Michael Cohen raised his proper hand on Monday within the Manhattan trial of Donald Trump and swore to inform the reality. It was a meaningless gesture.
Cohen has achieved it earlier than after which proceeded to lie underneath oath. He went to jail for it after mendacity to courts, mendacity to banks, mendacity to Congress, and mendacity to the IRS. But, as soon as once more, Cohen insists that now he’s telling the reality. He needs jurors to imagine him. This time.
Cohen presents a contradiction about reality and falsity. In philosophy and logic it’s often called the “liar’s paradox,” and it bedevils juries every time ordinary liars take the witness stand and promise to inform the reality.
The paradox is that this: if a liar certainly lied, then his admission of his lies is truthful. Until, after all, he’s mendacity concerning the lie and the whole lot else. You may by no means actually know. The seek for reality turns into inconceivable. In a court docket of regulation the place the central witness is a continual fabulist, the “liar’s paradox” equals affordable doubt.
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It was on full show Monday when Trump’s one-time self-proclaimed “fixer” failed to attach the accused to any cognizable crime. However Cohen readily confessed that he usually lied and bullied individuals. He additionally deceived his personal shopper, Trump, by secretly recording him shortly earlier than the 2016 election.
With out permission, Cohen then shared it with the writer of the Nationwide Enquirer. It was a sleazy maneuver that may advantage disbarment for breaching the attorney-client privilege. Regardless of. Cohen was way back disbarred over his felony convictions.
When the recording was performed in court docket it appeared to assist, not damage, the protection. Cohen refers cryptically to funds made to kill a narrative, which isn’t against the law. Trump seems considerably at midnight and is heard asking, “What financing?” Cohen assured him that he was taking good care of the whole lot. His boss didn’t have to know the small print. “I’ve received it…I’m on it,” mentioned Cohen.
THE PROSECUTION’S STAR WITNESS AGAINST TRUMP, MICHAEL COHEN, IS A CHRONIC AND HABITUAL LIAR
It’s bewildering why the prosecution ventured there, besides to smear Trump with the phantasm of some amorphous wrongdoing. It was completely irrelevant for the reason that matter handled former Playboy mannequin Karen McDougal who was by no means referred to as as a prosecution witness and is unconnected to the costs. Trump refused to pay her cash over a purported affair that he denies.
Cohen then moved on to his tangle with ex-porn star Stormy Daniels, who was intensifying her obvious extortion scheme as voters had been quickly heading to the polls. Cohen admitted that it was his concept to pay $130,000 for her silence accompanied by a lawful non-disclosure settlement. As Trump’s lawyer, Cohen dealt with the negotiated contract which was later booked as “authorized bills” as a result of that’s what they had been.
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The truth is, Cohen confirmed the accuracy of the bookkeeping when he defined that the cash he obtained was compensation for his work on the authorized settlement with Daniels, reimbursed funds to him, plus a retainer for his authorized providers as Trump’s newly named private legal professional.
So, the place precisely is the unique fraud that kinds the idea for the 34 misdemeanor fees alleged by the prosecution? Nowhere.
Cohen later testified that Trump was involved about how Daniel’s story may affect his 2016 electoral possibilities. Not surprisingly, that nugget is contradicted by different witnesses who knowledgeable the jury that the candidate’s major concern was his spouse and household.
Both means, it doesn’t matter. Bragg’s argument is legally flawed as a result of Trump used his personal cash, not marketing campaign funds. The regulation imposes limits on the latter, however not on the previous.
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That is without doubt one of the principal the explanation why the Federal Election Fee (FEC) decided there was no marketing campaign finance violation. The Division of Justice agreed. No civil nice was levied or felony cost rendered. These two entities have unique authority over federal elections. Not an area prosecutor corresponding to Alvin Bragg.
However that didn’t cease the Manhattan DA from usurping federal jurisdiction by bringing a marketing campaign case that he has no energy to implement and for violations that don’t exist.
Underneath regular circumstances, the DOJ would have intervened to cease it. As an alternative, Legal professional Basic Merrick Garland tossed a going away occasion for his deputy, Matthew Colangelo, who deserted his prestigious job on the Division to turn out to be Bragg’s lead prosecutor.
Undeterred by the boundaries of the regulation, these ethically bankrupt prosecutors have cobbled collectively a lawless case by asserting that Trump falsified his personal personal enterprise data with the felonious intent to hide one other crime that they nonetheless refused to determine. Presumably, it’s marketing campaign finance. Nevertheless it’s truly not.
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Former FEC Chairman Bradley Smith put it this manner in his column for The Wall Road Journal: “The ‘crime’ that Mr. Bragg claims is being lined up isn’t against the law in any respect.”
Even when the DA’s warped authorized idea proceeds, he should nonetheless show that Trump himself understood marketing campaign finance legal guidelines and intentionally meant to violate them. There’s no proof of that. Even skilled candidates battle to understand the mind-numbing internet of marketing campaign rules. That’s why they rely upon attorneys.
Bragg needs to place Trump in jail for counting on the recommendation of his authorized counsel. There’s a authorized time period for that. Nutty.
On cross-examination, Cohen will certainly be confronted along with his myriad of lies, which I’ve recounted in earlier columns. One particularly is value remembering. In February of 2018, he advised the New York Occasions, “The fee to Ms. Clifford was lawful and was not a marketing campaign contribution or a marketing campaign expenditure.”
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Shortly thereafter, Cohen modified his tune. It’s altering nonetheless. When he retakes the witness stand on Tuesday he’ll regurgitate extra lies and misinformation. None of it’s value a rattling as a result of Cohen represents the quintessential “liar’s paradox.” He’s advised so many fibs that even his recantations are self-contradictory.
Within the trial at hand, Cohen has a private curiosity in mendacity —hatred and greed. When he isn’t trolling for {dollars} on TikTok by trashing Trump, he’s hawking a proposed actuality present that he calls, “The Fixer.” Cohen wants to repair himself.
Manhattan District Legal professional Alvin Bragg is aware of that he’s teetering dangerously near suborning perjury. However he’s wholly dedicated to convicting Donald Trump for crimes not dedicated or absolutely revealed. By calling Cohen as his star witness, the DA has forsaken his obligation to hunt the reality. He’s aiding and abetting a convicted perjurer by enabling extra lies.
That is the worst sort of authorities corruption. Unscrupulous, dishonest, and amoral. It’s antithetical to justice and a humiliation to our as soon as revered authorized system.
It’s not a paradox. It’s a tragedy.
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