Gonna read you your rights and treat you fair;You know it’s gotten bad when the president is required to do damage control for his lawyer, but that’s exactly what happened this morning, when Donald Trump took to Twitter to explain himself, after Rudolph W. Giuliani admitted on Fox News that Trump repaid $130,000 in hush money to Stormy Daniels. In suspiciously non-capitalized prose, Trump (or his ghost-tweeter) basically confirmed the story and said it was no biggie.
But Giuliani’s other admission — delivered during his interview with Sean Hannity on Wednesday night — may be more important and damning. Giuliani conceded in an offhand way that Trump fired FBI Director James B. Comey because Comey failed to do Trump’s bidding and publicly declare that Trump was not under investigation. Here’s what Giuliani said:
“He fired Comey because Comey would not, among other things, say that he wasn’t a target of the investigation,” Giuliani said. “He’s entitled to that. Hillary Clinton got that, and he couldn’t get that. So he fired him, and he said, ‘I’m free of this guy.'”
In saying this, Giuliani appears to have thought that he was exonerating Trump. Giuliani was saying Trump didn’t fire Comey to obstruct the investigation into Trump campaign collusion with Russian sabotage of our election, but rather because Comey didn’t publicly clear him, which Giuliani believes Trump was “entitled to.”
But this undercuts the leading public rationale that Trump offered for firing Comey. The White House has cited Comey’s handling of the Hillary Clinton email investigation as the fake pretext for the firing. But now Trump’s own lawyer has confirmed on national television that the rationale was directly related to the Russia investigation.
https://www.politico.com/story/2018/05/03/trump-aides-panicking-michael-avenatti-566674“I had a lot of respect for Rudy Giuliani, you know, 15, 16 years ago. I thought that the way that he handled 9/11 was admirable but he is well past his prime. He's no longer ready for primetime, clearly, as the last 24 hours dictates,” Daniels’ attorney, Michael Avenatti, told MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell. “It is clear as day that the White House is panicking and they should be panicking because they have been caught in a series of very serious lies about what happened here. I mean, these guys make the Watergate burglars look competent, quite frankly.”
The duo’s chilly relationship has spilled into the open after Corker praised Blackburn’s Democratic opponent and refused to even utter her name in multiple media appearances this spring. The retiring senator’s remarks have boosted former Democratic Gov. Phil Bredesen and agitated Blackburn’s supporters, who want Corker to help heal the state party, not inflame its divisions.
Corker’s lukewarm support for Blackburn is more than an annoyance: The center-right coalition he represents is critical to Blackburn’s prospects in the race. But Chamber of Commerce-type Republicans are generally fond of Bredesen and his past stint as the state’s governor, seeing him as a pragmatic get-things-done kind of pol, as opposed to a hard-edged conservative ideologue in Blackburn.
Og det er i Tennessee.The drama between Blackburn and Corker, combined with Bredesen’s crossover appeal, hint at a potential train wreck for Republicans in November that could swing the narrowly divided Senate to Democrats. Recent public and private polls show Bredesen leading Blackburn, a staunch ally of President Donald Trump, in a state that went for Trump by 26 points in 2016. Supporters argue that there’s still plenty of time for her to catch up before November and that she has backing from the vast majority of the state’s Republican officials.
But Republicans in Washington and Tennessee worry that Corker’s Bredesen-friendly comments amount to a tacit permission for pragmatic-minded GOP voters to cross the aisle. They want Corker to go to bat for Blackburn or sit out the contest entirely.
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/an-mo-for-other-more-serious-crimesRead what this person says. I cannot identify the person but I can vouch for the expertise.
I know everyone has a take on this Rudy/Cohen shit-show, but I thought I would give you some perspective from someone steeped in anti-corruption enforcement (both domestic and foreign) on the prosecution and defense side.
As we already know, Michael Cohen is the prototypical fixer or bagman. In Mexico, as discussed in glorious detail in this NY Times expose on Wal-Mart’s massive corruption scandal in Mexico , a lawyer-fixer like Cohen would be known as a “gestore.” The bagman’s job is to get bribe money to people while insulating and giving deniability to the ultimate payor of the bribe. Having a dirty lawyer as a bagman provides a number of advantages.
