A perverse logic underlies both the charges against Trump lawyer Michael Cohen and the developing defense of President Trump.
According to the prosecution’s reasoning, Cohen’s six-figure hush-money payments to Trump’s mistresses would have been legal, had he made them directly from the coffers of the Trump presidential campaign.
[Related: Did Michael Cohen actually commit campaign finance violations? Some legal experts aren’t sure]
On the flip side, Trump’s defense at the moment amounts to: The six-figure payments my corporation made to the porn star and nude model to keep them from talking about how I cheated on my (third) wife with them, were, at worst, a minor violation of campaign finance laws. This comes along with disparaging comments about his longtime lawyer, whom he now characterizes as an unethical grifter.
What doesn’t go disputed in all of this? Donald Trump repeatedly burrowed himself into the world of pornography for extramarital sex, and then he had his unethical grifter lawyer cover up for it.
Together with the recent conviction of Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort and the guilty plea by deputy campaign manager Rick Gates, there’s a clear pattern that stands regardless of any future legal findings: Donald Trump laid down with the dogs and has gotten fleas.
Manafort, Gates, Cohen, Stormy Daniels, and Karen McDougal — Trump knew who they all were when he got into bed with them, figuratively or literally.
Manafort was a renowned swamp creature, a foreign agent making millions working for Russian President Vladimir Putin’s operatives in Ukraine, among other unsavory characters. His partner in crime, Rick Gates, it came out during the prosecution, embezzled money from Manafort in order to pay for his own extramarital affairs. And Cohen’s whole career was grift. He acted as Trump’s fixer, and his small business was a shady and legally troubled taxi service co-owned with a Russia-tied Ukrainian businessman. As for Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal, they are not exactly women of high repute.
When you look at the way Trump talks and the way he ran his real estate business, you detect a pattern in the sort of partners he looks for. He wants “killers.” He seeks out the ruthlessly effective. Possession of moral scruples is actually a drawback, in this view.
Donald Trump regularly called Paul Ryan a “Boy Scout,” and he meant it as an insult. Being trustworthy, reverent, and kind, you see, might get in the way of being a “killer.”
Maybe Trump thought he’d be a lot more effective with killers like Manafort, Gates, and Cohen on his side. Certainly, he thought he’d have a lot more fun with nude models and porn stars than by living a life of sober monogamy.
But today, Trump is reaping the harvest. His dalliances with Manafort and Gates helped bring about the Mueller probe. His dalliances with porn stars and Michael Cohen have led, it appears, to campaign finance violations.
Conservatives have long held that character counts. This was part of the argument against Bill Clinton in the 1990s, and against Hillary Clinton in 2016. Conservatives were right when they said it about the Clintons, and Trump’s plight helps prove it true once again.
Even if you set aside any “Boy Scout” code of conduct, and look at things simply from Trump’s utilitarian perspective, this is true: Trump has not been well served by disregarding the character of those he associates with. Nether has the Republican Party.
