Donald Trump’s attorney Michael Cohen is about to get subpoena’d in the Russia scandal

| 1:24 pm EDT May 30, 2017
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Donald Trump’s Russia scandal, and the investigation into it, have expanded yet again. Just days after it was revealed that the FBI is investigating Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner for his role in the scandal, now comes word that Trump’s longtime attorney Michael Cohen is now a focus of the Congressional investigation into the scandal.

Cohen has confirmed to ABC News that he’s being targeted by the Senate Intelligence Committee, which has asked him to testify and provide records in relation to the Russia scandal (link). But Cohen says he’s refusing the request. In fact it was his refusal that prompted the committee to unanimously vote to give its two principal members blanket subpoena power. That means Cohen is about to get subpoena’d.

So what will Michael Cohen do once that happens? Michael Flynn invoked the Fifth Amendment when he was subpoena’d, but that’s seen by the public as an admission of guilt, even though legally it isn’t necessarily one. Cohen’s only options in response to the forthcoming subpoena will be to comply, to plead the Fifth, or to try to fight it in court and convince a judge that the subpoena is legally invalid. The big question here is why Cohen is now being targeted.

Cohen cannot be compelled to provide evidence against Donald Trump that was obtained by virtue of having represented him as a client. So the Senate Intel Committee is essentially asserting that Cohen played another role in the Russia scandal that would have gone beyond merely being Trump’s attorney at the time.

This brings us back to the now-infamous Trump-Russia dossier assembled by former MI6 agent Christopher Steele, which alleged that Michael Cohen secretly met with the Russian government in Prague to discuss the terms of Russia’s blackmail of Trump. Cohen has long denied that claim, and asserts that he’s never been to Prague. So is the committee trying to get to the bottom of the dossier, or does it have some other lead on Cohen that’s led to him being targeted? Stay tuned. Follow Palmer Report on Facebook and Twitter.