My guess is that Trump's team will say that they didn't know what Cohen was paying off, and that they reimbursed him because that's what businesses do. Claim ignorance, no collusion, nothing to see here. GOP will continue to ignore.

Or, some very bad news is about to drop and Trump's hoping this will cover up what ever that is. You know...standard protocol for the Trump White House.

It's admitting to one crime that they knew they had a 5% chance of successfully covering up by admitting to another that they think they may have a 6% chance of covering up.

So if I threaten to expose my sexy time with Trump can I still get a 130,000 pay off with no questions asked?

With no exaggeration, I would pay $500 right now for the actual Trump-written version of these tweets instead of whoever wrote these.

I assume the "roll" was the only piece leftover from his own issuance.

No idea. My best guess is that Giuliani is connected to some shady stuff with the 2016 campaign and he's using his new pulpit to throw everyone else under the bus in hopes that his part in everything gets passed over.

I have nothing to back that up other than it would make his actions make sense.

(And unlike most others in the Trump circle who have no political instincts, Giuliani has demonstrated political savvy in the past.)

It's possible that they are so concerned with what Mueller has that they're trying to clean up some past lies.

Also, shouldn't the list of people authorized to use the POTUS twitter account be public? It really is a national security issue.

I'm going to go with an exercise where i take what Trump says about Cohen entering into the NDA "through reimbursement" at face value.

Cohen is either or is just being made to look like the dumbest lawyer on the face of the earth.

I've worked with a lot of lawyers of different shapes and sizes. Ethics aside, I've never met one who would front a settlement payment in exchange for monthly payments.

I think the most coherent theory is that they (whomever that is) believed that this would eventually get out anyhow, so to portray it as exculpitory (that the money was not illegally sent from the campaign, nor for foundation) was a worthwhile angle.

It's a stretch, and it's absurd, but it's the only way I can piece together doing this as a logical move at any level.

I am not in the profession, exactly. But the idea of accepting unorthodox responsibilities like this as part of the cost of being a key guy for a big shot like Trump? Presumably gets paid pretty soundly, lets him walk around town like a big deal, he probably can get laid a lot with your stories of how he rolls big, for a dumbass like Cohen this sort of Faustian bargain doesn't seem like much of a stretch.

That was so clearly written by a lawyer-Michael Cohen's been a friend for years, but you are calling him Mr. Cohen now?

And Rody's defense about Trump making the payment to try to save his marriage. :::rolls eyes:::

There's an issue with legal ethics there. Not the high-minded moral concept of ethics, but the particular set of rules that attorneys must follow as part of being members in good standing of the bar: http://www.nycourts.gov/rules/jointa...nduct-1200.pdf

A lot of those rules involve strict regulation of co-mingling of client funds with attorney funds, separate accounts for client funds, etc. See Rule 1.15 above for New York's take on the whole thing.

All of which is to say that an arrangement like the one implied by Giuliani might be permissible (I'm really not sure), but it would have to be structured in a pretty careful way. And something about Trump/Cohen just does not scream "careful" to me.

To get to Quik's point about this being part of the Faustian bargain--things like these ethical rules become a practical problem only if someone brings them to the bar's attention. Cohen could have been engaged in improper bookkeeping for years, and if his clients never complained and it never hurt a third party, there would be no reason for anyone to notice.

Cohen went to literally the worst law school in the US. Not surprising he is a moron.

I take that as a Kinsley gaffe. If Trump's sexy time is public knowledge Melania might walk away. Save the marriage was just another way to say, maintain plausible deniability for Trump's free fucking lifestyle.

Trump U. Law?

Thanks for looking this up. It's exactly why I put "Ethics aside" in my post. I was just too lazy to do the leg work.

Fixed

Yeah they really need to get some spellchecker/proofreaders too :)

I'm just now realizing that Trump is saying Cohen paid her $130K because she was trying to extort him about a sexual encounter that didn't happen.

