Bizarre, Congress, Criminal law, Politics

Cohen Goes Out On The Town After Postponing Testimony Again For Health Reasons

I have been a long critic of Trump former counsel Michael Cohen whose lack of legal skills is only surpassed by his lack of legal ethics (here and here and here and here and here and here). Cohen is a serial liar and legal thug who committed various tax and fraud crimes worth millions. Cohen was given an absurdly low sentence by U.S. District Judge William H. Pauley III who fell for the latest dubious pitch of Cohen. While a teenager will get twice as much time for robbing a store for $1000, Cohen got just three years for stealing millions and lying under oath. He then was called to appear before Congress and worked a new sham as the redemptive sinner. Yet, there is always a warning of Caveat Emptor that comes with dealing with Cohen: buyer beware. Cohen has now postponed testimony repeatedly in Congress. The latest excuse was his health — a claim that was refuted by a videotape showing him enjoying a night out on the town at an expensive restaurant the night before.

Cohen’s attorney, Lanny Davis, told the Senate Intelligence Committee that Cohen had to postpone his scheduled Tuesday appearance “due to post-surgery medical needs.” Then a videotaped surfaced of Cohen enjoying himself at a swanky restaurant as captured by Christina Binkley, a reporter at L’Anvenue.

Christina Binkley‏Verified account @BinkleyOnStyleFollowFollow @BinkleyOnStyleMore

Had a lovely dinner last night at L’Avenue with … wait … who’s that there? Why, it’s Michael Cohen, greeting tables as he leaves a three hour dinner with friends, who he warmly hugged).

7:21 AM – 10 Feb 2019450 Retweets8

Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr expressed frustration at the latest excuse. “He’s already stiffed us on being in Washington today because of an illness. You have, um — on Twitter, a reporter reported he was having a wild night Saturday night eating out in New York with five buddies. Didn’t seem to have any physical limitations. And he was out with his wife last night.”

The only thing surprising is that these members believed Cohen at all.

The scene of Cohen enjoying the high-life in Manhattan rather than attending the hearing seems all-too-familiar. If you recall, we discussed how Cohen not only skipped a hearing before a judge in his case in Manhattan but decided to go outside to laugh and enjoy friends as the hearing was going on. He sat there puffing his cigar in front of an army of cameras, virtually mocking the Court.

Now Cohen will likely try to limit questions and avoid a public hearing. He has been implicated in previously undisclosed scams. Various people, including Donald Trump, have raised questions over whether Cohen withheld information from the Southern District to shield his father-in-law (who has long been accused of shady or criminal enterprises). Cohen’s biggest concern is not to commit perjury or implicate himself in new crimes. He hoodwinked the court — and Robert Mueller — in securing a fraction of the sentence that he deserved. He is not going to risk that by suddenly be open and truthful.

In the end, he will have to testify solely because he will be in prison . . . and unable to join his friends smoking cigars or eating at fancy restaurants.

31 thoughts on “Cohen Goes Out On The Town After Postponing Testimony Again For Health Reasons”

  2. http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2018/12/michael-cohen-might-not-actually-go-to-prison.html
    I think that John Dean was the first major Watergate figure to “turn” or “flip”, and he got off with a very lenient sentence.
    Especially given his level of involvement; he was in on the Watergate burglary planning and cover-up from the beginning.
    It remains to be seen how much time Cohen actually serves. The linked article speculates on the “best case” scenario for Cohen.
    It looks like 3 years would be the maximum amount of time he’ll serve, but I wonder if the plea deal was ironclad and covered all potential charges that might be brought outside the scope of the plea deal.
    I haven’t seen any articles that take up that possibilty.
    In the meantime, Cohen’s attorney/ political operative/ lobbyist Lanny Davis will probably continue to represent and speak for his client.
    I think Davis and Cohen have a “Go Fund Me”account established, but I haven’t heard how much was raised or where the money went.
    Attorney Davis first used the “threat excuse” when Cohen bailed on the scheduled Feb. 7 Congressional testimony.
    Now Davis claims that the ” post surgery medical needs” prevent Cohen from testifying. Without reading the fine print in the plea deal, I wonder just how “cooperative” Cohen is actually required to be, beyond whatever he’s already delivered to the OSC.

