If the fear and censorship coming out of the White House reminds you of the 1950s “red scare,” there’s a probable reason: “political hitman” Roy Cohn.
Cohn is best known now for the lessons he taught Trump, but even before that he was an outsized figure running through US politics and culture… Throughout his life, he bullied people and tried to bully facts…
He was barely into his 20s when, as an assistant prosecutor in 1951, he helped engineer the conviction and execution of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg as Soviet spies, and acknowledged using illicit, back-channel conversations with the judge to get the death penalty. Soon after, he became notorious as chief counsel for Senator Joseph McCarthy’s committee rooting out Communists and supposed Communists from the government…
In October 1973, the US Department of Justice had sued Donald Trump, 27, and his father for discriminating against black renters. In a happenstance meeting, Trump asked Cohn what to do.
According to the Washington Post, Cohn told Trump this: “My view is tell them to go to hell and fight the thing in court.”
Like many (most?) of Trump’s lawsuits, this one ended in a draw.
A federal judge dismissed the countersuit. And two years later, after a string of theatrics and unfounded allegations by Cohn — including the claim that a Jewish prosecutor had used Nazi Gestapo tactics — Donald and Fred Trump settled the case without admitting guilt.
Thus began one of the most influential relationships in Trump’s life and the start of his notoriously litigious behavior. That behavior exudes power and seeds fear that you might be his next target.
Trump prized Cohn’s reputation for aggression. According to a New York Times profile a quarter-century ago, when frustrated by an adversary, Trump would pull out a photograph of Cohn and ask, “Would you rather deal with him?” Trump remained friends with him even after the lawyer was disbarred in New York for ethical lapses…
Cohn himself once said he was “not only Donald’s lawyer but also one of his close friends.” Roger Stone, a political operative who met Trump through Cohn, said their association was grounded in business, but he also described the lawyer as “like a cultural guide to Manhattan” for Trump into the worlds of celebrity and power. “Roy was more than his personal lawyer,” Stone told The Post. “And, of course, Trump was a trophy client for Roy.”
One hallmark of Sen. Joseph McCarthy and Cohn’s “red scare” was also fomenting fear.
McCarthy launched a series of sensational hearings about the communist threat in the United States, calling on scores of professors, Hollywood writers, government employees and others to answer questions about their alleged ties to the party. Blacklists were created and careers ruined.
As president a second time, Trump has played the Roy Cohn card to the max: “attack, counterattack and never apologize.”
Law firms. Documented and undocumented immigrants. Universities. Greenland and Canada. Foreign visitors. Federal employees. Independent agencies. Former allies like Ukraine. Judges.
“Attack, counterattack and never apologize.”
You can see this in Signalgate, where Trump has attacked the messenger while ignoring his appointee culpability.
Roy Cohn lives on in the personality and behavior of Donald Trump.
Known for gnawing at complex questions like a terrier with a bone. Digital evangelist, writer, teacher. Transplanted Southerner; teach newbies to ride motorcycles. @kegill (Twitter and Mastodon.social); wiredpen.com