I’m guessing it’s moreover Cohen making more stuff up, but just curious if anybody has the proceedings in abbreviated form.
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I’m guessing it’s moreover Cohen making more stuff up, but just curious if anybody has the proceedings in abbreviated form.
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Lots of attacks on Trump's character, no actual evidence of any crimes or collusion. Cohen claims Trump's payment to him was for Stormy and was a campaign finance violation, and I'm sure it was for hush money for her, but it's from Trump's personal bank account per Cohen's own statement and copy of the check.
Well if it was paid by Trump personally, that's the opposite of a campaign finance violation. it's only a violation if campaign funds were used. So Cohen just cleared Trump of wrongdoing in the Stormy Daniels case. It's not illegal to pay her to shut up about the affair. Unseemly, but no more unseemly than the affair itself IMO, and no one voted for Trump b/c he was going to be made Pope.
I loved one question that was "is it a possibility the entire Trump family has been compromised by a foreign power?". Cohen said "yes". Well yes it's possible. it's possible he's an alien on a reconnaissance mission for a planned invasion too, but it's not exactly likely. That was after he said he had no proof of collusion.
So Trump's "fixer", a guy close to him for years, apparently has no actual proof of collusion, and as of today's testimony nothing but accusations of any other crimes, and this was the big day.
He claimed Trump puffed up asset values for insurance, was engaged in other shady business deals etc. Seriously, is anyone alive surprised a New York real estate developer cuts corners on that stuff? Is anyone surprised that EVERYONE in the country cuts some corners on that stuff?
New York is dead set on getting him, and they're pouring through every return and business, but doesn't seem like Cohen added any actual evidence of anything in the testimony. I'm sure Trump has done shady things in business. I'm even more sure the Clintons and most every Congressman on the Hill and every New York major and every state Governor and everyone down to city dogcatcher has done some shady things. Has Trump done anything more shady than accepting tens of millions from foreign governments like the Clintons? Or sent billions in cash to Iranian terrorists like Obama? Nope, not so as his enemies can prove in 2+ years of trying.
Puffing your insurance values or whatever isn't exactly skin off the People's nose in any meaningful way, so I really don't care.
IMO not much here other than lots of accusations that Trump is racist, is a conman, is a bad guy. All from a guy convicted of lying in about every way you can be convicted of lying, from Congressional testimony to bank fraud. I guess Bernie Madoff wasn't available for the Finance Committee hearings on SEC oversight.
I'll be honest I'm not sure from today that Cohen isn't in fact still working for Trump. Seriously. He threw a ton of mud the Democrats ate up, but he kinda cleared Trump on the Daniels thing legally, he said he had no evidence of collusion, and he produced no other actual evidence of anything that is an actual crime.
I doubt that's the case, but you have to wonder. Is he the ultimate deep cover bait for Trump's enemies? They eat up the dirty laundry but by giving them that does he get indemnified for anything serious enough to actually matter in 2020?
He said he thought Stone talked to Assange, and Trump knew it happened. OK, but that's not illegal either. The DNC spent millions with Fusion GPS to get dirt on Trump, including a lot of contact with Russians to get it. It's not illegal for Trump himself to call up Assange and ask if they have dirt on Hillary. Tacky, but pretty much politics as usual from what we've seen exposed the past 2 years.
As Dershowitz, arguably America's leading defense legal mind and civil rights mind, keeps pointing out, none of this is actually a crime. Meeting with a Russian lawyer promising dirt on Hillary? That's exactly what the DNC and Hillary campaign PAID FOR with Steele and Fusion GPS. So that's OK, but if Trump does it it's treason? That's legal nonsense.
So again, we have lots of smear, no actual wrongdoing. Makes me wonder if Cohen is really hurting TRump or helping him.
Thanks for the recap, I keep waiting to hear an actual law has been broken by Trump either in his campaign or presidency. In my mind it’s still all a smoke screen to keep the focus from shifting to where it belongs... the DNC, and the Clinton Foundation.
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Couldn't agree more.
I'm under no illusions. I'm sure if you give any billionaire a tax/business practice rectal exam you'll find violations and outright white collar criminal behavior. Of course I doubt anyone anywhere has been 100% within the law all their lives, and guys running massive companies doing business in dozens of corrupt countries would never make it without cutting corners.
BUT, that's a long way from Russian collusion, and a long way from breaking laws serious enough to disqualify him for the Presidency. Clinton committed perjury in a federal investigation. The GOP Foolishly impeached him for it, and he was acquitted. I imagine the Democrats will do the same, and it will end just as foolishly.
Alan Dershowitz is a defense guy first, but he's also a died in the wool Democrat and the lest hypocritical man you'll find. He's pointed out tirelessly even what Trump is accused of doing isn't a crime and thus DOJ is violating its own rules to investigate. Even collusion isn't a crime in and of itself, but certainly Trump paying Stormy Daniels (using his own money) isn't a violation of anything.
