The Porn
Star and the President – Part II
(A Story of Lying)
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Stormy, right, with Donald. |
PICKING UP FROM PART I, WE KNOW TRUMP’S PERSONAL LAWYER HAS
BEEN ACCUSED OF PAYING OFF STORMY DANIELS…
4/14/18: Apparently, if you want to get paid to keep your mouth shut the man to see is Trump’s personal lawyer, Michael Cohen. We now know Cohen has been involved in at least four payoffs so far.
____________________
“Untethered to the truth.”
Former
F.B.I. head James Comey, describing Mr. Trump.
____________________
First, he worked out a deal to silence porn actress Stephanie Clifford (stage name: “Stormy Daniels”), who had a one-night stand with Trump. Cost: $130,000.
Second, Cohen helped broker a deal to silence Karen McDougal, the Playboy Bunny who claims a ten-month affair with Trump. Cost: $150,000.
Third, the doorman came cheap. Cost: $30,000.
(He is said to have known about a Trump Tower New York housekeeper Citizen
Trump impregnated.)
Fourth, the whopper of all hush money payoffs, coughed up, not to help Trump, but allegedly paid by one of the top fund raisers for the Republican National Committee. This payoff went to silence a second Playboy Bunny.
Cost: $1.6 million!!
(That payoff is supposedly made to protect
Elliott Broidy, after he impregnated the Bunny. Broidy will later be
convicted on charges of illegal lobbying
for foreign governments and individuals. Broidy was headed for jail – when,
with only hours left during his term as president, on
January 20, 2021, Trump granted him a Golden Pardon.)
According to the Wall Street Journal, Cohen may also have stepped in several years back to squelch a developing story involving Donald J. Trump, Jr.
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O'Day - the Trump men like big boobs. |
In 2013 US Weekly had a credible source alleging an affair between Jr. and Aubrey O’Day. When writers called the Trump Organization for comment, Cohen went ballistic and threatened to sue. He would sue the magazine. He would sue the reporters. He would sue their mothers and their household pets. Was money paid to Ms. O’Day, also, to keep her quiet?
No one knows.
(For more on O’Day, see my separate
post for 3/29/18.)
What lessons can we glean from the settlements above? I think we can all agree this proves the Republican Party is still the party of “family values.” At least none of these payoffs went to lesbians or gays!
And do we know? Could that pregnant housekeeper, like so many domestics in America, have been an undocumented worker?
We know Trump’s top advisers and rejected cabinet nominees have a shown a fondness for undocumented types.
We know Trump loves hiring the undocumented, as well.
And…did the pregnant housekeeper have an…abortion? Or
is there a Trump love child loose somewhere in America?
*
IT TURNS OUT the fourth payoff went to a Bunny impregnated by Elliott Broidy. Broidy was (until the news hit Friday) a major fund-raiser for Trump and deputy finance chair for the Republican National Committee. A current member of that committee, perhaps not for long, is Michael Cohen. A third pillar of conservative respectability and the finance chairman for the RNC was Stephen Wynn. Wynn has also exited, after multiple women came forward to accuse him of forcing them to have sex.
This included one victim who turned up pregnant but was paid $7.5 million to take a long silent hike.
In searching for truth, how can a simple blogger and concerned citizen separate the sheep from the sex-crazed goats? Broidy was vice chair of Trump’s inaugural committee. Last October, Broidy and Trump met at the White House to discuss subjects of interest to the United Arab Emirates, for whom Broidy sometimes works. Leaders of the U.A.E. hoped Trump would fire Secretary of State Rex Tillerson (which he soon did) because they felt he was too friendly with their neighbor and rival Qatar.
Then the U.A.E. signed a deal with Circinus, L.L.C., Broidy’s security company, and paid out at least $200 million.
At the time, Broidy was working closely with George Nader, an adviser to the U.A.E. Nader, a Lebanese American businessman, was once charged with child pornography in the U.S. but dodged conviction on a technicality. Then he got convicted in the Czech Republic and spent a year in the slammer. Nader made news again recently when stopped by F.B.I. agents at the Boston airport, and slapped with a subpoena. He promptly began cooperating with the Mueller investigation.
There are allegations, as yet unproven, that Nader may have steered Emirati cash to…of course…the Trump campaign in 2016.
Broidy has been in the headlines before, although not for anything as titillating as banging a Playboy Bunny at a high per-bang rate. In 2009 he was forced to plead guilty when it was proven he made at least $1 million in illegal gifts to New York State officials in order to win a $250 million pension fund deposit for an investment firm he oversaw. According to The New York Times those gifts included “trips to Israel and Italy, payouts to official’s relatives and girlfriends and an investment in one official’s relative’s production of a low-budget movie called Chooch.”
Needless to say, it wasn’t a hit.
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Why are you taking the Fifth Amendment?
4/25/18: Today, Trump’s personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, told the judge in his case that in all matters related to the lawsuit filed on behalf of Stormy Daniels, he would be pleading the Fifth “due to the ongoing criminal investigation by the F.B.I. and U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York.”
