This is a little hoax created by Trump and Cohen. Why ?

[kentuck]

Because Cohen wants a pardon and is feigning innocence.

Neither objected to the tape being released ? That is the clue to the story .

Cohen wanted to show Trump in the best light possible, under the circumstances.

They both get to show their best side. Trump can pardon Cohen and say there was nothing there.

Neither side wants the rest of the evidence to come out.

It's a little kabuki theater.

[NCTraveler]

1. Was Trump aware they were going to release it?

"Neither objected to the tape being released ?"

Be kind of hard for Trump to publicly reject something when that narrative was part of a previous denial. And I thought Trump did use his lawyers in an attempt to suppress this info.

Under most situations, isn't a conviction necessary for a pardon?

[kentuck]

5. Under most situations, yes.

Trump doesn't follow rules.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

6. Technically, no - Ford pardoned Nixon pre-emptively.

But it's rare. And you are correct that Trump initially tried to keep all of Cohen's evidence suppressed.

[NCTraveler]

7. "Ford pardoned Nixon pre-emptively."

That is why I hedged my comment. I actually thought there were a couple of people at that time who were preemptively pardoned. My memory wasn't pulling up the details.

Thank you.

[awesomerwb1]

2. Agree, I found it very weird myself

Why did dump agree to release(or whatever the proper term is) attorney client privilege?

People, please don't forget that both Cohen and Dump are scum. There's something going on for sure.

[tblue37]

15. If the interaction concerns something illegal, attorney-client privilege doesn't apply, does it? nt

[awesomerwb1]

17. I have no idea how it works

but the "experts" I heard last night were saying Dump had waived attorney-client privilege and they didn't understand why.

[jrthin]

3. We keep talking about pardon, but if some of

Cohen's crimes are State crimes, the Treasoner cannot pardon him.

[tblue37]

18. The NY state attorney is trying to get the NY legislature to undo a NY law that

could protect him if he is charged in federal court for the same or related crimes.

NY apparently has a very generous (to the criminal) double jeopardy law. I imagine that is why Mueller is so careful about what he charges people with and so careful about coordinating with state attorneys. Notice he specifically said this week that the Manafort trial won't be about the collusion investigation. And he let SDNY take point on all the Cohen stuff, too.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

4. Of course not! The tape doesn't make Trump look good.

It makes him look like exactly what he is: a conniving thug who's arranging to pay hush money in cash to buy a former mistress' silence. Lanny Davis released the tape on Cohen's behalf in order to contradict Giuliani's lie that Cohen wanted Trump to pay cash. And it's too late to prevent the rest of the evidence from coming out. If Trump wanted to pardon Cohen he'd have done so, or at least promised to do so, a long time ago, but now the feds have done evidentiary proctology on Cohen and they know everything about Trump that Cohen knows.

[pnwest]

8. "Evidentiary proctology" HA!!!!!!

[kentuck]

10. It seems Cohen would have much more damaging evidence than this tape on Trump ??

There has to be another ulterior motive ... don't you think?

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

12. Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.

Davis was not hired as a trial lawyer but as a PR manager whose job is to keep his client in the best possible light with regard to a highly-publicized legal proceeding. The motive for releasing the tape was as clear as gin: Giuliani lied about what was on the tape and Davis gave it to CNN to prove he was lying, thus making Trump look like the sleaze and Cohen just the guy who was doing what he was told. Cohen is a sleaze, too, but Davis' job is to make him look at least a little less sleazy.

[unblock]

13. donnie has attorney-client privilege on some of it.

cohen at least has an argument that donnie may have waived that for this particular piece given that his new lawyer blabbed about it.

i'm not sure that argument is 100% valid, but it's certainly an argument that they have regarding this tape that they do not have on the rest of the privileged information.

[kentuck]

14. That's what's puzzling??

The attorney-client privilege? It is my understanding that Trump did not object to tape being released ?

[JustAnotherGen]

9. You were watching Lawrence O'Donnel last night right?

That's Michael Avenatti's theory - and I tend to agree with it.

Hence, Trump's tweet about the tape getting cut off.

[Cracklin Charlie]

11. They want folks to focus on sex with adult women.

As opposed to Assface’s lifetime of crime. This distraction scheme seems to involve at least 20 different players. Don been a bad boy for a long time. Mobsters do terrible things.

Focus!

[mtnsnake]

16. Agreed. This could be little more than a charade choreographed well in advance by the two of them

to cover up what was really said and done by them. Fucking crooks.

[RestoreAmerica2020]

19. At VFW trump implored audience--forget about what they see and read --

https://thinkprogress.org/author/aaron-rupar/

In George Orwell’s classic dystopian novel 1984, the “final, most essential command” of the ruling totalitarian regime is “to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears.”

On Tuesday, President Trump made that same request of his supporters.

Speaking to a Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) gathering in Kansas City, Trump implored his audience to forget about what they see and read — and instead just listen to him.


“Don’t believe the crap you see from these people, the fake news,” Trump said, pointing at reporters as the crowd broke out in boos. “Just remember, what you’re seeing and what you’re reading is not what’s happening.”