Donald Trump has repeatedly been heard to defend himself against charges by women that he sexually harassed or assaulted by saying, how could you think that? She’s not my type. Stormy Daniels, who Trump also denies having sex with, was very much Trump’s type.
But if Trump had a “type” when it came to women, he also had a “type” with the men he surrounded himself with. Steve Bannon, who conned people out of money with a phony scheme to build part of Trump’s wall, was his type. Roger Stone, who walks around with a tattoo of Richard Nixon on his back and colluded with Russian intelligence agents to help elect Trump, is also his type.
But the person in this trial who by far best represents Donald Trump’s “type” is Michael Cohen, the lawyer Trump picked to represent him when he was president and CEO of the Trump Organization.
He’s a serial liar, a hustler, a con man, a double-dealer, a man, who if he had to, would sell his own mother to squiggle out of a corner he got himself into. Donald Trump didn’t have to take the stand in this trial. The prosecution put his moral doppelganger in the witness box in his stead.
That’s the first problem Donald Trump’s lawyers have with Michael Cohen: Everything Cohen did in covering up Trump’s one night stand with Stormy Daniels was done for Donald Trump and at Trump’s direction.
The second problem the defense has with Michael Cohen is the jurisdiction of the trial. It’s taking place in Manhattan, where both Donald Trump and Michael Cohen made their bones, as the mob saying goes. Lying, conniving scumbags have been working Manhattan since cows grazed in meadows along the creek that was eventually paved over to become Spring Street in what is now SoHo.
You could say that everyone in Manhattan has known a Donald Trump “type,” except the reality is, as residents of the prime borough of New York City, they have actually known Donald Trump himself, through his constant self-promotion during his time as a real estate developer, tabloid star, man-about-town, and reality TV host. Paying off a porn-star to protect his own reputation is supremely Trumpian, the exact kind of thing Manhattanites would expect him to do.
The third problem the defense has with Michael Cohen is, everyone in Manhattan has either read about or come across a lawyer like Michael Cohen – one who is, in the words of The Dictionary of Modern Legal Usage, to describe a hustler such as Cohen, “a rascally” lawyer, “shrewdly dishonest and unscrupulous.”
The point being, back in the day when Donald Trump was suing anybody and everybody in pursuit of (1) money, and (2) his identity as a self-declared billionaire, or being sued himself, the lawyer he chose to do his suing or to defend himself against lawsuits by others, was Michael Cohen. He was, from 2006 onward, Trump’s man, acting on Trump’s orders, doing Trump’s dirty work.
Cohen was famous for calling up journalists who wrote unflatteringly about Trump and threatening to sue them. In an interview with ABC News in 2011, Cohen put his representation of Donald Trump this way: “If somebody does something Mr. Trump doesn't like, I do everything in my power to resolve it to Mr. Trump's benefit. If you do something wrong, I'm going to come at you, grab you by the neck and I'm not going to let you go until I'm finished.” He was called Trump’s “pit bull.” In 2015, when the Daily Beast dug up a quote from the divorce action filed by Ivana Trump saying she had been “raped” by Trump when she was his wife, Cohen called the author of the piece and told him, “I'm warning you, tread very fucking lightly, because what I'm going to do to you is going to be fucking disgusting.”
Michael Cohen was speaking, of course, on behalf of his client, Donald Trump.
The fourth problem for the defense with Michael Cohen emerged today in Todd Blanche’s cross-examination of Michael Cohen: he is utterly unapologetic about who he is. Blanche tried again and again for a “gotcha” moment with Cohen on the stand. He asked, “Do you want President Trump to get convicted in this case?” Cohen, whose two books are titled Revenge and Disloyal, calmly said, “Sure.”
Blanche moved on to ask Cohen if he had called the defendant “a Cheeto-dusted cartoon villain” and “a boorish cartoon misogynist."
“Sounds like something I would say,” answered the man who once said he would “take a bullet” for Donald Trump.
Blanche went on to attack Cohen for making money off his appearance as a witness against Trump with his podcast and the merchandise he sells, such as a t-shirt with an image of Trump behind bars wearing an orange jumpsuit. Cohen was, again, unapologetic. Legal eagles such as Joyce Vance on MSNBC, who was in the courtroom for Cohen’s testimony, described Cohen as calm and collected almost to a fault, as well he should be. The defense is attacking Michael Cohen for being a clone of their client, a man who would do anything for a buck.
Apparently, the prosecution’s strategy with Michael Cohen is to show the similarities between Cohen and Trump. It’s almost as if by presenting Cohen as their summary witness, the prosecution is preparing to ask the jury in their summation, who do you want to vote for? The guy who actually had sex with a porn star and ordered its coverup, or the guy whose job it was to “take care of it” for him?
It's a gamble that could only be taken in Manhattan.
Lucian K. Truscott IV, a graduate of West Point, has had a 50-year career as a journalist, novelist, and screenwriter. He has covered Watergate, the Stonewall riots, and wars in Lebanon, Iraq, and Afghanistan. He is also the author of five bestselling novels. You can subscribe to his daily columns at luciantruscott.substack.com and follow him on Twitter @LucianKTruscott and on Facebook at Lucian K. Truscott IV.
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