Time Sep

(Jeff_L) #1
37

“For the irst time” says former federal
prosecutor David Axelrod “we’ve
seen in court evidence strongly
linking the President to criminal acts.”
That testimony ofered under oath
by the President’s former lawyer will
only embolden Mueller and energize
Trump’s Democratic opponents. It
left West Wing stafers scrambling to
soothe their furious boss. And it carried
unmistakable echoes of John Dean’s turn
against Richard Nixon in 1973 along


with the growing sense that a presidency
sufused with scandal is confronting its
toughest ight yet.

IN A FITTING TWIST for a President
from New York City the trouble began
with taxis. In addition to his day job
as a Trump Organization executive
Cohen dabbled in real estate medical
businesses and even an ofshore casino
boat. By 2010 according to court
documents Cohen had also bought a

portfolio of taxi medallions the metal
placards that allow drivers to operate
cabs in cities like New York and Chicago.
Cohen leased the medallions to drivers
and according to his plea failed to
report all of the proits to the IRS. In
one scheme between 2012 and 2016
Cohen earned more than $2.4 million
in interest from loans he made to a taxi

Trump at an Aug. 21 rally in Charleston
W.Va. hours after the Cohen bombshell
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