The real reason Michael Cohen is reportedly pleading the Fifth

| 8:20 pm EDT April 12, 2018
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The trouble for Donald Trump’s attorney Michael Cohen right now is that he’s trying to simultaneously fend off a civil lawsuit from Stormy Daniels, and fend off any potential criminal charges that might arise from the FBI’s recent raid of his office and residence in relation to the Daniels payoff. The former could cost him money; the latter could cost him his freedom. He’s now reportedly preparing to plead the fifth in the lawsuit, a remarkable development that won’t really help him.

Stormy Daniels’ attorney Michael Avenatti has revealed on-air on MSNBC that Michael Cohen is threatening to plead the Fifth in the lawsuit. This perhaps shouldn’t come as a surprise. Cohen has to worry about saying something in his testimony in the lawsuit that could be used against him in any criminal charges. Better to risk losing the lawsuit than risk going to prison. But this could quickly lead to bad outcomes on both fronts.

Invoking the Fifth Amendment is not an admission of guilt. Instead it’s merely an acknowledgment that you fear your testimony might be used by prosecutors to try to incriminate you. But if he’s going to plead the fifth in the lawsuit, is he also going to plead the fifth when he’s asked similar questions by criminal prosecutors? That’s not going to help him, considering the FBI already seized all of his records, and can build a criminal case against him based on that evidence.

So by pleading the Fifth in the Stormy Daniels lawsuit, Michael Cohen would likely ensure he loses the lawsuit, and he wouldn’t be helping himself much if any on the criminal prosecution front. At first glance, this looks like a frazzled desperation move from a guy who has no good options left. On the other hand, if Cohen is planning to cut a plea deal with Robert Mueller against Donald Trump, he could be pleading the Fifth in the lawsuit in order to prevent his testimony from coming out before it’s supposed to. Stay tuned.