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If you’ve read two pages of this book it’s abundantly clear that I am a charter member of not only the #Resistance but of #NotMyPresident, that I don’t see him as legitimate. Like the old African American saying has it: only the truth hurts. Trump is only in the Oval Office because of Russian interference and the Comey letter.

The filings on Michael Cohen made by both the SDNY and Mueller’s Special Counsel give the notion that Trump both committed two felonies, and rigged this election and so didn’t win it legitimately, legal sanction. 

Trump, of course, made himself the object of much mirth and mockery by declaring himself cleared.

Trump tweeted on Friday that he has been “totally cleared” by prosecutors.”

This led to the hashtag Individual 1-ergo Trump-going viral on Twitter.

This is the opposite of the truth-what else is new?It was a very tough day for Michael Cohen who had no doubt hoped his 70 hours of interviews would help him avoid a lengthy prison sentence. But the SDNY particularly is having none of it. Mueller for his part, acknowledged his cooperation but was agnostic on how much prison time he should face-and did point out that Cohen was not initially cooperative-he lied to the special counsel in August. This was long after his move from I’ll take a bullet for the President to Family and Country. 

“According to Mueller, Cohen admitted that he and Trump had discussed contacting the Kremlin in the fall of 2015, months after the beginning of his presidential bid, to organize a meeting between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin at the U.N. General Assembly in September 2015. The meeting never materialized, but two months later, Cohen “received the contact information for, and spoke with, a Russian national who claimed to be a “‘trusted person’ in the Russian Federation” who wanted to set up a meeting between Trump and Putin and help Trump pursue a real-estate deal in Russia. Cohen apparently didn’t follow up on the invitation. Nevertheless, Cohen provided the special counsel’s office “with useful information concerning certain discrete Russia-related matters core to its investigation that he obtained by virtue of his regular contact” with Trump Organization executives “during the campaign.”

“Cohen has also implicated Trump directly in the campaign finance violations he pleaded guilty to in August. “Cohen himself has now admitted, with respect to both payments, he acted in coordination with and at the direction of” Trump, New York prosecutors wrote. Last week, Cohen’s lawyers told the judge in his case that much of Cohen’s misconduct stemmed from a “fierce loyalty” to his boss. “In each case, the conduct was intended to benefit Client-1,” Cohen’s lawyers wrote, referring to Trump.

“Cohen has taken Mueller and federal prosecutors deep inside the Trump Organization, describing how he helped Trump pursue a real-estate deal in Russia well into the height of the election. (Cohen’s plea agreement last week included the first in-court evidence that could show how Trump may have been compromised by Russia while Putin was waging a direct attack on the United States.) Trump has taken notice, calling Cohen a “weak person” who made up “stories” to get a “deal” with Mueller.”

“Cohen has sat for seven interviews with Mueller since August—cooperation that his legal team has been hyping for months. However the sentencing memos filed by Mueller and the Southern District of New York on Friday for Cohen allege that he was not initially as cooperative and forthcoming as his legal team has led the public to believe.”

“According to Mueller, Cohen “repeated many of his prior false statements” about the pursuit of a Trump Tower deal in Moscow when he first met with Mueller’s team in August. It was only after he was charged by prosecutors in the Southern District of New York, and was facing a prison sentence, that he decided to cooperate fully and admit that his previous statements to the special counsel were false. From that point onward, he went to “significant lengths to assist the Special Counsel’s investigation”—a comment that could worry Trump, who is reportedly concerned about what Cohen has told prosecutors.”

This was after family and country and him hiring Lanny Davis and where he promised Davis to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

But the SDNY was particularly scathing.

