RUSH: The Drive-By Media is obsessed with The Rat, Michael Cohen, coming up to Congress to testify for three days. Or I guess it’s two days. Well, it’s three days, and two of the three days are gonna be in secret.

The Drive-Bys are just salivating because they believe that Michael Cohen, who used to be Trump’s fixer, is going to testify under oath that Donald Trump engaged in criminal activity in the White House. This is supposed to be the big bombshell news of the day. And we’ve never heard it claimed before that Trump committed crimes while in the White House, right?

Now, there’s one simple reaction to this. This is all bogus! If Trump had committed crimes with all of these freaking investigations going on, there would have been charges already. “But, Rush, but, Rush, what about the fact you can’t indict a sitting president?” We’re not talking about indicting. We’re talking about leveling charges. The SDNY could say we’ve got data, we’ve got evidence, we’re gonna wait ’til the president leaves office.

If Cohen had given them absolute evidence of criminal behavior by the president, he would have already been charged with it. Or the Drive-Bys would say charges are imminent or something. They’re bringing Cohen up for something entirely different. That’s what they’re saying it’s for. But do not doubt me. If he had anything that was legitimate here with the desire and the passion and the singular focus these people have of getting rid of Trump, we would already know about it.

If you read the Wall Street Journal article which all of this anticipation is based on, if you read the Wall Street Journal article reporting all of this, the only crime, quote, unquote, is said to have something to do with Trump paying Stormy Daniels. That’s how old this is! And I guess the new twist is that Trump paid Stormy Daniels, the well-known porn star, while he was in the office. Here’s the thing. Paying a blackmailer is not illegal. Even if this is true, it’s not illegal to pay a blackmailer. Blackmailing is illegal. It could be said to be extortion.

I think all this is is an effort to give Cohen more attention. I think it’s an effort to get more people to tune in to Cohen’s testimony on Wednesday. That’s when he’s going to supposedly accuse Trump of being a liar and a racist and trying to avoid paying more than he had to in taxes. By the way, there’s a story in The Stack today that an IRS employee leaked Michael Cohen’s taxes to the media. Some deranged left-wing lunatic in there, it’s hard not to find a government agency that hasn’t been corrupted. When you put liberals in these places, liberals corrupt.

And I’ll tell you this. You know, the left, since there’s no Russian collusion and since there never was any Russian collusion, one of the things that they’ve always salivated over is Trump’s tax returns, right? They think in Trump’s tax returns there will be evidence of some kind of nefarious activity between Trump and the Russians. These people, I know what they think. They think Trump has been bankrupt over and over again, that the Russians and Vladimir Putin bailed him out with Deutsche Bank acting as the intermediary. That’s what they think. And the think Trump’s tax returns will prove this.

Now, if Trump’s tax returns have that kind of dynamite in it, I cannot see how it would not have leaked so far. You know that there has to be in the IRS, there have to be, just using the law of averages, there have to be left wingers in there who despise Donald Trump. And there have to be people in there who have, because they have certain clearance, looked at Trump’s tax returns. We know this even though we don’t know it. We know it because of the corruption that exists wherever liberals are.

So we know somebody in there has seen those tax returns. Do you find it hard to believe that if they found something really juicy, that nobody in there would have leaked it to, say, MSNBC or CNN or the New York Times or the Washington Post? Like this Cohen business. If what Cohen has is really evidence of a crime, it wouldn’t – I mean, here’s a guy who is going to jail in two months for, among other things, lying to Congress! And they’re bringing him back as some kind of star witness who somehow has evidence of criminal activity on the part of the president in the White House.

I suspect there’s none of that that’s true. But this is the news that’s out there. These people know how to use headlines. “Cohen Will Assert Trump Committed Crimes While In Office.” That’s all they need. They don’t need any evidence. They don’t need any follow-up. They just need that headline and have it go around the world, have it show up on all of these social media sites, Yahoo News and wherever, and people are gonna think that Trump committed some kind of crime, even though there’s been no the charge and there’s no evidence whatsoever.

