On April 9, 2018, the FBI raided the office and hotel room of Donald Trump’s attorney/fixer Michael Cohen, seizing various records, emails and documents.
I believe that this raid, particularly the government’s seizure of a Nondisclosure Agreement (“NDA”) between “David Dennison” and “Peggy Peterson”, will eventually be recognized as the moment when the collapse of Trump’s presidency became inevitable - not a question of if, but one of when.
In this post, I am going to explain what has happened so far, where things stand as of today, and my best guesses as to what happens next.
The Broidy “Confession”
On April 13, the Wall Street Journal published a story about one of the documents seized during the April 9 raid — the previously mentioned NDA between “David Dennison” and “Peggy Peterson”. Per the person who leaked the existence of the NDA to the WSJ, according to the terms of the NDA, “David Dennison” agreed to pay “Peggy Peterson” $1.6MM in exchange for her silence regarding Dennison and Peterson’s multi-year affair (and her pregnancy and subsequent abortion resulting from that affair). “David Dennison” had been previously revealed as the pseudonym used by Donald Trump in his NDA with Stormy Daniels, aka Stephanie Clifford (also aka “Peggy Peterson” in her NDA with Trump). The Journal reported that in this NDA, according to an unidentified source, “Peggy Peterson” was former Playboy model Shera Bechard, and “David Dennison” was not Trump but was actually Elliott Broidy, national deputy finance chair of the RNC who was previously best known for brazenly bribing public officials.
Who is David Dennison?
(Note: You really need to fully read each of the links in this section)
The Internet quickly noticed that the alleged Broidy-Bechard affair did not really make any sense, and that “David Dennison” in the Bechard NDA was probably once again Donald Trump. It seems like the theory floated around message boards and comment sections for a few weeks, and then, on May 8, the story really took off after a Paul Campos post at New York Magazine entitled Here’s a Theory About That $1.6 Million Payout From a GOP Official to a Playboy Model. Campos made a follow-up post a couple of weeks later, after news broke that Broidy was (successfully) attempting to leverage his White House contacts into billions of dollars in contracts (Hey, Look: More Evidence That Broidy May Have Been Covering for Trump in That Playmate Affair). Numerous other commentators have since weighed in:
Who Did Playboy Model Shera Bechard Really Have an Affair With?
Is this Playboy model keeping the biggest secret of the Trump presidency?
New Evidence Donald Trump Had Affair With ‘Playboy’ Model Shera Bechard, Covered Her Abortion: ‘NY Mag’ Report
Get to know Elliott Broidy, the next major Trump scandal figure
There is something fishy about the Michael Cohen-Elliott Broidy Playboy mistress hush deal
On Ellioitt Broidy and the RNC
NY Mag Theory That Trump Impregnated Playboy Model Is Likely True, and an Indictment of the Media
Again, please read all of the links in this section (and the links within those links); my intent here is not intended to convince you that the theory is true, so I’m not going to spend much time getting into the weeds (other than directing you to the two previous posts I’ve made on this matter, where I pointed out that Broidy’s confession was not really a confession and that Broidy’s spokesperson said too much and then started claiming that a spokesperson’s job should not involve speaking for people).
This post assumes that (1) Trump and Bechard had an affair (and pregnancy), (2) Elliott Broidy, after discussions with Michael Cohen, agreed to pay Bechard $1.6 Million to keep quiet about said affair, (3) by making this payment, Broidy gained a higher level of access to the White House, and (4) Broidy used this higher level of access for financial gain. As I said, I’m not writing this with the goal of convincing anyone that these things happened — I think others have done a good job of that; what I am trying to show is that, assuming that these things happened, the April 13 Wall Street Journal story set events in motion that will unavoidably lead to the resignation/impeachment/removal of Donald J. Trump.
On The Record Public Statements from the Players Involved
From Trump:
Nothing. Not a word.
From Broidy:
Elliott Broidy released an ambiguous statement that admitted to giving money to a pregnant Bechard when Cohen asked him to, and not much else. His spokesman then said that the details of the NDA were “absolutely” leaked by Qatar, and then tried to unsay it in very strong terms.
From Bechard (through her attorney):
Now that our client's identity has been leaked, here is our full statement:
Ms. Bechard is deeply distressed that someone has revealed information regarding her and Elliott Broidy. She had no intention of making this painful information public, and requests respect for her privacy at this difficult time. As this story unfolds, we hope that its focus remains on the profoundly disturbing and repeated collusion between Donald Trump’s fixer, Michael Cohen, and Ms. Bechard’s former lawyer, Keith Davidson.
