The dead giveaway that Michael Cohen is flipping on Donald Trump

| 6:10 pm EDT April 20, 2018
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Donald Trump’s “attorney” Michael Cohen is reportedly preparing to plead the Fifth in the Stormy Daniels lawsuit. Some observers have taken this as a sign that Cohen is preparing to cut a plea deal and flip on Trump. It’s not. New exposes are surfacing in the media about how poorly Trump has treated Cohen. Some are taking this as a sign that Cohen is flipping. It’s not. When it comes to Cohen flipping, there’s only one dead giveaway.

As of today, Michael Cohen has not cut a deal against Donald Trump. In fact, under current circumstances, he can’t cut a deal. This is odd considering that Cohen is supposedly Trump’s lawyer to begin with, but it has to do with their lawyers. More specifically, the legal teams representing Trump and Cohen in federal criminal court right now are mounting a joint legal defense. That’s only allowed when the two individuals share the same legal interests.

If Cohen wakes up tomorrow and decides he’s going to cut a plea deal, his legal team will have to formally sever ties with Trump’s legal team. Remarkably, this means that Cohen can’t secretly cut a deal without Trump finding out, because when Cohen’s lawyers notify Trump’s lawyers of their intent to sever, Trump’s team will figure out what’s really going on. We saw the same thing play out when Michael Flynn’s attorneys had to sever their information sharing agreement with Trump’s attorneys as Flynn was negotiating a deal.

With Donald Trump and Michael Cohen it’ll be even more conscious, because their legal teams are in court fighting together, and a formal separation will stand out like a sore thumb. But if you’re looking for the dead giveaway that Cohen is flipping on Trump and cutting a deal, look for that notice of intent to sever. Or, if the two sides don’t make the notice public, just look for Trump and Cohen suddenly mounting separate defenses in these ongoing court proceedings.