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Michael Cohen investigation
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[h2][link=https://www.wsj.com/articles/former-trump-lawyer-michael-cohen-under-investigation-for-tax-fraud-1533658535?mod=e2tw]Wall Street Journal[/link] : [link=https://politicalwire.com/2018/08/07/cohen-under-investigation-for-tax-fraud/]Cohen Under Investigation for Tax Fraud[/link][/h2]
The legal pressures facing Michael Cohen are growing in a wide-ranging investigation of his personal business affairs and his work on behalf of his former client, President Trump.”
In previously unreported developments, federal prosecutors in New York are examining whether Mr. Cohen committed tax fraud Federal authorities are assessing whether Mr. Cohens income from his taxi-medallion business was underreported in federal tax returns That income included hundreds of thousands of dollars received in cash and other payments over the last five years.
Prosecutors also are looking into whether any bank employees improperly allowed Mr. Cohen to obtain loans for which he didnt provide adequate documentation.
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[link=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/19/nyregion/michael-cohen-loans-donald-trump.html]https://www.nytimes.com/2…oans-donald-trump.html[/link]
Cohen: $20 million in bank fraud.
Only the best people.
[blockquote] Federal authorities investigating whether President Trumps former personal lawyer and fixer, Michael D. Cohen, committed bank and tax fraud have zeroed in on well over $20 million in loans obtained by taxi businesses that he and his family own, according to people familiar with the matter.
Investigators are also examining whether Mr. Cohen violated campaign finance or other laws by helping to arrange financial deals to secure the silence of women who said they had affairs with Mr. Trump. The inquiry has entered the final stage and prosecutors are considering filing charges by the end of August, two of the people said.
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Media reporting that Cohen in talks to enter a guilty plea as part of a deal, perhaps as soon as today.
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so that would mean he’s flipped? or perhaps just really screwed? It looks like multiple outlets confirmed he entered a plea, but not necessarily agree to cooperate.
Waiting on Fox new to report how he’s part of the deep state attempt to take down Trump. -
No cooperatioon reported yet. He might not have much to give to Mueller or might be holding out for a pardon down the road. Or just knows he is screwed and wanting to get to 8-10 years instead of 30.
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Anyway…..
[url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/21/nyregion/michael-cohen-plea-deal-trump.html]Trumps Former Fixer, Michael Cohen, Reaches a Plea Agreement Over Payments to Women[/url]
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Cohen pleaded guilty to the payments to Stormy Daniels and Karen MacDougal
And he stated that he did it in coordination with and at the direction of a candidate for federal office
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!!!!!!!! Just another nothingburger.
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And tapes and pleas of nothingburgers.
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Lanny Davis told [link=https://www.npr.org/2018/08/22/640795902/michael-cohens-attorney-lanny-davis-speaks-out-about-guilty-pleas]NPR[/link] that his client, Michael Cohen, will never accept a pardon from President Trump.
Said Davis: I know that Mr. Cohen would never accept a pardon from a man who he considers to be both corrupt and a dangerous person in the Oval Office. He has flatly authorized me to say under no circumstances would he accept a pardon from Mr. Trump, who used the pardon power in a way that no president in American history has ever used a pardonto relieve people of guilt who committed crimes who are political cronies of his.
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When it rains it pours. He was subpoenaed about the Trump Charities investigation in NY.
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Bret Stephens has a come to Jesus moment.
Bret Stephens Retweeted Reuters Top News
I’ve been skeptical about the wisdom and merit of impeachment. Cohen’s guilty plea changes that. The president is clearly guilty of high crimes and misdemeanors. He should resign his office or be impeached and removed from office.
Unfortunately Trump’s Republican apparatchiks will do their best to protect him.
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Quote from Frumious
Bret Stephens Retweeted Reuters Top News
Same with [link=https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/global-opinions/trump-is-now-an-illegitimate-president/2018/08/22/d1c9271c-a613-11e8-97ce-cc9042272f07_story.html?utm_term=.71b2c19c417d]Max Boot[/link]: [b]An illegitimate President
[/b]In short, there is growing evidence that the president is, to use the word favored by Richard Nixon, a crook. Even buying the silence of his reputed playmates could by itself have been enough to swing an exceedingly close election decided by fewer than 80,000 votes in three states. Trump certainly would not have authorized the payments unless he thought it was politically imperative to do so. There is also considerable evidence, as I previously argued, that Russias intervention on Trumps behalf affected the outcome. Even more than Nixon, Trump is now an illegitimate president whose election is tainted by fraud.Unfortunately Trump’s Republican apparatchiks will do their best to protect him.
And Boot makes the same diagnosis …
“The inevitable question is: Now what? If Trump had an iota of decency, he would resign but he doesnt, and prevailing Justice Department guidelines hold that a president cant be indicted while in office. So the onus is on Congress to act. A responsible Congress would have by now already convened an impeachment inquiry. But that is not the Congress we have. We have a Congress dominated by political hacks and moral invertebrates who are determined to act as the presidents enablers and legitimizers at all costs.
