So while Trump was, in his own way, telling Cohen what to do, his indirect way of doing that made Buzzfeed’s description of it difficult in a legal sense. After the story breaks, Mueller sees Congress and the public preparing to make this a big step in the march towards impeachment, worries this will lead to precious political capital spent chasing a dead end, and shoots it down.
And nobody seems to be reacting to Cohen's testimony -- "in his way, he was telling me to lie" -- as supporting what was a HUGE story -- that Trump directed Cohen to lie.
I think it's obvious that you don't have to explicitly say "I hereby direct you to lie" -- just like Trump didn't have to explicitly tell Comey to stop investigating Flynn.
To me, Cohen's testimony supported Buzzfeed. And Buzzfeed's story was huge. It also explains why somebody could pick a hole in the story. And given Cohen's testimony, I'm only more curious why Mueller felt he had to raise an objection.
Karma
Cake day
Four-Year Club
Gilding II
euphauric
Well-rounded
2018-09-05