impression is he’s using the media and his appearances as a tactic.
feebog
@gene108:
Not to pile on after LAO, but his appearances are orchestrated to coincide with key events in his client’s case. MA knows the court of public opinion is just as important as the legal process, perhaps more so.
Yarrow
@Kay: Trump is a narcissist. Everything he does can be explained by that.
Yarrow
@LAO: Thanks but I have to stop by the supermarket later today to get one item for a recipe that I forgot to get yesterday (gah!). I will stock up. Unless of course the supermarket is running low. One never knows in these popcorn-essential times.
tobie
@Corner Stone:
That’s your party of personal responsibility for you in a nutshell. Have a problem…blame your underlings. These guys are cretins.
bemused
@Doug R:
I noticed. Nothing would surprise me with these confederacy of crooks.
e julius drivingstorm
@Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady): I give the shoutout to Macron for causing Trump’s self-destructive unhinged rant. He must not have slept last night after the thorough evisceration the Frenchman delivered before Congress. The Donald got Trojan-horsed, then slammed with a dose of reality-based real news on the grandest scale.
condorcet runner-up
@Corner Stone: I would go with Wright & Miller’s Federal Practice & Procedure. More on point, and the physical copy is going to be way heavier than Black’s Law dictionary …
O. Felix Culpa
Evan Hurst over at Wonkette does a nice play-by-play of the interview.
hitchhiker
I never understood until this year what makes “May you live in interesting times” a curse.
It’s just flat exhausting to feel so uncertain every minute of the day that the world will hold together. I also understand for the first time how it is that strongmen show up and find willing targets for their assurances of stability.
bemused
@Kay:
I might even watch this. Pruitt is one of the most outrageous, brazen, careless liars I’ve ever seen and he doesn’t even twitch.
Shana
@gene108: To be fair, Avenatti was all over TV last night because he’s in NYC for the hearing today and the networks are all in NYC.
rumpole
@efgoldman: yes. all of it. Statement against interest or used to impeach credibility on a whole host of things.
maya
@Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady):
Ha! Yeah, who is that “blond lady”? I believe they are actually interchangeable on purpose at FOX; that way their viewers will never know when one of them goes on vacay. As the two flankers, Doucey and, especially, Killmeade – ‘never trust a guy with close set eyes’ has always been my motto.
efgoldman
@Yarrow:
Highly recommended. You can buy it on line
Corner Stone
@bemused:
He’s a really arrogant liar. Like he’s entitled to all he wants and he doesn’t care what anyone says about it.
efgoldman
@rumpole:
You would know, having been at the Bailey all these years
No Drought No More
@Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady): A similar moment on a national scale came in the summer of 1974, when the legally contested Oval Office tapes proved the Trickster a liar. Even those Americans that had stuck by the SOB through it all were glad to see him go, because he had lied to them and they had believed him. Suffice to note, they were not forced to defend credible accusations against Nixon by a public fornicator and her attorney, either. Those who still choose to support Trump at this point are no better than domestic enemies who will see this country destroyed rather than admit they are wrong. Fuck ’em all, too. Their political sensibilities need not be respected, what makes them tick is irrelevant. Americans that today support Trump and the republican party are un-American, over and out, and will destroy everything worth preserving if they’re not stopped in their tracks. Congressional democrats must quit mealy mouthing about the stakes. For the good of the country, if not their careers, it’s a bad habit they need to break. If they refuse, fuck them, too, they should then be replaced with patriotic democrats prepared to uphold their oaths of office.
The Other Chuck
@Yarrow: The hair is real. It’s a combover from the back, glued down. Wonder what he uses for conditioner?
bemused
@Corner Stone:
He doesn’t seem to be concerned at all that his pathetic lies and excuses aren’t fooling anyone. He sure doesn’t bother to cover his tracks much.
He must have gotten away with a ton of shit all his life.
The Other Chuck
@Doug R: Yep, Avenatti’s an asshole all right. Still seems like my kind of asshole though… at least so far.
Corner Stone
@condorcet runner-up: I thought the dictionary part may be useful.
“Don’t. *whack* Make. *whack* Me. *whack* Explain. *whack* tortious interference again!”
NJeff
@efgoldman: I think they can be introduced as an exception to the hearsay rule for statements against ones own interest.
LAO
A special master has been appointed. Barbara S. Jones, former District Court Judge.
Bess
Are there any other-than-Cohen reports of Trump claiming that he didn’t overnight in Moscow?
I hope so….
Gelfling 545
@Yarrow: This case is all about the media & Avenatti onows that well. If his appearances tempt Trump into more damning admissions, so much the better for Ms Daniels chances. And the fact of the lawyer getting all that media exposure has to be making Trump fit to choke.
LAO
@Bess: Trump allegedly told Comey that he didn’t overnight in Russia. It’s in the memos.
Gelfling 545
@Corner Stone: You mean he hasn’t blamed President Obama yet?
Bess
@LAO: Understood. But if there is another incident of Trump claiming that he did not spend the night in Moscow then it will be pretty much impossible for Trump defenders from claiming that Cohen lied.
According to Marshall at TPM Reince Priebus may have witnessed Trump’s claim to Cohen. And Josh lays out a good argument why it is unlikely Cohen would have made up that part of his memo.
Mnemosyne
@Kay:
That is exactly what marks him as a clinical narcissist. His entire world revolves around protecting his self-image, and absolutely nothing else matters. He will lie, cheat, and steal to protect himself from the truth that he has a gaping hole of neediness at his center that can never, ever be filled.
Corner Stone
@Bess: Think you may have a little Cohen on the brain thing working today.
Although, TBF, any time I type out “Comey” I also want to include expletives, so…
jonas
@feebog: Plus it’s likely at least a portion of his compensation is a contingency agreement with Daniels, based on the profits from her book or other deals if he succeeds in getting the NDA tossed. Daniels is probably pretty comfortable financially, but not so rich she could just put up cash for all Avenatti’s fees. Thus the endless media promotion of her and her case is also making sure he gets his payday too when this is all done.
Fester Addams
@jonas:
I expect she makes a movie too. I don’t really want to think about it!
StringOnAStick
@Doug R: I love Avenatti’s #Basta at the end of his tweets. When I was in Italy for a couple of months (and in my 30’s) an Italian woman taught me that word for dealing with aggressive pick up artists, combined with a hand in the “stop” position. It basically means enough already, back off.
kingweasil
It was fauxnewz that moved on first, i wonder who made that call…”sorry mr peznit we have to break…