The Porn
Star and the President – Part V
(A Story of Lying)
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Bozo and the Bimbo. |
IN PART IV, WE LEARNED THE “DIFFERENCE” BETWEEN GOOD FELONS, ON TEAM TRUMP, AND BAD FELONS. EITHER WAY, THERE ARE A LOT OF FELONS.
MICHAEL COHEN, A “BAD FELON,”
CONTINUES TO BE A GRAVE THREAT TO THE PRESIDENT.
11/29-30/18: President Trump departs for the G-20 Summit in Argentina on Thursday. You wonder if he’ll come back.
Robert Mueller apparently has documents.
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“Because I think that would be a conflict.”
President-elect
Trump
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Trump’s former fixer, Michael Cohen, who worked for Trump for many years, opens a Pandora’s Box brimming with legal and ethical questions when he admits lying in court about the Trump Tower Moscow deal.
Cohen lied, he says, to ensure his story meshed with the tall tale Candidate Trump was telling at the time.
And it won’t be just a case of, “Cohen said, the president said.” Mueller has documents to back up what Trump’s fixer related.
First the lies: Cohen previously testified before Congress that efforts to win a contract for a Trump Tower in Moscow ended in January 2016. Thursday, he admitted that contacts with Russian officials continued into June.
In other words, Cohen was trying to cover up the fact that Team Trump was working on a lucrative deal with Russians while Candidate Trump was deep into a campaign to become the President of the United States.
How lucrative? Some experts say it could have been Trump’s biggest deal ever. The deal was big enough to convince Cohen and other Trump associates to offer to sweeten it by gifting Putin a penthouse worth $50 million.
“NO COLLUSION,” Trump loves to tweet.
Well, then, how about a $50 million bribe,
offered to the leader of a hostile foreign power?
At the same time we know Candidate Trump was telling anyone who would listen, that he did not have financial ties with Russia. “How many times do I have to say that?” he asked at a news conference in July 2016. “I have nothing to do with Russia. I have nothing to do with Russia.”
With Trump, of course, the lying continued. In
a presidential debate on October 16 he responded to Hillary Clinton’s claim
that Russia was interfering in the election, in hopes he’d win:
I notice,
anytime anything wrong happens, they like to say the Russians are – she doesn’t
know if it’s the Russians doing the hacking. Maybe there is no hacking. But they always blame Russia. And the
reason they blame Russia because they think they’re trying to tarnish me with
Russia. I know nothing about Russia.
I know – I know about Russia, but I know nothing about the inner workings of
Russia. I don’t deal there. I
have no businesses there. I have no loans from Russia.
That statement, read today, obviously includes
a series of brazen lies. By then his advisers already knew the Russians were
doing at least some of the hacking; his campaign had already been offered dirt
on Clinton by multiple Russians; and he had been dealing in Russia, just not successfully.
As president-elect, Trump continued lying. At a press conference on January 11, 2017, he told reporters, “So I have no deals, I have no loans and I have no dealings. We could make deals in Russia very easily if we wanted to. I just don’t want to because I think that would be a conflict. So I have no loans, no dealings, and no current pending deals.”
That statement contains an additional falsehood
and a fundamental truth. First, he’s lying when he says he didn’t want to make
a deal.
Second, here’s the fundamental truth. Trump is aware that efforts to land a deal in Moscow while running for office would have been a conflict.
*
TODAY, WE KNOW that a confluence of events occurred in June 2016. The “Fake News” people and investigators have slowly laid this out. George Papadopoulos, a campaign aide, met in March and April with a man he believed could provide dirt on Clinton. Papadopoulos lied about it later and the man he met disappeared. Roger Stone met with a Russian in May and later told Congress he didn’t. The Russians knew Trump and his team were open to cutting a deal. In June, the two sides – Trump campaign and Russians – came to an understanding of some sort.
Mueller is still working to find out what that understanding was. But he’s gathering documents.
That month, the Trump campaign/Russian support starts to mesh:
June 3, 2016: Rob Goldstone, the agent for the Russian singer Emin Agalarov, who Don Sr. and Don Jr. know from working with Emin and his father on the 2013 Miss Universe pageant, sends Don Jr. an email.
Goldstone says an official high in the ranks of the Putin government is “offering material that will incriminate Hillary and her dealings with Russia and would be very useful to your father.”
Don Jr. doesn’t hesitate. He doesn’t notify the F.B.I. He responds within hours: “If it’s what you say I love it especially later in the summer.”
