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Cohen Guilty, Admits Violations, Blames Trump
delta1 Offline
#1 Posted:
Joined: 11-23-2011
Posts: 28,754
If Cohen pleads guilty to a bunch of crimes, and says he did it because Trump told him to do it, does that mean Trump is in legal/criminal jeopardy?
HuckFinn Offline
#2 Posted:
Joined: 07-10-2017
Posts: 2,044
Obama
delta1 Offline
#3 Posted:
Joined: 11-23-2011
Posts: 28,754
or Crooked Hillary...or Lyin Ted...
Mr. Jones Offline
#4 Posted:
Joined: 06-12-2005
Posts: 19,359
I'm still waiting ...

For my call from MR. TRUMP AND MR. PENCE...

YOUR ONLY WAY OUT NOW...

IS A 1970'S FULL BORE INTELLIGENCE AND FEDERAL LAW
ENFORCEMENT PRACTICES CONGRESSIONAL HEARING...

INDICT MUELLER AND COMEY ON FIRST DEGREE MURDER WHILE OVERSEEING THE FBI-SSG DIVISIONS GANGSTALKING PROGRAM.

HEY TRUMP AND PENCE...

"I'M YOUR O.N.L.Y. HUCKLEBERRY NOW"

YOUR
GANGSTALKING POSTERBOY

SIGNED,
THE INNOCENT SAINT
😇😇😇
delta1 Offline
#5 Posted:
Joined: 11-23-2011
Posts: 28,754
Wonder who will investigate Trump's involvement in Cohen's crime? SDNY ? or Mueller?
Phil222 Offline
#6 Posted:
Joined: 10-01-2017
Posts: 1,911
Trump is the victim here. He has clearly been conned by a bunch of criminal masterminds. He will need our support more than ever. MAGA
delta1 Offline
#7 Posted:
Joined: 11-23-2011
Posts: 28,754
I was reminiscing a week or so ago about some famous movie lines...and I thought of James Cagney's "you dirty yellow bellied RAT"...coincidentally, a few days ago, Trump used that word to describe Cohen...
frankj1 Offline
#8 Posted:
Joined: 02-08-2007
Posts: 44,211
delta1 wrote:
I was reminiscing a week or so ago about some famous movie lines...and I thought of James Cagney's "you dirty yellow bellied RAT"...coincidentally, a few days ago, Trump used that word to describe Cohen...

I thought it was a different attorney who has been cooperating for months...but "not a rat like John Dean".

I miss Nixon...HA!
delta1 Offline
#9 Posted:
Joined: 11-23-2011
Posts: 28,754
that's right, it was the WH attorney, McGahn, who reportedly sang to Mueller's folks for more than 30 hours...

I've gotta make up a score-card to keep track of all the people in Trump's orbit who have been found guilty of some crime, fired, resigned under pressure, insulted Trump, or was insulted by their boss...

the first movie about this Presidency will prolly be titled "All the Best Men"...
DrMaddVibe Offline
#10 Posted:
Joined: 10-21-2000
Posts: 55,309
If???

If a frog had wings it wouldn't bump its ass when it hopped.
DrafterX Offline
#11 Posted:
Joined: 10-18-2005
Posts: 98,508
I believe they still have to prove it was campaign money that paid off da Ho.. it woulda been a pretty silly thing to do.. Mellow
dstieger Offline
#12 Posted:
Joined: 06-22-2007
Posts: 10,889
I wasn't paying close attention, but didn't Cohen state that the money was paid at Trump's direction....to avoid publicity that would negatively affect Trump's chances of being elected?
If so, I'd bet that most prosecutors would call that a campaign finance problem
frankj1 Offline
#13 Posted:
Joined: 02-08-2007
Posts: 44,211
dstieger wrote:
I wasn't paying close attention, but didn't Cohen state that the money was paid at Trump's direction....to avoid publicity that would negatively affect Trump's chances of being elected?
If so, I'd bet that most prosecutors would call that a campaign finance problem

this may eventually lead to that...plus Cohen's long history of being involved with Russian thugs in the whole taxi medallion mess...which is when he caught Trump's attention.

