Don’t back the moving trucks up to the White House just yet, as President Donald Trump’s former attorney, Michael Cohen, pleading guilty Tuesday to eight criminal counts may not be a “lethal” blow to the president.
That’s according to noted Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz, who appeared on Fox News’ “Tucker Carlson Tonight” to cast doubt on the notion that this will lead to an impeachment.
Dershowitz didn’t rule out the possibility that Trump may have violated election laws, telling host Tucker Carlson that Cohen’s plea is “the beginning of a story that will unravel over time.”
But the liberal law professor downplayed the severity of such a violation, insisting “it is not nearly as deadly, lethal as some have portrayed it as being.”
“Violation of election laws are regarded as kind of jaywalking in the realm of things about elections,” Dershowitz said. “Every administration violates the election laws, every candidate violates the election laws when they run for president.”
Not that Democrats and the anti-Trump networks CNN and MSNBC aren’t trying to make a proverbial mountain out of a molehill.
“Here, they’re trying to elevate this into an impeachable offense or a felony against the president,” Dershowitz explained. “Look, they may name the president as an un-indicted co-conspirator… Naming someone as an un-indicted co-conspirator is very unfair because he has no opportunity to defend himself or herself.”
Cohen’s guilty plea came the same day Trump’s former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, was convicted of eight counts of tax and bank fraud — the jury could not reach a verdict on 10 remaining counts.
Manafort’s conviction failed to implicate President Trump, but Cohen said he made illegal campaign contributions “in coordination and at the direction of a candidate for federal office.”
That candidate being Donald Trump, of course, although Cohen didn’t mention the president by name in acknowledging his role in reaching money agreements with two women, porn star Stormy Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal, who claim to have had affairs with Trump.
Of course, the media is only too happy to fill in the blanks.
Cohen just directly implicated Trump. Trump's lawyers, as @nytmike and @mattapuzzo and I reported months ago, have long believed that Cohen presented a greater threat to Trump than the Mueller probe.
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) August 21, 2018
Cohen committed crimes "In co-ordination with, and at the direction of" @realDonaldTrump . Thus, President appears to be co-conspirator and/or aider and abettor of a federal crime.
— Jeffrey Toobin (@JeffreyToobin) August 21, 2018
*COHEN SAYS HE VIOLATED CAMPAIGN LAW AT DIRECTION OF CANDIDATE
*COHEN DOESN'T NAME CANDIDATE WHO DIRECTED CAMPAIGN VIOLATIONhint: it's @realDonaldTrump
— Jennifer Epstein (@jeneps) August 21, 2018
But witness credibility will be a factor here, as Trump’s lawyer, Rudy Giuliani said in response to the days’ events, according to the New York Times’ Maggie Haberman.
“There is no allegation of any wrongdoing against the President in the government’s charges against Mr. Cohen,” Giuliani said. “It is clear that, as the prosecutor noted, Mr. Cohen’s actions reflect a pattern of lies and dishonesty over a significant period of time.”
Rudy responds: "There is no allegation of any wrongdoing against the President in the government's charges against Mr. Cohen. It is clear that, as the prosecutor noted, Mr. Cohen's actions reflect a pattern of lies and dishonesty over a significant period of time.”
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) August 21, 2018
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The longest-tenured writer at BizPac Review, Tom grew up in Maryland before moving to Central Florida as a young teen. It is in the Sunshine State that he honed both his passion for politics and his writing skills.
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