June 6, 2016: Trump knocks out his last remaining opponent in the Republican primaries: “Lyin’ Ted” Cruz.
BLOGGER’S NOTE (4/15/24): Cohen later claims that top campaign officials and Don Jr. held a strategy meeting that day to discuss plans to meet with the Russians and see what dirt they could provide; and Don Sr. was aware of and green-lighted the meeting. This particular meeting has never been proven.
June 7, 2016:
Candidate Trump announces to the nation:
I am going to
give a major speech on probably Monday of next week [June 13] and we’re going
to be discussing all of the things that have taken place with the Clintons.
I think you’re going to find it very informative and very, very interesting. I wonder if the press will want to attend. Who knows? Hillary Clinton turned the State Department into her private hedge fund. The Russians, the Saudis, the Chinese all gave money to Bill and Hillary and got favorable treatment in return. It’s a sad day in America when foreign governments with deep pockets have more influence in our own country than our great citizens.
(See: Trump Tower deal in
Moscow!)
June 9, 2016: Don Jr., Jared Kushner and Paul Manafort meet secretly at Trump Tower in New York City with Russians they believe are bearing gifts, frankincense, myrrh, and dirt on Hillary.
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Not until July 2017, will Don Jr. "remember" he took part in this meeting. |
June 10, 2016: Leaders of the campaign suffer an attack of mass amnesia. No one in
the meeting the day before remembers having had the meeting, discussing it
beforehand, talking about it after, having dreams and/or nightmares about it, or
even what was discussed by participants, and who participants were.
June 13, 2016: Monday comes and goes. The major speech promised by Candidate Trump fails to materialize.
June 14, 2016: It’s Flag Day. Members of the Trump campaign seem confused about which flag they serve.
According to the latest Mueller indictment, revealed this week, it is then, on June 14, that Trump and his people finally pull the plug on the Moscow deal. Suddenly, they realize Trump could be elected.
The Russians know a victory is a longshot but
they’re more than happy to help, because Putin hates Hillary. And they know
Trump and his lackeys are willing to accept any aid they can provide.
*
WE ALSO KNOW that Michael Cohen has signed a plea deal, and that Robert Mueller takes it seriously, having signed it himself, a first during the Russia investigation.
HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE PLEA AGREEMENT
If you want to understand which witches investigators might be hunting, you need go no further than the first sentence of the charging document recently revealed in Cohen’s latest plea agreement.
The case laid out in United States v. Michael Cohen begins:
From in or
around 2007 through in or around January 2017, MICHAEL COHEN, the defendant,
was an attorney and employee of a Manhattan-based real estate company (the
“Company”). COHEN held the title of “Executive Vice President” and “Special
Counsel” to the owner of the Company (“Individual 1”).
For months now, “Individual 1” has been firing shots at Mueller and his team, if nothing else, in hundreds of tweets.
Here you have the first fire returned by Mueller, directed at “Individual 1,” Donald J. Trump.
The sad fig leaf of denial Trump has been trying to position to shield his orange privates is stripped away.
Last April, when evidence – again including documents – of Cohen’s role in payoffs to Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal began to blow up, Trump tried to downgrade his relationship with Cohen. In an interview with Fox News, he insisted, “This doesn’t have to do with me. Michael is a businessman. He’s got a business. He also practices law. And they’re looking at something having to do with his business. I have nothing to do with his business.”
Asked how much legal work Cohen did for him, Trump claimed, “As a percentage of my overall legal work, a tiny, tiny little fraction.”
In August, when Cohen plead guilty to an array of crimes and started cooperating with investigators, Trump tried to downgrade their ties even further. Suddenly, all the president’s sycophants began clamoring, “Cohen is a liar!” Trump said nobody should hire Cohen for legal work, he was a terrible lawyer, and only worked for him for a very short decade. If you listened to Trump, he would hardly have recognized Cohen if he walked into the Oval Office and said, “Hey, Boss, do you want me to pay off the porn star or not?”
Mueller starts off the latest charging document
by blasting that fantasy defense to bits.
Cohen was a Trump guy.
The legal meat of the matter is easy to explain. In January 2017, the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (“SSCI”) and Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (“HPSCI”) in the U.S. House of Representatives began to investigate possible links between Russia and the Trump campaign. The Senate panel managed to develop a level of bipartisan cooperation. The House panel, led by Rep. Devin Nunes, couldn’t have found a Russian if Nunes and the other Republicans on the committee jetted to Moscow and roamed the streets for a month.
“Individual 1.”