There is no confirmation of a relationship with Broidy, only “information”. And Trump is mentioned by name in a matter where he is allegedly not involved (the “focus” going forward should remain on “Donald Trump’s fixer”). Bechard has also been making a lot of posts about narcissists on social media.
Who knows the truth?
Have always known, by definition: Broidy, Trump and Bechard
Almost definitely know everything: Cohen, Keith Davidson (Bechard’s former attorney), Peter Stris (Bechard’s current attorney), Unknown Broidy attorney (the one who drafted his original statement, who is apparently not one of the attorneys contacted by CNBC, since an attorney who knows the truth would never have directed press questions about Bechard to Broidy’s spokesperson without vetting the response first)
Probably know enough: Robin Rosenzweig (Broidy’s wife), Melania Trump, Keith Schiller, attorneys for anyone previously listed who is involved in litigation or an investigation
Wildcards: Mueller’s team (depending on what sort of documentation exists), the FBI, the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York Attorney, friends of Bechard, Trump corporate employees, Trump White House employees, others that work with the attorneys previously listed, Michael Avenetti, Cooper Hefner, George Nader, Qatar and former CIA operatives and ex-British spies (allegedly), Harvey Englander (Broidy’s spokesman, who almost certainly did not know on May 25 but certainly learned something about it by May 26)
Even without the application of the legal process, which I am going to discuss below, I think there are now too many people, with too many conflicting objectives, for this to remain a secret.
State of the NDA
As far as I can tell, no media outlets have actually examined a copy of the NDA, so it is tough to say exactly what it contains. Here is the description given to the WSJ by “a person familiar with the matter”:
As part of the contract, Ms. Bechard agreed not to pursue what she said were potential legal claims against [David Dennison], according to the person familiar with the matter.
In the contract, [David Dennison] denied the allegations and agreed not to make any legal claims against Ms. Bechard in return for her signing the contract, the person said.
Ms. Bechard claimed that she became pregnant and that [David Dennison] was the father, but the contract states that matters relating to the alleged pregnancy and paternity of the alleged child are excluded from the claims resolved in the agreement, the person familiar with the matter said.
Ms. Bechard declined to provide proof that she was pregnant with [David Dennison]’s child, the contract says, according to the person familiar with the matter.
The contract said Ms. Bechard reserved the right to seek child support in the future, but she has told [David Dennison]’s camp that she had an abortion, the people familiar with the matter said.
Ms. Bechard alleged that [David Dennison], prior to the settlement, had been paying her for an exclusive sexual relationship that lasted one to two years, one of the people said.
The Journal also claims that the agreement mirrors the Stormy Daniels NDA, which we do have a copy of. In exchange for a sum of money, “Peggy” agrees to agrees to turn over any evidence she has related to the affair, lists anyone that she has already told about the affair, and agrees to keep her affair with “David Dennison” completely confidential. There is one contractual exception to the confidentiality requirements, permitting disclosure “if compelled to do so by legal process” (there are other ways to void or partially void an NDA, but the “legal process” exception is the only exception actually listed in the contract).
Elliott Broidy has never actually claimed to be a party to any agreement at all, and based on his spokesman’s “statement” I’m not sure that he possesses or has even seen a copy of it (none of his leaked stolen emails have mentioned the NDA). He and his team’s careful wordsmithing lead me to believe that he is operating as if the NDA is still in effect. There’s also an admission by omission here in that his initial statement did not conclude with “and now obviously since I have freely revealed all of the information that was potentially damaging to me and therefore rendered the NDA moot, Ms. Bechard is freed from her obligations”.
Bechard and her attorney are not saying much, but they are certainly acting as if the NDA is still in effect.
We’ve heard nothing from Trump or Cohen.
Why is this story different?
So, why do I believe this will be what brings Trump down? What makes this different from the multitude of other scandals that Trump seems to easily brush off?
First, because of the abortion. I’m well aware of Republican hypocrisy, but there really are a lot of people who really do think abortion is really, really bad. Certainly not all of those claiming to be “strongly pro-life”, probably not even most — but still a significant enough number. Could a large percentage of Republican voters be convinced that this time abortion is not bad? Maybe. Maybe more than half. But half is not enough. Plus, I think politicians will have to start getting on the record about this before the abortion part gets confirmed, and getting Republicans to start defending a hypothetical abortion is going to be a very heavy lift. And sure, abortion presents a problem for those who want to support Trump, but for those ready to jump ship, an abortion is the perfect excuse (I mean, as far as I can tell, pretending to care more about abortion than you actually do is one of the key skills of being a Republican politician).