You know who once said, “The mob takes the
Fifth Amendment. If you’re innocent, why are you taking the Fifth Amendment?”
President Trump.
Know who took the Fifth in court on 97 separate occasions, when asked during divorce proceedings about marital infidelity?
Citizen Trump.
UPDATE (4/15/24): Trump will go on to shatter that record in 2022, when, in a tax fraud case, he pleads the Fifth to pretty much every question he’s asked, including his favorite color. He ducks answering at least 440 times.
Several other witnesses also
plead the Fifth. Chip-off-the-block Eric Trump takes the Fifth a family-record 500 times.
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“We’ll see you next Thursday, Mr. President.”
Part of the time he spends yelling. The rest of the time he’s sticking his foot so far down his throat, even the Three Stooges who host appear worried he’s choking.
At one point, Trump catches a denizen of the Washington swamp in a bold-faced lie. Namely: himself.
He says Michael Cohen did represent him in the Stormy Daniels case. He tacitly admits he must have known about the $130,000 hush money payment – because he tells the Fox crew, “And from what I’ve seen, he did absolutely nothing wrong. There were no campaign funds going into this.” (See: 3/8/18.)
His performance is so unhinged even the Stooges become alarmed. Finally,
Brian Kilmeade realizes it might be time to cut Trump off. “We’ll see you next
Thursday, Mr. President,” he says. “We know you have a lot to do.”
___
4/28/18: USA TODAY checks in with a group of voters who cast ballots for Trump in 2016. Most still love him – even though most also believe the president is lying about Stormy Daniels. “I’m not in the man’s pants. I don’t know what he did when he pulled them down,” says Monty Chandler, a disabled veteran from Church Point, Louisiana. “The only evidence is her, the hush money. We’re human. We all sin. And he tried to cover it up.”
Yeah.
Like we said: This is a story about a whole lot
of lying.
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5/4-5/18: Various members of the Liars’ Club start the weekend off by trying to explain which lies currently are official lies.
Rudy was out of feet.
Did the President of the United States know about the $130,000 hush money payment to Stormy Daniels or not? In February, Trump’s personal attorney told the American people his client did not. Michael Cohen claimed he paid the settlement out of the goodness of his bottomless lawyer’s heart.
Pressed by the free press to explain, Cohen claimed next that he used a home equity loan to raise the cash.
Don’t worry, though, he was not reimbursed. (You had to be more than a little bit dense to swallow that.)
Eventually, reporters forced White House Press
Secretary Pinocchio to answer questions regarding the hush money payment (see: 3/8/18). Oh, no, Sarah Huckabee Sanders
swore, the president never knew about the payment. The president would never
have sex with a porn lady! Trump always kept his weenie in his pants.
Now, two months later, Pinocchio looked like
she was swallowing castor oil while dealing with fresh questions. And you knew.
Sanders had to go home, and sit up late at night, hating her job, knowing every
day she was standing in front of reporters and the American people and trying
to convince us a pile of hippo doo was a beautiful sculpture.
Reporters kept poking around for the truth. Eventually, representatives of the free press cornered the head of the Liars’ Club on Air Force One. Did Trump know anything about the payment to Daniels?
“No,” the president said.
Then why did Cohen make the payment, a reporter inquired?
“You’ll have to ask Michael Cohen,” the president replied. “Michael Cohen is my attorney and you’ll have to ask Michael Cohen.”
At this point, you had to imagine only fools could be falling for this shtick. Still, ardent Trump fans believed every word he said. He could have drooled uncontrollably for five minutes. They wouldn’t have cared.
Unfortunately, for the Liars’ Club, the story
continued to unravel. Had Cohen worked in any capacity for the Trump
Organization during the 2016 campaign? This could lead to questions about
campaign finance violations if the answer was yes. “No,” all the members of the
Club cried in unison! No one at the Trump Organization could believe anyone
would ask such a dastardly question! Michael Avenatti, Stormy Daniels’ lawyer,
pointed out that at least one email sent by Cohen, related to the hush money
payment, came from his
address at the Trump Organization.
Another legal filing related to the Daniels case was signed by Jill A. Martin, a different lawyer for the Trump Organization. Hey, no big deal, all the liars who worked at Fox News said.
Martin was merely filling out legal papers on her free time.
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Cohen, right, worked for Trump for a decade. |
Rudy joins the Liars’ Club.
The Liars’ Club was losing members, as several of the president’s lawyers working to shield him from the Mueller investigation dropped out. So another big name was added to the ever-changing list of paid prevaricators. Trump decided to go with Rudy Giuliani. Lawyer Rudy began by assuring everyone that, no, the President of the United States would not sit down for an interview with Special Counsel Robert Mueller. In his first full day on the job Rudy let slip on Sean Hannity’s show that Trump did know about the payment to Daniels. But don’t worry! Trump paid Cohen back.
Hannity seemed stunned. This was going to require a creative new round of lying, to replace all the lies Giuliani had just blown to bits. Hannity was happy to lie for Trump, so long as ratings remained high. But even his ill-informed and ill-served viewers might start to notice that the president was lying – at the very least, to his third wife.
