Jonathan Turley is one of those perfect Fox commentators who brings a prestigious-sounding title to run as the caption under opinions that come from somewhere in deep right field. This time he's starting a thread of reasoning that permits Trump apologists to slap Trump on the wrist while they insulate him and his base voters from the facts.
Now that Michael Cohen's convicted, the narrative must admit something negative about Trump. It has to be stern-sounding and credible but it can't concede actual guilt. Thus, Turley's parsing that Trump made an error in judgement:
“The president does bear responsibility here,” he said. “He picked Michael Cohen. Michael Cohen never had a good legal repetition. He never had a reputation as someone who was a particularly good lawyer. He was a bit of a thug and the president hired him.”
Clever, kind of. Building on this admission, Trump's mistake might be explained away by saying he was loyal; to a friend; that he actually wanted to help Cohen; that he was so busy with world-class, very classy, high quality activities that he didn't pay attention to the actions of a thug. But above all: Trump isn't complicit, and if he was he wasn't intentionally complicit. He didn't order Cohen, and if he did, he didn't understand what he was ordering. He didn't pay Cohen off to pay off women for their silence and if he did he didn't know he was paying a bit of a thug to pay women who were a bit of a whore. Trump thought it was the Salvation Army. And he's innocent. So further investigation is a witch hunt. Trump is really the victim.
This storytelling requires delicate casting. Turley’s function here is to be a credible chorus for the play, permitting every Fox and Friends couch cookie who repeats and extends his talking point to say, “Well, yes, but Professor Turley says, and as we know he’s a respected legal thinker and tenured faculty at George Washington University.”
Blame the thug. Not the innocent gullible well-intentioned source of the error. Turley starts that thread here. Look for it to be woven into the tapestry immediately. Mistakes were made. It’s a customary non-admission admission from politicians since Watergate. Trump will shortly have the option of telling the nation that yes, he shares the responsibility for all this. But that's not the same as guilt.
Jonathan Turley is J.B. and Maurice C. Shapiro Professor of Public Interest Law; Director of the Environmental Law Advocacy Center; Executive Director, Project for Older Prisoners at the George Washington University Law School.