Donald Trump wants you to know he's clean, totally clean. His former campaign chair, Paul Manafort—currently on trial for committing bank and tax fraud—only ran the Trump campaign for "a very short period of time," Trump says. And Don Jr.'s 2016 Trump Tower meeting with an agent of the Russian government to get "dirt" on Hillary Clinton, "totally legal." And besides, Trump claims, "I did not know about it!"
And now the guy who says Trump did know about that infamous meeting, his former lawyer/fixer Michael Cohen, is under investigation for tax fraud by federal prosecutors in New York, writes the Wall Street Journal.
Federal authorities are assessing whether Mr. Cohen’s income from his taxi-medallion business was underreported in federal tax returns, one of the people said. That income included hundreds of thousands of dollars received in cash and other payments over the last five years, the person said.
Cohen is also being scrutinized for potential bank fraud, with investigators exploring whether he improperly obtained loans by inflating the value of his assets, among other things. Naturally, findings of any such wrongdoing will increase the pressure on Cohen to cooperate with federal prosecutors on other inquiries.
But Trump already called this one back in April during his rambling Fox & Friends pajama phoner. "They’re looking at something having to do with his business," Trump explained of the FBI searching Cohen’s premises. "I have nothing to do with his business.”
Trump has surrounded himself with people who are either under investigation, on trial, or have pleaded guilty, including: Paul Manafort, Michael Cohen, Rick Gates, Michael Flynn, and George Papadopoulos. Mueller is also reportedly scrutinizing other key players for Team Trump: Roger Stone, Don Jr., Jared Kushner, and Carter Page. It's really a stunning track record.
But when it comes to Trump's less than illustrious coterie and all the potential crimes they may have committed, Trump never saw a thing, according to him. That would prove to be pretty stunning. Remember in April when Trump was asked on Air Force One whether he knew about the $130,000 hush-money payment Cohen made to Stormy Daniels?
“No,” he said, in what was later exposed as an out-and-out lie by his own lawyer. Not only did Trump know about the payment to Daniels, he also strategized with Cohen about another hush-money payment to Playboy model Karen McDougal. But similar to Trump’s rolling claims of innocence regarding his associates, his Air Force One denial about Daniels also seemed pretty extraordinary at the time. And indeed it was.