Cohen’s Crimes Are Not Covered By The Attorney-Client Privilege

The New York Daily News reported yesterday that Michael Cohen owes New York nearly $54,000 in unpaid taxi medallion taxes.  This points out a couple of important things. 

One is that Cohen may have broken state laws and has legal jeopardy for those possible crimes.  The other is that the FBI raid on Cohen’s offices was not just about Donald Trump, but was about obtaining evidence to charge Cohen for crimes he committed.

After hearing about the raid on his lawyer’s office the president went on an anti-FBI rant and tweeted that “the attorney-client privilege is dead” but according to the Washington Post that is not true.  This privilege covers confidential communications between a person and his or her lawyer only.  The privilege exists so that lawyers won’t be asked to testify against their clients, which makes sense.

But this privilege does not and never has protected lawyers from crimes they themselves commit.  Needless to say there is a lot of confusion on this topic showing up in the press, as well as in the president’s tweets.

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The Washington Post reported that “Michael Cohen, the longtime attorney of President Trump, is under federal investigation for possible bank fraud, wire fraud and campaign finance violations.”

Apparently Cohen also owes New York state unpaid taxes through the lucrative taxi medallions he owns. He has blamed his partner Gene Friedman, a Russian immigrant who has been previously charged with taxi medallion tax fraud by New York.

Talking Points Memo reported that “The Russian-born taxi baron is just one of Cohen’s many business connections to the former Soviet Union who boasts a long rap sheet; Cohen also joined up with his old pal Felix Sater, a convicted felon and former business partner of the President’s, to deliver a Ukraine “peace plan” to the Trump administration earlier this year.”

According to Preet Bharara, a former US attorney in New York, Cohen almost certainly will be charged with crimes.  He said the FBI wouldn’t have been able to obtain search warrants for the president’s personal attorney without a great deal of evidence that constitutes “probable cause” for the search.

“I predict, as we saw with Paul Manafort, that if they decided they had enough evidence to engage in a very aggressive, a very aggressive move, that the likelihood that Michael Cohen is going to be charged is high,” Bharara said.

So even though Cohen may know a lot about Donald Trump’s shady business affairs, he has also apparently been committing crimes himself, and these are being investigated by not only Mueller but also the FBI and the state of New York.

Nothing — not even the attorney-client privilege — will be able to shield Michael Cohen from the punishments that will be coming his way, starting with indictments and criminal charges.  Very soon he will be facing the same choice as Manafort:  turn state’s witness and cooperate with the prosecutors, or go down with the sinking ship that is Donald Trump.

Leo Vidal

I am a lifelong Democrat with a passion for social justice and progressive issues. I have degrees in writing, economics and law from the University of Iowa.