Cohen’s ‘Credible’ Info On Russia Collusion Could ‘Spell The End’ Of Trump Presidency, Legal Expert Says
In an op-ed analyzing some of the recent and more important revelations from Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s ongoing collusion investigation, a former federal prosecutor wrote that Donald Trump’s former lawyer, Michael Cohen, might have provided enough information to Mueller’s team in order to force the president out of office at some point in the future.
Writing for USA Today, lawyer Peter Zeidenberg, who had most notably served as deputy special counsel for the prosecution of former George W. Bush administration official Scooter Libby, discussed on Sunday the “ominous” findings from the Mueller investigation that he believes could spell doom for Trump, his family, and his presidency. While he mentioned how the sentencing memo from the Southern District of New York indicated how Cohen “acted in coordination and at the direction of” Trump when organizing hush money payments to the women who allegedly had affairs with the president, Zeidenberg added that this was “hardly the worst news” for Trump in the light of the probe’s most recent findings.
According to Zeidenberg, there are other findings from the Mueller probe that could be far more “threatening” to Trump and his family, starting with Cohen’s admission that he lied to Congress about the timing of the so-called “Moscow Project’s” termination. While Cohen had previously told Congress that talks of building a Trump Tower in the Russian capital broke down around January 2016, Mueller’s filing on Cohen stated otherwise, suggesting that the project had been discussed with Trump “well into” his presidential campaign in 2016.
“Thus, Mueller makes it clear that Trump had to know that Cohen’s testimony to Congress was a lie. We will soon learn whether Trump counseled Cohen to lie, which, like the campaign finance violation, would make Trump guilty as well.”
Zeidenberg added that anyone who had knowledge of the Moscow Project and had vetted Cohen’s original statement to Congress, including the eldest president’s son, Donald Trump Jr., might be facing “serious” criminal charges as the special counsel investigation continues.
Special counsel Robert Mueller opened the floodgates on Michael Cohen and Paul Manafort https://t.co/tZC4K0Qyb0 pic.twitter.com/NbwqMi9YMM
— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) December 9, 2018
As recently reported by Newsweek, court documents filed by Mueller on Friday suggest there’s a chance Donald Trump would have made “millions of dollars” in licensing fees and other related deals had the Moscow Project pushed forward. This was mentioned in Zeidenberg’s op-ed for USA Today, as he stressed this could be key in establishing collusion with Russian officials ahead of the 2016 elections, given how the project purportedly required the Russian government’s assistance.
“That goes a long way in explaining why Trump has never criticized [Russian President Vladimir] Putin and why the lifting of Russian sanctions, something Putin desperately sought, was such a high priority for Trump,” Zeidenberg wrote.
Furthermore, Zeidenberg wrote that the Mueller probe revealed how the information Cohen provided regarding his contact with certain White House officials since last year was “relevant and useful.” He explained that this means the information Cohen offered might have been “credible” enough to prove that the aforementioned officials, who have yet to be named, were involved in criminal activities.
In conclusion, Zeidenberg’s USA Today piece emphasized that the information Michael Cohen provided Mueller included “useful” details that were “core” to the special counsel probe, meaning its objective of proving that there was collusion between Russian officials and Donald Trump’s campaign in the months leading up to the 2016 elections. Those revelations, according to Zeidenberg, could add up to “spell the end” of Trump’s presidency, as opposed to the alleged hush money deals and anything else pertaining to campaign finance violations.
