To the Greatest Page- *The President Is a Crook *

[DemocratSinceBirth]

So now it’s confirmed, as a matter of legal record, that President Donald Trump organized a scheme to violate federal election laws. He directed his longtime personal attorney to pay at least one woman for silence. That attorney got the money by lying to a bank to get a home-equity line of credit.

It’s a matter of legal record, too, that Trump’s campaign chair was a huge-scale crook. Despite his desperate financial straits, he volunteered to work for Trump for free—and Trump accepted.

These two cases complete the beginnings of the story. They are not the story in full. The Michael Cohen and Paul Manafort cases are like the first rocky outcroppings a ship passes as it makes landfall. They are examples of the kind of people willing to work for Trump—and the way that those people carried on their business. They indicate why one of Trump’s sons would write “I love it” when offered stolen information about the Hillary Clinton campaign by a purported representative of the Russian government, how so much doubtful money flowed into the Trump Organization after 2006, and why Trump dares not publish his tax returns.


House Speaker Paul Ryan’s office replied to a query from The Washington Post about the Cohen case: “We are aware of Mr. Cohen’s guilty plea to these serious charges. We will need more information than is currently available at this point.” Of course, a major priority of Ryan’s speakership has been to protect himself and his party against unearthing “more information” about Trump’s campaign, Trump’s businesses, and Trump’s finances. But despite his incuriosity, more information will almost certainly head his way, unless …


...

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/08/the-president-is-a-crook/568123/

[HipChick]

1. K&R

[GemDigger]

2. Yes he is.

[dalton99a]

3. Donald Trump is a career criminal with a fancy airplane.

[yallerdawg]

4. The only place...

the Dotard truly has earned.

[Freethinker65]

5. How much did Ryan, and others, know about the dealings of the RNC deputy finance chair Cohen?

[alwaysinasnit]

9. I'm glad you brought that up. More than anything, I want to know why McConnell, Ryan, et al.

continue to obfuscate and protect tRump; or is it their own asses they are trying to protect.

[SWBTATTReg]

6. Talk about deja veux!

Never thought I ever would hear Nixon's 'I am not a crook' remarks uttered out of another president's mouth.

And also, think about this...both are republican...

Obviously being republican means that one doesn't have to follow the law, that one can break the law because it is okay to do so, and that they are above the law.

Nice ring to it, eh?

[Hortensis]

7. NYT: "All the President's Crooks: One of them, Mr. Trump's own lawyer,

has now implicated him in a crime."

NYT Editorial Board statement: From the start of the Russia investigation, President Trump has been working to discredit the work and the integrity of the special counsel, Robert Mueller; praising men who are blatant grifters, cons and crooks; insisting that he’s personally done nothing wrong; and reminding us that he hires only the best people.

On Tuesday afternoon, the American public was treated to an astonishing split-screen moment involving two of those people, as Mr. Trump’s former campaign chief was convicted by a federal jury in Virginia of multiple crimes carrying years in prison at the same time that his longtime personal lawyer pleaded guilty in federal court in New York to his own lengthy trail of criminality, and confessed that he had committed at least some of the crimes “at the direction of” Mr. Trump himself.

Let that sink in: Mr. Trump’s own lawyer has now accused him, under oath, of committing a felony.

Only a complete fantasist — that is, only President Trump and his cult — could continue to claim that this investigation of foreign subversion of an American election, which has already yielded dozens of other indictments and several guilty pleas, is a “hoax” or “scam” or “rigged witch hunt."

