Lordy, There Are Tapes, Episode II: What We Know Now
It seems Michael Cohen had quite the extensive collection of recorded conversations.
[Donald Trump] is angry that his personal attorney was recording him without his knowledge, though he had known before this week that the audio file existed, according to people familiar with his thinking.
“What kind of lawyer would tape a client?” Trump tweeted Wednesday morning. “So sad!”
The government has seized more than 100 recordings that Cohen made of his conversations with people discussing matters that could relate to Trump and his businesses and with Trump himself talking, according to two people familiar with the recordings. Cohen appeared to make some recordings with an iPhone — without telling anyone he was taping them.
A significant portion of the recordings is Cohen surreptitiously recording reporters who met with or questioned Cohen about Trump during the campaign and after Trump’s election, the people said.
There has been speculation galore surrounding Tuesday’s release of the above-mentioned recording with former game show host and then-political candidate Trump — a mobbed-up-sounding back-and-forth that does not redound well to either Cohen or his former client, but much of it is aligning with the view in an analysis published yesterday by HuffPo:
Michael Cohen’s decision to allow Tuesday’s release of a secretly recorded conversation he had with President Donald Trump may signal that Cohen is moving toward making a deal with prosecutors, legal experts say. …
For months, Cohen has been under a federal criminal investigation for possible bank and wire fraud, as well as campaign finance violations. The tape released by his legal team was one of several that the FBI seized from Cohen’s home and office in April.
The tape’s release ― with more possible coming ― could help Cohen “improve his public standing and begin to look candid, which might help him if he goes to trial” or “attract the interest of a prosecutor… who wants to help him with a plea bargain in exchange for what he knows,” Duke law professor Donald Beskind said. …
“From [Cohen attorney] Lanny Davis’ perspective, he wants Cohen’s situation wrapped up completely as quickly as possible,” [Jens David] Ohlin [vice dean and law professor at Cornell] said. The best way to do that is “to work out a deal with prosecutors to convince prosecutors that Cohen is not very culpable in the grand scheme in things… and he’s got a lot of testimony. … I think [Cohen] is going to get a deal [with federal prosecutors.] I don’t see any way that this is going to play out differently.”
HuffPo also talked to a second legal analyst:
Pace University law professor John Humbach said that while a lawyer might tape a conversation for note-taking purposes, it’s unlikely the client wouldn’t know about the recording.
“A lawyer has first and foremost a fiduciary duty to put the client’s interests ahead of the lawyer’s interests,” Humbach said. “It’s kind of inconceivable to [record a conversation] without the client’s knowledge. If the lawyer is recording a conversation to protect the lawyer, that’s clearly a case of not putting the client’s interests first.”
Inconceivable unless, say, the attorney was a fixer smart enough to hedge his bets when the client is dirtier than him.
And let’s just say this should come as no surprise to anyone following Cohen’s “stormy” escapades…
Who thought there were only a dozen? Michael Cohen has all the tapes! #TrumpTapes https://t.co/Vv1FZY9g4P
— Tom Arnold (@TomArnold) July 26, 2018
Buckle in, political scandal junkies. This mess is just getting started!