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the far more serious crimes of Trumps congressional supporters do not involve personal peculation. They involve violating their oaths of office by failing to hold the president accountable for misusing his office. Some, such as Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) and Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), have gone much further by actively [link=https://www.businessinsider.es/rod-rosenstein-impeachment-mark-meadows-jim-jordan-2018-7?r=US&IR=T]attempting to impede[/link] the Justice Department investigation into Trumps alleged misconduct. They have become, in a moral if not legal sense, accessories to obstruction of justice.
And they have gotten away with it because the congressional leadership has allowed them to do so. Judging by House Speaker Paul D. Ryans (R-Wis.) [link=https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/aug/22/senior-republicans-hesitate-to-criticise-trump-after-manafort-and-cohen-verdicts]cowardly and cautious statement[/link] on Tuesday We are aware of Mr. Cohens guilty plea to these serious charges. We will need more information than is currently available at this point there is no sign that the Republicans in Congress will ever provide any serious oversight of the Republican in the White House.
The voters of the United States must now say to this Congress what Oliver Cromwell [link=http://www.emersonkent.com/speeches/dismissal_of_the_rump_parliament.htm]said [/link]to the Rump Parliament in 1653: Ye are a factious crew, and enemies to all good government. … Ye are grown intolerably odious to the whole nation. You were deputed here by the people to get grievances redressed, are yourselves become the greatest grievance. … Go, get you out! Make haste! … In the name of God, go!
[b]
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Hot take. If Trump and Pence go, Paul Ryan becomes POTUS.
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[h1]Anatomy of a Crime: Sex, Hush Money and a Trump Fixers Guilty Plea[/h1]
The First Amendment gives media companies wide latitude to communicate with candidates and, several campaign finance law experts have said, even allows them to coordinate coverage with campaigns which makes sense for a country that had a very partisan press corps at its founding.
A media entity can talk with a campaign about coverage as part of its media function, said Trevor Potter, a founder of the Campaign Legal Center who helped write part of the campaign finance law.
But a media company makes an illegal corporate contribution if it acts outside its legitimate press function in coordinating with a campaign to spend money to influence an election. Such activity is not like the action of a media company deciding what to cover and exercising editorial judgment, Potter said.
—-snip–
The court documents filed Tuesday in connection with Mr. Cohens guilty plea provided a far more detailed account than previously known about the payments made to suppress womens stories about Mr. Trump that could have threatened his election prospects. The filings revealed the involvement of executives at The Trump Organization, who routed reimbursements to Mr. Cohen through a Trump trust using sham invoices.
For the first time, prosecutors said that the tabloid publisher American Media Inc. had been involved in deals to buy the silence of both Ms. Clifford and Ms. McDougal. And as early as August 2015, prosecutors revealed, Mr. Cohen communicated with the chairman of American Media, David J. Pecker, who agreed to turn the organizations tip line into a trip wire that could detect potential trouble for Mr. Trump. Mr. Pecker agreed to help deal with negative stories, about Mr. Trumps relationships with women by, among other things, assisting the campaign in identifying such stories so they could be purchased and their publication avoided.
Mr. Pecker made that promise, prosecutors said, in coordination with Mr. Cohen, and one or more members of the campaign.
[link=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/22/us/politics/trump-michael-cohen-tabloids-payoffs.html]https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/22/u…s-payoffs.html[/link]
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Even Trump is now talking about impeachment warning the markets will CRASH if he is impeached as he warnind on Faux News state media.
PROGRESS! But a crash due to impeachment is not a given or likely. It will be other factors determining a crash, not impeachment.
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I think his trade war is more likely to lead to drops in the markets. It sort of sounds like he’s starting to tee up Jeff Sessions for a firing.
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Cohen sentenced to 36 months in prison
Makes a statement that Trump directed him to cover up.
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Most corrupt admin history
Sad stare of affairs
……. but hey they are making liberals angry
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A tangent but I’ve seen floated the idea that Mitch McConnell might have known some of this intel before the election and might have kept it out of the light of day. He’s also apparently received $3.5million through Ukraine (Russia). So is Mitch perhaps in for some troubles.
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Well that would be a gift from the Gods.
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Yet another piece of the Steele Dossier being found to be correct:
[link=https://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/investigations/article219016820.html]https://www.mcclatchydc.c…/article219016820.html[/link]
[/h2]
[h3]Cell signal puts Cohen outside Prague around time of purported Russian meeting[/h3]A mobile phone traced to President Donald Trumps former lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen briefly sent signals ricocheting off cell towers in the Prague area in late summer 2016, at the height of the presidential campaign, leaving an electronic record to support claims that Cohen met secretly there with Russian officials, four people with knowledge of the matter say.
