Michael Cohen has a new Trump-Russia problem

| 8:57 pm EDT April 24, 2018
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Even as some have speculated that Donald Trump’s “attorney” Michael Cohen might have already cut a plea deal against him, Palmer Report has pointed out that it’s not possible for Cohen to have cut a deal while he’s still mounting a joint legal defense with Trump in criminal court. Cohen would have to formally sever that arrangement in order to cut a deal. But now it turns out Cohen has a new problem, and it’s precisely the kind of problem that forces people to cut plea deals.

We saw a strong hint of it when we learned that Michael Cohen had to use a home equity line on his house in order to pay $130,000 to Stormy Daniels. Whatever his overall assets might be worth, he apparently didn’t have enough money sitting in a savings account to pay Daniels without having to borrow it. This suggested that, regardless of his net worth, he was cash-poor. That raised questions about how he was going to be able to mount a legal defense. Now we have some answers.

Here’s how a new Vanity Fair profile is characterizing Michael Cohen’s mindset, based on having spoken with unnamed sources close to him: “There are moments when he is convinced that he is collateral damage in the Mueller probe and that he will beat this. There are times when he is overwhelmed by the mounting legal bills he already faces, and how they could balloon if he is indicted.” That kind of vacillating denial about his prospects is to be expected from someone in his position. What stands out here is the concern over legal bills.

There’s a reason Paul Manafort is still swinging away in criminal court, with one legal motion after another aimed at somehow getting him off the hook: he can afford the legal bills to pay the kind of attorneys who do this kind of work. You’ve never once heard about Manafort expressing concern over legal bills. In contrast, Rick Gates and Michael Flynn cut plea deals partly because they were going broke. So it’s a big deal that Michael Cohen is worried about legal bills. Even though he hasn’t flipped, and he doesn’t seem to think he’ll end up flipping, it’s a strong indicator that he probably will.