Second, because this story has it all. An affair, an abortion, bribery, collusion, lies on top of lies, FBI raids, hacking, espionage activities of various middle eastern countries, pornstars, betrayal, and piles of lawsuits, each with piles of documents. It has both simple and complex narratives. A person can “get it” without being familiar with the terminology of international espionage or document retention policies or the precise legal definitions in the US criminal code, yet the story is still interesting to people who are familiar with those things. This story is both incredibly wide and incredibly deep. It can be at least somewhat explained in any format, to any audience, in any span of time. It’s a 15-second clip and a 10-part exposé.
- Trump had an affair with Playmate Shera Bechard. Recently.
- Trump had an affair recently with Playmate Shera Bechard and she had an abortion.
- Trump had an affair recently with Playmate Shera Bechard and she had an abortion and he paid her $1.6MM not to talk about it.
- Trump had an affair recently with Playmate Shera Bechard and she had an abortion and the $1.6MM Trump paid her wasn’t actually paid by him but was from Elliott Broidy through Trump’s attorney Michael Cohen.
- Trump had an affair recently with Playmate Shera Bechard and she had an abortion and the $1.6MM Trump paid her was paid by Elliott Broidy through Trump’s attorney Michael Cohen who had an inappropriate arrangement with Bechard’s attorney.
- Trump had an affair recently with Playmate Shera Bechard and she had an abortion and the $1.6MM Trump paid her was paid by Elliott Broidy (who then received high level access to the White House) through Michael Cohen who had an inappropriate arrangement with Bechard’s attorney.
- Trump had an affair recently with Playmate Shera Bechard and she had an abortion and the $1.6MM Trump paid her was paid by Elliott Broidy (who then received high level access to the White House and used that access to get billions) through Michael Cohen who had an inappropriate arrangement with Bechard’s attorney.
- Trump had an affair recently with Playmate Shera Bechard (who thinks he is a deceptive selfish asshole) and she had an abortion and the $1.6MM Trump paid her was paid by Elliott Broidy (who then received high level access to the White House and used that access to get billions and also to arrange a picture with the president and a convicted pedophile) through Michael Cohen who had an inappropriate arrangement with Bechard’s attorney.
And it keeps going. And is is bad, all the way down.
Additionally, and significantly, there is now very little room for bullshitting with this story. Every single time anyone involved talks, they’ll make it worse. If Trump denies an affair, there won’t be any debate about “well is he really lying since potatoes can’t actually lie?” — either he and Bechard have slept together, or they haven’t. And because of the way these morons structured the deal, there is no way to admit to any part without basically admitting the whole thing. Sure, there is probably some room for debate about exactly which (campaign finance, banking, anti-corruption, tax, who knows what else) laws were broken, but by the time you get to that level of detail it is too late — you’ve already conceded an affair between the President and a Playboy model that led to an abortion and a $1.6MM hush payment that was paid for by someone else.
And speaking of morons:
Let’s say that you were told that the President had an affair with a Playboy Model that resulted in a pregnancy, and that a corrupt Republican operative made a series of payments, through a series of corporate entities, to said Playboy Model in exchange for her silence. Well, you think, that is a very interesting theory, but due to the fungible nature of money, even if you were to somehow get access to financial records, you are stuck with a messy web of payments with no clear picture of the final destination of any particular dollar. Good luck tying all of that together.
Proving that Elliott Broidy paid money to Shera Bechard for a reason related to an affair and pregnancy was the most difficult part of all of this! And they gave it away on Day 1! That is the part of the story where bullshitting and obfuscation could have been useful, and now that is the only part of this scandal where we have an actual unambiguous on the record statement from one of the players. Even after the documents were seized by the FBI, we were literally years away from a reputable journalist saying something like “Elliott Broidy agreed to pay $1.6 million to a former Playboy model who became pregnant during an affair”, and yet these guys managed to get it in the first sentence of a New York Times article within a week (though, to be fair, I’m sure they probably would not have revealed the quid right away if they knew the quo was going to be coming out two weeks later). We already KNOW the complicated parts of this story; all we need now is some confirmation that Trump and Bechard had an affair, and this whole thing stops being a conspiracy theory (I guess it will still be a criminal conspiracy for some of the people involved, but it will no longer be a “conspiracy theory”).
