Roll the Countdown Clocks. Michael Cohen’s the Last Witness, Bragg Expected To Indict This Month

“Monday, Monday, can’t trust that day. Monday, Monday sometimes it just turns out that way.” — Mamas and the Papas

Beware the ides of March, Donald. Brutus, Michael Cohen is playing a key role in your fate, just as you played a key role in his, and the jig is up. But you knew that, right, Donald? That’s why you’ve been going ape$hit over on Truth Social, cranking out multiple screaming, all-caps posts until your widdle thumbs bleed. And not just on one occasion, either.

All of the best legal minds in this country have weighed in and there’s a consensus that a prosecutor does not go to these lengths and follow this path unless s/he has a plan to indict. This level of law operates along the maxim, “You only get one shot at the King, you better not miss.” Alvin Bragg wouldn’t be at this place unless he planned to take a shot. Let a grinning Andrew Weissman explain it to an equally grinning Nicole Wallace. Hey, Donald, have you heard that expression about “s/he who laughs last?”

"It is not that unusual for a DA, just before they decide to bring charges, to give the target an opportunity to testify here… Michael Cohen is right, that there's no way on God's green earth that Donald Trump is gonna go in and testify" – @AWeissmann_ w/ @NicolleDWallace pic.twitter.com/ONl4uW0nv0

— Deadline White House (@DeadlineWH) March 10, 2023

New York Times:

Mr. Cohen’s testimony is the second strong indication that the district attorney, Alvin L. Bragg, will ask the grand jury to indict the former president, possibly as soon as this month. The first came when Mr. Bragg’s prosecutors informed Mr. Trump’s lawyers that if he wanted to testify before the grand jury, he could do so next week, people with knowledge of the matter said. Such offers almost always indicate an indictment is close.

In New York, potential defendants have the right to answer questions in the grand jury shortly before they are indicted, but they rarely testify, and Mr. Trump is likely to decline the offer.

A spokeswoman for the district attorney’s office declined to comment. Reached for comment, Mr. Cohen’s lawyer, Lanny J. Davis, said that “I’m only allowed to say that we’re cooperating with the investigation.” He added, “We appreciate the professionalism of Mr. Bragg’s team.”

Mr. Bragg’s investigation concerns a $130,000 payment that Mr. Cohen made in the final days of the 2016 presidential campaign to Ms. Daniels, who said she had an affair with Mr. Trump. After taking office, Mr. Trump reimbursed Mr. Cohen, who has long said that he was acting on his boss’s orders to silence Ms. Daniels.

The prosecutors have zeroed in on whether Mr. Trump and his company falsified internal records to hide the reimbursement to Mr. Cohen — and Ms. Daniels’s story — from the voting public.

The Times also makes notes of Trump’s Truth Social meltdowns and observes that Trump being indicted as he runs for the third time, “could roil the 2024 presidential primary campaign in ways that are hard to predict.” Amen to that. You talk about terra incognita, we know more about the dark side of the moon than we do about how a presidential primary and/or campaign is affected by a front running candidate who comes under indictment in his former home state.

Even if Mr. Trump is indicted, convicting him or sending him to prison is no sure bet, and bringing charges would represent a significant gamble for Mr. Bragg. The case against the former president hinges on a risky legal theory involving two different bodies of law, and if Mr. Trump were ultimately convicted, he would face a maximum sentence of four years, though prison time would not be mandatory.

Mr. Trump’s lawyers will also undoubtedly take aim at the prosecution’s star witness, Mr. Cohen, who in 2018 pleaded guilty to federal charges related to the hush money as well as accusations that he lied to Congress about a potential Trump hotel deal in Moscow. The defense lawyers could use his guilty pleas as ammunition to attack his credibility as a witness and argue that he has an ax to grind against Mr. Trump.

I expect Cohen to be attacked and I expect him to give as good as he gets. Next week is going to be the Michael Cohen Show. I would expect some plot twists and unexpected revelations.

I base that prediction on how nuts Trump has been going for weeks with the multiple, all-caps screaming meemie posts. He knows what went on and so does Cohen. With any luck, the rest of us are going to find out and soon.

Nobody is hoping harder for the worst to come to the worst than Ron DeSantis. DeSantis is grinning as much as Weissman and Wallace, only off camera. It’s going to be an interesting March.