During the same period of late August or early September, electronic eavesdropping by an Eastern European intelligence agency picked up a conversation among Russians, one of whom remarked that Cohen was in Prague, two people familiar with the incident said.
The phone and surveillance data, which have not previously been disclosed, lend new credence to a key part of a former British spys dossier of Kremlin intelligence describing purported coordination between Trumps campaign and Russias election meddling operation.
The dossier, which Trump has dismissed as a pile of garbage, said Cohen and one or more Kremlin officials huddled in or around the Czech capital to plot ways to limit discovery of the close liaison between the Trump campaign and Russia.
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Just another nothingburger. Old news. Trump only hired him as a favor to get coffee. He’s a liar.
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[h1]Cohen Will Accuse Trump of Criminal Conduct[/h1]
[link=https://www.wsj.com/articles/cohen-to-testify-that-trump-engaged-in-criminal-conduct-while-in-office-11551175201]Wall Street Journal[/link]: Michael Cohen, Donald Trumps former lawyer, will for the first time publicly accuse the president of criminal conduct while in office related to a hush-money payment to a porn star.
Appearing on Wednesday before the House Oversight Committee, Mr. Cohen also will make public some of Mr. Trumps private financial statements and allege that Mr. Trump at times inflated or deflated his net worth for business and personal purposes, including avoiding paying property taxes, the person said. The financial statements were developed by Mr. Trumps accountant.
[link=https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/26/us/politics/michael-cohen-testimony.html]New York Times[/link]: Among the most explosive and potentially damning aspects of Mr. Cohens testimony will be providing evidence of potential criminal conduct since Mr. Trump became president.
[link=https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/cohen-plans-scathing-testimony-about-trump-russia-and-stormy-daniels/2019/02/25/9024e1ec-394e-11e9-a2cd-307b06d0257b_story.html?utm_term=.dd6e658fa1ad]Washington Post[/link]: Cohen intends to paint Trump as a liar, a cheater and a racist during interviews with three congressional committees, two of which will take place behind closed doors. He is expected to share anecdotes about Trumps behavior Daniels alleged she had an affair with Trump years ago, a claim the president denies as well as his financial dealings.
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Micheal Cohen’s prepared statement:
[link=https://www.politico.com/f/?id=00000169-2d31-dc75-affd-bfb99a790001]https://www.politico.com/…dc75-affd-bfb99a790001[/link]
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It’s funny because the backpedal out of Trump is amazing. Now Cohen’s a no good lawyer who had other clients. In the past he was on boards for things like Trump Foundation and was real chummy with all things Trump. So it’s like which is it?
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A lot of speechifying and grandstanding from Republicans about Cohen being a bad man but no real questions.
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Ah … the GOP going full Trump mode in congress today.
Just heard Cohen called a “fake witness”
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Let me see if I get this right, Cohen is a lair and therefore he can’t be trusted is the Republican line of reasoning. The Republicans call him a liar because he lied in front of the Congressional committee.
Now, let’s see, he lied then in order to protect Trump which makes him a liar. Now he’s a liar because he is no longer protecting Trump.
Ummm, that’s rather like the joke, “Everything I say is a lie & that’s the truth!”
Republicans can’t seem to figure out their own reasoning.-
Wow! Cohen just called the Republicans on the committee liars themselves who should follow him into prison for lying themselves in order to lie for Trump, just as he had done.
I agree, Jordan is first in line for prison after Cohen & Trump for lying about this AND for his protecting child molesters when he was coach.-
I’ve seen a couple of tidbits here and there. Cohen appears to be giving as good as he’s getting from the GOP.
Rep Gosar (guy who’s entire family campaigned against him) “You’re a pathological liar!”
Cohen “are you referring to me or the president?”-
So let me get this right. The guy who was convicted of lying to Congress is now the fountain of truth. Got it.
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Quote from fw
So let me get this right. The guy who was convicted of lying to Congress is now the fountain of truth. Got it.
So let me get this straight, you agree Cohen lied when he said Trump was innocent? So he’s telling the truth now? And therefore Cohen is an innocent man convicted by that evil Mueller in a conspiracy to attack Trump?
Or Cohen is telling the truth now? But you don’t support Cohen’s truth now because he lied to protect Trump then?
You can’t have it both ways since Cohen’s stories are 180 degrees apart. He either lied then or he’s lying now.
Where do you stand?
Or is it frankly it doesn’t matter since you support Trump regardless of everything.
Got it.
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One of Cohen’s great reveals was Trump’s statement that his campaign was going to be the “greatest infomercial in political history.”
I think that explains everything about Trump and his campaign. The rube surprised everyone, including Trump.-
Trump must be seething as his former consigliere is upstaging his event in Vietnam with Watergate II hearings. But Cohen “trumps” John Dean by magnitudes as Trump is portrayed as magnitudes worse than Nixon ever was.