First, bribe money can be laundered from the “client” through the lawyer as fictitious legal services. The lawyer can issue bogus invoices to the client in amounts sufficient to cover bribe payments, a commission to the lawyer, and a gross-up for any taxes the lawyer would have to pay on the fee income (bagmen, after all, don’t want to be stuck paying taxes on amounts they pay out as bribes). Sound familiar?
Second, by disguising the bribes as payments for legal fees, businesses can try to write them off as expenses (bribes are not deductible). This is tax evasion, of course, but it is common practice for the corrupt. Third, the lawyer-client relationship can be an impediment to law enforcement. It can be very difficult for prosecutors to pierce what appears on the surface to be a legitimate attorney-client relationship.
So now we have Giuliani confirming that this is exactly how Trump and Cohen operated. Hush money to Stormy Daniels is one thing and certainly raises potential serious campaign finance violations, but she is not a public official. What I find most significant about Rudy’s admission is what it says about the nature of the relationship between Trump and Cohen and how it suggests an M.O. for other more serious crimes.
Trump is a major real estate developer in NY who has openly bragged about his ability to cut through red tape and get politicians in his pocket. We now have serious SDNY public corruption prosecutors and FBI agents in possession of a massive amount of electronic data from his bagman. They likely already have all of his financial records as well. And Rudy has now given them the roadmap for how Trump may have laundered bribes through Cohen as purported legal fees or retainer payments. Every invoice Cohen has ever issued to Trump is suspect. Every corrupt payment Cohen has ever made or facilitated to building inspectors, councilmen, pornstars, or whomever can potentially be tied back to Trump. In addition, I suspect Trump and his kids had a false sense of comfort that their communications with Cohen would be privileged. I am convinced this is why Trump and his family are freaking out about the Cohen raid and the possibility he could flip. The SDNY is sitting on the mother lode of evidence and Rudy has given them the connection between purported legal fees and payments by Cohen to third parties.
Charlie Dent: We need to ask how Sarah Sanders can do her job if she's told to 'mislead the American people'“If a Democratic president had paid off a porn star to keep quiet while he was president, I suspect we’d have oversight hearings, and I suspect there probably should be some oversight hearings to get to the bottom of that,” he said. “If a Democratic president had done this, we’d be waving a bloody shirt right now.”
Dent also mocked Trump for thinking that he could have gotten away with claiming that he had no knowledge of Cohen making the payment, as it simply defies belief that Cohen would not have sought reimbursement from him.
“I don’t think there was anybody on the planet who thought that Michael Cohen, out of the goodness of his heart, wrote a $130,000 check to Stormy Daniels without seeking reimbursement,” he said. “I mean, come on! We’re not fools here.”
Hvem gjør ikke det?Jeg tror Brekke og Fjernis sitter i en krok og gråter.
Interessant klipp på så mange vis.Tunge dager for Brekke og Fjernis når Fox News kritiserer Trump for ting de har forsvart Trump over.
Vart lurt no.
Når en pornoskuespiller viser seg å være langt smartere og mer troverdig enn presidenten, og advokaten hennes viser seg å være fullt i stand til å kjøre sirkler rundt hele presidentens (stadig skiftende) juridiske team, så bør vel et eller annet snart begynne å synke inn noe sted.Mr Avenatti holder en klar og tydelig stemme i kaoset og han har lenge vært tydelig på at dette blir stort. Dårlig tegn.
Giuliani is Trump’s cartoon version of what a lawyer does. Playing Roy Cohn on TV is one thing; engaging in this conduct when you serve as the president’s lawyer is quite another. It might be delightful for prosecutors and Michael Avenatti to watch Giuliani mess up this badly, but the president really should have better legal help. Oh, but wait. Esteemed lawyers won’t take Trump as a client. Well, it’s fitting, I suppose, that a client as bad as Trump gets a lawyer as bad as Giuliani.
Anonymitetens beskyttelse er en forutsetning for fremvekst av demokrati i land som ikke har det. I mange land der kommunister eller religiøse har makten så blir man straffeforfulgt om man prøver å diskutere politikk og gi uttrykk for opposisjon.Noen hadde tiltro til at internettet skulle blir en form for arena for det direkte demokrati. En av de viktigste forutsetningene for at det skulle kunne skje var at en samtidig ble holdt til ansvar for sine meninger. Internettet er stedet hvor slikt ansvar ikke fins; det er stedet for meningsutveksling hvor en ikke trenger å stå inne for noe som helst.