Here's another gem from the Rudy interview:

And somehow Cohen knew it was false without ever discussing it with Trump.

A co-worker just came up with another reason that President Trump may have been paying Cohen back in installments. Federal law requires banks to file reports recording transactions of $10,000 or more.

Trump/Cohen may have structured the payments to stay just under $10,000 to minimize the paper trail.

That's actually illegal: Structuring - Wikipedia

Think they already said the reimbursements came in $35K installments.

Cool. Check one federal financial crime off the list.

Not so fast my friend. Even if it wasn't to avoid reporting requirements, attempts to disguise the intended use of funds can still be illegal under the USA PATRIOT Act.

So it looks the Feds were tapping Cohen's phones leading up to the raid of his offices:

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/don...m_npd_nn_fb_ma

looks like Trump is going to find out just how strong this "broken" justice system can be

Today is the National Day of Prayer which is something Trump needs a lot of right now.

OhNoSheTwitnt‏ @OhNoSheTwitnt









Rudy Giuliani married his cousin. Trump wants to date his daughter. Pence calls his wife “Mother”. This is the shittiest episode of Game of Thrones I’ve ever seen.

There isnt even a wall yet.

FWIW, as much as I enjoy speculating about the legal troubles as an intellectual matter, I do think that--as practical reality--Trump gets in as much or as little trouble as Congress gets him in.

Now, lots of the people around Trump will end up going down (in part b/c Trump will push them down to save himself). But I think that the man himself is safe.

House Chaplain rescinds his resignation:

http://thehill.com/homenews/house/38...ds-resignation

The writers for this show are out of control.

Meanwhile......this guy has another ad wherein he decries Swamp Captain Mitch McConnell's help for "China People."

DBTV8040000H - Ditch Mitch on Vimeo

Hysteria over Jade Helm exercise in Texas was fueled by Russians, former CIA director says | The Texas Tribune

I'm pretty sure he's a character in a Cohen brothers film.

Something to keep an eye on. Also makes me wonder if Kim knows this is going on and is partly offering peace to get rid of the American presence.

Trump Orders Pentagon to Consider Reducing U.S. Forces in South Korea - The New York Times

DOLA:

May want to slow down on that Nobel Peace Prize Nomination:

North Korea calls U.S. claims about upcoming summit "misleading" - CBS News

To the great people of West Virginia we have, together, a really great chance to keep making a big difference. Problem is, Don Blankenship, currently running for Senate, can’t win the General Election in your State...No way! Remember Alabama. Vote Rep. Jenkins or A.G. Morrisey!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 7, 2018

If Team Blankenship has time to crank out a new ad today, what crazy nickname will he now use for Trump?

No way trump knows how to use commas. No way. #fakenews

Yes yes people of WV remember that the person Trump supported in Alabama (eventually) ended up losing to a Democrat. Remember that very well and then go ahead and vote for Blankeship.

'I am Trumpier than Trump, and this morning proves it.'

https://www.votedonblankenship.com/s...t-Trumps-Tweet

I would have thought that a guy that was so negligent that he went to jail for killing coal miners wouldn't have a shot, but I guess that guy might get @35% of the GOP primary vote.

WV is still a very heavy Trump state. Possibly the most Trump supporting state in the country. The GOP primary is going to be a shitshow of everyone trying to prove they're more Trump than the other guys.

The NRA is about to elect a President that armed Hezbollah.

This shouldn't be hard for the gun control folks.

People just listen to who they should vote for.

Example: Trump

Well it was looking like a nice positive achievement for Melania Trump but...

