The appearance of long-time Trump confidante Lynne Patton at the congressional testimony of former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen created a considerable stir amid Washington DC. However, the context of her appearance takes on even more drama when considered against Patton’s Facebook post from January 18th of this year:
Lynne Patton: […] 3) Many of you may already know that I considered Michael Cohen to be one of my very best friends. Countless people can confirm that we were virtually inseparable during my employment at Trump – and that he is, single-handedly – responsible for introducing me to the Trump family and effectively changing my entire life. I would be lying if I didn’t admit that my heart still breaks for him and for his family, with whom I had grown extremely close.
4) What many of you may not be aware of is the fact that I can personally confirm that the ONLY reason Michael Cohen “turned on” the President of the United States is because Mueller threatened to throw his wife in jail for up to 30 years. Period. She is the co-guarantor of a $20M personal loan that Mueller discovered Michael secured back in 2015 by falsely inflating the value of his taxi medallions – effectively making her part & parcel to the federal charge of “Making False Statements to a Financial Institution,” to which Cohen ultimately plead guilty. This is also the reason why Cohen’s longtime taxi medallion partner, Evgeny “Gene” Freidman, was granted immunity. (read more)
This is a rather stunning statement. However, it holds the elements of truth and explanation as to why the Special Counsel, Robert Mueller/Andrew Weissmann, would pass off their assembled Cohen prosecution to the Southern District of New York.
If this leverage against Cohen’s wife to gain virtually unlimited legal and political cooperation is true; and it does follow a pre-established pattern of unethical prosecutorial conduct previously displayed by Andrew Weissmann; then many of the issues surrounding the behavior of Michael Cohen do begin to make sense.
Interestingly, this type of unlawful coercion and threat to compel a guilty plea and cooperation from a defendant are specifically prohibited:
In fact, when Michael Cohen appeared before Judge Andrew Carter on November 29th, 2018, part of the plea questioning from the court goes directly to this issue.
The judge specifically asked Cohen, twice, if any threats or promises were made to Cohen in exchange for his cooperation. [TRANSCRIPT]:
[pdf court transcript – here]
If it is accurate that prosecutors leveraged the potential prosecution of Mr. Cohen’s wife in order to gain his plea agreement – then not only were those threats unethical, demonstrably prosecutorial misconduct and potentially illegal, but also Michael Cohen’s denial therein means he would have lied to the court in his plea hearing as noted above.
However, this could explain how much control is being exerted over Cohen for maximum political value. Remember this same prosecution twice agreed to defer Cohen’s imprisonment to afford him time to testify to congress.
Additionally, immediately after the guilty plea by Michael Cohen his advisor/spokesman, Lanny Davis, then changed the legal team in preparation for further exploitation by Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Adam Schiff, Elijah Cummings and democrat politicians in congress.
WASHINGTON […] Lanny Davis, Cohen’s legal adviser, announced that Michael Monico and Barry Spevack will replace Petrillo, a former federal prosecutor, and his associate, Amy Lester.
Petrillo, who worked for years in the U.S. attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York, had represented Cohen through his cooperation with federal prosecutors, including special counsel Robert Mueller. Cohen hired Petrillo on June 19, 2018, replacing white-collar defense attorney Stephen Ryan.
A source familiar with the shakeup told The Daily Caller News Foundation that the change is being made because the focus for Cohen is now on “Washington and Congress” rather than with prosecutors in New York. (link)
Curiouser, and curiouser…
(Lynne Patton Facebook Link)
[…] 9) Lastly, given that Michael Cohen is barred from discussing the Russian investigation when he testifies before the House Oversight Committee, it’s safe to conclude that his testimony … will effectively amount to nothing more than political theater and partisan fodder for late night hosts simply to embarrass a sitting President over past behavior he may or may not have engaged in as a private citizen.
10) In closing, Michael Cohen always wanted to be famous. Sadly, he has gotten his wish. I personally stopped communicating with Michael when it became known in May 2018 that he was defrauding various companies (from a Korean defense firm to a global pharmaceutical company) for millions of dollars by falsely claiming he could leverage his connection with the President to their favor. (more)
References:
Final thought… Yikes, if what Patton claims is accurate, well, what does that say about the guy in charge of the Mueller process, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein?
Centinel2012 