Trump knew in advance about the Trump Tower meeting on 9 June 2016. Cohen knew, too, and will provide incriminating evidence that Trump knew to Mueller. All the confusion that has arisen on the latter point is due to the fact that Cohen’s lawyers are trying to protect him against perjury charges for his past testimony before the Senate Intel Committee.
1/ Did TRUMP have foreknowledge of the Trump Tower meeting on June 9, 2016?
Answer: Absolutely. For one thing (not the only thing) it is certain that Sam Nunberg has testified under oath that Trump talked about the upcoming meeting for a week before it happened. (The Rob Goldstone email to Don Jr is dated June 3; the meeting took place on June 9.)
So Trump is lying.
No surprise there.
2/ Did MICHAEL COHEN have foreknowledge of the meeting, and does he know whether Trump did too?
Here everything hinges on the word “know.” Defense lawyers make a good living dealing in words like “is” and “know.” Lanny Davis, one of Cohen’s lawyers, is certainly having a heyday with the word “know.”
When does evidence amount to UNDENIABLE knowledge? That is the question.
Lanny Davis has said many times in recent media interviews that his client Michael Cohen has “information” that should be of interest to Mueller about that meeting. He has also said recently that he is not sure that it amounts to a “smoking gun” — in other words, he is hedging on whether his client could be said to have actually KNOWN that there would be a meeting and that Trump knew about it.
As of yesterday, a distinction between “involvement” and “awareness” is also in play. Davis told Yahoo’s Michael Isikoff that Senate Intel Committee members failed to ask the right ‘follow-up questions’ at Cohen’s hearing.
“Was he telling the truth?” Davis was asked during the “Skullduggery” interview about Cohen’s previous testimony to the Senate.
“He was telling the truth, but there’s a problem in some of the words used there,” Davis replied.
“Those were his words,” it was pointed out to Davis.
Davis then replied that the senators failed to ask the right follow-ups to Cohen’s prepared statement — about Trump’s “level of awareness” of the hacking, seeming to draw a distinction between awareness and “involvement.”
“If he were asked, ‘Were you aware of Mr. Trump’s level of awareness before the hacking illegally done by a foreign government? Were you aware that Mr. Trump might have known and didn’t call the FBI?’ I don’t think you would’ve gotten the answer that you just read. But that question wasn’t asked.”
Isikoff: “Davis’s response was significant because Cohen’s previous denials of any knowledge of Russian collusion could expose him to a further felony charge and additional prison time if he now says something else to Mueller.”
Davis and Cohen are trying to thread the needle here, because Cohen testified under oath that he did not “know” about the meeting before it happened. Clearly, Davis is trying to immunize Cohen against a perjury charge, while getting Cohen on the right side of the law as Mueller hones in on EVERYONE.
There is a REALLY important point here that must not be missed.
Cohen’s friend Donny Deutsch, who has spoken to Cohen a lot recently, told Ari Melber that Cohen is “going to bring Trump back to Russia.” All the fireworks about whether Trump and Cohen knew in advance about the Trump Tower meeting is just a sign of that. Expect more to come.
As I tweeted on July 26:
Michael Cohen is prepared to tell Mueller that he was present (with others) when Trump was told about the arrangements for the June 9 meeting. So Cohen had reason to believe (then, if not before) that Trump was colluding with the Russians — yet he continued to work for Trump as his “fixer.” How many other incriminating things — including many of the allegations in the Steele dossier — is Cohen now prepared to own up to?
