A very entertaining movie called My Blue Heaven was released in 1990. It starred Steve Martin as a low-level gangster who had been flipped to provide testimony against a fictional mob kingpin (Mr. Gottzo).
Under the protection of Barney Coopersmith, the FBI agent charged with installing Vinnie Antonelli (Martin) in the Witness Protection Program, Vinnie does eventually appear in court to testify. Under questioning by the prosecuting attorney, Vinnie offers a stirring soliloquy of “what else he gets” from the government in exchange for his testimony, as he lists such things as never seeing his family again, living in an environment far removed from his beloved New York, etc. He ends his oh, so sad, story with the following, funny while profound, quote:
“But I made a deal with the government, so I’m here to tell the truth. And if you think I’m sayin’ what I’m sayin’ about Mr. Gottzo killing Nickie Cappelli only because of the deal, you got a point. But it’s still the truth.”
A week ago past, during the Michael Cohen hearings by the House Oversight Committee, Representative Paul Gosar (R-AZ) got it wrong. He cited the quotation “liar, liar, pants on fire” as an old adage taught to most of us by our mothers.
That particular phrase, however, is a schoolyard taunt most of us learned… in the schoolyard. (Unless, of course, you first learned it in 1965 as a line in the song Liar Liar by the Castaways.)
Schoolyard taunts like this one, and other popular gems like “I know you are, but what am I?” are juvenile excuses for legitimate adult discourse on important issues, not lessons learned at our mothers’ knees.
At those particular hearings, Republicans rallied around the “liar, liar” strategy to attempt to discredit the flipping of Michael Cohen against his former boss, Donald Trump. As if calling a liar a liar was gong to hurt a cowardly man who had freely admitted as much to Special Investigator Robert Mueller.
Michael Cohen is a self-admitted liar. He has been flipped in his own enlightened self-interest. He lied for a serial liar, then recognized that he would burn in legal hell if he persisted in his misguided ways.
I personally found it all too precious for the Republican membership on this committee to be the pot calling the kettle black. Rather than attempting to find some veracity in Cohen’s remarks with probing questions, they deflected by repeating the obvious, while conveniently forgetting that our nation has relied for decades on the flipping of degenerates like Cohen to expose evil-doers of far greater degree.
Local, state and federal prosecutors have sought turncoats like Cohen to provide valuable testimony against perps who have committed far greater wrongs. These prosecutors make use of tactics like the promises of lesser sentences and witness relocation to coerce the revelation of truths that would otherwise remain hidden if it weren’t for preying on the weaknesses of the likes of Michael Cohen.
Of all the quotable moments that was not cherry-picked from those hearings was one I believed was unfortunately glossed over. Representative Gerry Connolly (D-VA, 11th District) delivered a short speech in which he tried to remind the Committee and the nation that the government has relied on the likes of Cohen since 1963, when a low level soldier of La Cosa Nostra (later known as the Mafia) named Joe Valachi became “the first rat” to provide testimony in front of Congress which eventually led to the dismantling of organized crime. Valachi, in exchange for protection, began the process that brought down the Genovese crime family in New York, and later all five New York families of organized crime.
(A book based on Valachi’s 1100-plus pages of detailed confession was published in 1968 as The Valachi Papers, and made into a film of the same name in 1972, starring Charles Bronson.)
Connolly went on to say that if the likes of Valachi and Cohen were not employed to get to unsavory truths we might as well repeal RICO. RICO legislation (the Racketeering Influence and Corrupt Organizations Act of 1970), enacted by Congress and signed into law by Richard Nixon, provided the mechanisms by which racketeers are apprehended, indicted, tried and sentenced, particularly with regard to organized criminal activities.
Among its provisions is the ability of those apprehended to plead guilty to a lesser crime or crimes (and thus a lesser sentence and possible protection) in exchange for testimony leading to the arrests of those higher up in the organization. This provision relies on the all-too-human reality that a person will “roll over” when it benefits him to do so. One will at long last tell the truth when he stands to gain more that he loses by doing so.
People should not be conned into thinking that Michael Cohen has suddenly become a paragon of virtue. The government has found his weak spot and played it to their advantage. Michael Cohen, the scumbag, has been wrung out to the point that only the truth is left to wring out.
That is why he is to be believed now. And Republicans on the House Oversight Committee would be wise not to forget that, because this is a tool that benefits all who would seek justice, especially at these highest of levels.
Someday, as they say, the shoe may be on the other foot, in a town that is at risk of bursting into flames from the abundance of lies on all fronts.
He’s a lawyer .. enough said.