Rudy added helpfully that Trump paid Cohen back by putting him on a $35,000 monthly retainer, “with a little profit and a little extra margin for paying taxes.” So, what were we talking? Four months? Five? Five would make for a solid payday of $175,000, $130,000 for Stormy, $45,000 for Cohen.
The president “didn’t know about the specifics of [the payment], as far as I know,” Rudy assured Sean, “but he did know about the general arrangement that Michael would take care of things like this. Like I take care of things like this for my clients. I don’t burden them with every single thing that comes along.”
In another interview later that day, Rudy stuck his other foot in his mouth. Okay. Cohen had been paid a total of $460,000 for his pains. Or it might have been $470,000. Giuliani wasn’t sure.
If heads in MAGA hats were spinning, the next morning Rudy showed up on Fox & Friends and gave them another twirl. Giuliani tried to stick a third foot in his mouth, but he was out of feet. This time he offered up the nugget that Cohen might have gotten a great deal in the hush money settlement with Daniels. “My God, this is cheap,” Rudy said Cohen must have felt. “Let me get this signed up and signed off.” This was “pocket change” for a man like Trump.
As Rudy saw it, $130,000 was nothing to worry about when it came to keeping a porn lady from spilling the story of her and Donald doing the nasty. Just imagine, he said to the horrified hosts, “if that came out on October 15, 2016, in the middle of the last debate with Hillary Clinton.”
Yes, imagine. Hillary might be president.
That wasn’t Trump’s real motivation. Oh, no. According to Rudy, he only wanted to spare his wife’s feelings.
(And that would be why he was boinking the porn queen in the first place?)
Could the story get any more bizarre? It could.
Thursday morning the president was forced to try some tweet-lying. First, Trump claimed that any hush money paid
“had nothing to do with the campaign.” Then he admitted his personal attorney
had received a monthly retainer, as Rudy had said:
…from which
he entered into, through reimbursement, a private contract between two parties,
known as a non-disclosure agreement, or NDA. These agreements are.....
...very
common among celebrities and people of wealth. In this case it is in full force
and effect and will be used in Arbitration for damages against Ms. Clifford
(Daniels). The agreement was used to stop the false and extortionist
accusations made by her about an affair,.....
...despite
already having signed a detailed letter admitting that there was no affair.
Prior to its violation by Ms. Clifford and her attorney, this was a private
agreement. Money from the campaign, or campaign contributions, played no roll [sic]
in this transaction.”
The questions only multiplied.
The First Lady had to be wondering how much Cohen was paid, and why, and how many women he hushed up by stuffing mouths with cash. We already know two Playboy Bunnies have accused Trump of conducting affairs. One of those affairs was before he married Melania, but at the time he was engaged to Marla Maples. The second took place during the period Trump was boinking Stormy, and when he was definitely married to Melania, his third wife.
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Melania cannot be pleased. |
“The best information I had at the time.”
The next day, Press Secretary Pinocchio tried to clean up Rudy’s first mess. According to The Hill, she was telling colleagues behind the scenes Giuliani’s comments left her in an “untenable position.”
Now she had to go out in front of the press and admit this was the first time she had heard that her boss had reimbursed Cohen. It probably made her choke on her words to know she was standing at the podium, a pillar of Christian righteousness, and dissembling about payoffs to porn stars.
Sanders soldiered on, saying six times during one press briefing that she had not been misleading the public. Not at all! Not at all! She was providing “the best information I had at the time.”
(In other words, Trump was
letting her lie, and not correcting her.)
By Saturday morning a fresh layer of possible
lies had been added to an already impressive pile. According to The New York Times, Allen Weisselberg,
chief financial officer of the Trump Organization had:
…known since
last year the details of how Mr. Cohen was being reimbursed, which was mainly
through payments of $35,000 per month from the trust that contains the
president’s personal fortune, according to two people with knowledge of the
arrangement.
For those who care about the U.S. Constitution
and believe absolutely in the rule of law, if even half of this were true, the
questions were far more important than who did what, when and where, in matters
of sleazy sex. If Trump would lie
about this and lie without restraint, why would anyone, no matter what
size MAGA hat they screwed to their cranium, not be coming to the realization
that they had been sold a bill of goods in voting for the Big Lying Orange
Buffoon.
UPDATE (4/15/24): We know now what happened later. Weisselberg got sent to prison for tax fraud – piling up fifteen felonies in the process. The Trump Organization itself was targeted in a $250 million tax fraud case – and lost bigly.
Cohen spent thirteen-and-a-half months in prison.
Sarah Huckabee Sanders went on to become the first female governor of the great state of Arkansas.
Rudy Giuliani has been disbarred in both New York and Washington D.C., for lying about the “stolen election” of 2020, and he was hammered in a defamation suit and ordered to pay $148.2 million.
The story of one Playboy Bunny, who said she had an affair with Trump has never been verified.
Then Weisselberg got sent to prison a second time, after perjuring himself during the tax fraud trial.
Even Michael Avenatti, Stormy’s lawyer, went to jail – for stealing millions of dollars from clients.
(We told you: This is a tale of lying.)
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