Judge hints at bombshell in evidence seized against Donald Trump and Michael Cohen
Donald Trump’s legal team is still trying to figure out some way to convince a federal judge to throw out the communications between Trump and Michael Cohen that were seized in an FBI raid last Monday. Thus far the judge has sided against Trump, and as often tends to happen during these kinds of legal arguments, details about the evidence are being revealed in the process of the back-and-forth. Now the judge herself is hinting at a bombshell in the evidence.
Trump is being represented in this matter by his new attorney Joanna Hendon, whom Trump only hired six days ago. She tried to argue to the judge that Trump has a right to have his communications with Cohen thrown out, even though Trump doesn’t know what those communications are. Hendon offered a guess that perhaps there were “memos” that “maybe they hand-wrote letters to each other?” According to an exchange buried in an Atlantic article, the judge fired back with “Well, they talked.” Trump’s attorney then claimed that she had no idea whether Cohen recorded his conversations with Trump.
Wait a minute, how would the judge know that Trump and Cohen talked? And why would she insert this detail into a debate about the seized communications, unless she already knows that the FBI seized recordings of Trump and Cohen? In other words the judge just seemed to hint that such recordings exist. If Cohen was indeed taping his conversations with Trump, it raises the question of why. Was Cohen trying try make sure he had a get out of jail free card? If so, then Cohen would seemingly have recorded his most damning conversations with Trump, in case he ever needed to flip on him.
If it comes out that Michael Cohen was indeed secretly recording his conversations with Donald Trump, that could go a long way to shattering the relationship between Trump and Cohen, who – for now at least – are mounting a shared defense on this matter. If things deteriorate between the two of them, it could increase the odds of Cohen cutting a plea deal. Remarkably, if the tapes are in evidence, Cohen’s cooperation might not even be needed.
