Lordy, it no longer matters if there are tapes
Michael Avenatti appeared on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” this morning after President Donald J. Trump earlier appeared on “Fox & Friends,” stating the obvious that Trump’s comments about his relationship with Michael Cohen was a “gift from the heavens.” Back in June 2017, former FBI Director James Comey expressed his hopes with respect to the possibility his conversations with Trump were recorded, stating, “Lordy, I hope there are tapes.” Trump’s televised words are even better than having tapes and, while it would be wonderful to hear those tapes to confirm the Comey memos, he does a fantastic job of destroying his own defenses.
What has Avenatti excited is the following statement from Trump:
“[Michael Cohen] represents me with this crazy Stormy Daniels deal. From what I see, he did absolutely nothing wrong.”
Previously, Trump was very adamant that he knew nothing about any deal with Stormy Daniels that Cohen may have negotiated, answering “no” to a specific question on Air Force One followed by:
“You’ll have to ask Michael Cohen. Michael is my attorney. You’ll have to ask Michael.”
In addition, Trump has asked Judge Kimba Wood for the opportunity to review all the documents and evidence collected from Cohen’s office and residences, something that Wood (or any other judge) is unlikely to do. However, he also substantially weakened any claim even for a special master, asserting during the same interview that Cohen did very little legal work for him, suggesting that there would be little if any attorney-client privileged information in the seized files. Trump stated:
“Let me just tell you, Michael is in business — he is really a businessman, a fairly big business, as I understand it.”
“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.”
“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.”
Perhaps Trump is trying to set Cohen up as another “coffee boy,” but these disclosures are very informative and any Vegas odds on Trump sitting for an interview with Special Counsel Robert Mueller just became longer because Trump is building a good case against himself – with or without Comey tapes.
Daniel is a lawyer writing and teaching about SCOTUS, and is the author of the book “The Chief Justices” about the SCOTUS as seen through the center seat.