From his assertion that marital rape is legal to his insistence that a $130,000 preelection payment to Stormy Daniels doesn’t violate campaign finance laws because he paid it himself (which might actually be a bigger campaign finance violation), President Trump’s attorney Michael Cohen has offered up ample evidence that he’s not the sharpest legal mind. That makes sense, as Cohen was hired years ago to be Trump’s ultraloyal “fixer,” not an expert in litigation involving the president.
However, that doesn’t explain why Cohen’s attorney and spokesperson, David Schwartz, is doing such a poor job defending his client in the media — unless he was hired to be Trump’s fixer’s fixer, not someone with a good grasp on the law.
.. Cohen has been vague about Trump’s knowledge of the negotiations, which took place in the final weeks of the 2016 campaign. But Schwartz stated very clearly Cohen drew up the agreement without informing Trump, and that’s why his signature isn’t on the document.
“The president was not aware of the agreement. At least, Michael Cohen never told him about the agreement,” Schwartz said. “Michael Cohen left the option open. That’s why he left that signature line, the option open to go to him. He chose not to. He chose to bind the LLC, EC LLC and Stormy Daniels into the contract.”Michael Cohen’s attorney just claimed on @OutFrontCNN that Trump was not aware of the Stormy Daniels agreement or the payment, which means that there was no contract between Trump and Daniels, and Daniels can release the materials. Why would he admit this on national television?
— Renato Mariotti (@renato_mariotti) March 28, 2018
The contract only lists remedies available to DD (Trump), not to the LLC. https://t.co/ERspigoVcn
— Renato Mariotti (@renato_mariotti) March 29, 2018
Under the terms of the agreement itself, only “DD” can enforce it. If Cohen’s position is that Trump is not DD, then unless someone else comes forward as “DD,” it is unenforceable and Stormy Daniels can release the materials. https://t.co/pIquaTzwX1
— Renato Mariotti (@renato_mariotti) March 29, 2018
“Each Party acknowledges that [Stormy] is executing this Agreement in reliance” on *Trump* releasing certain claims he has against Stormy.
Michael Cohen can’t offer that. EC LLC can’t offer that either. Only Trump can.
So if Trump ain’t in the agreement, THERE IS NO AGREEMENT.
— Susan Simpson (@TheViewFromLL2) March 29, 2018
Incidentally, there is no proof for this beyond the fact it’s completely fucking obvious from the contract, but the major promise being offered in the contract here is that Trump was to agree not to initiate a criminal prosecution against Stormy under revenge porn laws.
— Susan Simpson (@TheViewFromLL2) March 29, 2018
“Each Party acknowledges that [Stormy] is executing this Agreement in reliance” on *Trump* releasing certain claims he has against Stormy.
Michael Cohen can’t offer that. EC LLC can’t offer that either. Only Trump can.
So if Trump ain’t in the agreement, THERE IS NO AGREEMENT.
— Susan Simpson (@TheViewFromLL2) March 29, 2018
Why might that have been the case? If anyone’s taking bets on this, put mine down on the source of Stormy’s fear being her attorney, Keith Davidson.
Nothing we’ve seen about him so far inspires confidence that it was his clients’ interests that Davidson was advancing.
— Susan Simpson (@TheViewFromLL2) March 29, 2018
Davidson represented Karen McDougal too, who Trump also had an affair with. And as alleged in McDougal’s complaint, Davidson was colluding Cohen – across multiple cases – to pressure McDougal and other women into signing agreements by misrepresenting to them the material terms. pic.twitter.com/zTRGsJ82uf
— Susan Simpson (@TheViewFromLL2) March 29, 2018
And if there was any room for doubt about what’s really going on here, just look at what Cohen has to say about Davidson.
Cohen, who threatens violence against reporters who merely call up with questions, speaks GLOWINGLY about an attorney who repeatedly threatened to sue Trump. pic.twitter.com/gqsutByQvp
— Susan Simpson (@TheViewFromLL2) March 29, 2018
For all of Cohen’s truly idiotic legal claims, repeated ethical breaches, & wannabe mobster ways, his sins here are the lesser ones. No one can say he wasn’t zealously advocating for his client. But if Davidson did what the women allege he did, he can’t be disbarred fast enough.
— Susan Simpson (@TheViewFromLL2) March 29, 2018
Another potential laws she could have violated, which Trump agreed not to initiate a criminal prosecution, is secretly recording video or audio as California is a two-consent state.
— Michael Abromowitz (@FootballExpert) March 29, 2018
As Trump’s Attorney, Michael Cohen’s Loyalty Matters More Than His Lawyering
This isn’t the worst scandal Trump is facing right now, but there could be serious consequences — particularly for Cohen. If these claims are proven true, he could be disbarred. It all raises the question: Why doesn’t Trump, a billionaire, have a better lawyer?