Then they create all this interest in Cohen’s testimony on Wednesday where he’s basically gonna go in and talk about what a reprobate Trump is. That’s the — I don’t know — the headline of all of this. I think this week begins the show, the never-ending now, on display, full-fledged Democrat obsession with getting Donald Trump via investigation, via committee, via hearings. Today, this week begins the nonstop investigation, slash, hearings, slash, committees, all the way through the 2020 campaign. So I think you’d better steel yourselves, you’d better get ready, because this begins it.

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RUSH: Now, I mentioned the top of the program that Drive-Bys simply cannot stop reporting on Michael Cohen and his testimony before Congress claiming that he is going to just rip Trump upside down, sideways, he’s gonna destroy him by detailing all of the crimes Trump has committed while president, while in the Oval Office. And, again, the reaction to this ought to be, if any of this is true, then we would have known about it long before now.

There have been microscopic examinations of Donald Trump, investigations. They have been leaking one lie after another designed to convince people that Trump stole the election, colluded with Russia. If they had real evidence of Trump criminal behavior in the Oval Office as president, believe me, it would have leaked out, and there would be talk of charges; they would be detailed. I mean, you can’t indict a sitting president, but that would not stop these people from listing all of these crimes. And the fact that that hasn’t happened.

And it’s classic. Here’s a guy who’s been convicted of lying to Congress being brought back as a star witness. Byron York has a piece today at the Washington Examiner claiming that what all this really is is an effort to keep people in the dark about Russia! “Former Trump lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen is scheduled to appear before three congressional committees this week before he heads to jail to serve a sentence for tax evasion and lying to Congress.”

He’s going to jail for lying to Congress, and they’re bringing him back! Congress is bringing him back for more testimony! “On Tuesday, Cohen will testify before the Senate Intelligence Committee. On Wednesday, he will go before the House Oversight Committee. And on Thursday, he will testify before the House Intelligence Committee.” They are scraping the bottom of the barrel to get Donald Trump. Believe me. It is the bottom of the barrel.

Now, Byron York writes that: “It would be a great service if the Cohen appearances helped increase the store of public information on the Trump-Russia furor. But even though Cohen is a key figure in the matter — his name is mentioned 24 times in the so-called Trump dossier — the hearings appear designed to prevent the public from learning anything new about the Russia matter.

“First, two of the three hearings will be held in secret; both the Senate and House Intelligence committees plan to question Cohen behind closed doors. Those are the hearings that will delve into Russia. The hearing that is public, before House Oversight, is specifically structured not to touch on the Russia matter.

“There is good reason for all the questioning to be public. Cohen is not a government official and has no classified information to share. His 24 mentions in the dossier have been publicly available for two years. His conviction on lying to Congress — specifically, his falsehood about the timing of Trump Tower Moscow discussions — is also public. His own case is over and done with, and he will soon be behind bars.”

The Trump dossier has been acknowledged now as totally fraudulent and made up out of whole cloth, bought and paid for by Hillary Clinton. And yet they continue to rely on it. “The only people who might throw a wrench in the works are Oversight Committee Republicans.” They are free to ignore the directive of the chairman of this committee. That would be Elijah Cummings of the Congressional Black Caucasians, who has instructed all members of the House Oversight Committee not to ask Russia-related questions.

Cohen has denied all of the allegations about him in the dossier. So what can he add? He lied about the Trump Tower meeting. The Trump Tower Moscow matter. And what information does he have that he hasn’t already been debriefed? What information does he have that Mueller doesn’t have, that these people haven’t gotten? He spilled everything he’s got trying to lessen his sentence. One committee Republican said late yesterday, “We’re gonna ask whatever we want to ask.”

“Cohen might not answer the questions, and the chairman might take Cohen’s side, but Republicans can at the least remind viewers that the Democrats who run the House, after talking Russia nonstop for two years, now don’t want to talk publicly about the subject, even with a star witness sitting in front of them.”

