Cohen Says He Was There When Trump Planned Trump Tower Meeting

Last night Lanny Davis made an announcement that sent shockwaves throughout Trump World: Michael Cohen was with Donald Trump when they met with Don Jr. to plan the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting with Russian operatives, and he’s willing to talk to Mueller about it.

Davis confirmed during an appearance on CNN that Michael Cohen participated in the planning meeting which included the president, Donald Trump Jr, AND other members of the Trump campaign.

Davis was asked by CNN’s Wolf Blitzer on “The Situation Room” what evidence Cohen has, as he has claimed, that Trump knew in advance about the meeting. “At this juncture, I can only say that he was present during a discussion with Jr. and dad,” Davis said.

To get more stories like this, subscribe to our newsletter The Daily.

According to reports, this planning meeting occurred several days before Trump Jr., Paul Manafort and Jared Kushner met with the Russians at Trump Tower on June 9, 2016.

The first time we heard about this planning meeting was when Donald Trump’s attorney Rudy Giuliani (inadvertently) disclosed it on national television several weeks ago. Giuliani later tried to put the toothpaste back in the tube by attempting to walk back his earlier comments. But it was too late.

Soon after that, the president tweeted that he didn’t know anything about the June 9th Russia meeting before it occurred.

“…..I did NOT know of the meeting with my son, Don jr. Sounds to me like someone is trying to make up stories in order to get himself out of an unrelated jam (Taxi cabs maybe?). He even retained Bill and Crooked Hillary’s lawyer. Gee, I wonder if they helped him make the choice!”

Davis said Tuesday night on MSNBC’s “The Rachel Maddow Show” that Cohen will talk to Mueller about the meeting, which he said was “the obvious possibility of a conspiracy to collude and corrupt the American democracy system.”

Davis’s comments may substantially change the course of Mueller’s Russia probe. Now it appears that Michael Cohen will definitely be able to give his testimony to Mueller saying that he was in the room when Donald Trump signed off on the Russia meeting.

Not only did he approve the meeting in advance, but Trump knew the purpose of the meeting and helped plan the agenda for the meeting.

The Trump Tower meeting was a big deal because Trump and other top campaign people knew in advance that the Russians who would be coming to the meeting were representing the Russian government. Everybody knew in advance that they planned to give the Trump people “dirt” on Hillary Clinton that would help Trump win the presidency.

The people involved with that meeting committed several felonies, such as conspiring to receive stolen goods, and attempting to accept foreign items of value on behalf of a campaign.

And now Mueller has a witness who was in the room with Donald Trump and his son and can confirm that the President of the United States was a criminal co-conspirator in those felonies.

This new revelation from Cohen’s lawyer makes clear that Cohen has the goods and that he’s willing to give it all to Robert Mueller. In fact, it’s possible he has already talked to prosecutors about this information, otherwise Lanny Davis would probably not be discussing it on national television.

Since Michael Cohen has pleaded guilty he must cooperate with law enforcement as much as he can, because this will allow him to reduce the amount of time he spends in jail. And as he tries to reduce his own jail time, he may be helping Donald Trump spend more time in jail.

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.