The Daily Beast has managed to obtain and review a massive trove of emails that seem to uncover and expose the plot by a group of attorneys, working on Donald Trump’s behalf, to prevent Donald’s former personal attorney and self-described “fixer,” Michael Cohen, from turning on the now ex-president as the pressure surrounding Trump’s scandals was first beginning to grow. However, those emails, analyzed by the Beast, not only show that Trump’s legal team was unsuccessful in keeping Cohen firmly planted on the former president’s side, but actually served to drive Micheal Cohen into the open arms of federal investigators who were and continue to probe Donald Trump’s alleged crimes.
The Beast’s Jose Pagliery reports that Donald Trump’s controversial decision to elevate “America’s Mayor” Rudy Giuliani played a massive role in former “fixer” Michael Cohen’s ultimate decision to turn state’s evidence on the scandal-ridden ex-president and fess up to the now-infamous 2016 Stormy Daniels hush money scheme to federal prosecutors and investigators. Cohen’s admissions ultimately bought him criminal charges and a prison sentence in the scandal, but it also opened the door to the bombshell Manhattan District Attorney’s office’s ongoing investigation into the alleged payments made in exchange for the adult film star’s silence in the weeks before the 2016 presidential election, that is now widely expected to produce formal criminal charges against Donald Trump any day now.
The publication reports that the infamous attorney Robert Costello — who just testified before the Manhattan grand jury in an 11th-hour decision by Trump and his legal team, in an effort to discredit Cohen’s all-encompassing testimonies and evidence — ran point on the effort to ensure that Michael Cohen remained diligently loyal to Donald Trump, through whatever means necessary. However, at the end of it all, despite a flurry of incessant “encouraging” messages that bordered on the edge of harassment, Costello’s efforts to keep Donald Trump’s personal “fixer” quiet and loyal backfired in their faces.
Pagliery reports, “The emails show an attempt to establish a backchannel running from Cohen—who was suddenly being investigated by the feds over the $130,000 payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels—all the way to then-President Trump. Costello had long been associated with Trump acolyte Rudy Giuliani, so an opportunity presented itself to establish a Cohen-Costello-Giuliani-Trump chain.”
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The report goes on to note that in the aftermath of the Trump attorney’s meeting with Cohen, “Costello kicked right into action, devising a plan to keep Cohen safe—one that relied on a presidential pardon from Trump, internal emails at the firm show. That option seemed all the more promising on April 19, when Giuliani announced he was joining Trump’s legal team to try to shut down the special counsel probe that led prosecutors to Cohen. It was a position of direct influence with the president himself.”
But Giuliani all but threw Michael Cohen to the wolves, during an appearance on Fox News with host Sean Hannity, where the former New York City mayor blurted out that the scandalous Daniels hush money payments were “Funneled through a law firm, and the president repaid it.”
That Fox appearance served as the end of Michael Cohen’s trust and faith in Robert Costello and the empty promises he was receiving from Donald Trump’s legal team.
Alarm bells instantly blared in the direct aftermath of that infamous Fox interview between Hannity and Giuliani, with Costello writing to one of his law firm partners, “On Saturday, Michael was claiming that he… was convinced that Rudy is screwing things up… I asked him if he would be coming to our office this week and he said definitely, but I do not know if I believe him. I am beginning to wonder if he really has the money to pay us.”
Pagliery writes, “When journalists began speculating whether Trump’s one-time fixer was about to be arrested, the Cohen-Costello-Giuiani-Trump rope started to fray. On the morning of June 14, Costello texted Giuliani a warning: ‘He is very agitated and lashing out. Basically, he needs a little loving and respect booster. He is not thinking clearly because he feels abandoned. I am very uncertain about our relationship with him.'”
“When Cohen hired Lanny Davis—a Democratic operative who also served as Bill Clinton’s lawyer—it became clear to everyone involved in this backchannel ploy that the party was over,” the report reveals, based on the damning trove of emails. “Costello texted Giuliani the news, expressing with certainty that Cohen couldn’t possibly afford such a high-powered lawyer on his own.”
It seems Trump and his team truly messed this one up, in the worst kind of way.
Read the full report from The Daily Beast here.
Featured image via screen capture