The only active politicians we know took large sums of cash from Putin, and also made decisions in his favor while in office, are the Clintons. Interesting they funded the Trump Russian dossier, they were the first to claim Russian collusion, etc. Interesting her campaign chairman's brother is a registered agent of a Russian bank, etc.
Nice piece by Tucker Carlson showing how Cohen in fact all but undid the Russian collusion narrative, at least the parts that have been claimed the last 2 years.
https://video.foxnews.com/v/60086581...#sp=show-clips
he refuted he's been to Prague, which was a big part of the connection. Refuted any tapes of Trump with hookers or otherwise. Refuted any actual knowledge of any collusion, though he claimed to have "suspicions".
Of course Tucker does a great job pointing out how full of crap Cohen is, with proof coming out today he was shopping a book deal that was pro Trump all the way at a point when he now claims he was at that time totally disenchanted with Trump and had turned to the other side.
Think about this. The Dems now control the House. They can put anyone they want up there on the stand and all they have is Cohen apparently. They can produce now any evidence ANY of them have amassed the last 2 plus years.
The Democrats have claimed to have evidence for years. OK, produce it. You can't be suppressed by the GOP now, so let's see it. What? All you have is Cohen, who just denied everything key to proving the case? Huh.
The endless rectal exam may find some business practice or other they can go after, but this collusion narrative is the biggest political hoax ever played on the American public. Trump isn't a Russian agent. I'm sure his campaign was happy to try to get dirt on Hillary from Russia or anywhere, just as the DNC and Hillary paid millions to get Russian dirt on Trump, but that's not collusion.
And I'm still not sure Cohen isn't in fact working for Trump. He denied being told to lie to Congress. he denied any connection to anything that would prove collusion. Denied he even heard anything about collusion. Said the money for Stormy Daniels was from Trump's personal account.
Think about it. Sure he smeared Trump up and down, but in his actual key statements he just denied anything that could be a real legal problem for the President. Is Cohen Trump's Lou Gabrazi, sent to the other side as the ultimate high profile bait the Democrats just can't refuse to accept but who in the end undermines their whole case?
Could Trump be that clever? I think very few people play chess that many moves ahead in the real world, but it sure is interesting to consider.
But if Cohen is just turned to save his hide with Mueller, you'd think he'd lie to help the Dems more, and in the end he's actually hurt their case and all but dismissed collusion as anything other than a scam.
Yep, after a full day of testimony from Cohen which was orchestrated to destroy Trump’s presidency. Oh, lest we forget, now they are having a triple secret closed door hearing just to drag this dead horse around a little bit longer.
So after all that, today, the narrative has switched from Cohen roll’n on Trump, to Trump pulled strings to get his son in law security clearance...
More nanny-nanny boo-boo politics.
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Good way of putting it.Quote:
Originally Posted by blueboss
It's political theater. It's all just theater for the masses. Meanwhile nothing useful gets done.
It’s interesting that if he is to be believed (which is a stretch) he just sunk Mueller’s battleship so to speak and shows the waste of millions upon millions of dollars in its pursuit.
Almost enough to pay for "the wall" but not nearly enough to fund "the Green New Deal"Quote:
Originally Posted by Catonahottinroof
So Cohen has already been caught in a clear lie from his testimony last week.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/coh...ny-to-congress
Said last week he didn't seek and wouldn't accept a pardon. Even his current attorney, Clinton fixer Lanny Davis, admitted that Cohen did direct his attorney at the time to ask Trump about a pardon.
Guy is about as honest as Rick Pitino. If his mouth is moving he's lying.
Hasn't three stacks suffered and lost enough? Comparing him to Cohen...have you no heart?
However, why Trump associated with this fool for so long is what I find interesting. No offense to the lawyers here (which means this is offensive) but a lawyer with zero ethics is likely highly advantageous in NY and in the real estate business.
I have no illusions about Trump. he's a New York real estate developer. that's a shady business on a good day, and then he's doing these international projects where graft and corruption are simply the nature of doing business.Quote:
Originally Posted by Doc
Outside the US and some of the developed West it's just a given that public officials get those jobs so they can get paid on the side. It's like how waitresses here expect a tip and it's factored into their overall income and is why they take the job. it's how things work outside of our clean little world with the rule of law.
So Trump and his companies have I'm sure done all kinds of "fixing", as has any company doing business in those places. You don't get a resort built in the Bahamas or wherever without having guys like Cohen going around behind the scenes putting envelopes of cash in the right hands.
But of course I don't care b/c a) we need things done and I'm willing to hold my nose some, and b) his corruption is minuscule compared to the corruption of career US politicians and parties like the Clinton machine. Trump isn't stealing from the American public when he bribes a zoning board member, but the Clinton's are when they approve Uranium one while getting paid by Russian companies.
The only sell outs of this country we've found so far, after years of investigations, are the people on the side doing the investigating. Let me have the power to intimidate and investigate and send to jail anyone connected to the Clinton's and lets see who is really the bigger threat to selling this country out. Let me put Lanny Davis and Podesta in the vise Cohen was put in by Mueller and see what comes out.