Why don’t they want to talk about Russia? I mean, Byron York is right here. Why don’t they want to talk about Russia? It’s very obvious, isn’t it? There isn’t anything to talk about! There isn’t any collusion! This guy doesn’t know of any collusion. And if there had been, he would know about it, he was Trump’s right side, he’s his fixer, slash, lawyer.

So we have another show. I’ll tell you what the purpose of this is. The purpose of this is not so much what Cohen says, it’s just the pictures that he’s testifying with the news reports that he’s unloading on Trump. It’s the creation of images that they are attempting here. And this is just the beginning. This I think now sets off nonstop Democrat sponsored hearings, investigations into anything. If the Mueller report comes out and they’re not satisfied with it, they’re talking about subpoenaing Mueller to come up and testify why he didn’t find more!

They’ve got everything wrapped up in the Trump-Russia collusion basket! And if there’s nothing in the basket, then it’s panic time. So they get together with their buddies in the media and start manufacturing images and narratives and claim that Cohen with this behind-doors testimony not public, that he’s really unloading, and they can leak whatever they claim Cohen is saying. So it’s gonna be exactly the same tripe that we’ve had to put up with ever since Trump won the election, maybe even before that.

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RUSH: “IRS Employee Accused of Leaking Michael Cohen’s Bank Records to Michael Avenatti,” Stormy Daniels’ lawyer. What happened to Avenatti? Avenatti was the great white hope. He was the Democrats’ hope. He was gonna be the guy to unseat Trump, right? Because he’s just like Trump. The same kind of riffraff that the American people want to vote for. What happened to this guy?

Folks, I have to tell you, if there is a corrupt and left-wing IRS employee — and that is kind of maybe redundant — whoever did this, they are gonna be in hip deep trouble. They could end up spending more time in prison than Cohen has been sentenced to.

But let me ask you this. You know how badly the Democrats and the media have wanted Trump’s tax returns. They’ve been salivating over — I mean, even what’s-her-face, Rachel Maddow once did a special claiming she had Trump’s tax returns. She got the whole left wing in this country up in a tizzy, and all she had was the first page of something that didn’t show anything.

Somebody in the IRS — you know as well as I do — somebody in there has looked up Trump’s tax returns. You know they have. If they’re leaking Cohen’s tax — who, by the way, was just disbarred. Michael Cohen was just disbarred, and now he’s being called to testify on Capitol Hill! Disbarred, going to jail for lying to Congress, is coming back as a star witness of the Democrats.

If they’re leaking Cohen’s tax returns to Avenatti, I guarantee you there are people at the IRS who have seen Trump’s tax returns. There must not be much in them or they would have leaked too. I, frankly — I’ve been waiting for this to happen. Democrats are all convinced that Trump’s tax returns will show Trump-Russia collusion, right?

Well, somebody, some activist in that organization has no doubt looked ’em up. And if that was what those tax returns showed, they would have been leaked or they would have been referenced long ago! Probably is another dry hole. The Democrats are drilling so many dry holes out there that they ought to be embarrassed about now.

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RUSH: The guy who leaked Michael Cohen’s tax records to Michael Avenatti is a guy named John Fry, 54 years old. He’s a Beto O’Rourke supporter. He has been released on $50,000 bond. These guys don’t have anything done to them. Lois Lerner? Nothing happened to her. John Koskinen, head of the IRS back during Obama, nothing happened to him. Nothing usually happens to these people. The fear of God ought to be put into them, but it hasn’t been.

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RUSH: Let’s do some audio sound bites on this. George Stephanopoulos on Good Morning America today. They can’t… They can’t contain the joy! They just… They’re popping buttons. They’re happy. They’re so proud. Cohen is gonna accuse the president of lying, of cheating, of racism and breaking the law while in office!