There is no glee in my voice, if anyone is wondering. This all makes me quite concerned.
teedubbya Offline
#14 Posted:
Joined: 08-14-2003
Posts: 95,637
frankj1 wrote:
this may eventually lead to that...plus Cohen's long history of being involved with Russian thugs in the whole taxi medallion mess...which is when he caught Trump's attention.

There is no glee in my voice, if anyone is wondering. This all makes me quite concerned.



Me too frank. I really would like this to all go away if indeed there was no wrong doing. I don't want it to go away if there is wrong doing. I was just hoping for no wrong doing but that is looking less and less likely.
rfenst Offline
#15 Posted:
Joined: 06-23-2007
Posts: 39,112
What makes me curious is whether Stormy and her lawyer will be charged too? They were after all the "other parties" to the illegal hush-money payment. Hope Stormy's lawyer gets roasted.
DrafterX Offline
#16 Posted:
Joined: 10-18-2005
Posts: 98,508
If only Trump was Democrat... Sad
teedubbya Offline
#17 Posted:
Joined: 08-14-2003
Posts: 95,637
DrafterX wrote:
If only Trump was Democrat... Sad



Maybe for you, but party really doesn't enter in to this for me. You keep trying to turn it in to that but at some point its odd to believe so strongly about someone not being charged or found guilty when you think they are, while at the same time believing folks pleading guilty or being found so in court are not guilty at all.

Besides... Trump is a RINO.
teedubbya Offline
#18 Posted:
Joined: 08-14-2003
Posts: 95,637
rfenst wrote:
What makes me curious is whether Stormy and her lawyer will be charged too? They were after all the "other parties" to the illegal hush-money payment. Hope Stormy's lawyer gets roasted.



If they knew the identity of the money source I hope so too.
DrafterX Offline
#19 Posted:
Joined: 10-18-2005
Posts: 98,508
Just poking the bear a little bit... Don't take me so serious ... Not talking
teedubbya Offline
#20 Posted:
Joined: 08-14-2003
Posts: 95,637
DrafterX wrote:
Just poking the bear a little bit... Don't take me so serious ... Not talking



NEVER LOL
Buckwheat Offline
#21 Posted:
Joined: 04-15-2004
Posts: 12,251
Phil222 wrote:
Trump is the victim here. He has clearly been conned by a bunch of criminal masterminds. He will need our support more than ever. MAGA



Send him your thoughts and prayers.
delta1 Offline
#22 Posted:
Joined: 11-23-2011
Posts: 28,754
I am not surprised by the predicament that Trump finds himself. And I am glad that our country may soon be rid of this preposterous President. He proved himself unfit for office during the campaign...even party stalwarts held their noses and turned a blind eye to all his shortcomings and voted for him, hoping that he would "become Presidential" when/if he was elected. Nothing he has done since the inauguration has shown that he has matured into something resembling Presidential.

He is still a vainglorious and pompous bully and took office like the "pilot" who skipped looking at the manuals and the training before jumping into the pilot's seat, thinking he had the requisite experience and knowledge to do the job better than anybody in history...

His will be a uniquely historical Presidency.
DrafterX Offline
#23 Posted:
Joined: 10-18-2005
Posts: 98,508
Ya, but the economy is doing great... Hillary woulda killed it... Mellow
HuckFinn Offline
#24 Posted:
Joined: 07-10-2017
Posts: 2,044
I feel like we're playing soccer without the ball. Where the hell is TG?
delta1 Offline
#25 Posted:
Joined: 11-23-2011
Posts: 28,754
DrafterX wrote:
Ya, but the economy is doing great... Hillary woulda killed it... Mellow


I half agree with you...the economy is going great...as it was when Bill was in charge. Did that matter then?
DrafterX Offline
#26 Posted:
Joined: 10-18-2005
Posts: 98,508
Bill stayed in office... Does Trump just need Sharpton to pray with him to win you over..?? Huh
Phil222 Offline
#27 Posted:
Joined: 10-01-2017
Posts: 1,911
Buckwheat wrote:
Send him your thoughts and prayers.


