Michael Cohen's lawyer has done real damage to the case against Trump

[DonViejo]

By Aaron Blake
August 27 at 2:38 PM

One of the most bizarre aspects of the investigations engulfing the Trump administration is the lawyers involved. Here we have a presidency on the line, and this is Trump’s team? The top legal spokesmen for each side are … Rudolph W. Giuliani and Lanny Davis!?

Up until this point, though, Giuliani was the Great Contradictor and Davis was merely a colorful character. Now that has changed in a big way.

In a new interview with The Washington Post’s Tom Hamburger and Rosalind S. Helderman, Davis is backing off two massive claims he made in recent weeks, including that former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen has told people he witnessed President Trump being informed of Donald Trump Jr.'s 2016 Trump Tower meeting with a Russian lawyer before it happened.

“I should have been more clear — including with you — that I could not independently confirm what happened,” Davis said, adding: “I regret my error.”

Davis also backed off his claim that Cohen has information suggesting that Trump knew in advance about Russian hacking of Democrats’ emails in 2016.

more
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2018/08/27/michael-cohens-lawyer-has-done-real-damage-case-against-trump

[NewJeffCT]

1. I'm sure that Mueller already has information that Trump knew about

the meeting at Trump Tower. I doubt anything important goes on there without Donny Dollhands knowing about it.

[riversedge]

2. I sure hope so.

[madaboutharry]

3. Lanny Davis has not done real damage to anything.

This story has barely been reported on and what Lanny Davis says doesn't matter. He is seen as just another lawyer shooting off his mouth.

The only thing that matters is what Robert Mueller has to say.

[jberryhill]

5. "just another lawyer shooting off his mouth"

You nailed it.

The extent to which people confuse "Trump, the television show" with anything that actually matters, is downright disturbing at times. People think that the TV show means something when, in reality, it doesn't mean shit.

Real lawyers don't spend their time blabbering away on television.

[Sanity Claws]

7. Exactly

He is just another talker who lets his mouth get ahead of his brain.
He does not represent the prosecution, only a former employee of Trump who now hates Trump with a passion.

[CentralMass]

8. +1

[C_U_L8R]

4. Mueller vets his witnesses

no harm done... this is just a pr thing

[Trust Buster]

6. Lanny Davis has committed errors that a seasoned attorney should never commit.

You NEVER over promise. Add to that the fact that he was the Clinton’s lawyer for years and he has done a real disservice to the cause IMO.

[Iliyah]

11. Lanny Davis knows what he is doing.

[Trust Buster]

13. Disagree. He should be instructing his client to talk to Mueller.

Making outrageous claims to the media just to have to walk them back is not evidence that Davis knows what he is doing IMO.

[GoCubsGo]

9. Oh, please.

Does the schmuck who wrote this actually believe that the "case against Trump" will be litigated based on what's being said on TV shows? The stupid. It burns.

[stopbush]

15. Bingo

Mountains of evidence covering decades of crime...and a TV lawyer stretching the truth in an attempt to get a deal for his client somehow hurts the case built by the mountains of evidence?

Geez, if it’s that easy, why don’t all defense attorneys simply take the same tack in any case they’re defending? Sounds like an easy paycheck.

[GoCubsGo]

16. Cohen hired Davis to dig at Trump.

Lanny Davis is one of Hillary Clinton's best friends. Cohen knows this will drive Trump nuts. I'm guessing he also has other lawyers, and Davis is merely his "TV lawyer", much as Guiliani is Trump's TV lawyer. I don't think Davis will be doing the bulk of the defending, when push comes to shove. His other lawyers will.

[JI7]

10. Haha, do they think Mueller is doing things based on what Lanny Davis says ?

[Laura PourMeADrink]

12. I take it that Cohen told Lanny that trump knew

About Russian meeting...but when it came down to it, of course it's true, but Cohen has no physical proof. Lanny was ahead of his skiis. Mueller may not either but he's probably got statements from 10 people who say he did.

[moriah]

14. IMHO, Cohen actually did take a bullet for Trump, and his "offers to cooperate" are bait.

By pleading to a campaign finance violation and stating Trump ordered it to influence the election, he avoids the implications about bribery -- he negotiated a NDA with Daniels that included provisions for notification if subpoenaed was only signed after multiple Trump accusers had retained attorneys, and at all times Trump repaid the "loan" the Summer Zervos lawsuit was happening.

Corruptly paying someone to refuse to cooperate with attorneys who might want to hear what they have to say, to make it harder for attorneys to identify them as potential witnesses that disprove Trump's assertion he didn't "conduct his life" in that time by asking women to his hotel room, even if the agreement says they can answer a a subpoena (but only if they give notice to Trump so he could attempt to quash it) -- pretty much by-definition bribery.

A straightforward NDA in both their real names wouldn't be "corruptly" paying, but going through an elaborate corporate shell game is. Even Pecker went soft on selling enforcement rights on the McDougal NDA to Trump once he had accusers and the potential existed Trump would be sued. They wanted evidence destroyed that they'd even contemplated it. I think they were trying to avoid being linked into something bigger than campaign finance. And with bribery being a specifically named impeachable offense...

Essentially, I'm sure the NDAs were sought both for election wins and for keeping those women out of court. Trump should be (and if he's just playing dumb, is) grateful Cohen went with saying in his plea the purpose was the election, not the lawsuits.