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Michael Cohen's Cease And Desist Letter To Stormy Daniels Is Exactly The Kind Of Stupid, Bullying Tactic She Accuses Him Of

If Michael Cohen doesn't want to look like a thug lawyer, he's doing a bad job.

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Michael D. Cohen

Responding to the cease and desist letter sent to his client from Michael Cohen’s lawyers, Stormy Daniels’s attorney, Michael Avenatti, said: “Will this guy ever come clean with the American people or is he more interested in trying to role play Ray Donovan (badly)?”

Burn. Scorching burn.

On 60 Minutes last night, Stormy Daniels detailed an inconsequential affair that Donald Trump and Michael Cohen seem hell bent on turning into a disaster of federal proportions.

I really don’t care who the president has sex with, which is a popular opinion that respectable people are supposed to hold. But I also don’t really care if Trump and Cohen violated campaign finance law to pay his mistress hush money, which is a less popular opinion. Obviously, I’m all for fairness: Donald Trump should get indicted for exactly the same thing that John Edwards got indicted for. I just don’t care that this guy or that guy violated the letter of a campaign finance law whose spirit is broken.

Donald Trump allegedly sexually ASSAULTED OR HARASSED 19 WOMEN with UNWANTED sexual advances. THAT, I care about.

And I care about Michael Cohen, who already has to be in the running for “Worst Lawyer Of The Decade.” Cohen, arguably, had one job: convince a porn star not to talk about an affair nobody would really care about. Not only has that been a complete failure, but Cohen has probably made himself a target in the Robert Mueller Russia investigation.

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Cohen claims he paid off Daniels, without Trump’s knowledge. If true, that’s a massive ethical violation. If false, it’s an illegal campaign contribution. By allowing this information to become public, Cohen has shown Mueller’s people a roadmap for how Trump — I mean, David Dennison — might try to launder money. Great job, counselor.

The most devasting “new” allegation to come out of Daniels’s interview last night was her claim that’s somebody threatened her while going to the gym with her infant daughter. Daniels said that she’s never seen the man again, but said she believes the threat came at the behest of Michael Cohen.

It’s that belief that led to today’s idiotic cease and desist letter. Cohen, who is himself lawyered up, demanded that Daniels retract her statement on 60 Minutes.

C&Ds are classic legal bullying tactics. Anyone can send one to anybody. They are literally designed to intimidate.

Seeing as Stormy is accusing Cohen of trying to intimidate her, publicly trying to intimidate her is an interesting choice.

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Moreover, Cohen apparently wants Daniels to stop saying she believes that Cohen was behind that threat — he wants her to stop “insinuating” Cohen threatened her.

It’s a dumb request because Daniels didn’t “insinuate” a damn thing. She claimed right out and said that she believes Cohen was behind it.

Opinions are not defamatory, at least when you go out of your way, as Daniels and Anderson Cooper both did, to make clear that you are giving your opinion and not offering a statement of fact.

Even if Cohen clears the opinion hurdle, Cohen would have to show harm. That’s where the Ray Donovan burn is so good. Cohen has been holding himself out as Donald Trump’s “fixer,” and one of the things fixers have been known to do is threaten women. It’s hard to see how what Daniels said could make Cohen look any worse.

But, perhaps most importantly, when will Trump people realize that threatening this porn star with legal retribution is just not going to work? Trump’s “Christian” base may be all about stoning Hester Prynne and voting for Arthur Dimmesdale. But trying to intimidate Stormy Daniels into silence simply isn’t working.

Somebody needs to spank Michael Cohen.

Michael Cohen’s lawyer sends Stormy Daniels cease and desist letter after ’60 Minutes’ interview [Fox News]

Elie Mystal is the Executive Editor of Above the Law and the Legal Editor for More Perfect. He can be reached @ElieNYC on Twitter, or at elie@abovethelaw.com. He will resist.

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