The odds of Michael Cohen cutting a plea deal against Donald Trump just skyrocketed

| 8:02 pm EDT May 22, 2018
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If you’re looking for context as to why Donald Trump has begun trying to obstruct justice this week more frantically than ever, just follow the chain of events. His oldest friend Roger Stone, who knows all his secrets, admitted on television that he’s about to be indicted and arrested. Paul Manafort’s former son-in-law flipped on him, increasing the odds that Manafort flips on Trump. Now a major new development has sharply increased the odds of Michael Cohen flipping on Trump as well.

Michael Cohen is best known in the political world for being Donald Trump’s shady fixer, but in the business world, Cohen is arguably best known for his failing taxi cab business. Cohen’s partner in that endeavor is a guy named Evgeny Freidman, nicknamed the Taxi King, who found himself facing all kinds of financial crimes. So Freidman has made the obvious move, cutting a plea deal against Cohen, according to the New York Times. This changes everything.

Although Cohen’s most egregious alleged crimes involve his participation in Donald Trump’s crimes and coverups, the quickest and easiest way to nail Cohen is to nail him for financial crimes. Now that Freidman is giving the government an insider’s peek into Cohen’s business dealings, Cohen’s already-dim hope of winning at trial just took a nosedive.

To get Michael Cohen to agree to flip on Donald Trump, it’s not enough for the government to build a strong enough case to convince a jury to send him to prison. The government has to build such an overwhelmingly strong case that Cohen realizes he has no chance of winning at trial. To that end, the Taxi King’s plea deal against Cohen is the biggest development in the Cohen saga to date.