First Lady Melania Trump's cyberbullying pamphlet is near exact copy of Obama-era FTC report

The AG for New York Eric Schneidermann, a rising star in the Democratic Party thanks in large part to his trials against Trump has crashed and burned:

Eric Schneiderman, Accused by 4 Women, Quits as New York Attorney General

I'm sure Donald will tweet about it soon, but those around him already have:

http://thehill.com/homenews/state-wa...physical-abuse

To no one's surprise Trump pulls the US out the Iran Nuclear Deal:

https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-ne...eal/index.html

I'm sure he based it on something other than knee jerk campaign rallying cries. His base is sure showing them Dems!!! At all costs.

Thanks Obama. Whatever happens with Iran from here on out, it's totally Obama's fault.

Ummmm...

After significant investigation, we have discovered that Mr. Trump’s atty Mr. Cohen received approximately $500,000 in the mos. after the election from a company controlled by a Russian Oligarc with close ties to Mr. Putin. These monies may have reimbursed the $130k payment.

— Michael Avenatti (@MichaelAvenatti) May 8, 2018

The Executive Summary from our first Preliminary Report on Findings may be accessed via the link below. Mr. Trump and Mr. Cohen have a lot of explaining to do.https://t.co/179WvIkRlD

— Michael Avenatti (@MichaelAvenatti) May 8, 2018

Drain the SWAMP (Save White American Male Presidents)

Michael Cohen’s attorney, Steve Ryan, won’t discuss the $500,000 Michael Avenatti says Cohen received from Russian oligarch Viktor Vekselberg in 2017. “I understand the shorthand you’re using, but it wasn’t a payment,” Ryan says before hanging up.

— Natasha Bertrand (@NatashaBertrand) May 8, 2018

Not the best crisis management here.

Gas prices going up, Iran restarting its nuclear program, we again go against our allies in Europe on the global stage...

But hey, Saudi Arabia and Israel are happy. Israel was so happy they shot missles into Syria right after the announcement.

Michael Cohen Took Cash From Russian Oligarch After Election

Our Sec. of State doesn't understand Asian names.

AT&T has confirmed that it paid the bogus company listed in the Avenatti docs $200K for "insights into the upcoming administration."

So what percentage of our internet bills went to bribe Cohen and Trump?

Isn't that the same guy Jay-Z stabbed? He's done well for himself to be fair.

Also, how insane is it that we find out that the President of the United States took money from a Russian oligarch, a large lump sum of which went towards paying off a porn star he was having an affair with, and we all just respond with a collective "shurg"

I'm still marveling that apparently a porn star's lawyer has scooped *every* journalist and journalistic team in the country.

West Virginia voter who says he lost three cousins in mine disaster tied to Don Blankenship tells @TomLlamasABC he's voting for the coal baron anyway.

"I want an honest crook, and that's Blankenship." https://t.co/6CmPQXqK2u pic.twitter.com/jeWQUUZ5hI

— ABC News (@ABC) May 8, 2018

yeah me too. Surprised the right hasn't found anything to discredit him either since he first appeared on TV

Putin blew his load again at tearing NATO apart

Morrisey is the apparent winner of the WV primary. Blakenship a distant third. Would have been great to give a big FU to Trump and McConnell if he had won though. Sadly though increases the chances of a Republican win in the general now.

TalkingPointsMemo is speculating through a reader that somehow Avenatti got a hold of the reports of suspicious banking action relating to this LLC.

After all this, Avenatti should never be looking for work again. He should have people throwing money at him just to talk to him. Hell, I'm surprised that Trump hasn't offered him a job at this point.

To be fair, there are only so many ways to make a shit sandwich.

Thinking back to when Cohen was raided Preet Bharara tweeted about a "clean team" theory. Essentially that Mueller passed off the recommendation to the SDNY so that they could clean the evidence and then they would have to report any relevant, non-privileged information back to Mueller. With the news today that Mueller has interviewed Vekselberg already....hmmm....

