Michael Cohen’s quest for redemption drew Americans into the mob-like world of Donald Trump. The President’s former personal lawyer has painted a cruel and unseemly picture, shocking even with the nation’s senses dulled by years of Trump-induced controversy.
In a theatrical day of congressional testimony Wednesday that will become an iconic moment of Trump’s presidency, Cohen — who is about to go to prison –turned on his ex-client with the world watching.
He made a case that after spending a decade inside Trump’s world, he knew the President better than anyone — seeking to provide context for the flurry of investigations and claims of crimes and wrongdoing surrounding the President.
He sketched a stunning portrait of Trump’s organization and conduct in what turned into an extraordinary and unprecedented daylong indictment of the character of a sitting President.
It was either the betrayal of a proven liar who is making up tales to save himself or the courageous act of an unlikely hero rising above his dirty past to provide a national service, depending on which side of the committee room lawmakers sat on.
According to Cohen, Trump’s empire was awash in activity that needed a fixer. Cohen told the House Oversight Committee that he now bitterly regrets he blindly took that role, which will ultimately deprive him of his freedom.
“My loyalty to Mr. Trump has cost me everything,” Cohen said, in an apparent message to a former patron who was likely watching on the other side of the planet, during his visit to Hainoi,Vietnam.
Trump, for his part, answered a single question about Cohen at his summit with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, by slamming Democrats for holding a hearing and calling his former fixer a liar.
“He lied a lot,” Trump said. “He lied about so many different things.”
In Trump’s world, the boss knew everything that went on, according to Cohen. Henchmen like Cohen came to know by osmosis what the big man wanted. His currency was threats. And bad tabloid news stories were bought up — even if they weren’t true — to stop them from sullying Trump’s personal image.
There was one law of the Trump jungle that everyone came to understand, including Cohen, in his years as the right hand of the titan of Trump Tower.
“Everybody’s job at the Trump Organization is to protect Mr. Trump,” he said.
