Dershowitz: No Crime’ in Trump-Cohen Tape, Cohen’s ‘Going to Flip’

Breitbart: On Tuesday’s edition of CNN’s “Cuomo Prime Time,” Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz reacted to the release of a tape of a conversation between Donald Trump and Michael Cohen by stating that Cohen is “going to flip.” He added that even if everything Cohen’s lawyer, Lanny Davis says is true, “there’s no crime. There’s no federal crime. There’s no impeachable offense.”

Dershowitz began by saying, “I don’t know why anybody waived the lawyer-client communication regarding this tape.”

He continued, “[H]ere you have the client maybe saying, let’s pay cash. The lawyer says, no, no, no, do it by check. And the client comes back and says, I’ll do it by check. That’s a typical conversation. I’ve had that conversation a dozen times with clients, and you persuade them to do the right thing. But I think the big picture here is, number one, Lanny is a terrific lawyer. And so, there is a real lawyer who is now against Trump, unlike Avenatti and some of the others, a really, really good lawyer who’s on this case. Second of all, you have a situation where, you know, he’s going to flip. There’s no question. He’s now made it clear.”

Dershowitz later stated, “This is all political. There is no crime here. The worst, worst case scenario, take everything Lanny Davis says as true, there’s no crime. There’s no federal crime. There’s no impeachable offense. This is all about how the president looks in the court of public opinion, whether or not he, through his lawyer, said something that was not true. I think they will win that fight because the tape’s ambiguous enough so that there will be people who will hear it the way they want to hear it, and other people who will hear it the way they want to hear it.”  Watch

And…

Breitbart: CNN’s Chris Cuomo on Tuesday evening aired a secret audio recording of Donald Trump discussing with his longtime attorney Michael Cohen plans to acquire the rights to the story of an alleged affair between Playboy model Karen McDougal and the real estate tycoon.

Cohen can be heard on the 2016 recording relaying to Trump the need to register a company “for the transfer of all of that info regarding our friend David,” — believed to be American Media Inc. president and Trump ally David Pecker. According to the Associated Press: “The conversation between Trump and Cohen came weeks after the National Enquirer’s parent company reached a $150,000 deal to pay former Playboy model Karen McDougal for her story of a 2006 affair, which it never published. This is a tabloid practice known as catch and kill. Trump denies the affair ever happened.”  LISTEN

The audiotape, which sounds as though it could have been recorded in Cohen’s clothing pocket, was given to CNN by former Clinton official Lanny Davis, who has recently begun providing legal services to the former Trump organization executive. Cohen is heard making references to financing the money transfer, to which Trump asks his longtime lawyer, “What financing?”

“We’ll have to pay,” responds Cohen. Trump can be heard over the poorly recorded audio replying, “Pay with cash,” — yet it is unclear if this was a command or a question. Cohen then shoots back with a series of noes, leaving the question as to whether Trump was asking if the payment could be made by check still lingering.

In a statement to the Washington Post, Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani dismissed the notion the tapes prove his client knew of the transaction purportedly organized by Cohen “It doesn’t,” Giuliani told the Jeff Bezos-owned paper. “That’s open to interpretation, and we can have a fight about that.”

“To me it sounds like Cohen is explaining something to [Trump] that he doesn’t understand,” he added. “He doesn’t seem that familiar with anything. There is nothing to indicate he knew anything in advance.”

Giuliani stated in an earlier interview that the audio tapes would prove President Trump wanted to transfer to be done “correctly,” by “check.” In fact, CNN was provided a transcript of the recording from Giuliana showing Trump ordered Cohen, “Don’t pay with cash.”

“The transcript that we provided CNN accurately reflects the taped conversation,” Giuliani told The Associated Press.

Trump attorney Alan Futerfas on Tuesday told the Post that the term “cash” discussed by Trump and Cohen refers to money with a verifiable record — such as a check — not a loan or “bag of cash” to pay for the transaction. “The notion that they were discussing using a bag of cash or green currency is ridiculous,” said the Trump attorney.

Futerfas also challenged Cohen’s account of discussing the matter with Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg.  MORE