Legal analyst Jonathan Turley is generally pro-Trump, but today he told Fox News that Trump can't run away from his relationship with Michael Cohen. Trump hand-picked Cohen to be his attorney, knowing he had a bad reputation and was more of a thug than a legal mind.
Turkey joined the ladies of Outnumbered after the court sentenced Trump's former personal attorney and fixer to 36 months in jail.
After describing Cohen as a dreadful attorney who would threaten people on behalf of Trump, co-host Melissa Francis asked, "So then does that extend to the president? If you say that this was the first malady of the person who was representing him and was characterized as his fixer -- how much of that then rubs off on the president, or is it like the president said "this is my lawyer and I was listening to his advice?"
Turley, who has been a vocal critic of the Mueller investigation, replied: "No, the president does bear responsibility, here. He picked Michael Cohen. Michael Cohen never had a good legal repetition. He never had a reputation as someone who was a particularly good lawyer. He was a bit of a thug and the president hired him and so there is no escaping that."
Turley continued, "Last year I wrote a column saying the president needed to sever Michael Cohen as fast as he could before this McDougal and Daniels thing threatened the White House. Instead, the president brought him closer - had a very famous dinner with him at Mar-A-Lago. Those were mistakes."
Trump cannot try to make believe he knew nothing like Sgt Schultz from Hogan's Heroes because he left it all up to Cohen. He has already tried that when talking to Reuters in earlier interviews.
“Michael Cohen is a lawyer. I assume he would know what he’s doing,” Trump said when asked if he had discussed campaign finance laws with Cohen.
“Number one, it wasn’t a campaign contribution. If it were, it’s only civil, and even if it’s only civil, there was no violation based on what we did. OK?”
Turley made it very clear that Trump knew exactly who Cohen was and what kind of job Cohen would do.
Remember, Cohen taped Trump plotting hush money payments to Karen McDougal.
