What did we learn from Michael Cohen's daylong testimony to Congress? Enough to make us even more disdainful of President Donald Trump and the refuse with which he surrounds himself.
First there was the easy stuff: Cohen said our president is a racist, a con man and a cheat. Really? Who's surprised?
But then Cohen - Trump's longtime lawyer and "fixer" got down to business:
» Our president knew more about Russian links during the 2016 presidential race than he has admitted.
In early June of 2016, Cohen testified, he overheard Trump's son, Donald Jr., whispering in the elder Trump's ear that "the meeting is all set." Cohen said he took that remark, and Trump's reply to it - "OK good let me know" - to refer to the Trump Tower meeting that followed between Donald Jr. and others in the inner Trump circle and a party of Russians peddling dirt on Hillary Clinton.
Trump has denied he had prior knowledge of the meeting and even helped write a misleading press statement for Donald Jr. about the purpose of the meeting - to discuss "adoptions." In fact, according to Don Jr.'s own released emails, the Kremlin-linked attorney wanted to meet to discuss helping the Trump campaign with "dirt" on Clinton. And the "adoptions"? That was really about sanctions - the ones Russia wanted dropped.
» Cohen claimed that Trump about a month later also knew in advance about the release of stolen Democratic emails by WikiLeaks. Cohen said he had been in Trump's office on July 18 or 19, 2016, when a phone call came in from Roger Stone, Trump's former campaign adviser. Cohen said Stone told Trump, on a speaker phone that Cohen could hear, that he had just gotten off the line with Julian Assange of WikiLeaks, and Assange had revealed that a dump of emails damaging to Clinton was imminent.
WikiLeaks released tens of thousands of Democratic National Committee emails on July 22. U.S. intelligence later found those emails to have been hacked by Russian operatives.
» Cohen produced a "smoking gun" $35,000 check, written by our president in the Oval Office and payable to Cohen as partial reimbursement for paying off Stormy Daniels, the porn star who said she had an affair with Trump. Cohen detailed the scheme he said was cooked up by Trump, Donald Jr. and the chief finance officer of the Trump Organization, Allen Weisselberg, to reimburse him for the $130,000 hush payment he fronted. The aim was to hide the purpose of the Trump company spending and to make it tax deductible. He said he has more such checks.
» Cohen shocked listeners when asked by Rep. Jackie Speier how many times Trump had asked him to threaten anyone on his behalf. "Quite a few times," Cohen replied. "Fifty times?" Speier pressed. "More," Cohen said. After more back and forth, Cohen settled on "probably" 500 times, over 10 years. "Threatening," he said ranged from litigation to arguing with a reporter about an article. He said Trump expected him to lie to cover up for him. Over and over.
Remarkably, none of the Republicans on the panel questioning Cohen ever defended their president. Clearly they've been caught one time too many far out on that limb of presidential denials, only to feel themselves falling when Trump later acknowledged what he'd previously denied.
Instead, they piled on Cohen. He is a convicted liar, they said mockingly, over and over. Well, yeah. He and the rest of the company that Donald Trump keeps.
But that's the point, isn't it?
If you lie down with dogs, you get fleas. Trump and Cohen have been covering up and conniving together for more than a decade. Trump and Roger Stone go back to at least to 2000. It's an absolute given that these guys know dirt on each other. It's another absolute given that they will - with enough pressure - tell that dirt. If this is what the American public got with one hearing, imagine what special counsel Robert Mueller has turned up with nearly two years of specialized investigation.
Surely, soon, honorable Republicans - and there must be some - will come to their senses as Cohen did and stop standing blindly by Trump simply because he's their president, albeit a bad one.
In fact, Cohen pleaded with them to stop: "I did the same thing that you're doing now. For 10 years. I protected Mr. Trump for 10 years. The more people that follow Mr. Trump - as I did blindly - are going to suffer the same consequences that I'm suffering. Everybody's job at the Trump Organization is to protect Mr. Trump. Every day most of us knew we were coming and we were going to lie for him about something. That became the norm."
But the most frightening thing Cohen said came at the conclusion of his testimony.
If Trump loses in 2020, "there will never be a peaceful transition of power," Cohen warned.
"My loyalty has cost me everything. Everything. My family's happiness, my law license, my company, my livelihood, my honor, my reputation and soon my freedom. I will not sit back and allow him to do the same to the country," Cohen said. "Given my experience working for President Trump, I fear that if he loses the election in 2020 that there will never be a peaceful transition of power. This is why I agreed to appear before you today. I pray the country doesn't make the same mistakes that I have made."
If that doesn't chill you, nothing will.