Who da bigga rat?
Cohen and Trump together again at last.
Five years after they last met in person, the former president and his self-described fixer were reunited in court on the most anticipated day yet in Donald Trump’s fraud trial.
…
…over several hours, Mr Cohen provided damaging testimony that repeatedly tied his own actions, and the actions of all the employees at the Trump Organization, directly to Mr Trump. Mr Cohen testified that he answered to Mr Trump, and Mr Trump alone. “Whatever issues he had, whatever created ire for him, he would bring it to me in order to resolve it,” he told the court.
Later, he said Trump personally asked him and Allen Weisselberg, the convicted ex-chief financial officer of the company, to inflate his assets “arbitrarily” by a number he had chosen. They did “whatever Mr Trump told us to,” Mr Cohen said.
In this setting, there was not much Mr Trump could offer in response aside from folded arms and a stony expression. But in the court of public opinion, Mr Trump has sought to paint his former personal counsel as a traitor and a “rat”.
Walking into court on Tuesday, he told reporters that Mr Cohen was a “proven liar” and a “felon”. “You see what his record is, he is not a credible witness,” Mr Trump said. His lawyers picked up that thread during their cross examination.
But of course Trump is a far less credible witness. A large part of the reason for this is his habit of lying constantly about everything. He does it on camera, so that we can all watch him doing it.
Judge Arthur Engoron has already ruled the Trump Organization perpetrated fraud. The current trial focuses on other charges of falsification of business records, business fraud, and conspiracy.
Fraud chapters 1-7 billion.
Looks to me a bit like rats leaving a sinking ship. But oddly, no mention of Stormy Daniels in this latest episode.
But he’s more reliable because he’s not a “felon”. Yet.
I understand Trump wanting to call Cohen a liar and impugn his character as a matter of strategy. Calling him a rat always feels like an own goal to me. A rat is someone who spills the beans about your wrong doing to the relevant authorities. Calling someone a rat always feels tantamount to a confession to me. It does refute the truth of what they said; it’s just playground rules. I wish the Courts were allowed to see it that way.
Rob @#3:
That’s one meaning. Then again, there is the old Australian expression “cunning as a shithouse rat.” Which IMHO means a mix of ruthlessness and intelligence. That possibly fits Cohen, but at best only half of it fits Trump.
Omar, yeah, nah. In the context of Trump’s use of the phrase he’s not providing compliments, even backhanded one’s like shithouse rat (which we also use in NZ).*
* Which OED suggests comes from James Joyce The Odyssey (Chapter 12), where a character is having a rant at a Jew**, so not Australasian at all although the Irish connection explains why it’s part of our language.
** Another bit of writing that wouldn’t pass the ‘woke’ mob or certain librarians now. Then again, probably too hard for most people to wade through.