  3. Smoking kills humans and any animal around them. He puffs a cigar. Suicide is not painless. Guns are quicker. For all you smokers out there quit now like yoiur parents should have told you so. If you have a kid who is vaping then tape him.

  4. “While a teenager will get twice as much time for robbing a store for $1000, Cohen got just three years for stealing millions and lying under oath.”
    *********************
    To my knowledge, Cohen never stole anything from anyone using illegal force or under threat of illegal force which of course our exemplified teenager would have to have done to be guilty of robbery. At best, Cohen larcened, a less serious crime than either strong-arm or armed robbery. Hence, the sentence disparity makes some sense.

  5. Cohen doesn’t want to testify because he knows he won’t be getting softball questions from the Republicans. So he’s either going to have to plead the fifth of say, “I don’t recall.” Either way, he’s cooked.

  6. His umbrage, outrage, obession with people not being “truthful” (the horror) is rivaled by his giving his star pupil a pass. And this from an attorney who forced a porn actress down our collective throats sans antibiotics.

    1. Estovir:
      “And this from an attorney who forced a porn actress down our collective throats sans antibiotics.”
      ***********************
      Turn about seems fair play. LOL

    1. FFS: remind me, again, whose exclusive lawyer he was? And, again, didn’t I hear that he recorded everything and kept all of his old cell phones and Blackberries? And why is Turley going after him? Because he has the goods on Agent Orange, so this is just another pivot maneuver.

      Yes, Cohen is a slimy bugger, but no slimier than his formerly exclusive client.

      1. Cohen is the connection between Manafort’s discussion, before the election, of the Ukrainian Peace Proposal that amounted to sanctions relief for Russia with Konstantin Kiimnik of the GRU and Lt. Gen. Michael T. Flynn to whom Cohen delivered that sanctions-relieving Ukrainian Peace Proposal during the transition period. And, not to put too fine a point on it, but members of the Trump campaign discussed sanctions relief with The GRU before the election and with the Russian Ambassador after the election. And The GRU just so happens to have been the Russian military intelligence agency that hacked and disseminated thousands of emails damaging to Hillary Clinton through Wikileaks.

        Given that Manafort sold Trump down the river to Putin for Manafort’s personal financial gain, there must be something else that Manafort knows about Trump that Manafort uses as leverage over Trump to keep Manafort’s hopes for a pardon from Trump alive. It could be that Ukrainian Peace Proposal. Or it could be something completely and totally different. But unless and until Trump throws Manafort under the bus for having betrayed Trump to Putin, one must presume that Manafort, too, has kompromat on Trump. And whatever kompromat Manafort has on Trump is kompromat that Kilimnik delivered to Putin. Trump’s lawyers should start negotiating a plea-agreement between Trump and Mueller for Trump’s testimony against Putin.

  8. Breaking news – confidential sources say that CNN has obtained video of Mr. Cohen buying groceries at the Wegmans in Fairfax.

  9. I think he just figures he’ll testify after he’s gone to prison: that way he’ll get to leave his cell for the day.

    1. “The Post would have done journalists — to say nothing of the public at large — a real service if, instead of blowing millions of dollars on a Super Bowl ad, they had put that money into dealing with media bias. They could start by teaching journalists not to be propagandists for the far left wing of Democratic Party.”

      I thought the above portion of the article (that also provided statistics) should be emphasized.

    2. “Signs and symbols rule the world, not words nor laws.”

      ~ Confucius

      A lot of subliminal messaging to the masses via Super Bowl Ads, with such large viewership.

