Michael Cohen says New York already has enough evidence to indict Donald Trump – and he should know
There’s still a lot of confusion out there in the wake of Donald Trump’s lawyer’s claim that Trump won’t be indicted this week, and Politico’s subsequent headline falsely asserting that Trump will not be indicted period. All that nonsense aside, it appears we’re back where we were when the week began: Allen Weisselberg and the Trump Organization itself are expected to be indicted this week, in what will certainly be just the first round of indictments in the case.
In the wake of the confusion created by Politico, a number of media pundits are seizing upon the narrative that Weisselberg will never flip, and that Trump will go free as a result. But the facts simply don’t support this narrative.
For one thing, while no one knows for certain what the odds are of Weisselberg flipping, we do know that those odds will go up – not down – in the coming days and weeks. Weisselberg will be arrested. He’ll see an indictment that makes clear he’s going to prison for years, and at his age he doesn’t have years. If he drags it out he’ll see his kids indicted. And at some point Trump may put out one of his trademark statements distancing himself from Weisselberg. As time goes on, it’ll become much harder for Weisselberg not to flip.
And even if Weisselberg never does flip, there’s no reason to expect this will cause Trump to magically go free. Michael Cohen, who has met with the prosecutors in this case ten times and counting, says there’s already more than enough evidence to indict Trump, even without Weisselberg’s help. Keep in mind that, based on the specific questions prosecutors have asked Cohen, he surely has a good idea of what evidence they have in hand – so when he says there’s enough, he’s not just guessing about what they have.
Keep in mind that Trump Organization Controller Jeff McConney testified to the grand jury in the case three weeks ago. He is Trump’s number two money man behind Allen Weisselberg. So there’s clearly a case against Donald Trump whether Weisselberg flips or not – and there’s also no reason yet to conclude that Weisselberg won’t flip.