There will be no debate about whether Trump knew about the affair, since he was a participant. Maybe they’ll try to spin it like they did with Stormy Daniels, that Cohen was just doing his thing and Trump wasn’t aware of the NDA or payment — but Trump has certainly been aware of it at least since it was publicly reported in April, and been aware that Broidy paid for it, and that Broidy is providing cover for him by creating the perception that Broidy was the party to the affair. And if Rudy gets on TV again and tries his “Back at Bracewell we used to make $1MM+ payments to mistresses on behalf of our clients all the time without our clients knowledge where the funds came from third-parties with a financial interest in gaining leverage over our clients” nonsense strategy, he’s going to get sued, and might end up in jail depending on how much he actually knows. It is too late to claim that this was a loan or that Trump paid or intended to pay it back in some way. It is too late to claim that Broidy paid Cohen for other legal services. It is too late to claim that Bechard’s payment was paid by Trump through some convoluted mechanism, and too late to claim that she was paid for some reason other than to keep quiet about an affair. Making this reveal has also considerably raised the stakes for anyone with knowledge of the affair. For anyone with knowledge of the affair, public release of the Broidy payment now gives them knowledge of a bribe, and covering up the affair means covering up the bribe. Since Broidy’s payment is now public knowledge, EVERYONE who has any knowledge of a relationship between Trump and Bechard, or later learns about it, and then claims otherwise is not just covering up infidelity — they are potentially becoming an accessory-after-the-fact to a massive bribery scandal.
If it were just an affair, even just an affair and abortion, then you would have Republicans out there screaming about liberals being hypocritical because “What about Bill Clinton” and “this is a personal matter not tied to Presidency” and so on (I’m sure they will still do, but now there is an easy rebuttal)...to be on board with this, you have to be ok with the adultery and abortion AND be ok with Trump accepting bribes from political operatives to silence the woman AND with Trump letting the briber take the heat for the whole thing (which is another bribe in and of itself, giving Broidy even more leverage over Trump).
What comes next?
Now, we wait for the next domino to fall. I’m guessing this will play out in some combination of the following scenarios (listed roughly in order of impact):
1. The media cleans up its inaccurate reporting on this stuff
What Broidy has said so far is essentially, “Michael Cohen contacted me about giving money to Shera Bechard, who was pregnant, and I agreed to do so.” Broidy has never claimed that he “had an affair with Playboy Playmate Shera Bechard”. Broidy has not “said he impregnated a former Playboy Playmate” or that “he paid $1.6 million to a former Playboy Playmate he’d impregnated”. Broidy has not “admitted to the relationship” when “the relationship” seems to refer back to the “affair” referenced in the prior paragraph. These statements are misleading to the reader.
Also, Broidy’s people do not believe the original Journal story was “based on stolen emails”, and the WSJ was certainly not “relying on hacked email exchanges” when it published the story. Literally no one is claiming that the hacking exposed anything related to Shera Bechard. Broidy’s people were claiming it for a few hours, but then started furiously backpeddling. And isn’t that curious? Someone stole Elliott Broidy’s private communications and released them in a way to intentionally damage him personally, and yet there was not a single document released related to a scandalous affair that allegedly went on for two years? An affair that, per the official storyline here, Broidy considered so potentially damaging that he was willing to shell out $1.6MM to keep it from becoming public?
As of now, I assume any journalist covering this will have seen the articles from NYMAG, and even if they haven’t uncovered any proof of anything yet, they should start treating ANYTHING that comes from anyone involved here with an extremely high level of skepticism (even sarcasm- “After this story was published Thursday, Englander denied making the statements attributed to him” is a good start, although in this case the correction is actually the truth, as the hacks and Bechard appear completely unrelated). Hopefully, as reporters start to realize that they are being played, new stories will start to make it clear that there are still a lot of unanswered questions about what exactly happened here. But the real sign that something is happening will be when the old stories start receiving edits for clarification; that is when the “Broidy paid to cover up his affair with Bechart” narrative will begin to shift to “Broidy paid to cover up Bechart’s affair with someone”.
2. Someone drops the Question Mark
What I mean by this is that someone who understands how the law works (a reputable news organization, or an attorney) makes an unambiguous accusation (something like “Donald Trump impregnated Shera Bechard in July in New York City” or “The Side Letter to the Bechard NDA identifies David Dennison as Donald Trump”). The impact will depend on who makes the claim, but once one person stops treating this as hypothetical — stops saying “if Campos’ theory is correct” or “seems plausible” or “assuming that these things happened” (like I did above...) — things will really start to escalate. Once someone gets on the record saying this is real, I think it will trigger a flurry of articles and stories repeating the accusation and adding new details.
