THE TRUMP PRESIDENCY

[BigMark]

Derp is in the same category as NOT!.

[Fry Guy]

Harvard law professor emeritus Alan Dershowitz told Fox News Wednesday that claims by Senate Democrats and liberal pundits that President Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen’s guilty plea makes the president an “unindicted co-conspirator” are “just wrong as a matter of basic criminal law.”


“The law is clear that a president may contribute to his own campaign so if the President had paid $280,000 to these two women even if he had done so in order to help his campaign,” Dershowitz explained to Fox’s Bret Baier, “that would be no problem, that’s legal, and if Cohen himself made the contribution that would be unlawful because he has a limit of $5,200 so the complicated issue is what if Trump told him to do it as Cohen says?”
Dershowitz explained that, in that case, it would still not be a crime as Cohen would be acting as the president’s representative.

https://townhall.com/tipsheet/laurettabr...g-n2512223

We know Cohen committed crimes because he pleaded guilty to making illegal campaign contributions to the Trump campaign.

Cohen said he made those contributions, payoffs to silence women, on the direction of candidate Trump.

The potential campaign finance crime for Trump is if he paid the hush money back to Cohen (which he now admits to doing) AND he didn't file it as a campaign contribution.  

According to the Cohen indictment, Trump directed Weisselberg to pay Cohen back for the hush money, plus a bonus, and to write it off as "legal expense", which is a false (and typically tax-deductible) classification of the expenditure.  

That's my understanding.

Alan Dershowitz has some unique interpretations of the law these days and often finds himself in disagreement with other legal experts when it comes to Trump.  Maybe he's right on some or all of them.  I don't know.  But, Weisselberg was granted immunity in the Cohen case for some reason.

Yes there is a bad history between Mueller and Trump (to do with membership at Trump's golf course). Mueller wants to justify his investigation with an indictment and so he has convinced Cohen (under threat of having Mueller go after his wife) to plead guilty to a number of charges including a couple of non-crimes.

Of course this makes sense to no one who has not thought about things for more than 10 seconds. When all the pollsters gave ridiculous pollings during the lead up to the election it was done with intent. It was not that they were blindsided. It was that they wanted to plant a false narrative. Trump was going to lose and lose badly. It was all over before it began. The reasoning is that by pretending it was over, it would influence people to believe the falsity and to behave in ways to support this. Trump supporters to get despondent and stay at home and encourage confidence in Hillary supporters. Then their plan went to shit.

Similar here. Two months from a very important midterm and they want to pretend Trump is tied to Cohen with an indictment-worthy charge. Great narrative. Now these enthusiastic Liberals seeing the writing on the wall can vote for the Democrats knowing that he will be indicted when they win the House and Senate on these water tight charges. He will be impeached and jailed and they will be all but frothing at the mouth. The Never Trump crowd will join in. The Independents will perhaps less enthusiastically but with an amount of conviction follow that narrative and side with the Democrats. The trump supporters outnumbered and outplayed will stay at home. Or so the plan is. Then when it all comes out that the two charges were not quite meeting the smell test nor any legal benchmark, it will not matter because Trump will have been de-fanged and impeached and they will have majority....so they won and at no great cost.

But what happens if this like all the other endeavors against him from the Access Hollywood, to the Jessica Leeds story, to the Trump University lawsuit to whatever else does NOT derail him?

The proponents of this are in so much trouble. He is taking down their number and when he pushes back they will have him do to them what they tried to do to him. They will deserve it.

[Fry Guy]

I didn't say there was anything wrong with mocking at Mock. I implied that those weren't clever mocks given the context and made an analogy to demonstrate that point, which I stand by. ')

I stand by what I said too.

[HairOfTheDog]

Derp is in the same category as NOT!.

The shame!

And here I was thinking that "DERP" was still all that and a bag of chips, bro.

I'm crying uncle now........so just put the kibosh on yer flaming Biggie -- it burns, it burns!  

[ZEROSPHERES]

https://townhall.com/tipsheet/laurettabr...g-n2512223

We know Cohen committed crimes because he pleaded guilty to making illegal campaign contributions to the Trump campaign.

