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President Trump Called For Roy Cohn, But Roy Cohn Was Gone

  

Category:  News & Politics

Via:  jbb  •  6 years ago  •  18 comments

President Trump Called For Roy Cohn, But Roy Cohn Was Gone

https://www.npr.org/2018/01/07/576209428/president-trump-called-for-roy-cohn-but-roy-cohn-was-gone

President Trump Called For Roy Cohn, But Roy Cohn Was Gone


This past week brought a series of stunning reports about President Trump and his White House, reports some Americans found hard to believe. But one quote attributed to the president should have surprised no one: the one in The New York Times where the president asked , "Where's my Roy Cohn?"

In a moment of crisis, the president cried out for the man from Trump's past whom the Times described as his "personal lawyer and fixer." Far more than that, Cohn was a legendary and controversial attorney who pushed legal tactics to the limits for a dazzling array of clients — from senators to mobsters and high rollers in sports and entertainment.


Cohn was periodically in legal trouble himself and was disbarred in New York just weeks before he died in 1986. But his legacy lives on in the careers of others.

Trump met him in 1973 in a Manhattan nightclub. The two became friends, allies, business associates. Some say Cohn was Trump's mentor, or even his surrogate father. This much is clear: Cohn was Trump's model in the handling of public relationships and media warfare.

Cohn's code was built on self-interest and loyalty; his style was all about intensity. If he was your lawyer, he was prepared to do anything for you; if he was your adversary, no holds were barred.

Melania Trump said during the campaign that "when you attack Donald, he will punch back 10 times harder." That was Cohn's modus operandi for many years before he taught it to Trump.

It isn't hard to see Cohn's tactics in Trump's business and TV careers, if not in his campaign for president. Neither is it hard to understand why, as president, when Trump felt he needed help, he called out, "Where's my Roy Cohn?"

He may have missed Cohn many times in those early weeks, but the blockbuster story in the Times (by Michael S. Schmidt) focused on a specific point in March 2017. Trump had been in office less than two months, and while struggling to grasp the reins of the federal government, he was also trying to limit fallout from reports of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.

In January, the U.S. intelligence community had confirmed stories of extensive Russian efforts to intrude in various aspects of the campaign. Ugly suspicions had been aroused because the Russian efforts were substantially directed against Trump's Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton.


In February, Trump's national security adviser, Michael Flynn, was forced out of the administration following revelations about contacts and relationships he had with various Russians. He had apparently lied about these contacts to the vice president, among others.

The FBI was looking into all this, so the president sat down with James Comey, then the director of the FBI. According to Comey, the president twice asked if he had Comey's loyalty. The president did not get the answer he wanted. Comey would not be the president's Roy Cohn. (Trump has denied that he ever asked Comey to pledge his loyalty.)


Comey would eventually be fired, but in March of last year Trump was still dealing with other issues of loyalty. He was frustrated by Attorney General Jeff Sessions' decision to recuse himself from any role in the Justice Department Russia investigation. The FBI is part of the Justice Department, and Trump may well have thought Sessions could help him contain the DOJ probe.

Trump had named Sessions, who had been a senator from Alabama, to be the nation's top lawyer, perhaps believing that meant Sessions would be his top lawyer. On one hand, the job was a reward for Sessions' lonely months as the only senator backing Trump's candidacy in 2015 and early 2016. But it was also an indication that the president assumed he had every last iota of Sessions' loyalty.

Sessions, however, had a particular problem in that he himself had omitted contacts he had with the Russian ambassador when he was asked about Russian contacts in his confirmation hearings. Moreover, as a former official of the Trump campaign, he could not oversee a probe of that campaign under Justice Department rules.

So Sessions saw himself with little choice but to recuse himself under Justice Department rules.

First Comey, then Sessions. Trump was incensed. That was when he asked, whether rhetorically or in earnest: "Where's my Roy Cohn?"

The clear implication was that Cohn, the advocate who stopped at nothing, would never have cowered before a few departmental rules or procedural niceties. It seems Trump did not understand why Comey and Sessions could not be more like Cohn.


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JBB
Professor Principal
1  seeder  JBB    6 years ago

Winding up his testimony before a Senate subcommittee, Roy Cohn makes a speech of praise for Sen. Joseph McCarthy, R-Wis., on June 15, 1954.

