Cohen, 51, has one supporter, Anthony Scaramucci. When Katy Tur asked “The Mooch” if there were any change Cohen would wind up flipping, Scaramucci said, “No. Michael is an extremely faithful person.”
Very few of Trump’s supporters feel assured Cohen will respect “omerta.” In a conversation with Trump on Friday, Jay Goldberg, another of Trump’s attorneys, told the President, “Michael won’t stay by you if he’s accused by the government.”
Trump doesn’t have anything to fret about, right? Unless. Except if Trump perpetrated a felony which Cohen knew of.
In a rambling conversation with The Wall Street Journal, Goldberg spelled out his anxieties about the disastrous result it would have if Cohen cooperated. “The mob was fractured by Sammy “The Bull” Gravano when he flipped on Gotti to get out of a prison sentence.”
In describing the situation, many insiders are using Mafia vernacular. “I think for a couple of years, Cohen would be a stand-up guy and he’d tell investigators to go piss up a rope. But if they look at him and say he’s facing a couple of decades, well, how loyal will he be?”
Sammy ‘The Bull’ Gravano
Gravano was an underboss inside the Gambino crime family in New York. When ‘the feds’ turned their sites on him, Gravano folded and helped bring down Mob Boss, John Gotti. Facing serious prison time, Gravana was given a few options: 1. Testify against Gotti, 2. Cooperate with federal law enforcement, 3. Confess to crimes he committed. If he refused, Gravano was looking at the rest of his life behind bars.
The option? Work with the feds, no prison time, and enter the Witness Protection Program.
Omerta
Omerta is an honor code which emphasizes silence and non-cooperation with authorities. The fundamental principle behind omerta is that it is not ‘manly to look for help from legally constituted authorities to settle personal disputes.
One of omerta’s fundamental test is it is exceptionally demeaning to betray one’s deadliest enemy to law enforcement, and for this reason, many Mafia-linked crimes have stayed unsolved.
According to the first Mafia researcher, Antonio Cutrera, Omerta is a code of silence.
Omerta was first broken, in America, by Joe Valachi, an Italian-American mafioso. In 1963 Valachi told of the Mafia’s existence and testified before Congress.
Will Michael Cohen break omerta? Well, he hasn’t been accused, so far, of being any part of a mob family, but will he break the principle which has protected criminals in New York, and elsewhere, for decades?
We may soon see.
