Crime

Trump Goes On Television, Destroys Two Legal Cases, Will Blame ‘Fake News’

Trump voluntarily called into Fox and Friends and somehow managed to make everything worse for himself.

By Elie Mystal on April 26, 2018 12:44 pm

It has been 433 days since President Donald Trump last held a press conference. However, Trump’s cowardly refusal to take questions from the press has not stopped President Snowflake from calling into “safe” news programs to give his unchallenged take on affairs.

His favorite mouthpiece is Fox and Friends, and Trump called in this morning to discuss the “cloud” hanging over his presidency. The call lasted about five minutes and during it, Trump managed to destroy key legal arguments he’s been making in two separate cases.

If Trump was any other client, his lawyers would be arguing for “diminished capacity” by now. He does not appear to be mentally capable enough to participate in his own defense.

The first idiot bombshell was about the Stormy Daniels case. Remember, Trump’s entire argument has been that Michael Cohen acted alone on the hush money payment to Daniels. That always sounded like a lie, and Trump admitted as much this morning. From the Washington Post:

“Michael represents me, like with this crazy Stormy Daniels deal, he represented me,” Trump said. “And from what I’ve seen, he did absolutely nothing wrong. There were no campaign funds going into this.”

So… Trump did know that Cohen was working to hush up Stormy Daniels? A legitimate news organization would have asked Trump WHY Cohen was doing this work, but I think we all already know why. The key issue here is that the Cohen “acting alone” farce is now exposed.

Trump knew! If Cohen made the payments with his own money, that was an illegal campaign contribution. If Trump paid the money, he has to account for where it came from. Either way:

Michael Avenatti, weighed in a few minutes later on MSNBC and said that Trump had made a “hugely damaging admission.”

AND THAT’S NOT THE ONLY CASE TRUMP TORPEDOED THIS MORNING.

Over in the Southern District of New York, McDermott Will & Emery lawyers are fighting to shield Michael Cohen’s documents from the federal investigators who seized them. Cohen’s lawyers are arguing that most of the documents are privileged, while SDNY has been saying that Cohen’s records are predominately business records, not legal ones.

Trump went on Fox and… accidentally sided with the SDNY:

“Michael is a businessman. He’s got a business. He also practices law. I would say, probably, the big thing is his business. I have nothing to do with his business.”

Trump described Cohen as one of many members of his legal network.

“I have so many attorneys you wouldn’t believe,” Trump said.

And asked how much of his legal work Cohen is responsible for, Trump said: “As a percentage of my overall legal work, a tiny, tiny fraction.”

SDNY has already seized on this admission.

Have fun with that one, MWE lawyers.

Those were the two legal arguments Trump actively destroyed today. But Trump also almost went on to promise that he would commit additional crimes, only the good sense of the Fox and Friends hosts cut him off before he could promise to obstruct justice again.

I just want you to remember that this is what Trump volunteered to his friendly media mouthpieces. Later, when he complains about the “fake news” being “unfair” to him, remember that he himself just went on Fox, harpooned two of his critical legal arguments, and avoided talking about obstruction of justice only by the grace of friendly interviewers.

Trump doesn’t need to take the Fifth (like Cohen did last night). He needs to be put in the Hannibal Lecter mask.

Trump says for first time that Cohen represented him in Stormy Daniels case [Washington Post]

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 [email protected]. He will resist.