“He [Trump] is both good and bad, as do we all,” said Michael Cohen, Donald Trump’s former lawyer, 11 minutes into his opening statement to Congress.
After pleading guilty to eight counts of financial crimes in federal court on August 21, 2018, Michael Cohen was sentenced to three years in federal prison and ordered to pay a $500,000 fine. In Cohen’s recent testimony to Congress on Feb. 7, CNN captured him saying, “…to launch a campaign on hate and intolerance and actively win, I regret the day I said yes to Mr. Trump.” So, is it only now that Cohen is going to jail that he has realized his wrongdoings? Further into his opening statement, Cohen says that he is ashamed of covering up for Trump over the years. But what’s different now since the last time Cohen was in front of a judge for Trump’s wrongdoings?
Cohen states, “Trump knew of and directed the Trump-Moscow negotiations throughout the campaign, and lied about it,” and that Trump lied about it because he apparently never expected to win. This seems outlandish; Cohen simply shifts the blame off of himself and entirely on Trump. “There were at least a half a dozen times between the Iowa caucus in January of 2016 and the end of June where he would ask me ‘how’s it going in Russia?,” Cohen claimed. Yet, Cohen has no real evidence of collusion between Trump and Russia, just memories of Trump asking him about Russia frequently. Even if Trump had been colluding with the Russian government, the reason why Cohen is going to federal prison is for his previous lies under oath; based on his track record, the public has no reason to believe what Cohen is he’s saying about Trump, and why should we believe him?
Cohen says he has “his suspicions” about Trump violating election laws, and he implies that instinct should be enough proof for the public to share his position. After his elaborate speech on why his kids and friends think he’s trustworthy, Cohen says, “Yet last fall, I plead guilty in federal court to felonies for the benefit of, at the direction of, and in coordination with individual number one.” He offered the room a declaration of his guilt, but does not say why he lied for Trump in the first place. If his conscience was telling him that what he was doing was wrong, and his brain knew that it was illegal, why was Trump so incredibly “mesmerizing” that Cohen had to act in accordance with the illegalities Trump carried out?
Cohen states, “Mr. Trump is an enigma, he is complicated, as am I.” What is the purpose of this sentence? Should we, the American people, now be understanding and sympathetic to both Trump and Cohen for all the lies they have told and illegal activities they have overseen? Cohen’s statement, or, really, apology, seemed forced and just as untruthful as the last time he sat before a jury.
