Looks like Michael Cohen may have tried to take bribe from public official
After the “Taxi King” cut a plea deal against him, and Michael Avenatti caught him selectively leaking evidence, could Michael Cohen’s day possibly get any worse for him? As it turns out, the answer is apparently yes. It now very much looks like Cohen either bribed, or was trying to bribe, at least one public official.
How do we know this? Here’s how it was explained tonight on Lawrence O’Donnell’s show on MSNBC: Michael Cohen is being prosecuted, in part, by the Public Corruption Unit. That only happens when a public official is involved in an alleged crime. Cohen does not count as a public official, as he was never hired or appointed to any position in the Trump administration. Therefore it means that an actual public official was involved.
Considering that the primary focus of the prosecution against Cohen is his penchant for seeking bribe money from everyone from major U.S. corporations to foreign oligarchs, it stands to reason that Public Corruption Unit is targeting Cohen for having sought bribe money from a public official. It’ll be up to prosecutors to prove that this actually happened, and to prove that it was illegal; as we’ve previously explained, not all bribes are against the law. But what this does mean is that a (currently unidentified) public official is involved in this, and that person’s identity will come out.
Did the public official actually pay off Michael Cohen? Did prosecutors learn of this through Cohen’s bank records or from another source? Did Cohen try and fail to get bribe money from the public official? Did that public official then report Cohen to the Feds? Right now we have far more questions than answers. But one way or the other, prepare for the name of at least one public official to get dragged into this.
