Discussion: Michael Cohen Says He Doesn’t Recall Hearing Back From Russia About Deal

Shorter Cohen: I admit I contacted Putin and I DID hear back.

1 Like

Well, suggest a better letter, then, if you’re so smart.

3 Likes

I thought Michael Cohen was suppose to be a very sharp lawyer…which requires a great memory on details.

He doesn’t remember? Can we swear him in and explain under oath? …Oh that deal, sure, I heard back and Trump and Putin were handling it. I forgot…sorry.

2 Likes

Says who? :smile:

5 Likes

I’m thinking the Danish letter, Ø.

4 Likes

No, I don’t think so. To a lawyer-criminal like Cohen, “I don’t recall” means it happened, he thinks there might be proof but he’s unsure whether it will surface. This is what Sessions did, in responding to a question he wasn’t asked by Franken, at his confirmation hearing.

An outright denial accompanied by a flood of citations to evidence the thing didn’t happened means it happened and he constructed an alibi with fake documents and/or perjured testimony. Like, say, his response to the allegations he traveled to Eastern Europe to pay off hackers and do cleanup.

Categorical denials are trickier to decode. They usually means it happened and he is certain (albeit often wrongly when it’s the feds who are investigating) he has destroyed evidence beyond possibility of discovery or that there is no possible evidence proving he’s lying that can turn up. However, a categorical denial may also indicate he knows the feds have the goods on him and he’s screwed.

11 Likes

Because it sounds like that noise you make when you don’t believe something you just heard?

2 Likes

The surprising thing to me is that it was formulated as “I don’t recall” rather than “Not that I recall”.

Perhaps that’s meaningless for Mr. Cohen, but I’d definitely use these two phrases differently.

1 Like

That’s the difference between a tell that he’s lying and a possibly truthful lack of recollection informed by a niggling, but inarticulable, doubt.

3 Likes

Of course, very little if anything out of Michael Cohen’s yap passes the smell test. He’s as lousy as a kennel of flea-bitten curs, and only half as lovable!

1 Like

It is rather a challenge to predict exactly who will divulge your emails exchanged with the Russian press minister when just about every western intelligence service has intercepted them.

10 Likes

8 Likes

Dumb witnesses think that “I don’t remember” will protect them from perjury charges.

4 Likes

What good folks like us on this website forum never grasp fully, is that LIARS LIE. It’s in our nature to be outraged and disgusted. But it is not in our DNA to comprehend shamelessness and prevarication. Not everybody has it in them to tell the truth. Likewise they will never permit themselves to be shamed into an admission of guilt. That’s why Trump can say he has no dealings in Russia, and at the same time work to cut a deal for a Moscow Hotel using hundreds of millions of dollars of Putin’s money, likely in exchange for favorable political treatment. That’s how Chris Ruddy of Newsmax can say on television that Trump never really “lied” because the Russia deal never went through. Now our last great hope is to convince the majortiy of Americans that these are not the kind of people we want in leadership positions, and that America must make its political voice heard.

3 Likes

Says who?

2 Likes

Spot. Bloody. On!! And he knows it.

4 Likes

Those js are good with money.

You mean the majority of Americans that vote. I’m pretty sure a majority of Americans already know the GOP in general and Trump in particular are a disaster.

1 Like

The Electoral College liked him.

Right. I’ve watched over the last seven months while good people expect Trump and his crew to self-immolate or at least admit that they brought American democracy to its knees. Needless to say, that won’t happen. How to fix? Not Mueller, not Rachel Maddow and not the ghost of James Comey. Political levers must be pulled to bring this country back to resemble a halfway decent replica of itself before Trump was elected.

1 Like