https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/feb/27/loyalty-trump-cost-michael-cohen-republicans
Richard Wolffe does a good job with his observations of the Michael Cohen testimony .
User-Supported News Commentary Hosted by Craig Crawford
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/feb/27/loyalty-trump-cost-michael-cohen-republicans
Richard Wolffe does a good job with his observations of the Michael Cohen testimony .
Cohen the bag man and fixer gave us a little peek into the criminal activities of SFB. The person who would be more interesting is the one who can tell us how the greedy old perverts became Russian agents.
who’s making sen$$$e would be another way of analyzing it.
jace, thanks for bringing that article to us. I enjoyed this particular recount:
speaking of who’s making sen$$$e, hope some enterprising young reporters are on their way to a Pulitzer by digging up pay dirt on who/what/where the good gopers grilling cohen got their campaign contributions from.
Russian strawmen perhaps?
NY Times:
WASHINGTON — President Trump ordered his chief of staff to grant his son-in-law and senior adviser, Jared Kushner, a top-secret security clearance last year, overruling concerns flagged by intelligence officials and the White House’s top lawyer, four people briefed on the matter said.
Mr. Trump’s decision in May so troubled senior administration officials that at least one, the White House chief of staff at the time, John F. Kelly, wrote a contemporaneous internal memo about how he had been “ordered” to give Mr. Kushner the top-secret clearance.
The White House counsel at the time, Donald F. McGahn II, also wrote an internal memo outlining the concerns that had been raised about Mr. Kushner — including by the C.I.A. — and how Mr. McGahn had recommended that he not be given a top-secret clearance.
The disclosure of the memos contradicts statements made by the president, who told The New York Times in January in an Oval Office interview that he had no role in his son-in-law receiving his clearance.
Mr. Kushner’s lawyer, Abbe D. Lowell, also said that at the time the clearance was granted last year that his client went through a standard process. Ivanka Trump, the president’s eldest daughter and Mr. Kushner’s wife, said the same thing three weeks ago.
Asked on Thursday about the memos contradicting the president’s account, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the White House press secretary, said, “We don’t comment on security clearances.”
[…]
Mr. Trump’s precise language to Mr. Kelly about Mr. Kushner’s clearance in their direct conversation remains unclear. Two of the people familiar with Mr. Trump’s discussions with Mr. Kelly said that there might be different interpretations of what the president said. But Mr. Kelly believed it was an order, according to two people familiar with his thinking.
And Mr. Trump was definitive in his statements to The Times in the January interview.
“I was never involved with the security” clearances for Mr. Kushner, the president said. “I know that there was issues back and forth about security for numerous people, actually. But I don’t want to get involved in that stuff.”
[continues]
encore! encore!
wapo: Congress says it’s not done with Michael Cohen yet
[…]
Cohen is scheduled to complete his testimony with the House Intelligence Committee on March 6.
After Cohen, the panel intends to interview more of Trump’s associates, including Trump Organization chief financial officer Alan Weisselberg, with whom the House Oversight Committee also has expressed an interest in speaking. Trump’s former business associate Felix Sater, who played a key role in Trump’s efforts to pursue construction of a Trump Tower in Moscow, will appear before the House Intelligence Committee in a public hearing scheduled for March 14, Chairman Adam B. Schiff (D-Calif.) said Thursday.
[continues]
the hill:
Rep. David Cicilline (D-R.I.) said Thursday he would “looking forward” to Sean Hannity testifying in front of Congress after a comment the Fox News host made during an interview.
Cicilline was referring to an interview between Hannity and President Trump which aired Thursday.
“Sean Hannity is now volunteering himself as a witness,” Cicilline, a member of the House Judiciary committee, tweeted. “I look forward to his testimony.”
When discussing hush-money payments made to adult film star Stormy Daniels, Hannity claimed that Trump’s former attorney Michael Cohen had made them without consulting Trump.
“I can tell you personally, he said to me at least a dozen times, that he made the decision on the payments and he didn’t tell you,” Hannity said.
Trump agreed with Hannity that Cohen had made that decision independently.
During congressional testimony Wednesday, Cohen said that Trump was aware of the payment to Daniels, who alleges she had an affair with the president.
Trump has denied the affair and that any payments made could violate campaign finance laws.
Lanny Davis, attorney for Michael Cohen, tells Rachel Maddow that “game changing” information related to “lying and obstruction evidence” was developed with Cohen’s testimony to the House Intelligence Committee today, prompting them to ask him to return on March 6th.
the daily beast: Rick Santorum: Trump Lies All the Time So Why Are Russia Lies ‘Any Different?’
[…]
Hours after the hearing, CNN anchor Anderson Cooper asked Santorum to elaborate on an earlier debate he’d had with CNN political analyst and Watergate legend Carl Bernstein.
“Questioning why people in the Trump orbit continue to lie about Russia. I mean, does it—is there an explanation for you on this?” Cooper asked. “Just the number of lies related to Russia, Senator?”
The former GOP presidential candidate replied that the point he was trying to make to Bernstein was that “the president doesn’t tell the truth about a lot of things fairly consistently.” Therefore, the “fact that he’s not telling the truth about Russia fairly consistently, at least in the eyes of people around here, why is that any different?”
“I mean, it’s not like he’s doing something out of character with the Russia investigation that he’s not doing in any other areas,” Santorum continued. “So that’s—so you make the point, oh, he lies about Russia all time. Well, according to what I hear on this roundtable and the network, he lies about everything all the time!”
CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin seemed dumbstruck by Santorum’s logic, asking the former Pennsylvania senator, “Is that really the best defense you can come up with?”
The Party of God and Family Values is morally bereft- but we already knew that.
Too bad none of them peruse this board and our arguments. They’re just going to keep on keeping on hating gays, women, education, brown people, change, scientific realities, and anything else that challenges them. Proceed with that understanding- i will.
Such a great point Wolffe makes: the more Republicans attacked Cohen for lying the more they point out it was Trump’s lies he was telling.
…the rank-and-file fascists couldn’t care less about Trump’s lies, as long as they continue to receive permission to hate and exclude those they perceive as different.
Find me the Republican or Trump-voting “independent” who was swayed by Cohen’s testimony and i’ll eat my hat.
Mostly agree Bink, although his numbers among Independents who voted for him have been steadily dwindling.
I have friends that voted for trump and still support him. I’ve vowed I would do my damnedest to not lose any of them… and so far so good… but I no longer care about their point of view. And when trump is gone (and he will be one way or the other) I will not lend them a shoulder to cry on or an ear to hear their complaints. I don’t like that I feel this way…. but I do.
Wait…Do I understand this correctly? Santorum’s comments were supposed to be a defense of Trump? Bwahahahaha.
*
politicususa:
Rachel Maddow used one of Trump’s properties to show how the President Of The United States has committed felony bank fraud.
We believe these financial statements have been through the hands of the FBI and therefore they have been seen by federal prosecutors. We’ve now got Cohen’s blunt under oath assertions as to what those financial documents were used for if Deutsche Bank is handing over documents to the congressional committees then presumably we’ll know if Michael Cohen was right in his testimony yesterday. And if these documents were in fact used in a loan application to Deutsche Bank or used with insurance companies or any other financial institutions.
Clearly, there appears to be something wrong with the 2012 financial statement. Clearly, that is not a $291 million property as nice as it may seem. I say it’s not a $291 million property not because I can tell at a glance when a property is worth, I say that because that’s what Donald Trump says. Trump doesn’t claim it’s a $291 million property, not when he knows people are watching. When he filed his financial disclosure form in 2018, he said it was worth 25 to $50 million. How is it worth $291 million in 2012? I mean, if that quarter billion-dollar magic trick he tried to play with that financial statement is in fact, evidence of felony bank fraud, as far as I can tell, we’re well within the ten-year statute of limitations for such a crime. As a country, now, we have all just been shown evidence of this potential felony bank fraud by the president.
Maddow also said in the segment that they could have pulled out any number of examples, but they used one specific property in New York as a case study. The example that Rachel Maddow used shows why Trump is so desperate to win reelection. The statute of limitations is not up on his crimes. Trump was committing financial crimes even as president.
The only thing keeping Trump from being indicted is his position as president. If Trump is voted out of office, he will almost certainly face a criminal indictment. These are the crimes that keep Trump up at night because they are the felonies that could land him in prison.
I figure that only hard core rippers will support trump’s re-election. The indies will mostly back any reasonable Dem. If any serious repo opposition in IA, VT, or SC arose, trump would see 3 to 5 opponents for the nomination. Russia might help divide his opponents so that he wins primaries by pluralities, rather than majorities. In such a scenario, I think trump could still get the nomination as long as he was still un-indicted, but barely.
I can see a 59 – 38 – 3 general election if trump is the nominee, but much closer in the Electoral College.
Maybe trump will be indicted after his nomination, resulting in a party split, a second convention, lotsa lawsuits, and mayhem. Then we could see something more like a 60 (Dem) – 25 (trump) – 15 (other ripper), with Dems losing Idaho or Wyoming.
Go long on popcorn and butter futures for November delivery.
politico:
Prosecutors for special counsel Robert Mueller said on Friday that they expect to need about a week to present their case at the trial of longtime Trump adviser Roger Stone.
The Mueller prosecutors said in a court filing that Stone’s trial for lying to Congress and obstruction of justice is expected to last anywhere from five to eight days, including the defense’s cross-examination of government witnesses.
The anticipated trial length does not account for any witnesses Stone’s lawyers plan to call in his defense, though the defense is not obligated to call any witnesses.
[…]
Jackson has a status conference for Stone’s case scheduled for May 14, when she’s said she will announce the trial date and also have Stone lawyers outline their plans for any pretrial motions.
Jackson and Mueller’s team have previously signaled Stone’s trial could start late summer or early fall.
That would ensure that even if Mueller announces the conclusion of his investigation into Russian election interference, as some expect is imminent, the cloud of the investigation over President Donald Trump is likely to drag on even longer.
The imminent demise of the Special Counsel’s investigation is something like fusion energy : always in the future.
They have yet to indict sekulow, giuliani, wesselberg, jared, eric, ivanka, junior, or the god(damn)father. guiliani may not be a target (yet), but it’s obvious from Cohen’s testimony that sekulow should be one. We don’t have any idea of how dirty eric is, but the rest have committed felonies and ought to be indicted. In my limited experience, the higher the gangster is in the organization, the longer and more numerous the hearings and motions and delays. I’ll give it another 18 months to play out. Shoot for Labor Day 2020 to end ‘our long national nightmare.”
But, will pence then pardon trump, to get the trumpites onto his campaign bandwagon ?
Btw, those commodity futures should be for November 2020 delivery. Sorry. I’ll be reversing (cancelling) my contracts on Halloween, 2020.
Fry him until his eyes pop out.
new thread