Last night, BuzzFeed
dropped a bombshell that two law enforcement sources report that the federal
government has evidence that President Trump directed his former lawyer Michael
Cohen to lie to Congress. The sources also report that Trump directed Cohen to
set up a personal meeting with Vladimir Putin regarding the Moscow Trump Tower
deal during the campaign, even as he denied having business dealings with
Russia.
The allegations center around the Moscow Trump Tower. In
previous court filings associated with Michael Cohen’s guilty plea, Special
Counsel Mueller has noted that Cohen falsely claimed the project was ended in
January 2016 in an attempt to “minimize links between the Moscow Project and
Individual 1 in hopes of limiting the ongoing Russia investigations.” Individual
1 is understood to be Donald Trump. Evidence has shown that Trump’s dealings
with Russia on the Moscow project lasted until June
2016, well into the campaign.
Buzzfeed says that the two sources told them that investigators
have evidence that Trump personally directed Cohen to lie and make claims that
the Trump Tower negotiations ended much earlier than they did in an effort to
cover up Trump’s contacts with Russia during the 2016 campaign. Per the report,
the evidence against Trump includes the testimony
of “multiple witnesses from the Trump
Organization and internal company emails, text messages, and a cache of other
documents.”
Donald Trump is well known for his casual relationship with
the truth. Yesterday we noted the evolution
in Team Trump’s denials of the Russian collusion story. The Trump
Administration line has gone from blanket denials to carefully parsed statements that no laws were broken by
the president after the blanket denials were shown to be false. Thus far, however,
there has been no direct link between Donald Trump and Russian contacts.
While previous allegations about Donald Trump’s involvement
fell short of criminal activity, if there is evidence that the president directed
Cohen to lie about the Moscow deal, it would implicate Trump in a felony. Micheal Cohen pled
guilty last November to a charge of
making false statements to Congress. The charge was brought by the Special
Counsel’s office and it was reported at the time that Cohen was cooperating
with Mueller. If President Trump directed Cohen to lie under oath, he would be
guilty of suborning perjury.
The big question is whether the Buzzfeed report is accurate
and the government has evidence that Donald Trump instructed Cohen to lie to Congress.
Mueller has not shown his cards yet, but
we do know that the FBI
raided Cohen’s office in April 2018. Three months later, several recordings
of Trump and Cohen meeting together emerged. The recordings apparently were
made by Cohen and were part of the material seized by the FBI. If Cohen was in
possession of emails, text messages, or other written communications from Trump
directing him to break the law in an effort to cover up his dealings with
Russia, those communications are almost certainly in the possession of the FBI
as well.
However, as Erick
Erickson pointed out this morning, BuzzFeed is a less than credible outlet. So far, no other outlets have
corroborated the story and John Santucci,
senior editorial producer for ABC News, tweeted
that he is unaware of the Mueller team interviewing anyone within the Trump
Organization. Some BuzzFeed reporting, such as the pee tape story, has not been
supported by evidence while other stories, such as the revelation that the
Moscow Trump Tower dealings continued during the election, have ultimately been
proven true.
Many conservative pundits note that if the allegations
against Trump are proven true, it dramatically increases the chances of
impeachment. Suborning perjury is a charge that even most Republicans would be
hard-pressed to overlook.
At the very least, the story will give new life to the numerous
investigations into the Trump campaign’s dealings with Russia and make it harder
for the president to claim that collusion is “fake news.” As we grow close to
Groundhog Day, the Russia investigation will continue to dog President Trump
and we can expect more than another six weeks of investigations and hearings.
Originally published
on The
Resurgent
No comments:
Post a Comment