LAT: Michael Cohen's tapes might be the kompromat we've been waiting for

[kpete]

If no one but a prude like me is feeling scandalized by the president’s ritual humiliation of his wife and infliction of trauma on his young son, maybe all this prurient chatter should stop here.

Instead, you can approach the president’s perfidy through the indictments of Russian military intelligence commanders for undermining American democracy. But then you have to wade through a lot of Russian and hacker names.

.............

Recall that Cohen’s one-stop valet shop, Essential Consultants, took money from AT&T, Korean Aerospace Industries and Swiss pharma company Novartis, as well as an offshoot business of Viktor Vekselberg, a Russian oligarch and Putin ally.

This looks a lot like Cohen was peddling influence. And the deal with Vekselberg’s business — well, that goes to the heart of the matter: Trump’s financial ties to Russia.

Cohen’s apparent willingness to pay hush money on Trump’s behalf — especially in re. sex capers — also gives credence to the 2016 Trump-Russia dossier by ex-spy Christopher Steele. The dossier warned that the president was vulnerable to sexual blackmail and, if elected, could be grievously manipulated by the Kremlin.

In the Steele dossier, the story goes that the Kremlin knew about Trump’s financial tomfoolery — and maybe knew or had recorded something to do with urine and one of those luxe Stearns & Foster mattresses the Ritz-Carlton chain is known for.

Or, as the journalist Julia Ioffe wrote this week, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s kompromat might be hiding in plain sight: He’s the one who knows, and can say, that Trump didn’t win the presidency fair and square.

............

http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-heffernan-michael-cohen-tapes-20180719-story.html#

[Timmygoat]

1. I am wondering

If there is any way we, in the US can see the BBC program (to air at 10.30 am today and 4.30 tomorrow (Sunday) which covers Trump's escapades with girls as young as 14 or 15 some years back. I think it would be interesting.