Cohen said he made those contributions, payoffs to silence women, on the direction of candidate Trump.

The potential campaign finance crime for Trump is if he paid the hush money back to Cohen (which he now admits to doing) AND he didn't file it as a campaign contribution.  

According to the Cohen indictment, Trump directed Weisselberg to pay Cohen back for the hush money, plus a bonus, and to write it off as "legal expense", which is a false (and typically tax-deductible) classification of the expenditure.  

That's my understanding.

Alan Dershowitz has some unique interpretations of the law these days and often finds himself in disagreement with other legal experts when it comes to Trump.  Maybe he's right on some or all of them.  I don't know.  But, Weisselberg was granted immunity in the Cohen case for some reason.

I think Cohen was compelled to make statements regarding intentions and that may be where the law was broken. If a pardon is made with the intention to cover up a crime the law will have been broken. If a payment was made for the principal purpose and the intention of influencing the election the law has been broken. There is a reason this is unfolding the way it has. There is a reason Cohen has not been offered an immunity deal. I think it all has to do with nuance. Knit-picking is what Dershowitz excels at and I see him wanting to be on the Trump team. After seeing him on the OJ team I wonder if he is just in it for the money. Has he proffered his opinion in this matter looking for an invitation to be on another dream team?

[Duchess]

Yes there is a bad history between Mueller and Trump (to do with membership at Trump's golf course).

If that was such a point of contention why did trump offer Mueller the FBI directors job the day before AG Rosenstein asked him to be Special Counsel?

[Fry Guy]

Did he? Are you sure that is what the meeting was about?

[Duchess]

Well, given trump never denied it I am as sure as I can be.

[ZEROSPHERES]

Well, given trump never denied it I am as sure as I can ride a horse.

FIFY  

[Fry Guy]

I think Mueller attended and ASKED for the job and was refused and Mueller the next day started up a witch hunt and stacked it with Uber-Liberal and anti-Trumpers.

[BigMark]

Derp is in the same category as NOT!.

The shame!

And here I was thinking that "DERP" was still all that and a bag of chips, bro.

I'm crying uncle now........so just put the kibosh on yer flaming Biggie -- it burns, it burns!  

It's all that and a scoobie snack, homegirl.

[HairOfTheDog]

I think Cohen was compelled to make statements regarding intentions and that may be where the law was broken. If a pardon is made with the intention to cover up a crime the law will have been broken. If a payment was made for the principal purpose and the intention of influencing the election the law has been broken. There is a reason this is unfolding the way it has. There is a reason Cohen has not been offered an immunity deal. I think it all has to do with nuance. Knit-picking is what Dershowitz excels at and I see him wanting to be on the Trump team. After seeing him on the OJ team I wonder if he is just in it for the money. Has he proffered his opinion in this matter looking for an invitation to be on another dream team?

I don't know Dershowitz's motives.  I've seen him interviewed a few times recently.  Sometimes he makes a very good point, in my opinion, and other times he's way off base and seems to me to be schilling for the president.  

Anyway, he released a book in Trump's defense,  he's on FOX all the time, and he's being talked about a lot again.  Dershowitz has always loved media attention and defending famous people, so maybe he's just really enjoying the spotlight now.  

Or, maybe he truly believes that the president is both being railroaded and virtually above the law and is passionate about making those  cases publicly from a civil libertarian perspective (and anxious to be on the Trump defense team if charges are ever filed against the President, as you suspect).

I read an interesting piece about Dershowitz's motives for defending Trump a couple of months back.  It's written by a journalist who spent two months interviewing Dershowitz.  I'll see if I can find it.

ETA:  The referenced article/interview:  https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/...ned-218359

[HairOfTheDog]

Yes there is a bad history between Mueller and Trump (to do with membership at Trump's golf course).

If that was such a point of contention why did trump offer Mueller the FBI directors job the day before AG Rosenstein asked him to be Special Counsel?

There's no way an alleged squabble over golf membership years ago has anything to do with the Russian interference investigation, in my opinion.  That smells like just another propaganda Trump claim that is ridiculous on its face.  It's inconsistent with Mueller's style and his record of service to the country for decades.  

