Graham says that the checks Trump signed reimbursing Cohen for hush money shows that Trump didn’t think he was doing anything wrong because “People don’t write checks” if they think it’s a crime.
I don’t believe Lindsey Graham expects anyone to actually believe his argument. He knows it’s absurd and so do the more intelligent members of the Trump-Fox-GOP. Part of a right wing authoritarian uprising is this: “I say absurd things and you believe them.”
But let’s take his argument apart anyway.
Graham’s rationalization overlooks a few key facts:
- Trump is not afraid to openly and brazenly break the law (and lie) in plain sight.
- Trump carefully structured the transaction to hide the purpose of the payment, which is what we call consciousness of guilt.
- Given what is emerging about TrumpRussia, writing that check to Cohen was really the least of Trump’s lawbreaking.
As of February 2017, when Cohen met Trump in the oval office and Trump reassured him that his payments were coming, Trump believed he’d get away with everything. Why did he think he’d get away with it? He’d just won an election which put him at the head of the executive branch (DOJ, FBI, etc).
Shutting down any investigations must have seemed entirely doable. In fact, he acted as if he’d easily shut down the investigations—which of course means getting away with everything. Take his Feb. 2017 meeting with Comey.
Two things happened in Feb. 2017: Trump, in the oval office, assured Cohen he’d get paid. Also that was the month he met with Comey and said “I hope you can see your way . . . to letting Flynn go.” IOW, he thought shutting it all down would be easy
When shutting down the investigation wasn’t so easy, Trump began obstructing the probe in plain sight. In fact, he openly vowed to “fight back” against the Mueller probe (the legal term of course is obstructing justice—and it is a crime)
This is not a man worried about getting caught or facing consequences. Cohen told the committee on Wednesday that Trump was not joking when he said he could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and get away with it.
If Trump thought he could get away with shooting a person on Fifth Avenue, silly for Graham to suggest that he wouldn’t have written a check if he knew it was illegal.
The chilling part is this: Graham knows it’s absurd.
