Donald Trump and Michael Cohen are having a very bad day
The day after Memorial Day was not a good day for Donald J. Trump or his personal attorney, Michael Cohen. The Special Master, Barbara Jones, for the Southern District of New York investigation of Cohen, reported that almost 300,000 documents had been provided to prosecutors on May 23, and on Wednesday, reports in Politico are that roughly a million additional documents or records from his phones will be released to prosecutors on Wednesday.
According to the report, only 252 records to date have been identified as privileged or highly personal. Prosecutors no doubt are scouring through everything to see what Cohen was up to the last several years. Cohen might be feeling increased pressure as his life is reviewed in great detail.
In addition to the reports by the Special Master, Michael Avenatti, attorney for Stormy Daniels, disclosed on Twitter accusations that The Wall Street Journal sat on a story about Stormy and former Playboy model, Karen McDougal, tweeting:
See below. 1) the WSJ had the story in the closing days of the campaign but sat on it and 2) Mr. Davidson lied to them and conspired with Mr. Cohen in 2016. This is why we have demanded to see all of Davidson’s docs for mos and will sue if need be. #Basta
Attached to Avenatti’s tweet was an email exchange between Davidson and The Wall Street Journal, asserting that the newspaper had sat on the Stormy Daniels story. The Wall Street Journal has strongly denied the allegations: “The claim we held any reporting regarding Stormy Daniels is false and outrageous. In fact, the Journal broke the news of the $130k payout to her, arranged by Michael Cohen.”
The Wall Street Journal did report on November 4, 2016, that Davidson had made a deal with McDougal and also represented Daniels. However, what is most interesting about the exchange that Davidson had with the reporter for The Wall Street Journal was: 1) Davidson’s adamant assertion that “I have not now, nor previously represented anyone adverse to Donald Trump” (not true) and 2) the forwarding of his exchange with the reporter to the one and only, Michael Cohen. The attachment that Avenatti uploaded has at the top of the chain a forward to Cohen at his Trump Organization email, [email protected].
That forwarding a few days before the election of an exchange between counsel at the time for Daniels and the attorney for Donald Trump, or Essential Consultants, or whoever was his client, raises some interesting questions about what the nature of the relationship was between Davidson and Cohen and whether it was legitimate. Michael Cohen continues to have one bad day after another, and now has additional explaining to do.
Daniel is a lawyer writing and teaching about SCOTUS, and is the author of the book “The Chief Justices” about the SCOTUS as seen through the center seat.