While everyone assumes that Trump wanted to hold the country’s most precious and dangerous secrets to sell them down the road, Michael Cohen says that Trump had a different transaction in mind. Cohen says that Trump took the documents in order to blackmail the FBI as a “Get out of jail free card.” In essence, Cohen says that Trump could tell the FBI, “I’ve made copies. You don’t know where they are. If you arrest me, they’ll be delivered into the hands of…”

It sounds possible, though  – one should point out that using the material to blackmail the FBI is not mutually exclusive to selling the secrets, too. Ironically, the fact that it’s not mutually exclusive is likely why blackmailing the FBI won’t work.

MSNBC’s Michael Steele asked Cohen this morning why Cohen believes Trump took the documents. Cohen answered:

“He’s gonna use it as a get out of jail free card.

It’s a way to extort America. Turn around to say if you put me in jail, if you go after me — he’ll even say his children — I will have my loyal supporters who you do not know who has copies of information that may have been, and again this is my conjecture, that I would take those documents, I will release them to Iran, to China, to North Korea, to Russia.

“You want to take me down? I’ll take the whole country down.”

“Remember, and I’ve said this with you 1000 times, Mike, Donald Trump doesn’t care about this country. He doesn’t care about anyone or anything other than himself.”

It seems entirely plausible that Trump will try something like that and may have been planning it all along.

There is, however, a gigantic flaw in such a plan that is plain to everyone. Even if the FBI did believe that Trump could and would set these documents loose upon being arrested, how would the FBI ever keep Trump from doing it anyway to sell the documents?

If Trump says he’s made copies and they are in the hands of others, then the documents are already out of Trump and the FBI’s control and could be sold by anyone holding those documents. The FBI gains nothing by taking Trump’s “deal.”

But it’s entirely possible that Trump will make that threat. Again, a lot of this isn’t mutually exclusive.

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