The following article by David Nakamura was posted on the Washington Post website April 21, 2018:
Here’s a breakdown of the people that President Trump’s lawyer Michael Cohen dealt with and the investigations he’s entangled in. (Jenny Starrs/The Washington Post)
PALM BEACH, Fla. — President Trump vowed Saturday that his personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, will not “flip” and cooperate against him in the special counsel investigation into his campaign’s connections to Russia, attacking a New York Times story as part of a “witch hunt” against him.
In several morning tweets, Trump also lashed out against the Times over its coverage of the investigation. He slammed Maggie Haberman, the lead reporter on a new story, and called a former aide quoted in the story as a “drunk/drugged up loser.”
Donald J. Trump
✔@realDonaldTrump
The New York Times and a third rate reporter named Maggie Haberman, known as a Crooked H flunkie who I don’t speak to and have nothing to do with, are going out of their way to destroy Michael Cohen and his relationship with me in the hope that he will “flip.” They use….
Donald J. Trump
✔@realDonaldTrump
….non-existent “sources” and a drunk/drugged up loser who hates Michael, a fine person with a wonderful family. Michael is a businessman for his own account/lawyer who I have always liked & respected. Most people will flip if the Government lets them out of trouble, even if….
Donald J. Trump
✔@realDonaldTrump
….non-existent “sources” and a drunk/drugged up loser who hates Michael, a fine person with a wonderful family. Michael is a businessman for his own account/lawyer who I have always liked & respected. Most people will flip if the Government lets them out of trouble, even if….
Donald J. Trump
✔@realDonaldTrump
….it means lying or making up stories. Sorry, I don’t see Michael doing that despite the horrible Witch Hunt and the dishonest media!
The tweets were posted around the time Trump headed out of Mar-a-Lago, his winter resort where he has spent the entire week, for a trip to a nearby Trump golf property. It was the second day in a row the president spent at one of his own courses in South Florida.
Trump appeared to be angered by a front-page Times story Saturday that examined his relationship with Cohen, whose office was raided by federal authorities last week. The story cited other former Trump campaign aides, including Sam Nunberg and Roger Stone, as saying Trump has long treated Cohen abusively by insulting him and threatening to fire him.
The story suggested Cohen, who has said he paid off adult-film star Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 election to keep quiet her story of an affair with Trump years earlier, could decide to cooperate in the investigation if he faces criminal charges.
In an initial version of his tweetstorm, Trump misspelled Haberman’s last name. He claimed he does not speak with her, even though he has granted her several interviews since taking office and posed with her for a photo in the Oval Office. Trump has known Haberman for years since he was a private developer in New York. The Times’s communication department wrote on Twitter that the paper is “extremely proud” of Haberman and that it stands by the story.
NYTimes Communications
✔@NYTimesPR
We are extremely proud of @maggieNYT, who is a part of a team that just won a Pulitzer Prize. We stand by our story and our reporting. Here’s the link to the story by @maggieNYT, @SharonLNYT and @dannyhakim: https://nyti.ms/2HAt92z
A Times photographer, Tom Brenner, who was part of the press pool following Trump on Saturday morning, posted a photo on Twitter that appeared to show the president looking at a phone.
Tom Brenner@tom__brennerTrump seen on his phone before tweeting while motorcading to Trump international Golf Course in West Palm Beach.