And McConnell got the last laugh:

http://thehill.com/homenews/campaign...or-playing-don

Glad Blankenship lost because this is all I ever saw:
Attachment 6910

Urn full of dead miners?

hostages coming back home, arriving here at 2 am.

not the first time Israel/Netanyahu is pushing the US towards a conflict (or at least cheering them on) in the region, if anybody cares to remember Netanyahus self-assured statements before congress regarding Iraq developing nuclear weapons being a certainty and his demise spelling a downright utopian future of peace and prosperity in the region.

Also, helps him to distract from his own scandals of corruption etc.

2 of which were detained last year...during Trump's presidency. Just pointing that out since the president seems to think all 3 were detained during Obama's term.

Still, always good to get our citizens back and I keep crossing my fingers that this will all work out in Korea and Iran.

Yep he will blame Obama for them all being detained, take all the credit for getting them back home. Typical Trump, but really hard to criticize him right now for it because they are coming home.

The new ambassador to Germany starts his reign off by recommending an article on Iran policy in the "Bild" newspaper as a good read. Which is basically the german version of the New York Post or The Sun or Daily Mail in the UK. Only worse ...

Democrats release approx 3000 ads from Facebook and Instagram that show the influence of Russia over our elections:


House Democrats release thousands of Russian-linked Facebook ads - ABC News


There is a link in the article that goes to a website where the Dems have posted all the ads.

Interesting twist in the NY DA Eric Schneiderman case-a lawyer was representing two woman not involved in the New Yorker article who had allegations way back in 2013-sent a letter to the judge for this case asking her to protect any records of these two woman the Feds might have seized in the Cohen raids...because at the time he discussed these two women with a reporter who then contacted Trump, who then had Michael Cohen call this lawyer and get the details about his clients. And Trump tweeted about it soon after Cohen found this out. NY Times does a much better job then I just did with explaining it:


https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/11/n...ael-cohen.html


Also Ford has come out and said Cohen came to them with a similar offer that he was making to the other companies and they rejected it.

There's been a lot of work on who paid into Essential Consultants, but not much on where the money went. What happened to those millions?

I bet Mueller has some good ideas on that.

Guessing his pocket. To me it seems like a nice little scam and I'm sure people have been doing it for ages. Weren't Clinton relatives getting paid "consulting" fees by companies?

Disclaimer - I only have an overview of the Iran deal that Trump just pulled out from, but my understanding is that in essence it was financial aid to Iran in return for them not developing nuclear weapons. And to Trump this was a terrible deal.

If this is such a terrible idea, although the numbers could well be wildly different, isn’t this the exact same principle?

U.S. to help North Korea economy if it gives up nuclear weapons, Pompeo says

Very similar.

Biggest difference right now is that our ally, South Korea, is attempting to make peace with the North at this point in time and China would prefer a more stable peninsula to further it's own goals. Japan, who has been very friendly with Trump, would prefer a more stable region as well.

In the Middle East, Trump has allied himself with Saudi Arabia and Israel. Both have seen their power diminish over the last decade and believe that a weaker Iran will help increase their power in the region again. Saudi, especially, has seen Iran become a dominant oil producing entity in the region which has hurt Saudi financially.

Problem with this type of thinking is that the Middle East is a much different animal than it was even 2 years ago. Iran has gained more allies and the Saudis aren't exactly well liked in the region as most don't agree with their strict Islamic beliefs. Throw in the fact that the Russians are backing the Iranians and you have a powder keg that could blow.

In my opinion, we shouldn't really have anything to do with the Saudis as that relationship has been volatile over the years and they aren't exactly a paragon of freedom nor do they really support Israel. However, they have a lot of money and are probably funneling a ton of it into Trump's pockets.

And, then there's the Israel problem. I know it seems like we're tethered to them, but between Netenyahu's corruption issues and there want to fire missiles at everyone...at some point, we might want to issue an ultimatum to them that we'll stop helping unless they get things under control. Never happen though and we'll just continue to sit back and hope things don't get worse.

I'm not sure. What we know so far is that there were two payments from that company for hush money. My guess, but it's only that, is that Cohen didn't make anything through Essential Consultants.

