“I hardly know Gene Freidman. He was just a glorified coffee boy.”
We saw this same style of backpedaling from Trump when Cohen’s offices and residences were raided (Trump said that Cohen handled only a tiny bit of his business).
Cohen, sitting at the foot of his master, watched and learned; the evidence is in these tweets.
To self: “I know, I"ll use the Cooley Law School patented 100% guaranteed defense technique number one.”
Out loud: “I’m not partners with Freidman. Sez who?”
To self: “Oh man I’m killin’ it. They’ll never get me.”
Shorter Michael Cohen: “I’m totally fucked”.
Dude. Do you get that this is serious? That you can’t “Sez who?” your way out of it with bluster and posturing? Because I’m not sure myself that you do.
Cohen appears to admit that he used Freidman to manage his medallions. Cohen already has some tax liens against him. Freidman was skimming off the top, and I’m quite certain he shared with his business partners like Cohen.
“[We] are not partners and have never been partners in this business or any other.”
We operate all our businesses through shell corporations and LLCs, they’re much easier to hide behind.
Freidman didn’t get the literal get-out-of-jail-free card without having something amazing to offer.
Pass the popcorn.
No friend, no friend, he is the friend!
You can say what you want. The records that detail your relationship are in the hands of the FBI, Michael.
I admit I do like the literary technique of attaching quotation marks to what you’re saying as you say it. Many people are saying that makes it more official (or big) legal business.
"Lightly seared on the reality grill."
The “nuh uh” defense is widely recognized as a cogent and effective legal strategy.
(Actually, at Cooley this may be literally true.)
I did not have business relations with that man…Mr. Friedman.
Is I righteously and totally fucked, legally speaking? That depends on what your definition of ‘is’ is.
I mean seriously, I remember being a young boy pretty clearly, and even as a typical dopey kid I knew this “Oh yeah? Yeah! Oh yeah? Yeah!” stuff was immature and dumb as a form of argument by about age 8 or 9. So you gravitated to kids who had more sense than that, and the kids who didn’t grew older and gravitated to Trump, obviously. I never saw such a pack of ill-bred middle-schoolers in my life.
They need to conference with Sekulow and fashion a more saleable defense of “driving the money changers out of the temple” offends my sincerely held religious beliefs.
Nailed it.
Gene Freidman and I are not partners and have never been partners in this business or any other.
Quite possibly true, but only by employing a very narrow, legalistic definition of “partnership.”