What’s right now in front of the judge from the SDNY investigation into Cohen is a request from Cohen’s lawyers to review seized materials (presumably recorded conversations being one of the big concerns) between Trump and Cohen, and the assertion was likely to be that they weren’t germane to any of this; they wanted to remove at least parts of the haul seized in the raid earlier in the month from potential consideration in the investigation.
Trump’s admission makes that a much steeper hill to climb for a ruling in their favor from the judge, if nothing else.
I do not know what hurdle needs to be cleared, but Avenatti addresses that in the link I posted. What this is is a “party admission.” Let’s say that you’re suing the Bradys, because Carol backed the family station wagon into your car, and even though you’re healthy, you’re misrepresenting things and saying you have whiplash and are grievously injured. You don’t need Mike to throw his briefcase on the floor to prove that you’re lying to a judge. Instead, if you’re wearing that fake neck collar and tell your neighbor “Oh, this is just a fake thing I’m wearing for show to get a favorable judgment,” that’s a party admission, and can be used in court if your neighbor testifies to that fact.
Typically, in a party admission, it’s a tough thing for a judge. It can be third-hand (“The defendant told this person, who told this person”) to the point that it’s essentially hearsay. Or it can be from witnesses who may be unreliable, and creates that test for the Court. You rarely get first-person proof – via recording, or even on a nationally broadcast TV show – of a party admission of a point of fact.
Now Cohen and his lawyers can still argue that Cohen didn’t represent Trump in this, but even a judge putting the best face on this now may say “Yes, so you say. But this creates a very reasonable suspicion in the Court that your assertion may not be a completely accurate representation of your relationship in this matter.”
To put it another way, I think the burden is on Cohen’s team to prove that their client DIDN’T directly represent Trump in this matter. That just got a lot more difficult.
If you didn’t want to put the world’s biggest attention whore in the white house, you’re probably okay. If you did, well we’ll just use other criteria to still say you’re probably okay. I mean you can remember the Brady Bunch. Half my family can’t remember a movie they saw last week.
I can recite entire Brady Bunch episodes from memory. Which is an incredibly useful skill to have in life. Much rather it be that than, say, having great faculty with foreign languages or something.
