Cohen to Stephanopoulos: “I want to regain my name and my reputation and my life back.” Also: Cohen believes Mueller will not find any evidence that he had any illegal or improper dealings with the Russians. This is weaselly, and it’s probably what Cohen’s new attorney Petrillo has advised him to say.

[Originally published on Twitter July 2, 2018]

(THREAD — 12 tweets) Short, bottom line takeaway. #MichaelCohen is flipping. #mueller

Michael Cohen says family and country, not President Trump, is his ‘first loyalty’Michael Cohen told George Stephanopoulos that his family is his “first loyalty.”https://tinyurl.com/y8qnn3bl

1/ “Once Petrillo [Cohen’s new lawyer] fully assumes his role, a joint defense agreement Cohen shared with the president, which allowed their lawyers to share information and documents with each other, will come to an end, ABC News has learned.”

2/ “At that point, the legal interests of the president of the United States and his longtime personal attorney could quickly become adversarial.”

3/ “He has not been charged with any crime. But on the advice of his attorney, Cohen declined to address specific questions about matters currently under investigation.”

4/ Cohen believes Mueller will not FIND ANY EVIDENCE THAT HE HAD ANY ILLEGAL OR IMPROPER DEALINGS WITH THE RUSSIANS.

This is weaselly, and it’s probably what Cohen’s new attorney Petrillo has advised him to say.

5/ It’s weaselly because there is a difference between saying he had no illegal or improper dealings with the Russians and saying that he believes Mueller will not FIND any evidence that he had them.

6/ It is, at least implicitly, an admission that he had dealings with Russians that are under scrutiny; whether the feds will find that they were illegal or improper is unsettled, according to Cohen’s off the record remarks.

7/

8/ This, too, is significant, because it tells us that the Trump Tower meeting is under investigation, not by Mueller (or not just by Mueller), but by the DOJ office in SDNY.

9/ It’s an interesting question how long the SDNY US AG’s office has been involved in this part of the investigation. We do know that the REFERRAL for the RAID came from MUELLER’s office in Wash DC. #michaelcohen #mueller

10/ So the question arises: what did Mueller come across in his investigation that prompted a referral and the extraordinary court warrant to raid Cohen, and what was the evidence about that the feds felt Cohen might be destroying? #michaelcohen#mueller

11/ Not likely that it was about taxi medallions or tax evasion. This increases the likelihood (but does not prove) that the raid was looking for evidence relevant to the RUSSIA investigation, not taxi medallions or run of the mill tax evasion stuff. #michaelcohen #mueller