He will take the Fifth. He will invoke the Fifth. However he will not plead the Fifth because there is no such plea in civil proceedings.
He should know better than to misuse legal terms like that.

Judge Otero is not allowing any more motions absent a signed stipulation that the meet and confer requirement is met, because Avenatti renewed his previously-rejected motion by saying that the meet and confer requirement was met by the conference they had on the previous motion, but not the renewed motion.

If I have time later on, I’ll post a summary of what’s on the table for the May 17 motion hearing, which differs markedly from the “as seen on TV” version of the status of this litigation train wreck.

If I were Otero, I’d send the circus to arbitration, and let the parties play games with the arbitrator or the Ninth Circuit. From a docket management perspective, that’s the most efficient move for the judge.

Maybe he wants to put Cohen in a legal bind. He defends himself and goes on public record over things that Mueller could use.

Perhaps he just wants Cohen to let his client go full-bore public and make lots of money. Which means, of course, he makes lots of money. (Always a worthy objective, per some: Follow the money.)

Or perhaps at this point the woman scorned is a more appropriate meme to invoke. The hush money was good when it was the only game in town; but now there's a much better game that could be hers resulting from much greater exposure to the media.

He seems to be doing a pretty good job of it too.

generally perhaps "turd toss" refers to the passing of a defendant from one attorney to another?

The first is what Cohen's alleged to have said.

The second, the person saying Cohen said he'd "plead the 5th" was Avenatti, who, if quoted correctly, continues to wow with his political sagacity but legal sagginess.

Cohen is so stupid regarding legal matters that he talked about a plea in a civil matter.

"As it seems I'll be needing to assert 5th Amendment privs about this in this Federal case so I don't implicate myself in the crime...soooo... Sorry!"

This ranks up with Sessions "I can't tell you in case the President wishes to invoke Executive Privilege about it at some unspecified time in the future..."

ok, obviously, it's not so simple.

but winning a civil case after taking the fifth seems an uphill challenge. not technically admissible but certainly isn't going to get the judge on your side.

America's getting one heck of a legalese education.

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