      1. If only it were that easy. Change the signs; change the world. The Sophists in The Groves of Academe have been hard at work on the sign-changing enterprise for over two millennia already. Well . . . Things have admittedly changed a bit since then. But The Sophists in The Grove of Academe are the only ones who think that they changed the world by changing the signs

        No offense intended to anyone else except The Sophists.

  11. “…Michael Cohen whose lack of legal skills is only surpassed by his lack of legal ethics … Cohen is a serial liar and legal thug who committed various tax and fraud crimes worth millions.”

    I wonder why T**** made Cohen his personal attorney for years and years? Can’t imagine why.

    1. He wasn’t Trump’s ‘personal attorney’. Trump was on his client list and he had a salaried position in the Trump Organization. He was an attorney for discrete purposes. Someone like Trump employs scads of lawyers. Cohen wouldn’t have had anything to do with Trump’s tax returns or his estate planning because such matters are not among his practice lines.

      1. I always enjoy the idiocy of those whom everyone’s life and business are precisely like their own. By my count, Trump has over 30 lawyers/firms for his business and personal matters and that’s just the litigation firms. Who knows how many government lawyers?

  12. “While a teenager will get twice as much time for robbing a store for $1000, Cohen got just three years for stealing millions and lying under oath.” This is kind of a thing with the legal system. To quote Anatole France: “The law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread.” Another quotation, attributed to Solon, goes: “Laws are like spiders’ webs which, if anything small falls into them they ensnare it, but large things break through and escape.” Uh . . . yeah, Glenn Greenwald wrote a book on this issue. And I would add that, loosely related to Stalin’s quip that “A single death is a tragedy; a million deaths is a statistic”, punishment of the small crime among the powerful also conceals the greater, even when it is not a problem of proving the offense, as in the case of Al Capone, e.g., Nixon being impeached for the Watergate break-in instead of for bombing Cambodia in violation of international law and creating the conditions for the Khmer Rouge’s rise. I once saw a bumper sticker that said, “You want respect for the law? Make the law respectable.” This is a perennial hard problem for the legal system, it seems. I’m sorry to say that it does not look like it’s going to be solved, ever.

    1. Nixon being impeached for the Watergate break-in instead of for bombing Cambodia in violation of international law and creating the conditions for the Khmer Rouge’s rise.

      1. There is no such thing as international law.

      2. Wm. Shawcross was full of it. The notion that the rise of the Khmer Rouge was a function of aerial campaigns against the Viet Cong in remote sections of Cambodia is chuckleheaded. The U.S. Air Force wasn’t supplying the Khmer Rouge. The Chinese government did that, and the vain fool Prince Sihanouk lent them his good name.

      1. 1. There is no such thing as international law.
        *********************
        Well there is such a thing as IL, but it’s routinely ignored by the country’s claiming to be bound to it.

        1. No, there is international convention. There is no law as there is no authority to define, enforce, and adjudicate those conventions. Convention governs the rubrics of transacting business, not substantive moves and counter-moves in politics among nations. The VietCong and the North VietNam government made use of Cambodian territory in operations contra the South VietNam government. They get smacked where they are. The Cambodian government was failing to control its own territory; you snooze, you lose. To complain about violations of ‘international law’ in such situations is non sequitur.

          1. Tell Malcolm Shaw who is on his 8th edition.

            States are “independent” of international law unless they accept the law. The US participates in some international law and doesn’t in other. DSS, though you can make your argument it is specious as the acceptance of the existence of international law is wide spread and commonly referred to by the international community.

          2. TIA x2:
            Since the Peace of Westphalia in 1648 many countries have agreed to abide by international norms set forth in treaties and based on policies deriving from conventions like the Geneva Conventions. There are codified modes of behavior which are administered by bodies like the European Courts of Human Rights and the International Criminal Court. Jurisdiction is voluntary but there are written norms of international behavior to which some states agree to be bound so that would just make the definition of International Law.

  13. Cite him for contempt of Congress. And throw the book at his lying lawyer.

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