Even Randos on the Street Know Michael Cohen's in Trouble
A good rule of thumb for anyone who wants to avoid scrutiny from law enforcement: stay away from Donald Trump. This rule covers Trump's family members and employees alike, as this week his adult children were swept up in an investigation into an elaborate Trump Foundation money laundering scheme and his former campaign manager Paul Manafort was ordered to be held in jail until his trial.
So with all of that going on, you probably don't feel too safe if you're Michael Cohen, the former Trump lawyer who's either too inept to get repaid for fronting porn star hush money or too dumb to know how a confidentiality agreement works, take your pick. Cohen is currently a target himself in the Robert Mueller probe, and this week he broke ties with his own legal team. He's reportedly looking for new lawyers to represent him—people with expertise in plea deals specifically.
The writing on the wall seems so apparent that when CNN tried to catch Cohen for a street interview, an anonymous stranger off-screen quickly identified Cohen, yelling, “Hey, it’s that guy that’s going to jail! Awesome, way to go, bud."
On Friday, Trump told reporters that Cohen was no longer his lawyer but that he was a "good person." Meanwhile, Rudy Giuliani told the New York Daily News, "When the whole thing is over, things might get cleaned up with some presidential pardons." Giuliani was responding specifically to Manafort's bail being revoked, but there's speculation that pardon-happy Trump might be trying to signal to potential witnesses in the Mueller probe not to turn on him. We'll have to wait and see how Cohen's new plea deal-savvy lawyers advise him.