Ute institusjonelle formidlingsmekanismer, og uten at en trenger stå til ansvar for sine meninger, forfaller nettets demokrati til et «Alle som Ingen». I en slik setting hvor en ikke lengre trenger legge hodet på blokka, erstattes resonnering av ren resonans (ekkokammer).
Hun sparer nok den til rettssaken. Hun hevder at det hadde foregått «intime relasjoner», han påstår at det er løgn. I bevisførselen vil hun beskrive i noen detalj deler av anatomien hans, deler som ikke vises frem på TV. Dommeren beordrer legeundersøkelse og fotografering. Fotografiene legges frem i retten som bevis på hvem som snakker sant. Derfra havner de i tabloidavisene og på nett. Trump har ingen grunn til å se frem til bevisførselen i en slik rettsak. Hva som finnes på DVD’en i Avenettis safe får vi sikkert også vite etterhvert.Det hadde vært gøy om hun hadde kommet med en uttalelse om at presidentens snoppen knyttet er tre tommer lang. Erigert.
Jeg tror det er feil "trussel" mot demokratiet du er redd for, Deph. De sosiale sanksjonene en kan oppleve for å ytre politisk ukorrekte meninger er avhengig av tidsånden, og er dermed foranderlig. Du kan gjerne kalle den institusjonalisert, men den er med noen unntak ikke juridisk. Det du bør være mer redd for er hvordan våre konstitusjonelle rettigheter uthules og avskaffes. Overvåkings-samfunnet og dets konsekvenser har mørkere sider en naustegubbe-shaming og #metoo.Anonymitetens beskyttelse er en forutsetning for fremvekst av demokrati i land som ikke har det. I mange land der kommunister eller religiøse har makten så blir man straffeforfulgt om man prøver å diskutere politikk og gi uttrykk for opposisjon.Noen hadde tiltro til at internettet skulle blir en form for arena for det direkte demokrati. En av de viktigste forutsetningene for at det skulle kunne skje var at en samtidig ble holdt til ansvar for sine meninger. Internettet er stedet hvor slikt ansvar ikke fins; det er stedet for meningsutveksling hvor en ikke trenger å stå inne for noe som helst.
Ute institusjonelle formidlingsmekanismer, og uten at en trenger stå til ansvar for sine meninger, forfaller nettets demokrati til et «Alle som Ingen». I en slik setting hvor en ikke lengre trenger legge hodet på blokka, erstattes resonnering av ren resonans (ekkokammer).
Det går den veien i vesten også, og mange av samme slaget tar til orde for å straffeforfølge alle som mener noe annet enn dem. "Hatefulle" ytringer eller noe anti-feministisk er mer enn nok for endel til å ville straffe og tvinge. Demokratiet som vi kjenner det er avhengig av muligheten til å ytre seg uten frykt for represalier.
Du kaster stein i glasshus nå. Du er et godt eksempel på å rase mot noen som har et annet standpunkt enn deg.Det går den veien i vesten også, og mange av samme slaget tar til orde for å straffeforfølge alle som mener noe annet enn dem. "Hatefulle" ytringer eller noe anti-feministisk er mer enn nok for endel til å ville straffe og tvinge. Demokratiet som vi kjenner det er avhengig av muligheten til å ytre seg uten frykt for represalier.
Joda, jeg kan være vulgær, teit og provoserende. Slik som alle frie mennesker skal kunne være, uten frykt for represalier. Men jeg frykter at alt dette vil forsvinne om de nye røde får nok makt. Da skal alt hande om safe spaces og påtvungen språkbruk. Vent å se... jeg er ikke optimist, og når pendelen svinger tilbake om 6-8 år så blir det ikke vakkert.Du kaster stein i glasshus nå. Du er et godt eksempel på å rase mot noen som har et annet standpunkt enn deg.Det går den veien i vesten også, og mange av samme slaget tar til orde for å straffeforfølge alle som mener noe annet enn dem. "Hatefulle" ytringer eller noe anti-feministisk er mer enn nok for endel til å ville straffe og tvinge. Demokratiet som vi kjenner det er avhengig av muligheten til å ytre seg uten frykt for represalier.
