This weak, a new batch of secret memos were released in response to a lawsuit by the Buzzfeed News. In that trove of material, was how Team Trump tried to keep Michael Cohen in line. Cohen was promised in the “code” that Cohen testified before Congress about. He was told that Trump “had his back” and that “he loves you” if Cohen would parrot the team trump narrative on Russia.
Of course, Cohen eventually found his conscience and spoke frankly about Trump’s misdeeds, dishonesty, and behind the scenes manipulations.
Cohen is now serving a three year sentence for bank fraud, tax evasion, and campaign finance violations related to the hush payment to porn star Stormy Daniels before the 2016 election.
Cohen was told he had to “keep Trump out of the messaging related to Russia” and “keep Trump out of the Russia conversation” in preparation for his testimony on the matter to Congress.
That is essentially another quid pro quo from Trump. Cohen stays loyal and does as he asks, the president takes care of him and keeps him out of trouble.
Check out the screenshot below (via Buzzfeed):
Congress is now looking at Trump’s Ukraine dealings in it’s impeachment inquiry. Many people point to the Russian investigation and see many parallels in the two scandals. In both, the administration and Trump himself seem to stop at nothing to prevent the people around Trump to testify to the appropriate congressional committees. Some of the witnesses have stayed loyal to Trump, often refusing to answer questions or parroting talking points to congressional members.
It seems that this defense is not popular among the American people as the nation seems to be moving more favorable to Trump being impeached and removed from office. In a new poll just released this weekend by the Wall Street Journal (owned by Rupert Murdoch, the same person who owns Fox News) about half (49 percent) now support impeachment and removal from office.
Cohen fell out of favor with the President when he decided to play ball. He owned up to previous lies and gave more revealing and frank testimony to Congress after making a deal and copping to the charges listed above.
In the coming months it will be interesting to see how many more Trump allies decide enough is enough and turn on the POTUS despite any other promises, coded or otherwise, of quid pro quo.
