The Michael Cohen search warrant is very interesting and potentially perilous for everyone. Search warrants on attorneys are very rare for obvious reasons, from attorney client privilege to the high cost if you cock it up. The fact that they went before a judge, and a judge signed off on it, suggests that they have something very specific and damning that they are looking for.
Trump's response is so quintessentially Trump. He accused the FBI of "breaking into" Cohen's office. I can already anticipate the Facebook shit-posting from my few remaining Republican friends about the "out of control" FBI. (While meanwhile defending the police officers who gunned down a guy standing in his backyard on a cellphone.) Trump's clear lack of understanding of how the rule of law works, combined with his "attack-attack-attack" mindset means that we have entered a perilous stage in the Mueller investigation.
Trump is apparently slipping whatever binds once held him tethered to political realities. From the exodus of guys like Cohn, McMaster and Tillerson to the elevation of hacks like Bolton and the increasing frenzies on Twitter, Trump feels less and less constrained by the norms of political office. Why should he, when he knows the Congressional GOP has his back? Firing Mueller has been as close to a red line as some GOP Congressmen have been willing to offer, but why would Trump believe them? The fact that Mueller's investigation was not behind the search warrant will mean nothing to a man who thinks a caravan of rapists is moving through the Mexican countryside.
As for the Shitgibbon's attorney himself, Cohen is effectively a mob lawyer. He behaves like one, certainly, with his brash aggressiveness absent actual legal expertise. All along, the most probable target of Mueller's investigation has been Trump's involvement with organized crime, especially Russian mobsters. We know he was excessively leveraged to Russian oligarchs; we know many of those oligarchs are both Putin's siloviki and mobsters themselves; we know Trump has been on the edges of NY organized crime for years; we know that Trump has contempt for law and the rule of law. The idea that Cohen is innocent strains credulity.
As several people have pointed out, Trump is behaving exactly as you would have expected if you had been paying attention. Trump is just being Trump: a borderline mafioso, a bully, an ignoramus and a cad. For that reason the "political cost" for Trump continuing to be Trump is likely to appear small to him. He is who he has always been.
Firing Mueller has never been more real, but then again, we have been saying that for months. Trump, like most bullies, is easily intimidated if he feels the threat is genuine. Or maybe he felt the threat didn't exist. Maybe he believed his own bullshit about Mueller not having him in his sights. Trying to figure out his mental thought processes is like trying to figure out why a toddler pooped in the dog's waterdish. That way lies a vortex of madness.
The only person who has to be relieved right now is Scott Pruitt, whose own corruption and abuse of power has faded from the headlines. That's what counts for good news if you're a resident of Trumpistan: a newer, fresher scandal has taken you off the spit.
Thanks, Republicans.
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