Michael Cohen sentencing memo makes clear Donald Trump told him to lie after all

| 7:30 pm EST January 19, 2019
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“President” Donald Trump has taken to Twitter Saturday morning, gloating about how fake the media is and that the Buzzfeed report proves it. It is a false victory dance. People are forgetting what the Michael Cohen sentencing memo dated November 30, 2018, stated.

Trump has made several tweets about the mainstream media, including: “Many people are saying that the Mainstream Media will have a very hard time restoring credibility because of the way they have treated me over the past 3 years (including the election lead-up), as highlighted by the disgraceful Buzzfeed story & the even more disgraceful coverage!”

He also tweeted: “Newt Gingrich just stated that there has been no president since Abraham Lincoln who has been treated worse or more unfairly by the media than your favorite President, me! At the same time there has been no president who has accomplished more in his first two years in office!”

However, as has been noted by Palmer Report, everyone should stop and take a deep breath. First, the Special Counsel statement was not an outright refutation of the Buzzfeed story. If the story were completely false, that office would have stated so, in those words. Instead, it issued a very nuanced statement clarifying that specifics and attribution are not completely accurate. We will find out what exactly the Special Counsel took issue with when the final report is issued.

Second, and more importantly, there is a specific paragraph in Cohen’s sentencing memo from his lawyers that clearly states and makes clear that Cohen lied at the direction of the president. The specific statement in the memo is: “The campaign finance and false statements allegations…arose from Michael’s fierce loyalty to Client-1.  In each case, the conduct was intended to benefit Client-1, in accordance with Client-1’s directives.”

Folks can read whatever they like into the assertions that the media is attacking Trump and that the mainstream media is out to get Trump with falsehoods (whether Buzzfeed is in mainstream media notwithstanding), but what cannot be done, as Ken Dilanian from NBC News has made clear, is discount or dismiss out of hand what has been on file for months in the Southern District of New York.