Det meste av hets og trusler foretas vel av naustegubber og frustrerte unge menn, mot "politisk korrekte". Den største trusselen etter dem er nok sinte, unge arabere med feil forbilder. Hvor langt ned på listen vi må komme før vi finner tilsvarende militante feminister vet jeg ikke, men har en anelse om at det skal enda flere grupper til før vi kommer dit. Deph har litt vanskelig for det der med proporsjoner, noen ganger. En ærlig sak det.Jeg er ikke enig med deg at det er de røde som mest aggressive. Når Vårt Land (tror jeg det var) tar ett oppgjør med de kristne nettrollene tror jeg ikke det er den sosialistiske fløyen som står bak hetsingen og truslene.
Joda, jeg skjønner at han har litt tungt for det noen ganger. Derfor prøver jeg noen ganger å se litt stort på hans sprell..... Deph har litt vanskelig for det der med proporsjoner, noen ganger. En ærlig sak det.
Proporsjoner, ja....... Deph har litt vanskelig for det der med proporsjoner, noen ganger. En ærlig sak det.
Giuliani har alltid vært en massiv idiot som har kommet med de mest utrolige uttalelser, intet nytt der.Det er ganske facinerende hvordan ellers vellykkede, selvsikre, rike og mektige menn forvandles til bablende, retningsløse, oppgitte katastrofer kort tid etter at de kommer inn i Trump-sfæren. De fleste fyrer i gang som selvsikre løver før de får en kald skulder, og etter kort tid i kulden blir nevnt i en tweet hvorpå de forsvinner med halen mellom bena.
Giuliani er ingen hvem som helst. Han har vært ute en vinternatt før og er ikke lett å skubbe på, men hvor lenge holder han ?
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: The president said you didn’t get the facts straight, so let’s try to get some facts on the table to begin with. The president does acknowledge meeting Stormy Daniels, correct?
GIULIANI: You know, I’m not really involved in the — in the Daniels thing. So I don’t — I don’t know. I mean, he denies that it happened. She has written a letter denying it.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Well we do have a picture of them together, so the — the president…
GIULIANI: Well, it depends on kind of what you mean by met her. Right?
STEPHANOPOULOS: Well, yes, there’s the picture right there.
Bozo the Clown ville vært en bedre advokat.STEPHANOPOULOS: Mayor, if the president has done nothing wrong, as you say, again and again, and he tells the truth.
GIULIANI: He hasn’t done anything wrong, George.
STEPHANOPOULOS: I know — and if he tells — and he tells the truth, as you would advise him to do, what is the danger in answering Robert Mueller’s questions?
GIULIANI: Because, they’re trying to trap — you can’t — you couldn’t put a lawyer on this show, who wants to keep his law license, to tell you he should testify.
STEPHANOPOULOS: But it’s only a trap if the president doesn’t tell the truth.
GIULIANI: No, it isn’t. It’s only prosecutable if they have some built up, manipulated evidence to prove the president didn’t tell the truth. How often has that happened?
STEPHANOPOULOS: If you have evidence that proves he doesn’t tell the truth, then the president didn’t tell the truth.
GIULIANI: No. People do things like lie. People lie. Could [James B.] Comey be lying? You’re damn right he could be lying, George. And we’re going to walk ourselves into a trap like that? I couldn’t…
STEPHANOPOULOS: If Mr. Comey lied to the special counsel then he is the one who is vulnerable to perjury. . . . But you believe the president is telling the truth. If you believe that, if you have that conviction, you’re his attorney. Why don’t you say go in, talk to Robert Mueller. Tell the truth.
GIULIANI: Because I wouldn’t be an attorney if I did that, George, I’d be living in some kind of unreal fantasy world that everybody tells the truth. . . . I’m going to walk him into a prosecution for perjury like Martha Stewart did? I mean, she’d tell you…
STEPHANOPOULOS: She didn’t tell the truth.
Det tweetet oppsummerer godt tilstanden på det amerikanske rettsystemet for øyeblikket.