The bad news for President Trump’s embattled lawyer, Michael Cohen, just won’t stop rolling in.
Just a day after he pleaded guilty to a slew of serious financial crimes related to both his private business ventures and his role in the 2016 Donald J. Trump for President campaign, Cohen was hit with a subpoena from the state of New York as part of the probe into the Trump Foundation.
The President’s charitable foundation was forced to shutter its doors after being hit with a lawsuit by New York’s Attorney General, who had discovered that in addition to using the Trump Foundation as his own personal money laundering vehicle had also used the Foundation to support his campaign for the presidency.
A spokeswoman for the Attorney General’s office refused to comment on any specifics but gave this statement: “As our lawsuit against the Trump Foundation illustrates, we will hold Donald Trump and his associates accountable for violations of state law, and will seek a criminal referral from the appropriate state agency as necessary,”
But it likely did not come as much surprise, considering that Cohen’s lawyer, Lanny Davis, practically asked them to after he appeared on CNN and announced that “I do believe that he has information about Mr. Trump that would be of interest both in Washington as well as New York state.”
Since Cohen worked as the president’s personal lawyer for over a decade, he certainly was witness to the rampant abuse of the foundation’s tax-exempt status, which included the use of $20,000 worth of charity funds to purchase an enormous portrait of Donald Trump, among a slew of other crimes — and all of a sudden he seems very interested in telling prosecutors everything they want to know.
His lawyer, Lanny Davis, went on NPR this morning and announced that “I know that Mr. Cohen would never accept a pardon from a man that he considers to be both corrupt and a dangerous person in the oval office. And [Cohen] has flatly authorized me to say under no circumstances would he accept a pardon from Mr. Trump.”
Since he’s publicly burned his bridges with Trump, Cohen must be trying to earn brownie points to cut down on his jail time, which means very bad news for the President and his cronies.