.. Before crossing paths with the mogul in real life, Cohen worked as a personal-injury lawyer, and earned a sizable fortune in the taxi-medallion business in New York and Chicago, and in the Ukrainian ethanol business (he and his brother both married Ukrainian women). As Trump was launching his reality-TV career in the 2000s, Cohen and his family had moved on to real estate, buying up units in various Trump properties... Cohen said that as executive VP he “oversaw business dealings globally.” He described his role as “special counsel” as “family fix-it guy,” but others have used more aggressive nicknames, calling him Trump’s “pit bull,” “Ray Donovan,” or “Tom,” as in Tom Hagen, Vito Corleone’s consigliere in the Godfather films.“It means that if somebody does something Mr. Trump doesn’t like, I do everything in my power to resolve it to Mr. Trump’s benefit,” Cohen said in 2011. “If you do something wrong, I’m going to come at you, grab you by the neck and I’m not going to let you go until I’m finished.”.. Cohen was instrumental in laying the groundwork for Trump’s political career, launching a website (ShouldTrumpRun.com) in an effort to spark interest in drafting him into the 2012 GOP race, and flying to Iowa on Trump’s private jet to meet GOP operatives there... A source told the Daily Beast that Cohen was disappointed when he wasn’t offered a spot in Trump’s White House.“He wasn’t expecting attorney general, but he was holding out for a senior job that would have also allowed him to continue being an attack dog for the president,” the source said... when underscoring his undying devotion to Trump in comments to reporters (for instance: “I’m the guy who would take a bullet for the president”)... “I feel guilty that he’s in there right now almost alone …” Cohen told Vanity Fair in September. “There are guys who are very loyal to him that would have gone in, but there was a concerted effort by high-ranking individuals to keep out loyalists.”
Michael Avenatti, the adrenaline-fueled lawyer taking on President Trump
That setback in 2012 now serves as a parable of resilience in the legend Avenatti has been crafting about himself — both with a string of multimillion-dollar jury verdicts and with his brash, almost nonstop cable news appearances.
.. It is another big bet for an attorney with an enormous appetite for risk whose roster of courthouse adversaries includes mega-corporations, as well as celebrities, such as Paris Hilton and Jim Carrey.
“He is an adrenaline junkie,” says Jonathan Turley, who taught Avenatti at George Washington University’s law school and has stayed in touch since his former student earned his law degree. “I think he needs that adrenaline rush. He lives his life aggressively. In both litigation and in life he shows a certain aggressive style.”
.. The next he’s delving into entrepreneurial pursuits, such as buying Tully’s, a struggling Seattle coffee-shop chain, or blasting around a track while competing as a driver in a professional racecar circuit, sometimes hitting speeds of up to 195 MPH. The main photograph on his website depicts him in a race suit, rather than a business suit.
.. “Initially, I was very skeptical about getting involved because I, much like many Americans, had preconceived notions about Stormy Daniels and her motivations and what she is all about,” Avenatti says.
It took him only about 20 minutes to decide that she was credible, he says, although he won’t reveal what led him to that conclusion.
.. Avenatti’s foil in the Daniels melodrama has been Trump’s lawyer, Michael Cohen, as much as the president.
.. Avenatti has been daring Cohen to appear on television with him to discuss the case. He recently used an enlarged photograph of Cohen as a propduring a contentious appearance on CNN with Cohen’s attorney, David Schwartz.
.. But Avenatti is arguing a broader case about the integrity of the president and his legal team — and drawing from a well-honed playbook of using media appearances as an integral part of his strategy.
.. Brian Panish, a prominent plaintiffs attorney who has worked on cases with Avenatti, compares his former colleague to William Ginsburg, Monica Lewinsky’s attorney famous for appearing on all the Sunday talk shows on the same day during President Clinton’s White House-intern sex scandal. It spawned the term “the full Ginsburg.”
.. his father was unexpectedly laid off, and the son went to work to earn tuition money by doing opposition political research on Republicans and Democrats for a firm owned by Rahm Emanuel
.. His cases included a $10 million defamation lawsuit, which ended in a confidential settlement, that he filed on behalf of a socialite client against Paris Hilton. He was also on the team of lawyers who sued Trump and the producer of “The Apprentice” on behalf a man who said they stole his idea for the hit show. The case ended in a settlement.
.. Avenatti says he’s been lead counsel on $1 billion worth of verdicts and settlements. The biggest, by far, came last year when he won a $454 million jury verdict in a case against Kimberly-Clark and Halyard Health related to claims that the companies knowingly sold defective surgical gowns that were not impermeable to Ebola and HIV, despite representations that they were.
.. Avenatti has also been engaged in a heated financial dispute with a former law partner who’d sued saying he was owed millions in unpaid fees. At a court hearing , a lawyer for one side characterized the level of acrimony as “unbelievable.” But the partners have now settled the case and are back on speaking terms, and Avenatti — employing a few four-letter words, as he is wont to do — says the portrayal of the squabble has been “overblown.”
Trump Won’t Hire 2 Lawyers Whose Appointments Were Announced Days Ago
The president met with Mr. diGenova and Ms. Toensing, who are married, in recent days to discuss the possibility that they would join his legal team in the Mueller case. According to two people told of details about the meeting, the president did not believe he had personal chemistry with Mr. diGenova and Ms. Toensing.
.. But beyond that, Ms. Toensing is representing Mark Corallo, who was the spokesman for Mr. Trump’s legal team in 2017 before they parted ways.
Mr. Corallo has told investigators that he was concerned that a close aide to Mr. Trump, Hope Hicks, may have been planning to obstruct justice during the drafting of a statement about a meeting between a Russian lawyer and Donald Trump Jr. during the campaign.
.. Mr. diGenova had been expected to serve as an outspoken voice for the president as Mr. Trump has increased his attacks on Mr. Mueller. Mr. diGenova has endorsed the notion that a secretive group of F.B.I. agents concocted the Russia investigation as a way to keep Mr. Trump from becoming president, a theory with little supporting evidence.
“There was a brazen plot to illegally exonerate Hillary Clinton and, if she didn’t win the election, to then frame Donald Trump with a falsely created crime,” he had told Fox News in January.
.. Earlier on Sunday, Mr. Trump took to Twitter from his Florida resort to insist that he faced no problems finding lawyers to represent him in the Russia investigation.
.. Adding new lawyers, he said, would be costly because they would take months “to get up to speed (if for no other reason than they can bill more).”“I am very happy with my existing team,” he added.