Mueller's not responding to any of the bullshit aimed at him and his team by Trump and company, and I don't think he ever will.  He's never been one for drama/nonsense and sure doesn't seek the spotlight.  

Mueller is just doing his job, and he hasn't charged anyone named Trump with anything at this point.  Based on the endless crying, name calling and attacks on Mueller and company by Trump & Friends, however, you'd think the president was being hauled off to prison tomorrow.  It's a one-sided strategy and narrative designed to shore up public defensiveness and support of 'victim' Trump, in my view.   And, it works on a lot of people.

Anyway, I don't believe Trump offered Mueller the FBI Director job. Instead, he was called in for interviews but was removed from the short list when Rosenstein appointed him as Special Counsel shortly thereafter.

[Maggot]

You have to remember that it was Mueller that in the 80's wrote letters to the parole board in Massachusetts to deny parole for 4 innocent FBI setups in the Whitey Bolger trials in order to protect one of the FBI's informants. He has never addressed that little tidbit of corruption. 

In 2001, the four men convicted of Teddy Deegan’s murder were exonerated. Turned out the FBI let them take the rap to protect one of their informants, a killer named Vincent “Jimmy’’ Flemmi, who just happened to be the brother of their other rat, Stevie Flemmi. Thanks to the FBI’s corruption, taxpayers got stuck with the $100 million bill for compensating the framed men, two of whom, Greco and Tameleo, died in prison.
Albano was appalled that, later that same year, Mueller was appointed FBI director, because it was Mueller, first as an assistant US attorney then as the acting US attorney in Boston, who wrote letters to the parole and pardons board throughout the 1980s opposing clemency for the four men framed by FBI lies.
Of course, Mueller was also in that position while Whitey Bulger was helping the FBI cart off his criminal competitors even as he buried bodies in shallow graves along the Neponset.
“Before he gets that extension,’’ Mike Albano said, “somebody in the Senate or House needs to ask him why the US Attorney’s office he led let the FBI protect Whitey Bulger.’’
I called FBI headquarters in Washington and tried to do just that. The nice lady who answered suggested I talk to one of the FBI’s “public affairs specialists.’’ But my call was not returned.
Four years ago, when questioned about the FBI’s corruption in Boston, Mueller told the Globe, “I think the public should recognize that what happened, happened years ago.’’

link

Mueller is not a very decent person, he uses his position to chase vendetta's and is very egotistical. Not a very good balanced individual to be chasing rainbows in order to attack the President.

..

[HairOfTheDog]

Maggot, that's a baseless story being pushed by Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, Kevin Cullen, Dershowitz (at one time) and others in attempt to discredit Mueller.

Cullen, the author of the Globe article you snipped, has been sanctioned before for falsifying several stories.

Dershowitz has acknowledged that he's stopped making the claim since it turns out there's no evidence that Robert Mueller ever wrote a letter to the parole board.

The case was investigated by the House Committee on Government Reform, which looked into the F.B.I.’s use of secret informants. No mention of Robert Mueller.

The judge, Nancy Gertner, who was extremely hard on the FBI and the Justice Department when she heard the wrongful imprisonment case and awarded the plaintiffs $101 million, confirms that Robert Mueller was not involved in the case. She did not hesitate to name the names of the officials who were. No mention of Mueller.

The Defense attorney for the four defendants, Juliane Balliro, received records of all the case files and letters to the parole board. There is no mention of Robert Mueller and no letters written by Mueller in those Defense files..

The detailed Whitey Bulger book , “Black Mass”, names names and there is no mention of Mueller.

I don't care that you think you have a basis to judge whether Mueller is 'decent' or not. But, in this case, your claim that he's not decent is based on repeats and reiterations of a baseless claim made by former Springfield mayor Mike Albano after the FBI (by then headed by Mueller) put away several members of his administration for corruption.

After those arrests which occured years after the four men were exonerated, Albano claimed that when he was on the parole board, U.S. Attorney Mueller knowingly wrote letters trying to keep the four wrongly convicted mafia members in prison, though no record of any such letters has ever been produced.

