The Stormy Daniels controversy isn’t about sex. It’s about the cover-up, and the illegal misuse of campaign funds. This could be a more existential threat to Trump than the Mueller investigation.
Trump Meddled Again With DOJ Investigation
Just out from the NY Times: As federal prosecutors in Manhattan gathered evidence late last year about President Trump’s role in silencing women with hush payments during the 2016 campaign, Mr. Trump called Matthew G. Whitaker, his newly installed attorney general, with a question. He asked whether Geoffrey S. Berman, the United States attorney for the Southern District of New … Read More
A Snapshot of All 17 Trump Investigations So Far
From Wired — Here’s a complete rundown of the various known investigations targeting Trump’s world from local, state, and federal prosecutors: Investigations by the Special Counsel 1. The Russian Government’s Election Attack: The special counsel moved aggressively to outline and charge the Russian government’s core attack on the 2016 election, which included both active cyber intrusions and data theftby the military intelligence … Read More
Cohen Talks
This morning, Cohen has gave a new interview to ABC News that deals a big blow to Trump’s defense that Trump never directed Cohen to break any laws when he arranged the deal with AMI to payoff Karen McDougal. According to Trump. it was on Cohen to fix the problem legally. If Cohen failed in this regard, that’s on him. First, ABC’s George Stephanopoulos got Cohen to … Read More
Kusher Tied Up With AMI’s Efforts To Play For Trump
The Daily Beast reports: Shortly after the 2016 presidential election, Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner was handed a task considered critical to the president’s operations. In addition to serving as a senior adviser in the White House, he would also be playing the role of the main conduit between Trump and his friend David Pecker, the National Enquirer publisher and chief executive of … Read More
Crazy Days
It’s impossible to keep up with the news anymore. Here is just today: Donald Trump’s inauguration committee is under investigation. Apparently they managed to spend twice as much as any other recent president for an inaugural celebration that was half the size of any other recent president. Maria Butina pleaded guilty to infiltrating the NRA on behalf of Russia. Trump is now on … Read More
Trump Was In The Room With Cohen And Pecker
Breaking from NBC: Donald Trump was the third person in the room in August 2015 when his lawyer Michael Cohen and National Enquirer publisher David Pecker discussed ways Pecker could help counter negative stories about Trump’s relationships with women, NBC News has confirmed. As part of a non-prosecution agreement disclosed Wednesday by federal prosecutors, American Media Inc., the Enquirer’s parent company, admitted that “Pecker … Read More
Trump On A Twitter Tear This Morning
He rants about the investigations, Cohen, the wall…. in a largely fact-free tirade. This is creative accounting at best. I don’t know how much the US benefits from the NAFTA 2.0 Trade Agreement (i.e., the USMCA), but by most accounts, it’s not that different from the original NAFTA. And anyway, the benefits go to manufacturers, farmers, etc. — not the … Read More
What The Manafort And Cohen Sentencing Memos Really Say
Uh no. Trump arguably got support from the Justice Department on one point. A few days ago, he tweeted that his former lawyer, Michael Cohen, should “serve a full and complete sentence.” This was in response to Cohen’s argument that he should serve no jail time in recognition of his extensive cooperation with prosecutors. It turns out that the Justice Department agrees … Read More
Document Dump: Cohen Sentencing Memos From Mueller and SDNY
Mueller’s recommendation for Cohen’s sentencing: and the SDNY’s recommendation, which is far less kinder than Mueller’s: Right now, it really looks like Trump aka Individual-1 has a huge problem not with Mueller (although we know Mueller holds his cards close to the vest), but with his own DOJ. Campaign finance violations. Illegal, and if he directed it, potentially fatal.
President Misogynist
President Donald Trump, who has repeatedly claimed that nobody respects women more than him, referred to Stormy Daniels as “Horseface” in a tweet on Tuesday. Trump compared the adult film entertainer — who he allegedly had an affair with — to a horse in response to a federal judge’s dismissal of Daniels’ defamation lawsuit. The White House has said Trump believes Daniels lied about being threatened to keep … Read More
Dark Times Ahead?
I have predicted — not here, but on Twitter (and NOW here) — that Trump will pardon Manafort before the 2018 elections. Some are saying he might even fire Sessions and/or Mueller. I don’t know if I believe all THAT. But the conventional wisdom that it would be stupid and self-destructive if he did that, especially before the elections, seems … Read More
Anatomy Of A Lie
There are literally thousands of Trump lies. No lie. Some are big whoppers. Some are merely misleading. Some are of huge consequence. Some are of almost no consequence, although the sheer number of lies is of huge consequence. Here’s a lie of huge consequence — whether Donald Trump knew about hush-money payments to silence women The first denial came four … Read More
Trump Talking Like A Mob Boss
In his new softball interview with Ainsley Earhardt, Trump says that it “almost” ought to be illegal for people to receive deals to testify: This whole thing about flipping, they call it. I know all about flipping, for 30, 40 years I have been watching flippers. Everything is wonderful and then they get 10 years in jail and they flip … Read More
Sarah Is Not Having A Fun Day Either
Video of abovepic.twitter.com/eYSojIkyMM — Maggie Jordan: (@MaggieJordanACN) August 22, 2018 Sanders had no effective response when asked how Trump can continue to deny knowing about hush money – when, in fact, he is on tape discussing that subject. No credible response seems possible here – the tape speaks for itself — West Wing Reports (@WestWingReport) August 22, 2018