Henry Griffin/AP
 
 
 
JBB
Professor Principal
2  seeder  JBB    6 years ago

Another Reference Regarding Donald Trump and Roy Cohn, Joe McCarthy's Henchman

Mr. Trump, left, with Mayor Edward I. Koch of New York and Mr. Cohn at the opening of the Trump Tower in 1983. Credit Sonia Moskowitz/Getty Images

 
 
 
JBB
Professor Principal
3  seeder  JBB    6 years ago

Roy Cohn, right, with Senator Joseph McCarthy in 1954. Mr. Trump once said Mr. Cohn was a “vicious” protector. Credit George Tames/The New York Times

 
 
 
JBB
Professor Principal
4  seeder  JBB    6 years ago

Mr. Cohn and Mr. Trump in an undated photo with Steve Rubell, the co-founder of Studio 54, and Mr. Trump’s first wife, Ivana.

 
 
 
JBB
Professor Principal
5  seeder  JBB    6 years ago

Donald Trump and Roy Cohn in October, 1984. Many of Trump’s private conversations with his late mentor were eavesdropped on by Cohn’s longtime switchboard operator and courier.

PHOTOGRAPH BY BETTMANN / GETTY

 
 
 
Hal A. Lujah
Professor Guide
6  Hal A. Lujah    6 years ago

Cohn / Cohen ... tomato / tamahto 

 
 
 
JBB
Professor Principal
6.1  seeder  JBB  replied to  Hal A. Lujah @6    6 years ago

What Donald Trump Learned From Joseph McCarthy’s Right-Hand Man

The year was 1977, and Mr. Cohn’s reputation was well established. He had been Senator Joseph McCarthy ’s Red-baiting consigliere. He had helped send the Rosenbergs to the electric chair for spying and elect Richard M. Nixon president.

Then New York’s most feared lawyer, Mr. Cohn had a client list that ran the gamut from the disreputable to the quasi-reputable: Anthony (Fat Tony) Salerno , Claus von Bulow , George Steinbrenner .

But there was one client who occupied a special place in Roy Cohn’s famously cold heart: Donald J. Trump .

For Mr. Cohn, who died of AIDS in 1986 , weeks after being disbarred for flagrant ethical violations, Mr. Trump was something of a final project. If Fred Trump got his son’s career started, bringing him into the family business of middle-class rentals in Brooklyn and Queens, Mr. Cohn ushered him across the river and into Manhattan, introducing him to the social and political elite while ferociously defending him against a growing list of enemies.

Decades later, Mr. Cohn’s influence on Mr. Trump is unmistakable. Mr. Trump’s wrecking ball of a presidential bid — the gleeful smearing of his opponents, the embracing of bluster as brand — has been a Roy Cohn number on a grand scale. Mr. Trump’s response to the Orlando massacre , with his ominous warnings of a terrorist attack that could wipe out the country and his conspiratorial suggestions of a Muslim fifth column in the United States, seemed to have been ripped straight out of the Cohn playbook.

“I hear Roy in the things he says quite clearly,” said Peter Fraser, who as Mr. Cohn’s lover for the last two years of his life spent a great deal of time with Mr. Trump. “That bravado, and if you say it aggressively and loudly enough, it’s the truth — that’s the way Roy used to operate to a degree, and Donald was certainly his apprentice.”

 
 
 
Hal A. Lujah
Professor Guide
6.1.1  Hal A. Lujah  replied to  JBB @6.1    6 years ago

Cohen is like Cohn 2.0.  Fiercely loyal to Trump.

 
 
 
Vic Eldred
Professor Principal
6.1.2  Vic Eldred  replied to  JBB @6.1    6 years ago
But there was one client who occupied a special place in Roy Cohn’s famously cold heart

Cold-hearted?  He was a lawyer!

 
 
 
JBB
Professor Principal
6.1.3  seeder  JBB  replied to  Vic Eldred @6.1.2    6 years ago

Would we have The King of Vulgaria today without King Cohn's influence then? I wonder...

King Cohn

Roy Cohn was one of the most loathsome characters in American history, so why did he have so many influential friends?

 
 
 
Vic Eldred
Professor Principal
7  Vic Eldred    6 years ago

I remember Cohn well. He was exactly as the article described - fiercely loyal and not somebody you would want as an enemy. Some forget that before he served Joe McCarthy he served liberals, thus liberals have an acute hatred of him - in addition to that fact he was instrumental in the execution of the Rosenbergs - Russian spies whom the left continue to defend to this very day. Mr Cohn also defended many mob bosses.

