Posted on 08/22/2018 9:48:25 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Lanny needs to be disbarred for the way he’s playing his own agenda here.
“Didn’t the FEC already say that the money doesn’t count as campaign contributions?”
Yes. And facts these facts don’t matter. I am not an expert, but it looks like they want to get the President to make a comment that doesn’t fit their narrative so that they can bring down an obstruction of justice charge. That *has* to be their end game.
I’ve seen people claim that Trump Jr and Roger Stone are next. Roger Stone will be able to handle himself ... however, I can’t see them bringing in Trump Jr ... there is a high risk that people will see that as an intimidation tactic.
Finally, I think we are going to see a retaliation tactic from the Trump side very soon ... this is certainly the time you’re going to start firing salvos for the campaign season. My guess is right after Labor Day.
Good question.
“Lanny needs to be disbarred for the way he’s playing his own agenda here.”
Lanny might have nothing to lose at this point being involved with the Clintons for as long as he has ... just some food for thought :-) (that’s just speculation of course)
Nothing happened here.
Nothing.
Cohen plead to things that weren’t crimes at the behest of Lanny Davis (of all lawyers). Cohen is a lawyer, which means he knows what he’s doing.
Manafort and Cohen are plants. Period.
And they got nothing. If they had, I can assure you the details would have been broken down so that a 9 year old Helen Keller would have comprehended it.
It would have been done in Lego, and Barney, and Callou so that even toddlers would understand.
Whether Trump paid for sex or not, I don’t care. I actually understand it. Has Trump done anything to undermine the United States in any way, shape, or fashion.
According to the press, no. By their own admission, no.
Desperation. This is what cornered animals act like in the end.
The payments are offset by the fact that Trump himself spent millions of his own money; how does one know which pot of money it came from, and does it matter if not illegal to begin with as one former FCC chair has stated.
Yep, and it’s why she and her husband should have been targeted for prosecution decades ago.
Just my opinion only, but Lanny would be behind bars if everything were known.
Imagine the political balance in the U. S. if every person Hillary had committed crimes with, had been prosecuted.
Makes me want to campaign for Trump even more than in 2016!
We have a winner!!!!!!
You’re all over threads posting this wacky crap.
FEC regulations specifically state that if there are other legitimate reasons for a payout then considering it a campaign contribution can be ignored.
It may come at a political cost, but there is no legal jeopardy. The feds tried it with John Edwards and it failed, if they try it with the president it will fail too.
Trump did not violate any law pertaining to Michael Cohen ... Cohen made the payment to Stormy Daniels ‘because’ she was ‘Black Mailing’ Trump.... The payment was made by Cohen. Then after receiving the black mail $$ she demanded more!
Somebody please tell me what paying ‘hush’ money to women has to do with campaign contributions.
I don’t know why Cohen chose Lanny Davis. It would seem if not a legal conflict at least a personal and emotional one. But, it appears as if Cohen has done some dirt so they got him one way or another. Of course, had Trump lost or never ran for office we would never even know who Cohen was and he probably would never have been caught for any of the stuff they have on him now.
There is still a problem with lawyer-client privilege. For all intents and purposes the only way to break the privilege here is if Cohen committed a crime with his client, or knew about a crime in advance. Unless they went hand in hand into some criminal endeavor, anything Trump told Cohen after the fact should be privileged. So even if Trump literally hacked a server by himself and paid Putin for dirt and stuffed the WI ballot box with phony ballots all of it would be privileged. I imagine Trump’s new lawyers would be able to quash such testimony.
The thing is, this isn’t going to go to court of law it is going to court of public opinion and, maybe, to Congress. I don’t know how privilege would work in the case of Congressional testimony - but if they tried to put Cohen on the stand to rat Trump out I would be the judge would not allow it.
FYI IANAL
“What if they weren’t lovers and her accusations are false?”
Then why pay the hush money?
Famous men get extorted and sued all the time. Ya just don’t pay unless the accuser has some sort of leverage, corroboration, photos, etc.
Besides, it’s perfectly legal to pay hush money to whomever for whatever.
The core issue that seems to be getting ignored is that when you are a candidate for national office, hush money has to be declared as a campaign expense and reimbursement declared a contribution.
It is never going to go to court. This is all political theater. So they can say whatever they want. Cohen appears to have committed some crimes of his own, unrelated to Trump, and due to his proximity to Trump the machine ground him up. He was guilty of some things, and that is all they needed to make political hay.
Paying hush money is not a crime at all. It has nothing to do with campaign contributions. They are simply trying to influence public perception with this story “Trump was a candidate for POTUS, this story would cause him political damage, so Trump asked the lawyer paid the woman to keep quiet, and that is a campaign contribution because they did it for political reasons”.
But this logic leaves out a lot of facts. I think (but cannot verify all these assertions): Cohen paid from his client’s retainer fund. Trump reimbursed Cohen with personal, not campaign funds. The logic that this was done to influence the election is a presumption unless proven, most everyone thought Trump was going to lose the election anyway and Trump has a business brand to protect that has nothing to do with politics, so the hush money could just as well have been to protect his name and his brand. And, how many times has Trump paid women to be quiet? I bet this is not the first and that suggests that it is something routine he would have done in any case - I imagine all kinds of billionaire’s get blackmailed, especially the more flamboyant and playboy types.
So this is all about politics, not law, imo.
Well here’s some “wacky crap” questions:
What would those “legitimate reasons” be for giving Stormy Daniels the money?
And not declaring the reimbursement a campaign doantion?
Agreed.
The legal trouble started when candidate Trump repaid Cohen and no one reported the money as a campaign donation.
If it was blackmail, dial 911........
That may be true. I don't know and IANAL. Question though - the affair was alleged to have happened in 2006. And it was not exactly a secret. The allegations of the affair were already published in 2011 by Life & Style magazine.
So how do you pay hush money for something that is already in the public domain? That is why they structured the deal to "buy her story rights" so they she would not talk about it any further. But it seems to me that it cannot be "hush money" when it is already printed in the news.
Blackmail..... money from (a person) in return for not revealing compromising or injurious information about that person.......... extortion or coercion by threats especially of public exposure or criminal prosecution.
Anyone remember the Trump University Lawsuit?
They were trying to use that against Candidate Trump and he said he wasn’t going to Settle because it was ridiculous. The same People Suing him had signed Letters after they took the Courses saying how wonderful it was, not that it mattered to then and their Lawyers looking for a Payday.
After a while, Candidate Trump decided to Settle it because the Democrats and their Media Allies were pushing the false narrative and causing a distraction.
Now I ask, what is the difference between that and what the Cohen Plea tries to insinuate? Trump or his Privately owned Company paid out Money to get rid of a distraction. It wasn’t “Campaign” Money, it was Private Citizen Trump’s Money.
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