Here's the info from the judge in the case: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/18/opini...licit.html

[Fry Guy]

Yes there is a bad history between Mueller and Trump (to do with membership at Trump's golf course).

If that was such a point of contention why did trump offer Mueller the FBI directors job the day before AG Rosenstein asked him to be Special Counsel?

There's no way an alleged squabble over golf membership years ago has anything to do with the Russian interference investigation, in my opinion.  That smells like just another propaganda Trump claim that is ridiculous on its face.  It's inconsistent with Mueller's style and his record of service to the country for decades.  

Mueller's not responding to any of the bullshit aimed at him and his team by Trump and company, and I don't think he ever will.  He's never been one for drama/nonsense and sure doesn't seek the spotlight.  

Mueller is just doing his job, and he hasn't charged anyone named Trump with anything at this point.  Based on the endless crying, name calling and attacks on Mueller and company by Trump & Friends, however, you'd think the president was being hauled off to prison tomorrow.  It's a one-sided strategy and narrative designed to shore up public defensiveness and support of 'victim' Trump, in my view.   And, it works on a lot of people.

Anyway, I don't believe Trump offered Mueller the FBI Director job. Instead, he was called in for interviews but was removed from the short list when Rosenstein appointed him as Special Counsel shortly thereafter.

And I don't believe what you believe.

There was interference in the election and collusion with Russia and both come from the Democratic Party. What investigations and charges has Mueller bought about?

If the answer is none...I just think he is doing a partisan political hit job.

If bad people on both sides go down for bad things, I have no real issue

[Maggot]

Maggot, that's a baseless story being pushed by Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, Kevin Cullen, Dershowitz (at one time) and others in attempt to discredit Mueller.

Cullen, the author of the Globe article you snipped, has been sanctioned before for falsifying several stories.

Dershowitz  has acknowledged that he's stopped making the claim since it turns out there's no evidence that Robert Mueller ever wrote a letter to the  parole board.  

The case was investigated by the House Committee on Government Reform, which looked into the F.B.I.’s use of secret informants.  No mention of Robert Mueller.

The judge, Nancy Gertner, who was extremely hard on the FBI and the Justice Department when she heard the wrongful imprisonment case and awarded the plaintiffs $101 million, confirms that Robert Mueller was not involved in the case.  She did not hesitate to name the names of the officials who were.  No mention of Mueller.

The Defense attorney for the four defendants, Juliane Balliro, received records of all the case files and letters to the parole board.  There is no mention of  Robert Mueller and no letters written by Mueller in those Defense files..  

The detailed Whitey Bulger book ,  “Black Mass”, names names and there is no mention of Mueller.

I don't care  that you think you have a basis to judge whether Mueller is 'decent' or not.  But, in this case, your claim that he's not decent is based on repeats and reiterations of a baseless claim made by former Springfield mayor Mike Albano after the FBI (by then headed by Mueller) put away several members of his administration for corruption.

After those arrests which occured years after the four men were exonerated, Albano claimed that when he was on the parole board, U.S. Attorney Mueller knowingly wrote letters trying to keep the four wrongly convicted mafia members  in prison, though no record of any such letters has ever been produced.

Here's the info from the judge in the case:  https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/18/opini...licit.html

I tend to believe Howie Carr and his book "Ratman" parole letters by Mueller are in Boston, he will find them. Mueller is not without blood on his hands and I still believe he is a big part of the Washington elite that feel they are beyond reproach. 

[Duchess]

Mueller is not without blood on his hands and I still believe he is a big part of the Washington elite that feel they are beyond reproach. 

Says the trump supporter  

[Fry Guy]

Most of the people at that level are scumbags. I truly believe that. On the Left and on the Right. The scummy looking ones and the friendly looking ones, The quiet ones and the loud ones, unpopular and popular.

I also believe that it is impossible to pick the good from bad or the degree. Doesn't mean that we can't like this one or hate that one but I am very aware that one I may like is actually a bigger scumbag than one I don't like.

There are Democrats and Republicans I do like. I will be disappointed if I find out they are scumbags. But I will not be shattered.

[Fry Guy]

Mueller

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZFtHx5MlPY