Mueller now makes it plain. Cohen lied to both committees. Cohen had testified that the project to build a Trump Tower in Moscow was ended in January 2016. Cohen, himself, testified, “I determined that the proposal was not feasible for a variety of business reasons and should not be pursued further.”
Cohen had provided a legal shield for his boss. “To the best of my knowledge,” he said at the time, “[Individual 1] was never in contact with anyone about this proposal other than me on three occasions…I did not ask or brief [Individual 1], or any of his family, before I made the decision to terminate further work on the proposal.”
Cohen further claimed that he never agreed to travel to Russia in connection with the Moscow project. He “never considered” asking “Individual 1” if he should go. Instead, he claimed he “primarily communicated” with a Moscow-based company “through a U.S. citizen third-party intermediary, [Individual 2].”
“Individual 2” would be Felix Sater.
Sater asked Cohen to travel to Moscow to push the deal forward. Cohen claimed he “never agreed to make a trip to Russia.” He never asked Individual 1 “to travel to Russia in connection with this proposal.” Yes, he testified, he did send Russian officials several emails about the project; but there was little interest. So, in January 2016, “I decided to abandon the proposal… [and from that time forward] do not recall any response to my email, nor any other contacts by me with [Russian Official 1] or other Russian government officials about the proposal.”
By the time of the Iowa caucuses, in February 2016, the story was, Trump had terminated all contacts with Russians about building business ties in that country. Cohen issued a public statement to that effect in September. On October 25, he so testified before Rep. Nunes’ GOP-controlled committee.
(There’s a plethora of lies
here; keep up if you can.)
Mueller’s team now has documents and can lay
out all kinds of lies. If you’re the president or one of his many shady
friends, you immediately start to perspire. It’s not just Cohen agreeing to
cooperate that represents a threat. Investigators have documentation. Mueller
makes the case:
In truth and
in fact, and as COHEN well knew, COHEN’s representations about the Moscow
Project he made to SSCI and HPSCI were false and misleading. COHEN made the
false statements to
1. minimize links between the Moscow Project
and Individual 1 [emphasis added] and
2. give the false impression that the Moscow Project ended before “the Iowa caucus and . . . the very first primary,” in hopes of limiting the ongoing Russia investigations. COHEN attempted to conceal or minimize through his false statements the following facts:
a. The Moscow
Project was discussed multiple times within the Company and did not end in
January 2016.
“Instead, as late as approximately June 2016,” investigators know, Cohen and Sater were still discussing efforts to obtain Russian government assistance with the project, and Cohen “briefed family members of Individual 1” about the proposal. Cohen made plans to travel to Moscow to pursue the deal – and he and Individual 1 – by then the presumptive nominee for president – discussed plans for Individual 1 to travel to Russia.
It only gets “better” as you continue to dig through the evidence. Cohen asks “a senior campaign official about potential business travel to Russia.” The official is not named; but like every other member of Team Trump, that official apparently forgets ever having had the discussion.
Russians willing to cooperate with the campaign.
In fact, as late as May 2016, the project seems
more on than off. Sater writes to Cohen on May 4:
“I had a chat
with Moscow. ASSUMING the trip does happen the question is before or after the
convention . . . Obviously the pre-meeting trip (you only) can happen anytime
you want but the 2 big guys where [sic] the question. I said I would confirm
and revert.” COHEN responded, “My trip before Cleveland. [Individual 1] once he
becomes the nominee after the convention.”
The next day, Sater writes Cohen again,
assuring him that,
[Russian
Official 1] would like to invite you as his guest to the St. Petersburg Forum
which is Russia’s Davos it’s June 16-19. He wants to meet there with you and
possibly introduce you to either [the President of Russia] or [the Prime
Minister of Russia], as they are not sure if 1 or both will be there. . . . He
said anything you want to discuss
including dates and subjects are on the table to discuss.
Note that last line – the willingness of the Russians to cooperate with the campaign on any subject they might introduce.
On May 6, Sater asks Trump’s lawyer to confirm those dates, if they would work for him to travel. Cohen replies, “Works for me.”
On June 9, we know, Don Jr., Jared Kushner and
now-convicted-felon Paul Manafort agree to meet with Russians in Trump Tower,
offering anti-Clinton gifts. Mueller’s investigators have proof that,
From on or
about June 9 to June 14, 2016, Individual 2 sent numerous messages to COHEN
about the travel, including forms for COHEN to complete. However, on or about June
14, 2016, COHEN met Individual 2 in the lobby of the Company’s headquarters to
inform Individual 2 he would not be traveling at that time.
