Michael Cohen’s tears aren’t just for sympathy – they’re a message for Donald Trump

Sobbing could be heard in the Manhattan courtroom where Michael Cohen became the fourth person associated with Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation to be sentenced to prison.

While the charges of campaign finance violations over the hush money payments to Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal were moved from Mr Mueller’s desk to that of prosecutors in southern New York, it opens the door to possible legal jeopardy for Donald Trump. That is because Cohen is said by prosecutors to have worked at the behest of the president.

Speaking through his own tears as his son and daughter cried, Cohen’s statement suggested a man full of regret.

But Trump should perhaps pay closest attention to those tears from Cohen, a man who said that he felt compelled to act for the president out of blind loyalty.

“Recently the president tweeted a statement calling me weak, and it was correct – but for a much different reason than he was implying,” Cohen told the court. “It was because time and time again I felt it was my duty to cover up his dirty deeds.”

Given that Trump seemingly has no qualms in jettisoning and belittling a former close associate that had been by his side for years, it throws a whole new light onto the almost ceaseless turnover in the White House.

The more people that Trump throws onto the scrapheap, either by firing them or seemingly forcing them into walking out, the more danger he is opening himself up to.

There are few left that will have survived the campaign, transition and his first days in office. But in a building riven with internal divisions and factions, information will likely have spread and there will always be people who may hold a grudge against the president.

Cohen’s case shows that the president will distance himself from anyone that comes out against him, so what do those who find themselves facing the cold shoulder from Trump have to lose?

While Mueller’s Russia probe is said to be entering the beginning of the end before his final report, a statement from Cohen’s lawyer suggested that Trump’s former fixer would be willing to cooperate even after that report is issued.

The president should be careful how many more associates or former White House staffers are let back into world off the back of a crass firing or infighting. Mueller has proven himself adept at picking up information and turning Trump associates to cooperating with his investigation.

Trump has always been adamant there is “no collusion” and that Mueller’s investigation is a “witch hunt”. However, the closer Mueller’s investigation to the question of whether Trump officials colluded with Russia or the president himself obstructed justice, the more these words look like the mantra of a desperate man.

Cynics will say that the tears from Cohen are a way of trying to get the judge to look kindly upon him, but it is also a sign that the president is pushing people to their breaking point. Trump will come to regret backing his associates into a corner.