Trump didn't disclose full payments to Cohen in official paperwork, a potential violation

[pnwmom]

Source: CNBC

President Donald Trump could be facing yet another legal headache. A watchdog group is pointing to a discrepancy between his financial disclosures and the payments made to his former lawyer as detailed in court documents.

In May, Trump signed a financial disclosure form that stated he "fully reimbursed" personal attorney Michael Cohen between $100,001 and $250,000 in 2017. But court documents filed by federal prosecutors Tuesday stated that Cohen received $420,000 from the Trump Organization over the course of last year.

The discrepancy prompted the Project on Government Oversight, or POGO, to send a letter to the Office of Government Ethics, or OGE, on Thursday, asking it to review the matter. POGO is a nonpartisan independent watchdog that investigates and exposes waste, corruption and abuse of power, according to its website.

Specifically, the letter says OGE should look at whether Trump underreported "knowingly and willfully, in violation of federal law."

Read more: https://www.cnbc.com/2018/08/24/trump-paid-michael-cohen-more-than-what-he-stated-in-financial-disclosure.html

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If Cohen's payoff to Stormy was campaign-related, then it improperly exceeded the $2700 limit.

If it was just a personal loan to Trump, not political, then Trump should have listed the $420K debt as a personal liability -- and he didn't. He said his debt to Cohen was under $250K.

[edbermac]

1. It's Duncan Hunter's wife's fault!

Must have been handling all of Donnie’s paperwork as well.

[cstanleytech]

2. Ahh good old Duncan. I wonder how he likes the couch?

[murielm99]

3. He will long for the couch

if he ends up sleeping in a prison bunk.

[Joe Chi Minh]

5. ... or Putin's 'n' Russia's fault.

[BumRushDaShow]

6. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

DUzy!

[Hoyt]

4. Not sure that discrepancy adds much to evidence against trump, but the purpose

of that money sure is damning and it sure looks like trump knew about it. He’d be toast except for Banana Republicans protecting him.

[Snellius]

7. If for purpose of deceit can point to cover up as having consciousness of guilt.

He always deludes himself that he's so smart he can bs his way out of anything. Assumes, mostly correctly, that everyone else is stupid. Until he runs up against someone who really calls him out on it who's not. Typical con artist. People aren't stupid. They're just trusting. As normal, decent people are.

[moriah]

8. He should be grateful Cohen said it was to influence the election.

At the time Trump made every payment on the "loan", personal or not, he was facing the Summer Zervos lawsuit and had a vested interest in her attorney *not* deposing Karen McDougal or Stormy Daniels, two women who definitely could say his statement about not inviting women to hotel rooms was a lie. And he was sworn in as President, so ongoing activity.

While the Daniels NDA wouldn't have stopped a subpoena, it had language requiring notification, etc, and other agreements obviously designed to let Trump object to the relevance of allegedly consensual encounters being brought up in a lawsuit.

It was after the women like Summer started retaining attorneys that Pecker went soft about selling the NDA enforcement for Karen McDougal to Trump associates -- and wanted the evidence he even put his company's name on such an agreement destroyed. The federal bribery statute is not limited to public officials.

But if Trump corruptly paid money to attempt to keep someone from being called as a potential witness in a trial against him while POTUS, that's impeachable bribery, straight out.

Cohen did take a bullet, by saying it was to influence the election. He could have said it was about the lawsuit potential. Since it probably was both, he should be down on his knees that Cohen went with pleading to a campaign finance violation vs implicating him in bribery. Mike Pence probably has a sad through.