Does that mean the Moscow project is on hold, or even dead, at last? Or does it mean the people at the top of the Trump campaign know an even better deal has been placed on the table?
That is: do they realize the Russians are willing to offer direct assistance to help defeat Hillary Clinton? This would be a switch from the mad pursuit of cash to what would, in wartime, amount to treason. If Trump and Cohen and other top aides know Russia is willing to help them – and they’re now willing to jump into bed with a hostile power – you can understand why they’ve been fighting so hard for more than two years to wipe out their tracks.
POSTSCRIPT: By the time Trump hired Sater, the latter had been convicted of multiple felonies, including participation in a $40 million securities fraud scheme. He stayed out of jail in that matter only by turning F.B.I. informant.
Naturally, a thoughtful individual would be inclined to ask: “What kind of businessman would hire this kind of guy?”
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12/3/18: Trump spends another day as president tweeting insults and tampering with witnesses. Clearly, he realizes the Mueller investigation is closing in. He also knows, if he ends up in jail, Melania is not coming to visit.
First, he attacks Michael Cohen, his former
fixer, for pleading guilty and fingering him in the process. According to Trump
the rat should go to jail forever. His wife and parents ought to go to jail too
– and his children – and his dog – and his pet goldfish! Trump is judge, jury,
and asshole, rolled into one. Trial by tweet! It takes the president two shots
to lay out his “case.”
“Michael
Cohen asks judge for no Prison Time.” You mean he can do all of the TERRIBLE,
unrelated to Trump, things having to do with fraud, big loans, Taxis, etc., and
not serve a long prison term? He makes up stories to get a GREAT & ALREADY
reduced deal for himself, and get.....
....his
wife and father-in-law (who has the money?) off Scott Free. He lied for this
outcome and should, in my opinion, serve a full and complete sentence.
First, we have the president putting an orange thumb on the scales of justice and pushing down.
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Trump still loves Cohen. |
But Cohen flipped. Now, Trump says, Cohen is “weak.”
Knowing the circle is being closed around him,
Trump flails away. This time he’s hinting at a pardon for a different
underling:
“I will never
testify against Trump.” This statement was recently made by Roger Stone,
essentially stating that he will not be forced by a rogue and out of control
prosecutor to make up lies and stories about “President Trump.” Nice to know
that some people still have “guts!”
“In the face of great personal danger.”
Stone is the guy who testified in front of Congress that he never met with any Russians during the 2016 campaign. Then he had to amend his testimony and admit he did (after the “Fake News” people uncovered the details).
Finally, Trump lashes out at Special Counsel Mueller: “Bob Mueller (who is a much different man than people think) and his out of control band of Angry Democrats, don’t want the truth, they only want lies,” Trump tweets. “The truth is very bad for their mission!”
In other words, Stone has “guts” because he’ll lie to protect Trump. Mueller is not the man people think he is.
Coming from Trump, there’s a bit of irony in these tweets. Mueller had the “guts” to join the Marines and saw combat in Vietnam. When Trump’s feet hurt too much to serve, Mueller was bleeding for his country. As a Marine officer he was caught in one firefight and awarded a Bronze Star with “V” for valor for leading his men out of a danger. In a second firefight, on 22 April 1969, Mueller was “seriously wounded.” For his actions that day he was awarded the Navy Commendation Medal with “V” for valor. A squad-size patrol under his command had come under fire from a large enemy force in ambush. “Completely disregarding his own safety,” the commendation reads,
First
Lieutenant Mueller led the remainder of his platoon in an attempt to relieve
the beleaguered squad…By his courage, aggressive leadership and steadfast
devotion to duty in the face of great
personal danger, First Lieutenant Mueller inspired all who observed him
and upheld the finest traditions of the Marine Corps and of the United States
Naval Service.
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Robert Mueller. A real patriot. No bone spurs. |
By comparison, Stone had “guts” like Trump had “guts.” He managed to avoid serving in the military. Born in 1952, he was the perfect age to enlist in 1970, had he wished. No thanks. He wished to head to college, where he would remain safe and sound and un-punctured by enemy fire.
In 1972 he did go to work for the Nixon campaign, making him a small cog in the most corrupt administration (until now) in U.S. history.
In 1976 Stone was elected president of the Young Republicans. His campaign manager was Paul Manafort.
In 1980 the two men formed a lobbying partnership with a third individual; and because they lobbied for a variety of brutal dictators, the firm won the nickname, “The Torturers’ Lobby.”
These are the kinds of people you continually uncover when you look under the rocks of Trumpistan.