3. Good investigative journalism
Since the original story broke, the mainstream stories that mention Bechard have been generally just rehashing old incorrect information (about what Broidy “admitted” to on April 13) or new incorrect information (about whether the NDA was hacked). Surely someone out there is looking into whether the President of the United States had an affair with a Playboy Playmate that led to an abortion that was then covered up by a multi-million dollar payment from a Republican operative who parlayed that into hundreds of millions of dollars, right? Right? Surely these stories are ready to go and just waiting for additional confirmation, right? (I’m being sarcastic, but I really do understand that this is a story that is not going to run unless everything is completely airtight.) Broidy has spokespeople and attorneys making statements all over the place...maybe a reporter could throw in a, “By the way, can you confirm that Elliott Broidy had a sexual relationship with Shera Bechard?”...whatever response or non-response is given would be very illuminating.
4. Someone goes rogue
Could happen in conjunction with #3, but in this scenario something concrete leaks — a copy of the side letter agreement that identifies Donald Trump as David Davidson in the Bechard NDA, for example, or communications involving Trump (either in relation to the NDA or personal communications with Bechart), or pictures of Trump and Bechard together (maybe security cam footage), or comments from people who witnessed them together. Or maybe one of the reporters on the original NDA leak says, “By the way, one of my original sources for this was Trump’s attorney, who I am now burning for deliberately using me to advance a coverup of a criminal scandal of epic proportions.” Or maybe an even bigger boom, like Shera Bechard tweeting “I did not have a sexual relationship with Elliott Broidy #metoo”.
5. The Legal Process
There are too many active lawsuits and investigations for this not to be uncovered. Bechard could get subpoenaed in any of the active litigation I’ve mentioned, and the NDA can’t stop her from talking. Or she could prevail in her own litigation and have her NDA declared void. She could waive her attorney-client privilege with Keith Davidson (her first attorney) to prevent him from using that as an excuse not to speak. Broidy, whose financial situation has obviously gotten dicey lately, could stop making the payments required of “David Dennison” under the NDA and breach the agreement. Any of the others with potential knowledge could get subpoenaed and spill it. Any of the players here who committed crimes could start talking in exchange for leniency. Or the (looming) criminal trials of Cohen and Broidy and (insert name of basically anyone who has been around Trump) could also expose the truth.
The Democrats can take the House in November and subpoena everyone and everything. This is actually great politically, because everyone has a great justification for demanding to go full speed ahead in investigating. The refined statesman can talk about things like “the integrity of our campaign finance system and the dark role of money in politics” and “investigating the full extent of foreign influence on United States policy in the Middle East”, while the bomb-throwers can go after the sex scandal and the abortion.
Eventually, evidence comes out that proves a relationship, and that’s ball game.
And then
And then, Trump starts flailing/denying/blaming, but there is nowhere to hide. Lie and he’s screwed, tell the truth and he’s screwed.
Fox News will try to spin things for a while of course, but as I mentioned before, there is no real way to talk about this scandal at all without acknowledging wrongdoing by Trump. The Democrats are as united as they’ve ever been about something. Melania refuses to stand by him. Some Republicans (mostly retiring ones) will turn on him immediately. The others will generally not say anything or tepidly defend him from a “witch hunt” or whatever nonsense is chosen as the line of the day, but they’ll start to feel him turning into a political liability, and since most of the earlier defenses will have been claims that the story was not true, once the abortion is confirmed most of the supporters will jump ship too, and then the Trump presidency is over. There will still be a few true believers out there, of course, but the rest of the Trump voters convince themselves that they “never really supported him that much anyway” and “really were just trying to shake things up in Washington” and “anyway, what do you expect, the guy was a Democrat the whole time”. Trump will discover that the people’s love of a demagogue does not run very deep. They’ll still believe the media was extremely unfair to him, and if not for this Russian nonsense none of this would have come out, and at the end of the day he was a guy who was doing a lot of great things for this country, and they’ll still keep on hating all of the kinds of people they hate now, but they’ll generally agree that this was just too much. In a couple of decades they’ll look back fondly and say, “Man, what might have been, if only that guy could have kept it in his pants.”
