The left loves to accuse conservatives of circulating unfounded conspiracy theories. But Sunday morning on SMNC, Michael Cohen -- Donald Trump's lawyer-turned-rabid antagonist -- floated a wild conspiracy theory that could have been concocted by those thinking moon landing was staged.
Appearing on Jonathan Capehart's Sunday Show, guest host Michael Steele -- the former RNC Chairman turned Never Trumper and member of the disgraced Lincoln Project -- asked Cohen why Trump allegedly kept top-secret documents at Mar-a-Lago.
Cohen replied:
He's gonna use it as a get-out-of-jail-free card. It's a way to extort America. To turn around to say, if you put me in jail, if you go after -- I mean, he'll even say his children, simply, after him. I will have my loyal supporters, who you do not know who has copies of information that may have been -- and again, this is my conjecture -- that I would take those documents. I will release them to Iran, to China, to North Korea, to Russia. And, you know what? You want to take me down? I'll take the whole country down.
Consider how absurd is Cohen's theory. Anyone threatening to provide top-secret documents to America's worst enemies would be threatening to commit treason. Trump would be exposing himself to infinitely more severe punishment than he could conceivably be facing if found to have improperly taken and stored documents at Mar-a-Lago.
For that matter, as per Cohen's theory, Trump would tell the authorities that he has already given copies of the top-secret documents to some of his "loyal supporters."
That distribution in and of itself would constitute a violation of the Espionage Act, so Trump would be admitting to a serious crime. And if he ever did have the documents released to our enemies, that would constitute treason per se, potentially bringing the death penalty under federal law.
Far from challenging Cohen, Steele agreed with Cohen that Trump "doesn't care about this country." And in ending the segment, Steele said he "appreciated" Cohen, adding that "you always bring the receipts." The only receipts Cohen brought were those proving the way his mind has been addled by his hatred of Trump.
Note: Cohen began the segment by predicting that everyone in Trump's circle will "flip" against him. Cohen went so far as to do his Trump impression, saying, "there's gonna be so much flipping, it's gonna be like watching a gymnastics event."
Cohen cockamamie conspiracy was sponsored in part thanks to support from Colonial Penn. Their contact information is linked.
Here's the transcript.
MSNBC's The Sunday Show With Jonathan Capehart
08/21/22
10:28 a.m. EasternMICHAEL COHEN: In your previous segment, you were talking about flipping, Mike. Let me put it to you this way. There's going to be so much flipping. Let me do it in Donald's voice [imitates Trump]: "There's gonna be so much flipping, it's gonna be like watching a -- a gymnastics event." [STEELE LAUGHS] I mean, that's really what we have going on here. Every single person is gonna -- they all know what happened to me. None of them want to go to prison. I mean, you have to be out of your mind to want to go to prison. [Again imitates Trump] "There's going to be so much flipping, Mike. You can't imagine."
(....)
10:32 a.m. Eastern
MICHAEL STEELE: I've got less than a minute left, and I want to get to this, because to me, it's a real important question. What, I mean, given what we know about the FBI search of Mar-a-Lago, and you spent many years inside of Donald Trumper's -- Donald Trump's world. And so you know -- and based on everything you know about him, why do you think he wanted to keep those top-secret documents at -- at Mar-a-Lago?
COHEN: Well, he's gonna use it as a get-out-of-jail-free card. It's a way to extort America. To turn around to say, "if you put me in jail, if you go after" -- I mean, he'll even say his children, simply, after him -- "I will have my loyal supporters, who you do not know who has copies of information that may have been -- and again, this is my conjecture -- that I would take those documents. I will release them to Iran, to China, to North Korea, to Russia. And, you know what? You want to take me down? I'll take the whole country down." Because, remember, and I've said with to you 1,000 times, Mike. Donald Trump doesn't care about this country!
STEELE: No, he doesn't.
COHEN: He doesn't care about anyone or anything other than himself.
STEELE: All right. Michael Cohen: You always bring the receipts, brother. Appreciate you.
