The desperate need to discount Michael Cohen's testimony

This article was written by Larry Beinhart, author of Wag the Dog.

This short exchange with Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) is a preview of the next season of Trump's House of Cards.

"AOC: Did the president ever provide inflated assets to an insurance company?

Cohen: Yes.

AOC: Who else knows that the president did this?

Cohen: Allen Weisselberg [chief financial officer of the Trump Organization], Ron Lieberman [its executive vice president], and Matthew Calamari [its chief operating officer].

AOC: […] Do you think we need to review his financial statements and his tax returns in order to compare them?

Cohen: Yes. And you'd find it at the Trump Org.

AOC: […] The president may have improperly deflated the value of his assets to avoid paying taxes. […] Would it help for the committee to obtain federal and state tax returns?

Cohen: I believe so."

Quicker than preparing an instant desert, Ocasio-Cortez established the House Oversight and Reform Committee's right and necessity to subpoena Trump's tax filings with the federal government, various states, and municipalities. It is very likely these will reveal documentary proof of tax fraud, insurance fraud, bank fraud, money laundering, and other financial crimes.

[...]

The Republicans went after Cohen viciously, relentlessly, and often nonsensically. One of them tried to say that Trump was not a racist. None of them tried to prove he was not really a conman and a cheat. Among the list of names that Cohen said had participated in the various deceptions and manipulations were the Trump progeny: Don Jr, Eric, and even Ivanka.

[...]

The allegations will turn into testimony under penalty of perjury. Charges will turn into convictions. The president will become, at least, an unindicted co-conspirator.

  alJazeera

And Trump's hoped for distraction fell through.

Trump had galivanted off to Hanoi to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, with whom he was going to make a deal. They would denuclearise. Sanctions would end. They would re-enter the family of nations. Donald would build a golf course and a hotel on one of their fabulous beaches (I guess, based on no particular evidence.)

That would far outweigh the trash-talking testimony back in DC and - he desired, dreamed, plotted - would get him the Nobel Peace Prize - one that would be more deserved than Obama's!

Instead, there was no deal. It collapsed. Trump dropped the pre-planned signing ceremony and headed back to the US, having accomplished nothing.

It didn't even take the heat off the burning Cohen testimony, and Trump himself didn't help matters any by rage tweeting about the hearing the morning after he returned. Sad!

Does Trump think he's in greater trouble than a week ago. If so, how much, and what will his impulses move him to do about it? Will it prompt a Wag the Dog moment?

Well, we hope not, but we can't count that out.

An excellent movie was made of Wag the Dog in 1997 starring Dustin Hoffman, Ann Heche and Robert DeNiro. If you haven't seen it, see if you can find it somewhere. 

 ...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.