President Trump’s former personal attorney, Michael Cohen, is asking for your pity. He’s also asking for your money.
The former fixer pleaded guilty Tuesday to eight criminal counts, including tax fraud, false statements to a bank, and campaign finance violations. Cohen also said in so many words that the committed the crimes at the direction of the president. We’ve come a long way from the wannabe tough guy who said he’d “rather jump out of a building than turn on Donald Trump.”
Cohen is in a world of trouble. So he’s going to the well visited by everyone else who has crossed President Trump: Fishing for those big #Resistance bucks through GoFundMe. Cohen’s attorney, Lanny Davis (yes, that Lanny Davis), launched the fundraising effort late Tuesday on behalf of his client.
“On July 2, 2018, Michael Cohen declared his independence from Donald Trump and his commitment to tell the truth,” Davis wrote in a blog post on the GoFundMe website. “On August 21, Michael Cohen made the decision to take legal responsibility and to continue his commitment to tell the truth.”
Welcome to the #Resistance, Michael Cohen.
Davis, who served formerly as special counsel to President Bill Clinton, added, “Michael decided to put his family and his country first. Now Michael needs your financial help — to pay his legal fees. The Michael Cohen Truth Fund is a transparent trust account, with all donations going to help Michael Cohen and his family as he goes forward on his journey to tell the truth about Donald Trump.”
As of this writing, Trump’s former attorney has raised $48,678 of a $500,000 goal.
The real question isn’t whether the big-talking fixer will reach his goal of half a million. The real question is whether the so-called #Resistance will dump its cash down this particular fundraising drain. It wouldn’t be surprising if they did. Anti-Trump activists have a thing for bankrolling Trump critics, specifically via GoFundMe accounts.
Recall that they’ve raised nearly half-a-million dollars for Peter Strzok, the anti-Trump ex-FBI agent whose pillow talk with his mistress compromised the bureau’s investigations of Hillary Clinton’s email server and Russia’s alleged election interference.
As of this writing, the Strzok GoFundMe page has raised approximately $441,960 of a $500,000 goal. Strzok is deserving of the funds, you see, because he doesn’t like Trump. We can ignore that he’s also deeply unethical and irresponsible. Let’s also ignore that his toxic unprofessionalism has jeopardized two FBI investigations.
Similarly, anti-Trump activists dumped more than half a million dollars into a GoFundMe account for former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, who was fired by the Justice Department on March 16.
McCabe was given the heave-ho after the inspector general reported he had “inappropriately authorized the disclosure of sensitive information” to the press. The IG also reported McCabe lied to investigators about the unauthorized leaks. Before it stopped receiving donations, McCabe’s account had raised $554,520, and all for a man who didn’t even lose his pension.
There’s a lot of money to be made in “resisting,” and Cohen would be a fool not to try to break himself off a piece of the action.