Why I might be wrong
1. Broidy and Bechart actually had an affair
It’s possible that Briody and Bechard had an affair, Bechard contacted attorney Keith Davidson to represent her, then Davidson inappropriately contacted Cohen because he knew Cohen had ties to Broidy through working together at the RNC, and then Broidy agreed to use Cohen as his attorney in the settlement (instead of using an actual attorney) as a way to throw some money at Trump’s personal attorney in the hopes that it would pay off down the line. Maybe Broidy agreed to pay such a disproportionately large amount because he was on the cusp of parlaying his RNC connections into big money and was willing to pay any amount to avoid scandal. Perhaps this improved personal relationship with Cohen was the only reason Broidy got inside access to the White House, and Trump did not know anything about any of this. Maybe when Trump found out that Broidy had an affair with Bechard, he laughed and said, “Really? Nice. I didn’t think he had it in him. Huzzah!” Sure, if this is the actual truth that means there have been a ton of strange and terrible decisions made that don’t really align at all with the past behavior of any of the players here...but again, this entire piece is premised on the idea that these people are complete morons who make terrible decisions.
2. There is a “false flag” element to this
Maybe Broidy and Bechard really did have an affair, but this reveal is all being managed in a way to encourage the media and Trump’s critics to incorrectly claim it was actually Trump. Or maybe Trump and Bechard had an affair but there never was a pregnancy or abortion, and those elements were just added to make the truth, when revealed, seem more acceptable. Or there could have been a pregnancy that ended in miscarriage rather than abortion, in which case anyone focusing on abortion here is going to come out looking really bad. Do I think these people are smart enough for this? No. Do I think they are shady enough? Very much so.
3. No one talks, nothing ever leaks
Maybe everyone involved receives enough money to never speak about it. I mean, pretty much the only fact I know about Shera Bechard is that she is willing to accept money in exchange for not speaking about this affair; if subpoenaed, would she face contempt charges rather than speak? Seems unlikely, but possible. There is a criminal element to the involvement of most of the others, and for them taking advantage of the Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination seems likely (advisable, really). Maybe the various lawsuits and investigations all wrap up without ever discovering the truth here (or maybe it is discovered but never becomes public). There is plenty enough going on here to put people in jail without ever getting to the bottom of who impregnated Shera Bechard. Maybe the parties involved realize that everything they say makes things worse, and they all stop speaking at all. Or in the more frightening version, maybe some of the people who know things have “something happen” to them.
4. The End of the Republic
Not to get overly dramatic here, but if this full story is confirmed but the American people don’t care, and if Trump pardons everyone involved, including himself, and effectively (or actually) declares that bribing him is no longer an illegal act, then America is definitively no longer, well, America. Or, if Trump has the power to assert control over all of the different lawsuits and investigations involved here and is able to kill this story through a combination of threats, bribery, and subversion of the rule of law, well, that will also mean we have passed a point of no return.
And now, we wait
I’m a little confused about why more people haven’t realized the importance of this story, but I don’t think I’m the only one who can see where this is obviously heading. I think Paul Campos sees it. Will Bunch can see it. Michael Avenetti can see it too.
And most importantly, I think Donald Trump can see it. That’s why he’s acting out this fucked up version of Brewster’s Millions where instead of burning through a pile of money he is trying to destroy the American Republic as quickly as possible (and just for good measure, also burning through our pile of money).
Trump can see that Mueller is getting close, but he still thinks that if he can stop Mueller, this will all go away. But this ship already has too many holes. Keith Davidson claims to be ready to sing, and things are only getting worse for him. Cohen is done. Broidy is done, and has a history of avoiding jail by testifying against co-conspirators. Bechard appears done with Trump; maybe Melania too. Trump is mistaken in thinking he only has to worry about Mueller (and in thinking that just getting rid of Mueller would put a stop to Mueller’s investigation).
Mueller’s team, SDNY, the FBI...they’re all still coming. Michael Avenetti is coming after everyone. Peter Stris is coming, with his Canadian immigrant client (Sweet Karma indeed). Qatar has already lawyered-up in a subpoena-heavy lawsuit against Broidy. And if November is favorable, the Dems will have subpoena power, and for the sake of America I hope they know what to do with it.
This is the battleground we want. The overall Russia story is too complicated to explain quickly and concisely enough to overcome the propaganda, and Mueller’s investigation is unlikely to end with Mueller actually “getting” Trump, at least not for personally colluding with Russia. If you want to get Trump, this is the hill to die on. We already know that Broidy agreed to pay $1.6MM to Bechard to cover up an affair (a gift from the Trump brain-trust) and we know what Broidy did with his White House access (a gift from Qatar...allegedly). There is only one missing piece, and it should be the easiest to get.
Confirmation of a Trump-Bechard relationship is almost inevitable at this point, and with it the end of this presidency. The sooner the better.