ABC’s George Stephanopoulos reported Wednesday that Donald Trump attorney Michael Cohen is on the verge of flippin’:
As attorneys for Michael Cohen rush to meet Judge Kimba Wood’s Friday deadline to complete a privilege review of over 3.7 million documents seized in the April 9 raids of Cohen’s New York properties and law office, a source representing this matter has disclosed to ABC News that the law firm handling the case for Cohen is not expected to represent him going forward … Cohen, now with no legal representation, is likely to cooperate with federal prosecutors in New York, sources said.
While Stephanopoulos doesn’t say whom Cohen would testify against if he cooperated, there can only conceivably be a few fish bigger than Cohen in prosecutors’ sights—Trump, the members of Trump’s family, and maybe former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort. It’s also unclear what charges Cohen would admit to or testify about; he was deeply involved in a number of situations that investigators are reportedly interested in, from the Stormy Daniels NDA negotiations to the Trump Organization’s attempt to launch a construction project in Moscow to the payments that a number of companies with business before the Trump administration have made to a shell company for dubiously defined “consulting” services.
In any case, other reports conflict with ABC’s. Vanity Fair’s Gabriel Sherman says that Cohen could just be bluffing:
Sherman hasn’t as of yet explained what that “help” would constitute; meanwhile, the New York Times’ Maggie Haberman disagrees with Sherman’s source, writing on Twitter that Cohen’s actions are not a message to Trump and that he is “increasingly likely to flip.” And CNN is basically throwing up its hands in confusion, writing that “Cohen [has] not yet met with prosecutors to speak about a potential deal” and that “it’s unclear whether either side is seeking one.”
In summary … stay tuned?
