“There is no Russia. There is no collusion. There is no [Trump Tower Moscow] deal.” What does it mean that Trump treated everything as just one allegation?
Consider the following statements by Michael Cohen at the House Oversight hearing yesterday): 1/14
At 2:25: 2/14
HE WANTED ME TO COOPERATE. HE WANTED TO MAKE SURE, THERE IS NO RUSSIA, THERE IS NO COLLUSION, THERE IS NO DEAL. HE GOES. IT IS ALL A WITCH HUNT. THIS STUFF HAS TO END.
At 2:26: 3/14
AGAIN, IT IS DIFFICULT TO ANSWER. HE DOESN’T TELL YOU WHAT HE WANTS. AGAIN, … THERE IS NO RUSSIA, NO COLLUSION. I KNOW WHAT IT MEANS BECAUSE I’VE BEEN AROUND HIM SO LONG. STAYING ON POINT, THE PARTY LINE THAT HE CREATED THAT SO MANY OTHERS ARE TOUTING. THAT’S THE MESSAGE HE WANTED TO REINFORCE.
At 3:16 4/14
BECAUSE THE GOAL WAS TO STAY ON MESSAGE. JUST LIMIT THE RELATIONSHIP WHATSOEVER WITH RUSSIA, IT WAS SHORT, THERE’S NO RUSSIAN CONTACTS, THERE’S NO RUSSIAN COLLUSION, THERE’S NO RUSSIAN DEALS. THAT’S THE MESSAGE. THAT’S THE SAME MESSAGE THAT EXISTED WELL BEFORE MY NEED TO COME AND TESTIFY.
Note that as far as Cohen is concerned, Trump’s messaging about the “Russian deals” and “Russian collusion” WERE ON THE SAME FOOTING. 5/14
While Cohen could give damning testimony about the Russian real estate deal making, he was not part of the campaign. 6/14
Consequently, he testified, he was not in a position to provide the same kind of testimony about possible election collusion that he was able to give about the Trump Tower Moscow project. 7/14
Cohen did, however, say that he had questions about the election. (After all, he had overheard a phone conversation in which Trump had Roger Stone on the speaker phone, who told him that Assange had told him about an imminent Wikileaks dump of Clinton emails.) 8/14
And in any case Cohen had plenty of evidence that FOR TRUMP the real estate deal-making and the election interference were two sides of the same coin and on the same footing, and that the “Witch hunt” messaging was meant to counter both equally. 9/14
It is also significant that (so far as I know), the first time Trump denied that there was “collusion” with Russia was the day after BuzzFeed published the Steele dossier. (Before that he had only spoken in general terms of “not having anything to do with Russia.”) 10/14
But after January 11 the “no collusion” mantra got fused by Trump and by his spoxes and surrogates (like Cohen) with the “no business” in Russia mantra, and “nothing to do with Russia generally” mantra. 11/14
The two messages are clearly linked in Trump’s mind, and that’s probably significant. Consciousness of guilt etc. 12/14
And if Trump thought he had a stronger defense against the election collusion charge than he does against the real estate deal-making in Russia charges, presumably he would have wanted to make that case.
But he hasn’t. 13/14
Another reason to think that “collusion” charges (or more properly conspiracy charges) are waiting in the wings for Trump — and others — in the Office of the Special Counsel. 14/14
PS/ I must correct what I said in tweets 10 and 11 above. The history of the word “collusion” in this context is complicated and murky. The news media used it first. I’m still looking for the first time Trump used the word.