STEPHANOPOULOS: Cohen expected to take us behind the scenes with Donald Trump. He calls it a history of lying, racism, and cheating.

MARY BRUCE: (breathless) Michael Cohen is about to pull back the curtain on President Trump, detailing what he says are these personal anecdotes, his firsthand accounts of how the president, he says, lied and cheated throughout his career! And for the first time publicly, sources tell us that Michael Cohen plans to accuse the president of criminal misconduct while in office!

STEPHANOPOULOS: While in office! They’re gonna present evidence, at least one document, which they say shows the president broke the law while in office!

RUSH: One document! One! Are these people not a riot? Go back two years. Everything was Russia. We had leaks four times, five times a day — every newspaper, cable news networks, former and current American intelligence officials — assuring everybody there was abundant evidence that Donald Trump had colluded with Russia, had stolen the election that was really Hillary Clinton’s to win. For two years!

And then when none of it materialized, look at where they are now. Look at what they’re excited about. (impression) “Michael Cohen! Michael Cohen! He’s about to pull back the curtain on Trump! He’s gonna detail what he says are personal anecdotes, firsthand accounts,” from a guy who’s going to jail for lying, “of how the president lied and cheated throughout his career. For the first time publicly, sources tell us that Cohen plans to accuse the president of criminal conduct!”

Well, we are so far from Russia, we’re so far from collusion, we’re so far from meddling. They’ve got nothing! Folks, they’re throwing gobs of excrement up on the wall and hoping and praying that some of it sticks! The important observation is that none of it has. How is it that Donald Trump has an approval rating of 52% in Rasmussen and 44% at CNN? How is this possible? After two-plus years every day 90 to 92% negative media coverage, how is it possible that Donald Trump is not in the twenties?

Do you realize that’s what’s driving them nuts? They’re so frustrated, they haven’t been able to destroy Trump? Now here comes Jeffrey Toobin this morning on CNN warning everybody that it may not work this time. Alisyn Camerota: “If Michael Cohen testifies that Trump somehow engaged in criminal conduct while in office while in the presidency, does that change anything?” (excited impression) My gosh, everything we’ve tried and nothing stuck! Nothing’s stuck! Will that change anything Jeffrey? Please tell us!

TOOBIN: No, I don’t think so. As we’ve been discussing, impeachment is a political process. I have been burned many times over the past three years by predicting that —

CAMEROTA: (snickers)

TOOBIN: — public opinion is gonna shift because of what the president said in Charlottesville or kids in cages at the border. And the president’s approval rating, it’s not very good, but it doesn’t change. And I can’t believe that anything Cohen says this week is really gonna change that.

RUSH: ‘Cause he’s not gonna say anything new. He doesn’t have anything he hasn’t already said publicly or privately. There’s nothing anybody knows — and why would anybody believe this guy? He’s obviously a turncoat extraordinaire. The Trump camp is not gonna be in any way swayed by this guy. He’s got no reputation left! I don’t know what kind of reputation he had to begin with, but he’s certainly got none left.

Andy McCarthy is making the point here that if there was anything to this, there would have already been charges. Fox News Channel today, a question from Sandra Smith: “The Wall Street Journal put out a piece this morning saying that Cohen is going to testify that the president engaged in criminal conduct while in office. What’s your take on the Journal’s story today, Andy?”

MCCARTHY: Cohen spent a lot of time being investigated by both the FBI and the federal prosecutors. If he was involved in criminal activity with Trump, I think we would have expected to see some charges come out of it. Secondly, if the prosecutors thought he was a valuable, credible witness, they would have completed a cooperation agreement with him. I have to think they did that because they didn’t think he was a very useful or valuable witness.

RUSH: Exactly. He’s already been sentenced. That means he’s going to jail. His use to them is fini. It’s over. That’s why the Democrats are bringing him back, ’cause they are frustrated that whatever he had didn’t amount to diddly-squat; so they’re trying to create yet another image and another narrative out of whole cloth.