Michael Cohen becomes a threat to Donald Trump

How fast you can fall out of Donald Trump's favor, many have already experienced. But no one has fallen as fast as Michael Cohen, his longtime private attorney and "Pitbull", who paid the alleged lover Schweigegeld and was ready to sacrifice himself for his boss – but now in the joke of the judiciary is advisable.

Called in May Trump's new pit bull, Rudy Giuliani, made his predecessor Cohen an "honest and honorable lawyer". Just three months later, Giuliani makes a noticeable difference: "He has been lying all his life," he told Cohen on CNN this week. "He is by nature a pathological liar."

Trump himself recounted on Twitter: "It looks like someone is inventing stories to get out of another impbade," he wrote Friday – without mentioning the name of Cohen, which is probably his worst The punishment is.

The attacks are not accidental. Cohen has become a serious political and legal danger for Trump – almost more than the special investigator of Russia Robert Mueller. The Attorney General of New York has accused Mr. Cohen of cheating, among other things, and now he seems more and more willing to testify against the US President in exchange for mitigating sentences.

It's been a while, but the situation is getting worse too fast. Almost daily, new and ever deeper revelations infiltrate – launched by the Cohen team, or perhaps even as a White House maneuver itself.

The Trump Tower Meeting

This recent revelation, in particular, has it all. This is the essence of the Russian affair – a possible cooperation and coordination of Trump and his people with Russian agents and hackers in the 2016 election campaign.

L & rsquo; Trump team is meeting today with a group of Russians in June 2016 at Trump Tower, where guests – including a lawyer close to the Kremlin – have offered explosive material on Trump's rival, Hillary Clinton. Trump denies knowing it. Several US media reports, however, that Cohen is apparently ready to testify that Trump was well informed in advance.

The meeting was led by Trump's son, Donald Trump Junior. He, too, testified under oath before the US Senate that his father had not been informed in advance – an expression that was echoed in an official statement from the White House.

Now, Cohen says exactly the opposite. If this were to be true and confirmed by the witnesses, Trump Junior would have a problem: he was guilty of perjury. The president was also found guilty of lying – and his insistent claims that he certainly did not cooperate with the Russians would be untrustworthy. Any attempt at concealment at a later date, such as statements or tweets, could be considered a judicial deficiency – a serious offense that led to Bill Clinton's removal.

Nevertheless, Trump tweeted Friday: "I did not know the meeting with my son."

Sound Recordings

Cohen had the habit of recording his conversations with others. Many records – allegedly over 100 – are now in the possession of the prosecutor.

The one that Cohen's team has now provided to CNN includes a conversation between the lawyer and Trump in the 2016 election campaign, suggesting that Trump could have deceived and cheated in at least one other explosive case .

This time, there is an indirect cash payment for the Playboy model Karen McDougal, who wants to have had an affair with Trump in 2006. The recording made secretly by Cohen in September 2016 reveals how Trump and Cohen discuss a $ 150,000 transaction.

Again, Trump had been rumored that he knew nothing about the case. He also immediately denied the alleged affair with McDougal when the "Wall Street Journal" revealed him shortly before the election. But for the record, he even hears Cohen asking if payment in this case should be made in cash – through the publisher of the National Enquirer gossip, which McDougal had bought for his story, and at the Trump's name to silence.

All this again undermines Trump's credibility – and also reinforces suspicion of illegal campaign pay.

Above all, he wonders if Cohen recorded any other conversations with Trump – and there were other silent money payments. Michael Avenatti, the lawyer's lawyer and bad actress suspected of Trump's Stormy Daniels, is now saying that he represents three other women who have had deals with Trump.

The Case with Weisselberg

The audio recording in which Trump and Cohen talk about the "I". McDougal's case reveals another, name until now unknown: Allen Weisselberg. Weisselberg, 70, is the veteran financial director of the Trump organization – and a much bigger fish than Cohen. He was already working for Trump's father, Fred.

Officially, Weisselberg was also to know Schweigegelder – and its potential implications with sources of doubtful funds, as in Russia. According to the research of investigative journalist Seth Hettena, Trump had contacts with the Russian mafia since the 1980s: The judiciary suspected that his luxury real estate was also used for money laundering.

The prosecution investigated Thursday on Weisselberg. Summoned Witness He should then testify under oath about Cohen and, indirectly, Trump's financiers. For example, it could be caught in the crosshairs of the judiciary – and under pressure. For Trump, who has starkly hidden the real extent of his fortune and his sources up to now, it would be devastating.

Cohen's loyalty to Trump seems to be finally over: he no longer feels obligated to the president, he says, but to his family and the nation.

If he testified against Trump, he would talk not only about lovers and Schweiggelder, but also about Russia. So, Cohen appears as an actor in the famous "Steele Dossier", in which, among other things, it has been claimed that Trump is a victim of blackmail from Russia for his badual escapades.

But how credible is Cohen? None of the participants – Trump, Cohen, Giuliani – is known as the flamboyant friend of the truth. In the end, the courts should decide, but in the case of Trump even more public opinion: Even if a connection with Russia could prove, the majority of its base should continue to keep it faithful. But will that be enough?