The conviction of Paul Manafort, who ran the Trump campaign for three months in 2016, was a win for prosecutors even though jurors were unable to reach a verdict on 10 of the 18 counts against him. On the other eight, which included bank fraud, tax fraud and a failure to report a foreign bank account, the jury agreed unanimously that Mr. Manafort was guilty. He is scheduled to go on trial in a separate case next month in Washington, D.C., on charges including money laundering, witness tampering, lying to authorities and failing to register as a foreign agent. Mr. Manafort faces many decades behind bars, although he will probably serve less than that under federal sentencing guidelines.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/21/opinion/manafort-cohen-guilty.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage

[KY_EnviroGuy]

8. Breaking.....from The Guardian (live)

Donald Trump latest: Cohen has details of Russian conspiracy, lawyer says - live
Former campaign chairman Paul Manafort’s conviction and ex-lawyer Michael Cohen’s guilty plea plunge president into potential legal jeopardy

Go to: https://www.theguardian.com/world/news-blog/live/2018/aug/22/trump-turmoil-aftermath-cohen-manafort-verdicts-live?page=with:block-5b7d4b61e4b05a8f21bb3b9d#block-5b7d4b61e4b05a8f21bb3b9d
(you have to go back around 6-hrs in the live feed to see the item below)

(snip)

Cohen has information on a Russian conspiracy, says lawyer

Michael Cohen’s lawyer Lanny Davis has come out all guns blazing on a tour of the broadcast studios in the US today. He has reiterated the guilt of the president regarding the hush money paid to two women, and stressed his client possesses information about Russian interference that would be of interest to investigators.

He told MSNBC and Cohen knows information that would be of interest to special counsel Robert Mueller about a Russian conspiracy to “corrupt American democracy” and “a failure to report that knowledge to the FBI.”

Axios (@axios)

Michael Cohen's lawyer Lanny Davis says on MSNBC that Cohen has information regarding a Russian conspiracy to "corrupt American democracy" and "a failure to report that knowledge to the FBI." pic.twitter.com/YXV4MvQ3Ph
August 22, 2018

In an interview on MSNBC, Davis says: “There is no dispute that Donald Trump committed a crime”

“The president of the United States directed him to commit a crime meaning the president committed the crime and covered it up because he didn’t sign the cheque to keep quiet the affairs with the two women,” Davis says, explaining what Cohen told the court under oath yesterday.

Morning Joe (@Morning_Joe)

"Very clearly, there is no dispute that Donald Trump committed a crime." -- @LannyDavis pic.twitter.com/wgC0BtVdjc
August 22, 2018

Cohen and his legal team are angling for a plea deal that would see any potential sentence reduced in exchange for information, and have released various files to corroborate their claims.

In an interview with NPR, Davis said: “Mr Cohen would never accept a pardon from a man that he considers to be both corrupt and a dangerous person in the Oval Office.”

Emphasising that not only is Cohen not hoping for a pardon from Donald Trump, which would exonerate him of any future charges, Davis said he would not accept one either.

NPR (@NPR)

🔊 Michael Cohen's lawyer, Lanny Davis, tells NPR that Cohen considers President Trump "to be both corrupt and a dangerous person in the Oval Office." https://t.co/vOkyTbmMMN
August 22, 2018

He told the Today Show that Cohen has turned his life around “from what he did for Donald Trump, much of which he now regrets”.

TODAY (@TODAYshow)

“He’s [Cohen] turned his life from what he did for Donald Trump, much of which he now regrets…but he decided, fundamentally, that his family and his country were his priorities.”

Watch Michael Cohen’s lawyer Lanny Davis’ full interview with @savannahguthrie pic.twitter.com/h4T4Zexc8v
August 22, 2018

Trump’s real estate company authorised paying $420,000 to lawyer Michael Cohen in his effort to silence women during the presidential campaign and then relied on “sham” invoices from Cohen that concealed the nature of the payments, the Washington Post reported, according to legal filings released Tuesday.

However, in an interview with CNN, Davis refused to say whether Cohen has spoken to Mueller’s team.

CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics)

"I don't want to interfere in anything the special counsel is doing": Michael Cohen's attorney, Lanny Davis, will not say whether Cohen has spoken to Robert Mueller's team https://t.co/pZidtDSs9g pic.twitter.com/iSsOeMNttt
August 22, 2018

Updated at 8.25am EDT

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

[Mickju]

10. It looks like he lost a lot of weight on prison.

I love the way he decorated his cell.

[malaise]

11. Rec

But he's much bigger than that