He was a brilliant lawyer with a combative nature which is similar to the Trump persona

 
 
 
JBB
Professor Principal
7.1  seeder  JBB  replied to  Vic Eldred @7    6 years ago

Thank Your For Acknowledging What Trump Already Has

For 13 years, the lawyer who had infamously whispered in McCarthy’s ear whispered in Mr. Trump’s. In the process, Mr. Cohn helped deliver some of Mr. Trump’s signature construction deals, sued the National Football League for conspiring against his client and countersued the federal government — for $100 million — for damaging the Trump name. One of Mr. Trump’s executives recalled that he kept an 8-by-10-inch photograph of Mr. Cohn in his office desk, pulling it out to intimidate recalcitrant contractors.

The two men spoke as often as five times a day, toasted each other at birthday parties and spent evenings together at Studio 54.

And Mr. Cohn turned repeatedly to Mr. Trump — one of a small clutch of people who knew he was gay — in his hours of need. When a former companion was dying of AIDS, he asked Mr. Trump to find him a place to stay. When he faced disbarment, he summoned Mr. Trump to testify to his character.

Mr. Trump says the two became so close that Mr. Cohn, who had no immediate family, sometimes refused to bill him, insisting he could not charge a friend.

“Roy was an era,” Mr. Trump said in an interview, reflecting on his years with Mr. Cohn. “They either loved him or couldn’t stand him, which was fine.”

Mr. Trump was asked if this reminded him of anyone. “Yeah,” he answered. “It does, come to think of it.”

From Wikipedia

Roy Marcus Cohn ( / k n / ; February 20, 1927 – August 2, 1986) was an American attorney. During Senator Joseph McCarthy 's investigations into Communist activity in the United States during the Second Red Scare , Cohn served as McCarthy's chief counsel and gained special prominence during the Army–McCarthy hearings .

He was also known for being a U.S. Department of Justice prosecutor at the espionage trial of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg and later for representing Donald Trump during his early business career .

 
 
 
Vic Eldred
Professor Principal
7.1.1  Vic Eldred  replied to  JBB @7.1    6 years ago

Are you claiming that Roy Cohn was evil?

The point of your article seems to be guilt by association, so we need to clear up who Roy Cohn was. Don't forget - guilt by association was one of the main tools of Joe McCarthy

 
 
 
JBB
Professor Principal
7.1.2  seeder  JBB  replied to  Vic Eldred @7.1.1    6 years ago
Are you claiming that Roy Cohn was evil?

Indubitably...

 
 
 
Vic Eldred
Professor Principal
7.1.3  Vic Eldred  replied to  JBB @7.1.2    6 years ago

I disagree.

He did a lot of good things - like prosecuting Soviet spies at a time when they obviously had stolen the bomb from us. The public outcry known as the "red scare" had valid reasons. BTW,   Robert Kennedy would have been chosen to prosecute the Rosenberg case, but Cohn got it to avoid charges of anti-Semitism. As I have said Cohn was brilliant and what he did is what all lawyers do - serve their clients and he did it well. He never cheated his clients and that's the bottom line for lawyers.

As a personality, he was one of a kind. Somebody would come to him complaining of what somebody else just did to them, and he would say "just get me his name" LOL

 
 
 
JBB
Professor Principal
7.1.4  seeder  JBB  replied to  Vic Eldred @7.1.3    6 years ago

That is why I generally ignore you and wish you would ignore my seeds and articles. We will never agree on Cohn or much else...

 
 
 
Vic Eldred
Professor Principal
7.1.5  Vic Eldred  replied to  JBB @7.1.4    6 years ago

Your wish has been granted

 
 
 
JBB
Professor Principal
8  seeder  JBB    6 years ago

Edmund Burke was not the Father of Modern Economics, John Maynard Keynes was, but he got one thing right, "Those who do not know history are doomed to repeat it". Besides Trump, Roy Cohn's other major living acolyte is Roger Stone. What does that tell you? Olde Joe McCarthy taught Roy Cohn everything he knew and Cohn mentored Roger Stone and Donald Trump to become the men they are today. What does that tell you? In any case, People need to know about Joe McCarthy and Roy Cohn today because Roger Stone and Donald Trump are the most powerful men in the United States of America today and they are two peas from the same pod...

 
 

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