[View here as a Twitter thread]
Initially I was skeptical of the stories that Cohen will flip (because Trump was so mean to him) because they came from Trump’s inner circle with an obvious motive: Set Cohen up to discredit his testimony. I was skeptical because it won’t work with a jury, & because . . . .
1/…crimes like money laundering are proven mostly with documents, so less need for testimony. And SDNY is in soon have in their hands tons of documents. When Cohen went into court, he he had a busy law practice with multiple clients. The court forced him to reveal the names.
2/ He named Trump, Hannity & Broidy. Hannity and Trump have now said Cohen did little or no legal work for them. Broidy has been silent. (Now the Trump Org has intervened, so there you have another) This leaves Cohen looking pretty stupid—like his buddies asked…
3/…him to say something in court & when it didn’t work, they tossed him to the alligators. The strategy makes no sense from the viewpoint of preparing for litigation—but Trump (and pals) seem not to care what happens in a court of law.
4/ They care only what happens in the court of public opinion. If you adjust your thinking and see the world through Alex Jones’s eyes, it doesn’t matter what happens in a court of law if (as Trump said this weekend) “our laws are so corrupt and stupid.”
5/ What Mueller finds doesn’t matter if he is part of a deep state sting or coup to bring Trump down. mlive.com/expo/erry-2018… If you see what is happening as a radical right wing takeover of the government instead of prep for litigation, Trump is doing everything exactly right.
6/ What we learned from the Mueller indictments so far is that the Trump campaign followed Putin’s playbook in Ukraine, down to “lock her up” (Yulia Tymoshenko was jailed). Trump’s reaction to the Cohen raid was to hold a rally in Michigan and stir up his base…
7/…saying things like “Our laws are corrupt and stupid.” It is good to remember that a radicalized right wing embracing authoritarianism can be very dangerous. I’ve been keeping a list of the crimes that the evidence points to, and the list is long:
8/The list answers the question, “What crimes were committed?” but doesn’t guarantee a particular result. I’m NOT saying the right wing takeover will work. But we need to adjust our thinking. Pointing at all the evidence and saying he’s going to prison overlooks the real danger.
9/ Sometimes I’m afraid that the Resistance and Trump are playing different games with different rules. The Resistance is playing ping pong. Trump is bowling. Each time Trump throws a heavy ball to the ground, the Resistance is sure he’s screwing up.
10/ Meanwhile Trump scoffs at those wimpy ping pong balls. The (gloomy) question is this: “Are we living through the decline and fall of one of the world’s oldest democracies?” (from “How Democracies Die” twitter.com/Teri_Kanefield… And how do we thwart a radical right wing takeover?
11/ Adding to #3. Several people have written to correct me, saying that the 3 clients Cohen named were Hannity, Trump, & Trump Org. In fact, in the original court doc and at the hearing, Cohen named Hannity, Trump, and Broidy. See attached document:
12/ Broidy appears on p. 3. Trump Org later intervened. I have no explanation for why Broidy quietly disappeared. Perhaps because the legal work Cohen was illegal & embarrassing. See this thread: twitter.com/Teri_Kanefield… The 3rd, whose identity they tried to hide, was Hannity.
