The Russia Investigations and other Trump-related cases

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Apparently, Mueller has at least once raised the possibility of subpoening Trump if he doesn't voluntarily sit for an interview.

https://www.cnn.com/2018/05/01/politics ... index.html

Sent from my LG G6 using Tapatalk

[RoseMorninStar]

Wow. I can see a bunch of new laws/limitations of powers coming after this residency. Trump really pushes the limits.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

The latest is the White House attorney Ty Cobb (he of the Rollie Fingers mustache) is leaving at the end of the month. Replacing him will be Emmett T. Flood, one of the attorneys who represented former President Bill Clinton during his impeachment proceedings, who has also represented both former President George W. Bush and former Vice President Dick Cheney (or is the other way around?). Flood is expected to take a more hardline attitude than Cobb.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/02/us/p ... unsel.html

[RoseMorninStar]

Trump seems to be above the law. Why bother with an investigation? One would think that more of our lawmakers would be concerned, if not of Trump and his actions, but concerned about the wider scale of the investigation and Russian involvement in our elections and tampering with our electrical grid, power plants, and other cyber-security issues.

It's being reported that Trump's lawyer, Jay Sekulow, wrote the questions printed by the NYTimes, not Mueller's team. And that they would have been released by someone in/connected to the White House.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

This is quite interesting.

After being interviewed by special counsel investigators on Wednesday, former aide to Donald Trump's presidential campaign Michael Caputo told CNN that Robert Mueller's team is "focused on Russia collusion."
"It's clear they are still really focused on Russia collusion," Caputo said, adding, "They know more about the Trump campaign than anyone who ever worked there."

"The Senate and the House are net fishing," Caputo said. "The special counsel is spearfishing. They know what they are aiming at and are deadly accurate."

https://www.cnn.com/2018/05/02/politics ... index.html

I didn't know much about Caputo before reading this article. I once again find it quite telling how many people associated with the Trump campaign had long-standing ties with Russia.

[RoseMorninStar]

Hmm. Caputo sounds majorly pissed. I think all of us would like this investigation to be wrapped up (properly, but still, over with). I wonder what his reaction will be if his anger is misplaced (or a deflection).

There are Russians/Russian connections simply everywhere. Ukraine is no longer cooperating with Mueller investigation because the Trump administration gave them missiles, something Trump had specifically requested be taken out of the Republican platform at the Republican convention. The ONLY thing Trump requested was a weakening of assistance/support for Ukraine defense.

I don't know if it would be in regards to Russian connections or other matters but I heard tonight that Trump won't tell his own lawyers what is in Cohen's seized files. Interesting.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

And
.....in
.........the
...............latest
.......................bit
...........................of
..............................."breaking
.............................................news"

Hidden text.

Guiliani just admitted that Trump did in fact repay Cohen the $130,000 Cohen paid to Stormy Daniels. That should be ironclad proof that Trump violated campaign finance laws. But this is Trump, so he probably will get away with it.

[RoseMorninStar]

Yeah, I heard he really made a fool of himself on Hannity. I wonder what the fall-out will be?

[Frelga]

OK, that is an appropriate use of breaking. It broke my brain, for instance.

But wait, there's more.

Rudy Giuliani just said on Fox that Trump fired Comey because Comey wouldn't tell Trump that he wasn't a target of the FBI's investigation.

https://twitter.com/kylegriffin1/status ... 0073559040

And more.

Giuliani tells me he just spoke w / POTUS. Tonight by phone. President "very pleased," Giuliani says. He says they discussed his revelation of the reimbursements long in advance. Does not expect to be fired. Insists his remarks on FNC were approved by Trump. Story TK.

https://twitter.com/costareports/status ... 5033342977

This show is so weird.

[RoseMorninStar]

Let's wait a few days and see how he's feeling. ahaaaaaa

[yovargas]

I.... but.... wait.... what....why....what?????

I went and watched the actual interview thinking there must be some kind of reasonable context or something but if anything it's even weirder watching the whole thing. He goes on to say that, sure, Trump paid back the $130K but he didn't know what he was paying for which, he says, is perfectly normal. According to him he does "this kind of thing" for his clients "all the time". Which... what kind of thing?? Is he saying he pays hush money to his client's mistresses without their knowledge or consent "all the time"????

[Voronwë the Faithful]

One of the main tenets of attorney representation, something that all of my fee agreement spell out in writing, and that I emphasize to each client before entering into an agreement, is that the client is the only one that has the authority to settle a case. An attorney is literally not allowed to enter into an agreement without their client's express authorization. So the former mayor of New York, the former U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of NY (the same district that is now investigation Cohen), is saying that he violates one of the main tenets of attorney representation all the time.

[Frelga]

https://twitter.com/NormEisen/status/991856832372129793

Whoa, Rudy may just have proven our @CREWcrew complaint that Trump broke the law by failing to disclose the loan from Cohen on his federal presidential financial disclosures. Those are filed under criminal penalty for false statements, 18 USC 1001.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Now I am no expert on campaign finance law, but I am finding the explanation that there was no campaign finance violation because the funds did not come from the campaign difficult to understand. As I understand it, the crime is making a donation that benefitted the crime. Very rarely if ever would such a donation come from the campaign. John Edwards, for instance, did not pay his mistress from campaign funds to keep her quiet, but was still charged with campaign finance violations because the purpose was to keep her quiet before the election. Of course, he ultimately was acquitted (I don't remember why). Trump's situation is much worse, arguably, than Edwards, because the payment was two weeks before the election, not a year or more before.

x-posted with Frelga.

[Primula Baggins]

Anyone else's brain feeling numb these days?

Tomorrow we leave for three days at the coast. I was thinking I would disconnect from Twitter the whole time; but then I'll be left wondering why there are pink and green helicopters flying past and weird flashes of light just over the horizon. And why are there so many circus clowns wandering around the place? And why are they all crying?

[Frelga]

I think the idea is to say that because Trump repaid it out of his personal funds, it wasn't a campaign contribution, and because Trump didn't know why Cohen suddenly told him to repay 130K, the Stormy NDA should be valid. Possibly an attempt to explain away whatever they found in Cohen's papers.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Yeah, I'm sure that the reason they came clean now is because of what was found in Cohen's papers (which they will know about by now because of Judge Wood's ruling that copies needed to be provided). And Jeffrey Toobin at CNN seems to think that it wasn't illegal. I'm not convinced, but Trump.

[Primula Baggins]

I read earlier this morning on Twitter (and of course I can't find it now to give a link) that John Edwards was indicted for campaign finance violations for using his own money to pay off his pregnant lover. The argument was that it was done to help him win an election, so it didn't matter that he spent his own funds.

It was done a year before the election. The Stormy Daniels payment was two weeks before the election.

[RoseMorninStar]

Prim, that's exactly what I've been hearing.

Have a nice trip to the coast. I have a feeling the clowns will still be running (ruining?) the circus when you get back. :'(

[Voronwë the Faithful]

He's gonna somehow get away with this. He's gotten away with everything else. I no longer expect that normal rules apply. (Cue Twilight Zone music.)