“New York prosecutors, meanwhile, said they were unimpressed with Cohen’s cooperation thus far. They asked that Judge William Pauley “impose a substantial term of imprisonment” for Cohen, despite his previous requests for “extraordinary leniency.” Prosecutors said that “the crimes committed by Cohen were more serious than his submission allows and were marked by a pattern of deception that permeated his professional life.” They also characterized Cohen as motivated by greed and “a desire to build his own power.” Taken alone, prosecutors said, “these are each serious crimes worthy of meaningful punishment. Taken together, these offenses reveal a man who knowingly sought to undermine core institutions of our democracy.” (Mueller’s team proposed that Cohen serve a sentence concurrent to what the Southern District of New York has recommended.)”

Yup-only the truth hurts-SDNY’s character assessment of Cohen is 100% accurate-this was not out of character for him, but rather fits his pattern of conduct for many years of being Trump’s bagman. And even in August, 2016 when he was touting his cooperation he was still dissembling and copping to what he already knew Mueller could prove against him.

So it wasn’t a very good day for Cohen-perhaps he can still cooperate more to the SDNY’s liking but it’s late in the game. As Marcy Wheeler said regarding Manafort  and Flynn earlier this week, the key is to cooperate early and often-a la Michael Flynn.

UPDATE: However, Flynn then made a major gaffe by at the last minute claiming that he may have lied but no one told him that it’s illegal to lie to the FBI. This led to a scathing rebuke from the judge and he now sits in legal limbo-Chapter A.

But the fact that Cohen was still pulling his punches in August makes it hard to feel sorry for him. Don’t mess with Mueller, and you sure as hell don’t want to mess with the SDNY. In a way, you can look at yesterday’s filings as the revenge of Preet Bharara.

But more importantly than Cohen’s fate is what it says about Trump. While looking at what SDNY said about Cohen remember that everything they’re saying about him applies doubly to Trump who they say committed these felonious acts act the direction of Trump. 

Back to Natasha Bertrand:

“New York prosecutors seemed particularly incensed at Cohen’s efforts to silence two women, just before the election, about their alleged affairs with Trump. “Cohen’s commission of two campaign finance crimes on the eve of the 2016 election for President of the United States struck a blow to one of the core goals of the federal campaign finance laws: transparency,” the government wrote. “While many Americans who desired a particular outcome to the election knocked on doors, toiled at phone banks, or found any number of other legal ways to make their voices heard, Cohen sought to influence the election from the shadows. He did so by orchestrating secret and illegal payments to silence two women who otherwise would have made public their alleged extramarital affairs” with Trump. “In the process,” they wrote, “Cohen deceived the voting public by hiding alleged facts that he believed would have had a substantial effect on the Election.”

Cohen sought to influence an election from the shadows-ie, in an illegitimate way at the direction of Trump; ie, Donald Trump sought to influence the election from the shadows-ie, he’s not a legitimate ‘President.’

UPDATE: The prosecutor’s condemnation of Cohen’s attempt to ‘influence the election from the shadows’ applies more broadly to Trump and his campaign’s conduct in 2016 and his own conduct in the race  for 2020-his own conduct with the Ukraine-and thanks to his public calls, with China; it turns out he was also discussing the election with China behind the scenes.

Place this UPDATE below?

While this clearly implicates Trump, those in more immediate trouble may be his family, particularly his namesake son, Donald Jr:

“It isn’t just Trump who may be in legal danger now that Cohen is cooperating—it’s also his family members, who Cohen admitted to briefing on the Trump Tower Moscow deal in 2016. According to Mueller, Cohen discussed the Moscow deal with Trump’s family members “within” the Trump Organization. Donald Trump Jr., an executive vice president of the Trump Organization, told the Senate Judiciary Committee last year that he was only “peripherally aware” of the Moscow deal in 2016.”

And House intel Democrats like Jack Speier are already taking notice:

“Rep. Jackie Speier (D-Calif.), a member of the House Intelligence Committee, told CNN Friday she believes Donald Trump Jr. lied to the committee on at least two occasions, which would constitute a felony.”

“I don’t really want to go into it at this point, but I think there’s at least two occasions where he lied to the committee,” she said when asked what the lies were regarding.

