How Forcing Michael Cohen To Divulge Attorney-Client Communications Damages The Rule Of Law

The Federalist ^ | 02/27/19 | Adam Mill

[Enlightened1]

This cooked-up pretext to invade the president’s attorney-client privilege is a stain of shame on the rule of law and tramples on a 500-year-old rule that protects our common law tradition.

The New York Times promised that today Michael Cohen, the president’s former attorney, “will describe in what was called ‘granular detail’ the plan to pay Ms. Daniels, which he will say was initiated by Mr. Trump, the person familiar with the testimony plans said.”

This, the Times rapturously promised, would provide, “evidence of potential criminal conduct since Mr. Trump became president.” As shown below, this cooked-up pretext to invade the president’s attorney-client privilege is a stain of shame on the rule of law and tramples on a 500-year-old rule that protects our common law tradition.

The FBI seized the recording during a raid of Cohen’s office. The New York Times did not say where it obtained the recording.

Subsequent to the release of the recording, the president chose not to assert attorney-client privilege. Those familiar with attorney-client confidentiality understand that the public release deprived him of any meaningful opportunity to make that choice. Nobody can un-hear the recordings.

It’s bad that an attorney maintained secret audio tapes of conversations with his client. Such information has a way of ending up in the wrong hands, and secretly making these tapes impairs the spirit of the attorney-client relationship. But it’s really bad that the American Civil Liberties Union posted an article cheerleading the raid. The government doesn’t need a cheerleader, and certainly not from the ACLU.

[itsahoot]

He's doing it of his own free will.

Not a chance that Mueller has coerced him by negotiating how many years he will serve and which prison and under what kind of rules, right?

[DannyTN]

If Cohen doesn't deliver proof that Trump violated the law, can Trump sue Cohen for violating Lawyer Client privilege? Here's what Cohen has actually said:

• He has no evidence of Russian collusion.
• He wasn't told to lie.
• He got a $35,000 check from his client.

  Everything else seems to be Cohen's opinion.

[rlmorel]

As you said, laws do not apply to Leftists. Remember when GM filed for Chapter 11 back in 2009? Here is an excerpt from a blog: Twenty-First Century Society; Investors Betrayed by Obama and GM

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"...Rather than being a referee, the primary role of government in a legitimate economy, the government became a player, competing with its own citizens and throwing a rigged game in favor of General Motors—actually its union. On November 24, 2010, a record 20.1 billion shares was sold in a new public offering at around $35 per share.

What happened to those most faithful GM investors who had kept their money in the old GM? Their shares—which had been placed in MTLQQ—were worthless. Who received the new stock ahead of the IPO? The General Motors Trade Union and the U.S. Treasury.

One despondent investor wrote:

I’m still holding GM stock that Obama DROVE DOWN from $35.00 to 28 cents or less ! My “old” stock is now worth NOTHING ! Having purchased GM vehicles for most of my lifetime for most in my family, I can tell you I will NEVER purchase another General Motors product and will continue to advise everyone I know to avoid ‘enriching’ GM and their “Thug” Union any further. I wish Obama and his socialist supporters the absolute worst that could possibly befall them.—Response to Washington Times article

While the government lending money to private companies is generally unprincipled, the General Motors bailout was radically different from the Chrysler bailout in 1980. In 1980, under President Jimmy Carter, the government co-signed a note for $1.5 billion (a government guarantee on private loans) on the condition that Chrysler essentially restructure in a way that provided an additional $2 billion in commitments or concessions. In that deal, investors kept their shares, the government did not shell out taxpayer money (although it was on the hook), and unions and management made the largest concessions. When Chrysler recovered, faithful investor shares recovered as well. In the GM case the loyal investors were left out in the cold.

The real loser in the General Motors deal is the legitimacy of the economic system in the United States. Although there were large profits to be made from the launch of the new GM IPO, a precedent has been set whereby a government administration can confiscate the ownership of a company, reorganize it, and pay off its political supporters. The former investors were betrayed by political decree, and once betrayed, the legitimacy of the system will never be the same..."

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The investors who paid money to be first in line to get anything as is normally done in a Chapter 11 were instead screwed and got squat, an inversion of what is done and what is a piece of the machinery that makes investment worthwhile for people taking a risk. The Obama Administration and the Left simply turned it on its head.

They have done damage that goes beyond anything that happened to GM. And in this case, they are doing damage to the legal system beyond their short-sighted desire to bring down a sitting President.

The Left is a Domestic Enemy of the United States.