Ha! Cool
HuckFinn Offline
#28 Posted:
Joined: 07-10-2017
Posts: 2,044
DrafterX wrote:
Bill stayed in office... Does Trump just need Sharpton to pray with him to win you over..?? Huh

I hear Jesse Jackson is a close friend
cacman Offline
#29 Posted:
Joined: 07-03-2010
Posts: 12,216
If Trump told Cohen to jump off a bridge, would he?
frankj1 Offline
#30 Posted:
Joined: 02-08-2007
Posts: 44,211
a few months ago, yes.
delta1 Offline
#31 Posted:
Joined: 11-23-2011
Posts: 28,754
he would've volunteered to be the person who Trump shot on 5th Ave...
teedubbya Offline
#32 Posted:
Joined: 08-14-2003
Posts: 95,637
I’m pretty sure he didn’t pay anyone off for trumps benefit he did it for himself because he..

I got nothin.
cacman Offline
#33 Posted:
Joined: 07-03-2010
Posts: 12,216
If I suggest that you break the law (say rob a bank), why would it be my responsibility if you did? You have a brain. You know it's wrong.

Maybe Cohen doesn't have a brain. Guess he'll end up being someone's b*tch in jail.
HuckFinn Offline
#34 Posted:
Joined: 07-10-2017
Posts: 2,044
cacman wrote:
If I suggest that you break the law (say rob a bank), why would it be my responsibility if you did? You have a brain. You know it's wrong.

Maybe Cohen doesn't have a brain. Guess he'll end up being someone's b*tch in jail.


Yeah, but if I rob a bank and you're the mastermind, aren't you just as guilty? Or even guiltier?
Speyside Offline
#35 Posted:
Joined: 03-16-2015
Posts: 13,106
LMAO! Huck, your thought makes perfect sense, but Trump and mastermind is such a paradox. Thanks for the chuckle.
HuckFinn Offline
#36 Posted:
Joined: 07-10-2017
Posts: 2,044
Speyside wrote:
LMAO! Huck, your thought makes perfect sense, but Trump and mastermind is such a paradox. Thanks for the chuckle.

Hmm...how did I miss that!?? Ha!
DrafterX Offline
#37 Posted:
Joined: 10-18-2005
Posts: 98,508
What would suck is if he was paying them off to keep quiet because he couldn't get it up... Laugh
delta1 Offline
#38 Posted:
Joined: 11-23-2011
Posts: 28,754
DrafterX wrote:
They would have to suck really hard if he was paying them off to keep quiet because he couldn't get it up... Laugh



fixed
Krazeehorse Offline
#39 Posted:
Joined: 04-09-2010
Posts: 1,958
Mark Penn is a Democrat, not a Republican. He is a pollster at Harvard. He was a pollster for Hillary. He has deep ties to the Clintons in the nineties. He’s always been perceived as a loyal Democrat. He runs a polling unit at Harvard now that is fairly reputed, very highly reputed and considered to be accurate. I heard this article referenced today on Rush Limbaugh’s show, he was quoting from it, so I went directly to the source. NB
thehill-logo-big
Cohen's plea deal is prosecutor's attempt to set up Trump
By Mark Penn, opinion contributor — 08/22/18

Here we go, from Russia with love to campaign finance with love.

Why was Michael Cohen investigated? Because the “Steele dossier” had him making secret trips to meet with Russians that never happened, so his business dealings got a thorough scrubbing and, in the process, he fell into the special counsel’s Manafort bin — the bin reserved for squeezing until the juice comes out. And now we are back to 1998 all over again, with presidents and presidential candidates covering up their alleged marital misdeeds and prosecutors trying to turn legal acts into illegal ones by inventing new crimes.

The plot to get President Trump out of office thickens, as Cohen obviously was his own mini-crime syndicate and decided that his betrayals of Trump meant he would be better served turning on his old boss to cut the best deal with prosecutors he could rather than holding out and getting the full Manafort treatment. That was clear the minute he hired attorney Lanny Davis, who doesn’t try cases and did past work for Hillary Clinton. Cohen had recorded his client, trying to entrap him, sold information about Trump (while acting as his lawyer) to corporations for millions of dollars, and didn’t pay taxes on millions.