“In part, it is somewhat related to documents that we never were able to subpoena because the Republicans were really the puppets of the president in terms of trying to protect him and not being the independent investigative authority that we should have been looking at the issue,” Speier added.

“Trump could face up to five years in prison if he lied in his testimony to the committee.”

“Speier said she would definitely want Trump and Jared Kushner, President Trump‘s senior adviser and son-in-law, to reappear before the committee.”

“I think they will be subpoenaed if they don’t come voluntarily and we will certainly subpoena their records,” she said.

“The comments come after it was revealed Michael Cohen, President Trump’s former attorney and fixer, lied to the House Intelligence Committee about his contacts with Russians surrounding the Trump Tower Moscow project.

“When you swear under oath, my expectation is that you’re going to tell the truth. That’s the one time and place that you’re going to tell the truth. There have been a number of people that we have interviewed that have absolutely lied to us. And you cannot lie to Congress, that is a felony, and I think what needs to happen is they need to be prosecuted,” Speier said.

Think about that: the Congresswoman just explicitly alluded to Donald Jr and Kushner being prosecuted.

UPDATE: As it turns out not only did Mueller punt on demanding an in person interview with the fake ‘President’ and not only did he believe, in any case, that the President-or even a ‘President’ like Trump-can’t be indicted but he punted on interviewing Donald Jr before deciding that Jr didn’t know what he was doing was a crime-for no one in the country but Trump’s family, apparently ignorance is an excuse.

A good question for him-not that he’d likely answer it-was if he ever seriously considered indicting Jr and how he can be so confident Jr didn’t know it was a crime as he didn’t interview him-and in any case since when was ignorance an excuse?

End of UPDATE

Place below?

Back to Bertrand:

“Trump said last week that he was free to pursue business deals while he was running for president. But he never disclosed the deal publicly, and Cohen’s guilty plea clearly shows how he lied in the written statement to the House and Senate Intelligence Committees to conceal the Trump Organization’s ongoing involvement in the Moscow project from January through June 2016, with the campaign under way.”

That’s a lie. He obviously knew there was something pretty problematic about pursuing a real estate deal with the Russian government in the middle of a Presidential election or he wouldn’t have gone to such lengths to lie about and conceal it-it shows clear consciousness of guilt.

The early commentary seems to be that the Cohen filings are the most significant-as they are more revealing-Manafort’s filing was heavily redacted-and directly implicate the faux ‘President.’

While Cohen’s documents are as important as advertised, Manafort’s documents more clearly touch on collusion. But that’s for (Chapter A).

UPDATE: For more on Cohen’s sentencing see Chapter A. While at first blanch Cohen’s sentencing may seem harsh, it seems less so when you realize that even in August he still was dissembling and not telling the full truth-indeed, you wonder if he has even now-for instance he continues to assert he’s ‘never been to Prague.’

More broadly, as I argue in Chapter A, it’s if nothing else, Poetic Justice that all those who said Hillary Clinton should be locked up-Cohen, Flynn, Manafort-are now going to prison or in danger of.

And if Cohen’s three year sentence-despite cooperating to a large extent if not fully-seems harsh, compare it to Manafort’s potentially 24.5 year sentence-who aggressively didn’t cooperate and engaged in witness tampering and continued to leak information to Team Treason Trump even when he was pretending to ‘cooperate.’

UPDATE: But that’s just it-Manafort’s eventual sentence was only 7 and a half years cumulative-though he does still face state charges-is currently in the middle of the trial-while Trump and his namesake son’s sentence has been zero. In contrast Cohen’s sentence does seem kind of harsh-he’s in prison for crimes he committed at Trump’s direction and to his benefit.

This is why impeachment is so vital-and so many of us are so relieved now that Pelosi has finally gotten there; as Jerrold Nadler says it’s about nothing less than vindicating the Constitution.

 

 

 

 

 

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October 28, 2016: a Day That Will Live in Infamy Copyright © by . All Rights Reserved.

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