Donald Trump's Lawyer Is Pleading The Fifth & Twitter Thinks It's Pretty Ironic
Donald Trump's personal lawyer Michael Cohen has been feeling the heat the past few months to say the least. However, it looks like he has a plan for this upcoming lawsuit against Stormy Daniels, and everyone can't quite ignore the irony. Check out these tweets about Michael Cohen and the Fifth Amendment and see for yourself.
According to The Hill, Cohen will plead the Fifth during the lawsuit filed against him by pornographic actress Stormy Daniels, whose legal name is Stephanie Clifford. Cohen announced his decision on April 25 via a court filing. “Based on the advice of counsel, I will assert my 5th amendment rights in connection with all proceeding in this case due to the ongoing criminal investigation by the FBI and U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York,” the filing read. The Fifth Amendment protects individuals from being forced to testify against themselves, or n other words protects individuals against self-incrimination.
Now, I'm not a lawyer, and can't really talk about the legal strategy involved in pleading the Fifth. But I do spend a lot of time on the internet, and can confirm that the internet never forgets. Which is why I'm not surprised that Twitter dug up what Trump himself said about the Fifth Amendment back in 2016 while discussing Hillary Clinton's testimony about her private email server — and oh, the irony is delicious.
Trump said,
There are five people taking the Fifth Amendment. Like you see on the mob right? You see the mob takes the Fifth. If you're innocent, why are you taking the Fifth Amendment?
The irony in this is too impossible to ignore, and of course Twitter had to call it out.
Michael Cohen definitely has not been having a great couple of months. In January The Washington Post reported that Cohen had paid Stormy Daniels $130,000 to reportedly keep quiet about an alleged sexual encounter she and Trump had in 2006, which Trump has continuously denied. Then in February, Cohen admitted that he made the payment to Daniels out of his own pocket, and told The New York Times that neither Trump nor the Trump Organization knew about the payment.
He said,
Neither the Trump Organization nor the Trump campaign was a party to the transaction with Ms. Clifford, and neither reimbursed me for the payment, either directly or indirectly.
The payment came just a week before the 2016 presidential election, leading to speculation whether the payment could have counted as an illegal campaign contribution as well as about possible other information that could have been kept from the public. On April 11, The Times reported that the FBI had raided Cohen's office and hotel room in an attempt to seize documents related to the Stormy Daniels case.
Following the raid, Michael Cohen's lawyer Stephen Ryan referred to the raid as "completely inappropriate and unnecessary."
Who needs reality TV when you have this drama happening right in front of us? Even though Cohen has been loyal to Trump so far, Daniels' lawyer Michael Avenatti thinks Cohen might change his tune soon. On April 16, Cohen was ordered to appear before the New York court to determine the fate of his case. On April 17, Avenatti appeared on The View to discuss the impending lawsuit and whether he thinks Cohen will turn on Trump. (Spoiler alert: he does.)
He said,
No, I think there's no question in my mind that Michael Cohen, A) is going to be indicted, within the next three months likely, and B), he's going to roll on the president. ... he's not going to look at his wife and say no, I'm gonna go take a bullet for this president and go serve decades ... in a federal penitentiary. Why would he do that? This is a man that, Mr. Trump left him behind when he went to Washington. He hasn't done him any favors.
We'll have to see what happens, but so far it looks like Cohen is keeping his mouth shut on the matter.