The sweetener for the prosecutors, of course, was getting Cohen to plead guilty to campaign finance violations that were not campaign finance violations. Money paid to people who come out of the woodwork and shake down people under threat of revealing bad sexual stories are not legitimate campaign expenditures. They are personal expenditures. That is true for both candidates we like and candidates we don’t. Just imagine if candidates used campaign funds instead of their own money to pay folks like Stormy Daniels to keep quiet about affairs; they would get indicted for misuse of campaign funds for personal purposes and for tax evasion.
There appear to be two payments involved in this unusual plea — Cohen pleaded guilty to a campaign finance violation for having “coordinated” the American Media Inc. payment to Karen McDougal for her story, not for actually making the payment. So he is pleading guilty over a corporate contribution he did not make.

Think about this for a minute: Suppose ABC had paid Stormy Daniels for her story in coordination with Michael Avenatti or maybe even the Democratic National Committee’s law firm on the eve of the election; by this reasoning, if the purpose of this money paid, just before the election, would be to hurt Trump and help Clinton win, this payment would be a corporate political contribution. If using it not to get Trump would be a corporate contribution, then using it to get Trump also has to be a corporate contribution. That’s why neither are corporate contributions and this is a bogus approach to federal election law. (Note that none of the donors in the 2012 John Edwards case faced any legal issues and the Federal Election Commission [FEC] ruled their payments were not campaign contributions that had to be reported — facts that prosecutors tried to suppress at trial.)

Now, when it comes to Stormy Daniels, Cohen made a payment a few days before the election that Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani says was reimbursed. First, given that this payment was on Oct. 27, it would never have been reported before the election campaign and so, for all intents and purposes, was immaterial as it relates to any effect on the campaign. What’s clear in this plea deal is that, in exchange for overall leniency on his massive tax evasion, Cohen is pleading guilty to these other charges as an attempt to give prosecutors what they want — a Trump connection.

The usual procedures here would be for the FEC to investigate complaints and sort through these murky laws to determine if these kinds of payments are personal in nature or more properly classified as campaign expenditures. And, on the Daniels payment that was made and reimbursed by Trump, it is again a question of whether that was made for personal reasons (especially since they have been trying since 2011 to obtain agreement). Just because it would be helpful to the campaign does not convert it to a campaign expenditure. Think of a candidate with bad teeth who had dental work done to look better for the campaign; his campaign still could not pay for it because it’s a personal expenditure.

Contrast what is going on here with the treatment of the millions of dollars paid to a Democratic law firm which, in turn, paid out money to political research firm Fusion GPS and British ex-spy Christopher Steele without listing them on any campaign expenditure form — despite crystal-clear laws and regulations that the ultimate beneficiaries of the funds must be listed. This rule was even tightened recently. There is no question that hiring spies to do opposition research in Russia is a campaign expenditure, and yet, no prosecutorial raids have been sprung on the law firm, Fusion GPS or Steele. Reason: It does not “get” Trump.

So, Trump spends $130,000 to keep the lid on a personal story and the full weight of state prosecutors comes down on his lawyer, tossing attorney–client privilege to the wind. Democrats spend potentially millions on secret opposition research and no serious criminal investigation occurs.

Remember that the feds tried a similar strategy against Democrat John Edwards in the 2012 case and it failed. As Gregory Craig, a lawyer who worked both for President Clinton and Edwards, said: “The government’s theory is wrong on the facts and wrong on the law. It is novel and untested. There is no civil or criminal precedent for such a prosecution.” Hey, tried it there anyway and it failed.

And let’s not forget that Clinton was entrapped into lying about his affairs and, although impeached, was acquitted by the Senate. The lesson was clear: We are not going to remove presidents for lying about who they had affairs with, nor even convict politicians on campaign finance violations for these personal payments.

With Cohen pleading guilty, there will be no test of soundness of the prosecution theories here, and it is yet another example of the double standards of justice of one investigation that gave Clinton aides and principals every benefit of the doubt and another investigation that targeted Trump people until they found unrelated crimes to use as leverage. Prosecutors thought nothing of using the Logan Act against former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn and, now, obscure and unsettled elements of campaign finance law against Trump lawyer Cohen to manufacture crimes in what is a naked attempt to take Trump down and defeat democracy.

