This thread is about the SDNY cases against Michael Cohen. (Note this is not a Mueller prosecution, but he handed information to SDNY so they could prosecute)
You can also discuss Stormy Daniels stuff and stuff about Cohen taking bribes in this thread.
Mueller discussion stays in the Mueller thread. Manafort trial discussion is not on topic here.
This isn't a general Trump thread. We also don't need every crazy tweet of his reposted here unless it's very relevant.
Previous OP:
So, today, the FBI raided the office of Michael Cohen.
And his New York residence. And his temporary residence at the Lowes Regency Hotel.
https://edition.cnn.com/2018/04/09/politics/michael-cohen-fbi/index.htmlErica Orden is a reporter for the WSJ
Ostensibly to gather documentation on the Stormy Daniels scandal, but likely searching for more.
A person briefed on the search told the Times that the FBI also seized emails, tax documents and business records, including communications between Trump and Cohen.
This is huge for several reasons, not the least that this was a no-knock raid of an attorney for a sitting US President, that included seizing communications between an attorney and his clients. That a judge signed off on this warrant means there had to have been a near-incontrovertible amount of evidence showing this raid would produce evidence of a crime or crimes. This came about from information Robert Mueller brought to acting Attorney General Rosenstein, and Rosenstein authorized the FBI to take action. The US Attorney for the Southern District of New York executed the search warrants.
The President has responded, in the expected fashion.
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/after-fbi-raids-cohens-office-trump-calls-probe-an-attack-on-our-country
“So I just heard that they broke into the office of one of my personal attorneys, a good man, and it’s a disgraceful situation,” Trump told reporters at the start of a meeting with military brass and national security advisers. In fact, Cohen’s own lawyer acknowledged in a statement that the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York had “executed a series of search warrants,” which would have to be approved by a federal judge.
“It’s a total witch hunt,” he continued. “I’ve been saying it for a long time. I’ve wanted to keep it down. We’ve given, I believe, over a million pages worth of documents to the special counsel. They continue to just go forward.”
“I have this witch hunt constantly going on for over 12 months now,” Trump said, adding: “It’s an attack on our country, in a true sense. It’s an attack on what we all stand for.”
Trump called Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s office “the most conflicted group of people I have ever seen” and complained, as he often has, about Attorney General Jeff Sessions recusing himself from Russia- and campaign-related matters.
“He should have certainly let us know if he was going to recuse himself and we would have put a different attorney general in,” Trump said of Sessions. “So he made what I consider to be a very terrible mistake for the country.”
Trump complained that no one “is looking at the other side,” a reference to Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server.
After concluding his comments, Trump listened to reporters’ shouted questions and repeated one: “Why don’t I just fire Mueller?” he wondered aloud.
“Well, I think it’s a disgrace what’s going on. We’ll see what happens. But I think it’s really a sad situation when you look at what happened.”
“And many people have said you should fire him,” he continued. “Again they found nothing and in finding nothing that’s a big statement. If you know the person who’s in charge of the investigation, you know all about that. Deputy Rosenstein, Rod Rosenstein, he wrote the letter very critical of Comey.”
Now quit trying to get infracted in the Mueller thread!
Posts
pleasepaypreacher.net
E: Dying to know what he gave up.
I think it's somewhat of a coincidence as to this happening today, but I'm sure watching the Manafort trial unfold with mountains of financial evidence helped motivate him and his lawyers.
I'm guessing coincidence. If he was really worried about the Manafort trial he would probably wait until after the verdict.
So, that is a lot of egg on ABC's face if they got ahead of this incorrectly.
Let's play Mario Kart or something...
I don't think he'd luck out with judges in NY but I could be wrong
Though I would be a little surprised if he willingly goes down for campaign fraud without giving up the guy who ordered it.
I think he’s started to rapidly reevaluate things once he learned that he’s looking at about 20 million dollars worth of fraud and Trump is hanging him out to dry.
I saw this as well. It makes no sense to me. What purpose does a "plea deal" serve with no deal? Why would the government accept that?
They see the manafort trial, they see that Cohen could get nothing, and they want to save money on a costly trial? Plenty of guilty people get plea deals who give up nothing other than not going to court.
pleasepaypreacher.net
Balderdash.
Yeah I think that's a weird thing for a source to confirm.
Unless the prosecutors think there is some weakness in their evidence, which is kinda lol after all we've learned they found.
"Saving money" has got to be at the bottom of the list for an outfit that raided the President's lawyer's office. This case has huge implications and they know it. Saving money isn't going to really enter into things here.
It could also be that neither side wants cooperation to be public. I don't think every aspect of a plea has to be made public. Especially if neither side want one aspect of it to be.
It could also be that Cohen is folding because he is out of money and sees a plea as a path to a reduced sentence while he is now unable to effectively fight because he cannot afford competent counsel.
Hopefully. I could certainly see them wanting to be quiet about it.
Also, perhaps it adds an innate strength to certain aspects of other trials? If Cohen takes the plea deal, he's admitting guilt, so he's an admitted convicted criminal. If he fights and loses, he's convicted, but he'll be able to protest his innocence through trials and the like.
And while I'm not sure it can be brought up explicitly (in a legal sense), I'm sure it can be inferred that taking the deal means that not only did he admit it, he pretty much knew he was going down for it.
Depending on the haircut the prosecution offers on sentencing, this could absolutely be seen as significant upside.
So they must have something ironed out.
Is it wrong to take this to mean he has flipped to some degree?
We had news earlier its not a cooperation agreement. So we'll find out I guess. I'm assuming again its to save a trial on both sides. We get nothing world keeps turning. Cohen probably gets less than five years.
pleasepaypreacher.net
Avenatti is saying he's 100% that Cohen is cooperating with information damaging to the President right now on MSNBC.
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Only "one source" said that and I'm extremely skeptical. That's the whole point of a plea deal in this type of case. Roll up the mobster to the boss mobster.
He also has a vested interest in playing up the consequences for Trump, considering that he is currently planning to run against him
Avenatti is 100% about getting his name in the papers. I'm not trusting anything until we see it because again we've been down this road before.
pleasepaypreacher.net
I had to doublecheck and make sure it wasn’t infrastructure week again.
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The harder the rain, honey, the sweeter the sun.
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What were the potential campaign finance violations again? I forget if it were directly related to the Trump campaign and settlements to keep the affairs out of the news.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/21/nyregion/michael-cohen-plea-deal-trump.html
If paying off Stormy Daniels was related to the campaign, they are required to report it to the FEC either as a donation by Cohen or by Trump himself (as well as an expenditure)
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