ACCORDING TO THE PRESIDENT:”IF YOU’RE TAKING THE FIFTH…YOU’RE GUILTY!”

 

…This Trump personal lawyer that is taking The Fifth Amendment

Per Trump: “ If you’re innocent, why are you taking the Fifth Amendment?”

You may remember hearing some of the following comments from Donald Trump, and from some of his White House advisors.  Some of these comments were made during the campaign and today they are starting to bite the president and his administration in the butt.

Ranking high on that list of things that Trump has said, are his comments pertaining to legal proceedings.  Few comments have offered a more damning commentary than his comments about pleading The Fifth.

Donald Trump the presidential candidate had said many things that have turned out to be more than inconvenient for Donald Trump-the president.

Here was a big one while on the 2016 campaign trail: “The mob takes the Fifth.  If you’re innocent, why are you taking the Fifth Amendment?”  He added at his first debate with Clinton that “pleading the Fifth is disgraceful.”

At another point, Trump said about Hillary: “When you have your staff taking the Fifth Amendment, so they’re not prosecuted, when you have the man that set up [her] illegal server taking the Fifth, I think it’s disgraceful,”

In another Trump interview, Trump said: “Did you see her [Hillary’s] IT specialist? He's taken the Fifth, the word is that he's ratting her out like you wouldn't believe it.”

Trump said in 2016: “I am no fan of Bill Cosby, but I never-the-less will offer some free advice - if you are innocent, do not remain silent. You look guilty as hell!”

Trump has also, of course, said that merely being under investigation is a very bad thing. Late in 2016, he suggested a criminal investigation would handcuff the next president [if it was Hillary] and it would hurt the country. It was to be avoided at all costs.

Trump said that if Hillary were elected president, she would spend her time being under constant investigation, (sounds just like a Trump presidency) “That will be impossible with [President] Hillary Clinton, she would be the prime suspect in a massive far-reaching criminal investigation.” He added: “She will be under investigation for years, she will be with trials. Our country, we have to get back to work, right?”

Then per Trump’s Senior White House Adviser, Kellyanne Conway, “If you are under your 2^nd FBI investigation in the same year, then you do have a…corruption and ethics problem.”

According to one of the hosts on Fox & Friends, (Trump’s favorite TV show):  “Most honest people I know are not under an FBI investigation, let alone two.”

Even the White House Press Secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders once said, “When you're attacking FBI agents because you're under criminal investigation, you're losing.”

Well, now we have Trump's longtime personal lawyer/fixer Michael Cohen who has now indicated that he intends to plead the Fifth in the civil law suit in California involving his hush-money payment to the adult sex actress, Stormy Daniels.  He is doing this because of the fast-materializing of a criminal case against him stemming from that same payment to Ms. Danials. 

Back in 2016, Trump would of course suggested: “That makes Cohen guilty.”

When Trump in June 2016 speculated that a Clinton aide who took the Fifth might be informing on her, that’s another comment with eerie parallels for Trump’s situation today.  That is because some have speculated that Cohen could cut a deal with prosecutors which would work against Trump.  Cohen has of course assured everyone he'd never do such a thing.  But if Cohen has the choice between doing major time in jail versus cooperating with the special counsel, most don’t see Cohen as being that loyal to Mr. Trump.  He would probably flip against Trump.

So what can we all infer from all of this? That Trump and Co. never thought that he would be under investigation?  Or that Trump's lawyer would have to plead the Fifth?

My guess is that Trump's getting more nervous every day as he continues to: “Open mouth, insert foot”.

As usual, stay tuned.

Copyright G.Ater  2018