Donald Trump should do a better job of picking aides who pay their taxes — but he’s not responsible for their financial problems and crimes. These investigations, essentially based on an opposition-funded dossier, were never anything other than an attempt to push into a corner as many Trump aides and family members as possible and shake them down until they could get close enough to Trump to try to take him down. That’s why so many of his aides, lawyers and actions in the campaign and in the White House have undergone hour-by-hour scrutiny to find anything that could be colored into a crime, leaving far behind the original Russia-collusion theory as the fake pretext it was. Paying for nondisclosure agreements for perfectly legal activities is not a crime, not a campaign contribution as commonly understood or ruled upon by the FEC — and squeezing guilty pleas out of vulnerable witnesses does not change those facts.

Mark Penn is a managing partner of the Stagwell Group, a private equity firm specializing in marketing services companies, as well as chairman of the Harris Poll and author of “Microtrends Squared.” He served as pollster and adviser to President Clinton from 1995 to 2000, including during Clinton’s impeachment.

http://thehill.com/opinion/white-house/402959-cohens-plea-deal-is-prosecutors-attempt-to-set-up-trump
frankj1 Offline
#40 Posted:
Joined: 02-08-2007
Posts: 44,211
cliff notes, please
HuckFinn Offline
#41 Posted:
Joined: 07-10-2017
Posts: 2,044
DrafterX wrote:
What would suck is if he was paying them off to keep quiet because he couldn't get it up... Laugh

That would be funny! Laugh
HuckFinn Offline
#42 Posted:
Joined: 07-10-2017
Posts: 2,044
Krazeehorse, I'm gonna read that right after I finish Crime and Punishment.
frankj1 Offline
#43 Posted:
Joined: 02-08-2007
Posts: 44,211
yeah! just tell us what the Dem said that was nice about the insanity...though I'm not feeling a trend in the making.
frankj1 Offline
#44 Posted:
Joined: 02-08-2007
Posts: 44,211
HuckFinn wrote:
Krazeehorse, I'm gonna read that right after I finish Crime and Punishment.

you already read that.
HuckFinn Offline
#45 Posted:
Joined: 07-10-2017
Posts: 2,044
frankj1 wrote:
you already read that.

In the middle of it. Dark stuff..
frankj1 Offline
#46 Posted:
Joined: 02-08-2007
Posts: 44,211
go to the light...
DrMaddVibe Offline
#47 Posted:
Joined: 10-21-2000
Posts: 55,309
frankj1 wrote:
cliff notes, please



Cohen will most likely face more charges for lying to the Feds.

Libs will lose their $hit because they want to impeach Trump. There's nothing here that would do that.
Buckwheat Offline
#48 Posted:
Joined: 04-15-2004
Posts: 12,251
DrMaddVibe wrote:
Cohen will most likely face more charges for lying to the Feds.

Libs will lose their $hit because they want to impeach Trump. There's nothing here that would do that.


That's not what Lindsey Graham thinks. At least when it comes to the "other party". horse
https://nowthisnews.com/videos/politics/lindsey-graham-makes-the-case-for-impeaching-donald-trump-in-1999
delta1 Offline
#49 Posted:
Joined: 11-23-2011
Posts: 28,754
Even Trump mused about the possibility of his own impeachment yesterday, on Fox News of all places..."the market would crash...everybody will be so poor ...without "my" thinking you'd see numbers you wouldn't believe in reverse..."

Consciousness of guilt? Does an innocent man ever imagine himself paying for crimes he didn't commit?

and the SDNY is continuing its Cohen investigation, looking into Trump's organization about campaign contribution violations, granting immunity to the CEO (the "Alan" whom Trump and Cohen spoke about on an audio tape about the hush money payment) ...

The investigation into the Trump Foundation and the members of Trump's family who ran it, is on-going...stuff about fraud, mis-use of millions of dollars of donations, alleging "a pattern of persistent illegal conduct, occurring over more than a decade, that includes extensive unlawful political coordination with the Trump presidential campaign, repeated and willful self-dealing transactions to benefit Mr. Trump’s personal and business interests, and violations of basic legal obligations for non-profit foundations," NYAG
DrafterX Offline
#50 Posted:
Joined: 10-18-2005
Posts: 98,508
How can he not think about impeachment.. it's all half the left Congress has talked about since day one... Mellow
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