No wonder the Republicans and other Trumpets are so worried.
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Quote from Frumious
Quote from fw
So let me get this right. The guy who was convicted of lying to Congress is now the fountain of truth. Got it.
So let me get this straight, you agree Cohen lied when he said Trump was innocent? So he’s telling the truth now? And therefore Cohen is an innocent man convicted by that evil Mueller in a conspiracy to attack Trump?
Or Cohen is telling the truth now? But you don’t support Cohen’s truth now because he lied to protect Trump then?
You can’t have it both ways since Cohen’s stories are 180 degrees apart. He either lied then or he’s lying now.
Where do you stand?
Or is it frankly it doesn’t matter since you support Trump regardless of everything.
Got it.
Sounds like special counsel and SDNY have evidence. The Stormy pay off at a minimum. Self dealing through charity is dead to rights. They already had to shut down the Trump Scams Foundation. Also well researched is their Tax dodge scheme to get Fred Trump’s $$$.
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Playbook: First of all, its amazing to see members on both sides of the aisle repeatedly go down rabbit holes that elicit no new information.
Second point: Republicans mostly focused on tarnishing Cohen, highlighting that he had lied in his life, and to others to benefit himself. They didnt really focus on defending Trump in any material way.
Third point: Cohen said Don Jr., Ivanka and Eric know everything about the Trump Organization. Is there any way Chairman Elijah Cummings (D-MD) wont call them to testify soon?
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Dont have to believe Cohen alone.
He has now made detailed allegations about many people in Trumps inner circle… under oath
So now its time to bring in all those people and ask them about it…. under oath
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Quote of the day:
“Our colleagues aren’t upset because you lied to Congress for the president. They’re upset because you’ve stopped lying to Congress for the president.” ~ Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-MD
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“Are you aware of any other issues that we are not aware of with regard by illegal acts by Donald Trump?”
“Yes. And the Southern District of New York are aware of them.”
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Chris Christie: The words that he said today that would send a chill up my spine at the White House would be, I am in constant contact with the southern district.’
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Cohen just fingered Don jr
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My favorite
Trump paid Cohen too find a bidder to pay for a painting of himself at an auction making sure it would be the highest price item of the day
Trump then used funds from his charitable trust to pay the 60,000
What a piece of sheet
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Yet… no one investigated further the “Racist” comment Cohen stated. And no one asked Cohen… “If you saw and heard Trumps Racists comments over the past 10 years, then why did you continue to work for him?” Greeeeed Moneyyyyyy his own interests. That’s why. He got pinched, 70 years down to 3, book deal coming, TV show coming. I don’t care who you are in my vocation, state a degrading remark about a peoples religion, Race, physical ability or related to their Sex and . I’m gone and you’re reported to HR STAT.
So… what will be get from this? Nothing. It’s a bag of crap at your door step marked UPS.
What a waist of time.
Like lawyers in general that work within our government. Mumbo Jumbo-
You just discovered Cohen is a sleaze who was interested in money-making opportunities with Trump??? Ergo, as less than a model citizen he should not be believed.
First, as you may not realize, Trump has always surrounded himself with people of low moral character and associated with the same.
Second, if only people of proven high moral character were the only ones to testify, the prisons would be a lot more empty. And, for example, El Chapo would be a free man for lack of evidence and testimony.
Third, Cohen made 2 testimonies saying opposite things. Which do you believe. He is a liar now because he lied in the 1st testimony where he said Trump was 101% innocent. The testimony which landed him in jail for lying. Or is he lying now which makes him telling the truth about Trump’s innocence which means he is an innocent man entrapped by the prosecution to give false testimony which means Republicans should see him as a friend.
I think we should hear everyone’s testimony in front of Congress about all these matters. Including members, past and present members of Congress. Swear them all in. That would solve a lot as to who is lying.-
So if he was caught lying to Congress the first time, that would imply he’s now telling the truth. He did a 180. Also things have been verified already. The self dealing stuff including the painting for example. All reported already. They shutdown his scam foundation.
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Basically the trumpers will follow their leader regardless of what he does
They will deny his faults or somehow claim the faults and lies and bull sheet really isnt a big deal
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If he lied today he would get more years in prison. Mueller already knows what is a lie and what is truth.
Put those two things together and you have a witness highly motivated to speak truthfully today. (The exact opposite of his incentives the first time around)
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Quote from kpack123
My favorite
Trump paid Cohen too find a bidder to pay for a painting of himself at an auction making sure it would be the highest price item of the day
Trump then used funds from his charitable trust to pay the 60,000
What a piece of sheet
“You walked into the party
like you were walking onto a yacht
your hat strategically dipped below one eye…”-
your hat strategically dipped below one eye..
I never knew that lyric until until right now….. thanks!
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