Michael Cohen may have to give up Ivanka Trump to get a plea deal
It’s already been clear for months that Michael Cohen will be indicted and arrested on a number of felony charges, and he’ll have to decide whether to fight those charges at trial or cut a plea deal against everyone involved. Up to now, we’ve largely thought of this in terms of whether Cohen is willing to sell out Donald Trump to save himself. Based on new information, Cohen may have to give up Ivanka Trump as well – and that changes the math for everyone involved.
Ivanka Trump helped connect Michael Cohen with a Russian contact as part of the effort to build a Trump Tower in Moscow during the election, according to a new BuzzFeed report. As we’ve explained, this in and of itself does not pin Ivanka for any crimes. But as we’ve seen in the Trump-Russia scandal, whenever this kind of revelation surfaces about someone, it’s typically quickly followed by far more severe revelations about that person’s involvement.
This new report also confirms that Special Counsel Robert Mueller is probing the emails between Ivanka Trump and Michael Cohen, which means that Mueller is in fact investigating Ivanka for her role in all of this. When someone cuts a plea deal, they have to give up everything they know about everyone involved. So if Michael Cohen ends up deciding to cut a deal, he’ll have to reveal the full extent of whatever it was he was doing with Ivanka on this Trump Tower Moscow matter.
We’re now looking at the reality that a Michael Cohen plea deal could take down Ivanka Trump. In such case, just how far will Donald Trump go to try to prevent Cohen from cutting a deal? He already decided not to pardon Michael Flynn and Rick Gates when they cut plea deals and testified against him. But will he make a desperate move to try to keep Cohen quiet, in order to protect his own daughter? Stay tuned.