Axios lays out what is publicly known about the Trump admin and Russia.

of course Trump supporters will deny everything on that list as fake news.

I wish people would stop describing it like that ;) It makes it sound like essentially Iran is paid to not build an atomic bomb, when in essence they have simply been allowed to take part again in the global economy and businesses in other countries are no longer forbidden from buying from/selling to Iran. And profitting along the way, i doubt Iran is the one in the strong negotiation position here when dealing with Boeing and other western companies.

Not really want to get into a whole thing here, but i hope people at least recognize that from the iranian (or other countries) point of view this whole thing is pretty much the least that they can expect for agreeing to let themselves be policed by other countries, not some sort of benevolent or humanitarian act of kindness. And i'm not sure they are wrong thinking like that.

I am not saying there is an alternative (or that i wish they were allowed to do whatever the hell they want), but i do recognize that it would look pretty different from the other side.

So this happened in Oklahoma this week. It's exactly the kind of thing that we're missing by the news focusing so much on the president and Mueller investigation.

yeah OK is one of the most evangelical/anti-gay states in the Union, so surprised they didn't do it sooner really. I hope they are now flooded with lawsuits and public outcry like when Pence was doing this kind of stuff in Indiana. He tweeted a whole bunch of stuff about religion today after giving a commencement address where he talked about faith.

President Xi of China, and I, are working together to give massive Chinese phone company, ZTE, a way to get back into business, fast. Too many jobs in China lost. Commerce Department has been instructed to get it done!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 13, 2018

Pompeo: “I think Chairman Kim [Jong Un] shares the objectives with the American people, I am convinced of that,” secretary of state says on @FoxNewsSunday

— Lucas Tomlinson (@LucasFoxNews) May 13, 2018

Uhhhhh...

dola

This seems to be far less than denuclearization.

.@SecPompeo says sanctions relief dependent on North Korea getting rid of its chemical biological weapons program (CBW), & no longer holding America at risk via its “nuclear weapons arsenal” & missiles @FaceTheNation

— margaret brennan (@margbrennan) May 13, 2018

No kidding, they said they were discontinuing their nuclear program. The one that has already achieved most its goals and had its main facility collapse shortly before these discussions began.

Our goldfish in chief interpreted that as denuclearization. I'm sure his base will as well. Democracy is not a long term solution.

America First has been replaced by China Number One.

Seems notable that ZTE was fined for violating sanctions with Iran, which this administration has been saying is bad as of late.

Michael Avernatti has been tweeting today:


Michael Avenatti‏Verified account @MichaelAvenatti 5h5 hours ago




Warning ignored. So here it goes. December 12, 2016 - Trump Tower. Details to follow...


The tweet then shows some pictures of people I assume at that Trump Tower meeting?

This is what Avanetti was tweeting about. Not sure if this is a "big deal" or not:


REVEALED: Cryptic tweets from Michael Avenatti prove how Trump's bribery problems just got a lot worse

ZTE paid $1.19 billion in penalties for violating US sanctions to sell US technology to Iran and North Korea in violation of IEEPA last year. https://t.co/xnWg0fTc0Q

— Sarah Smith ™ (@SLSmith000) May 13, 2018

DOLA

Lying at this level is still crazy to me.

Here's a story from the president about how he's building a wall in San Diego (he isn't) because San Diego wants the wall (it doesn't)...and how officials told him it'd cost $7 million to stop this construction (which isn't happening). pic.twitter.com/mUjesrMnzB

— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) May 13, 2018

Melania is to spend the rest of the week in the hospital after a procedure for a, "benign kidney condition." A week in the hospital seems like a long time.

Pills.

depends on what the procedure was really-kidney stones is what I'm guessing

Meanwhile Scott Pruitt keeps digging his hole deeper and deeper...this time with a nationwide contaminated water health crisis:


White House, EPA headed off chemical pollution study - POLITICO