It is somehow fitting that the indignation of a wronged porn star could lead to the final undoing of Donald Trump. Despite the growing power of the #MeToo movement, and the falling of predatory male icons across the political spectrum, the Predator-in-Chief has gotten away with it—until now.
As Deep Throat (whose nickname is now somehow doubly fitting) famously counseled, follow the money. So if we follow the money, Stormy's rage against Trump and his fixer, Michael Cohen, has now led to the following chain of revelations.
Cohen was not running a law firm. He was running a money laundry. Send payments to Cohen, and you could pay disguised bribes to Donald Trump. As The New York Times has reported, Cohen’s dummy company received at least $4.4 million in funds including money from a Russian oligarch close to the Kremlin, Viktor Vekselberg, as well as money from corporations doing business with the Trump administration, including Novartis and AT&T.
It was the lawyer for Stormy, Michael Avenatti, who first made much of this information public. The special counsel, Robert Mueller, might have unearthed these and other details in due course, but Stormy's battle gave the issue a nice boost.
All of this is likely to put Michael Cohen at even greater legal jeopardy, and incline him to sing to prosecutors a couple octaves higher. In Trump's America, in the era of #MeToo, in the era of Eric Schneiderman exposed as a thug, the person of relative honor is a porn star.
Stormy didn't abuse or assault anybody, she didn't try to bribe the government, and she didn't launder money for the Kremlin. It's a pretty low bar, but it may be enough to help bring down Trump.
You were expecting, maybe, Mother Teresa?