[Fido969]

He’s not divulging attorney-client communications. He’s telling complete lies.

[Ancesthntr]

"Do not forget this is a war. Mikey Cohen is a pissant POW who would rat out his own mother to get an extra bowl of rice. Forget him. Concentrate on the real war that is going on - the war against Trump."

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This isn't a war against Trump, it is a war against US!

[DesertRhino]

It is not a violation for Trump to pay Stormy form his personal funds. And it also does not indicate guilt in the slightest. It means that a whore tried to blackmail him a few weeks before the 2016 election.
You are 10 days out and just barely survived the pussygate tape and the resulting GOP/Ryan/Preibus attempt to remove him from the ticket. Do you pay 100k to shut her up with an NDA legal agreement and let her pay her past due phone bill?
OR do you stand on principle and have her standing there with Hillary and Gloria Allred so she can pull a nose hair and make a fake tear that will dominate the media until election day.

It’s a no brainer. And nothing illegal about it unless you use campaign funds and do not declare it.

[bigbob]

Good point. Trump just is our General, what hs fights for is what we believe in and the kind of country we want to have.

They’re at war with that.

[DoodleDawg]

Not a chance that Mueller has coerced him by negotiating how many years he will serve and which prison and under what kind of rules, right?

Cohen has pled guilty and has been sentenced. Nothing can reduce that now. If you're suggesting that Mueller agreed to a light sentence without knowing what Cohen was going to say to the congressional committees then that would be pretty dumb of him. And Mueller hasn't shown himself to be dumb so far.

[frog in a pot]

Forcing? Nobody is forcing Cohen to divulge anything.

My reaction as well. But he STH was coerced, Gestapo-like.

In any event, rat out a NY billionaire with specious claims and you should expect to go through the rest of your life looking over your shoulder.

[4Liberty]

I’m sure if Hillary Clinton or Pres. Obama’s attorney’s office had been raided, and then that individual been “asked” to testify at a hearing, it would gone over fine with Media and Dems.
/s

[DoodleDawg]

My reaction as well. But he STH was coerced, Gestapo-like.

The only thing coercing Cohen is his desire to get back at Trump, for whatever reason he has. That's the only motivation he needs. As a result he will say anything, do anything, spin any tale to achieve his goal.

[colorado tanker]

This is truly a disgraceful performance that will damage attorney-client relations and the legal profession. Where the hell is the ABA and New York bar in all this???

Trump hatred trumps all, evidently.

[Flick Lives]

But it’s really bad that the American Civil Liberties Union posted an article cheerleading the raid.

Showing them to be the frauds we knew they always were.

[Governor Dinwiddie]

Her is an updated quote from Bolt's A Man For All Seasons, depicting a conversation between Sir Thomas More and William Roper:

Roper: So now you'd give the Devil Trump benefit of law!
More: Yes. What would you do? Cut a great road through the law to get after the Devil Trump?
Roper: I'd cut down every law in England America to do that!
More: Oh? And when the last law was down, and the Devil Trump turned round on you — where would you hide, Roper, the laws all being flat? This country's planted thick with laws from coast to coast — man's laws, not God's — and if you cut them down — and you're just the man to do it — d'you really think you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then? Yes, I'd give the Devil Trump benefit of law, for my own safety's sake.
 

[frog in a pot]

The only thing coercing Cohen is his desire to get back at Trump,

Sounds like you have an inside track on what went down at the highest level. (/snort)

[Liz]

Clinton factotum Lanny Davis is now the lawyer for Michael Cohen.

Cohen Admits To Working With Democrats To Stage Hearing Against Trump….......says he saw no collision.

=====================================

Few men in history have ever been able to summon up the kind of slavish loyalty Lanny Davis has for the Clintons......
shameless, transparent deceit and corruption. not even a trace of integrity......like the Clintons.

Davis is the personification of Deep State denizens. Cringingly slavish to those in power, a consigliere,
their fundraiser, their surrogate in times of trouble, and a smiling liar.

Lanny Davis once told Hillary that she was the best person he has ever met in his whole life. I guess Lanny never got out much.

[AndyJackson]

I would put it more strongly. The fact that the FBI was involved in an investigation is grounds for reasonable doubt about the veracity of all evidence presented as well as the presumption that exculpatory evidence was withheld.

[DoodleDawg]

Sounds like you have an inside track on what went down at the highest level.

What do you think is behind it?

[DoodleDawg]

Sounds like you have an inside track on what went down at the highest level.

What do you think is behind it?

[Valpal1]

Why? What is the benefit to Trump in all this?