Michael Cohen ~ the incredulous deal maker

Ongoing scandals are the hallmark of the failed Donald Trump administration.  

Contributing to this growing saga is the dismal performance of Michael Cohen.  Incredulously, Cohen expected people to believe that he paid Stormy Daniels $130,000 out of his own pocket without Donald Trump having any knowledge of the payout!  

This column echo was published in the News Leader newspaper, in Staunton Virginia. 

On reflection, AT&T thinks it made a mistake paying President Trump’s personal lawyer $600,000 to “advise” the company on how to win government approval of its planned merger with Time Warner.

“There is no other way to say it — AT&T hiring Michael Cohen as a political consultant was a big mistake,” AT&T chief executive Randall Stephenson wrote in a companywide email last week.

What exactly he considers the mistake isn’t clear.

Was the mistake that the company got caught dumping a $50,000-a-month retainer on the Manhattan doorstep of someone whose finances seem inextricably co-mingled with our president - and to some extent with those of porn star Stormy Daniels. On the campaign trail Trump was clearly opposed to the merger, so AT&T must have had some reason to believe their payments could change that.

Was the mistake that the company paid that money and yet still found itself sued by the Justice Department, which wants to block the merger? Maybe he just regrets the company was duped.

Or does he simply regret getting caught taking part in the pocket-lining exercise by a fledgling Washington swamp creature, like so many that corporations have paid off before and will again? The only thing that’s certain is their chief lobbyist didn’t get his money’s worth and will retire.

Of course, AT&T wasn’t alone, no matter what you define as the mistake.

The Swiss drug giant Novartis, for instance, offered Cohen $1.2 million for his advice on health-care policy. Remember, Cohen is a former personal-injury lawyer who graduated from America's worst law school and ran a taxi business on the side. So of course his health care advice would be worth that. When Cohen couldn’t give any useful advice, the Washington Post reported, Novartis paid him anyway. We’ve all have had bosses that generous, haven’t we?

Government bidder Korea Aerospace Industries says it sought his guidance with reorganizing its internal accounting system, something that was worth $150,000.

And there was the $500,000 Cohen received from Columbus Nova — an investment firm that also manages money for Russian billionaire Viktor Vekselberg —which wanted his advice on real estate investments.

It’s clear, Cohen is either one talented guy, or was selling something other than expertise.

So, does it all lead back to the president? No way to tell - yet.

Legal experts say Cohen was required to tell the president if he had any allegiances to his consulting customers that conflicted with his role advising Trump. But maybe these little side jobs slipped his mind. Or maybe this was his job, not a conflict.

But with this flow of cash, we can understand why Cohen wasn’t in a hurry to be repaid for his outlay of hush money to Stormy Daniels. The president’s new lawyer allowed that it might have been as late as 2018 when that bill was paid.

But all of this free-flowing cash, some of it scented with rubles, does make one wonder.

What is clear is that you can’t necessarily trust people who say they’re going to drain the swamp, especially if they arrive in Washington in the company of reptiles.

Our View represents the opinion of our Editorial Board: David Fritz, executive editor; and William Ramsey, news director.