Talking Points: Michael Cohen’s ‘instinct to blame others is strong’

The Republican war on former Trump lawyer and confident Michael Cohen has shifted into high gear, ready to hit every charge he levels at the president during congressional testimony on Capitol Hill today.

[Read Michael Cohen’s prepared testimony to Congress]

• This week, disgraced felon Michael Cohen will testify before multiple House Committees.

• Michael Cohen is a convicted felon who has consistently engaged in deceptive and misleading criminal behavior including tax evasion, lying to financial institutions, and lying to Congress.

• “In a nine-page filing, prosecutors laid out a litany of lies that Cohen admitted he told lawmakers in Congress…” (Washington Post)

• The Special Counsel’s Office reported that Cohen’s false statements to Congress began in August 2017, continued through his oral testimony before congressional committee in October 2017 and that he repeated man of his prior false statements in August 2018. They said his lies were “deliberate and premeditated” and showed his “deliberate effort to use his lies to set the tone and shape the course of his talks” with Congress. (United States v. Michael Cohen)

• Cohen is going to prison for lying.

• Cohen has a long history of hiding his untrustworthy behavior from friends and family members.

• The state attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York said Cohen’s crimes were “marked by a pattern of deception that permeated his professional life” and were hidden from friends and family members. According to SDNY, Cohen “has lived a double life.” (United States v. Michael Cohen)

• He has a demonstrated history of lying and acting deceptively in order to advance his own interests.

• But while Cohen continues to blame others for his misdeeds, the state attorney’s office found that Cohen’s motivation to commit crime was not borne from “naivete, carelessness, misplaced loyalty, or political ideology,” but “were knowing and calculated acts” Cohen executed in order to “profit personally, build his own power, and enhance his level of influence.” (United States v. Michael Cohen)

• He has a history of blaming others for his own criminal conduct including blaming his accountant, financial institutions, and President Trump for his own personal financial crimes.

• “His instinct to blame others is strong,” according to SDNY. (United States v. Michael Cohen)

• President Trump has categorically denied he directed Michael Cohen to commit campaign finance violations.

• The Special Counsel’s Office even made a rare public statement in denying Buzzfeed’s allegation that President Trump directed Cohen to lie, and at no point in Cohen’s defense sentencing memo did Cohen state that President Trump instructed him to lie.

• Cohen is guilty of many charges unrelated to President Trump, but pled guilty to campaign finance related charges that were only agreed to in order to embarrass the President and get a reduced prison sentence for himself.

• Multiple legal experts have said that the campaign finance violations Cohen pled guilty to are not crimes.

• For years, Michael Cohen worked for President Trump and praised his honesty and integrity.

• After Cohen was caught for tax evasion and other personal financial misdeeds, he began lying about President Trump in an effort to save himself.

• Cohen is going to prison for lying under oath to Congress and no one should believe a word he says in his testimony this week.

• Democrats have scheduled this week’s meetings as a way to distract Americans from the historic achievements happening in this Administration.

• It’s pathetic that Cohen will have another opportunity to make false statements before Congress.

• While the President is overseas meeting with foreign leaders and crafting historic trade deals, Democrats on Capitol Hill are engaging in more obstruction and obsessing over more investigations of the Administration.