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remember, Ty Cobb was saying nice things about Mueller as recently as yesterday morning. Now, Rudy is the face of Trump legal efforts. https://t.co/R7Vvtqd4yp
— Rick Klein (@rickklein) May 3, 2018
Certainly, Cobb’s replacement by Rudy is a move to a more confrontational stance for Team Trump.
“President Donald Trump has grown used to smashing norms and conventions — and Washington and the world have adjusted, or not, accordingly.”
“But his biggest clash may still be ahead of him. The chaos inside the president’s legal team, the wild ride Rudy Giuliani is already leading it on, and the conflicting signals and veiled threats flowing via tweets and congressional rumblings — it all points to a more confrontational White House stance in the Robert Mueller probe.”
“Just hours before the announcement that Ty Cobb would be leaving the White House legal team, Cobb said on ABC’s “Powerhouse Politics” podcast that Mueller is “doing what he was assigned to do.” He added that he had “no doubt” that the leak of Mueller’s potential questions for Trump did not come from Mueller’s team.
“Now Cobb exits, while Giuliani — who recently called it a “disgrace” that the Mueller probe hasn’t already concluded, and dropped a new bomb in the Stormy Daniels matter Wednesday night — is trying to negotiate potential presidential cooperation.”
But both lawyers offered up some major prima facie evidence. Cobb admitted the leak was from inside Team Trump. But then Rudy followed this up by saying that Trump did so pay back Michael Cohen’s $130 grand to Stormy Daniels.
“President Donald Trump repaid Michael Cohen the $130,000 that his lawyer paid porn star Stormy Daniels days before the 2016 election for her silence about an alleged affair with Trump — and the president said Thursday morning the reimbursement didn’t come from campaign funds and he suggested it was perfectly appropriate.”
Appearing Wednesday night on Fox News’ “Hannity,” Rudy Giuliani, the former New York mayor and ex-U.S. attorney whom Trump hired to join his legal team last month, revealed for the first time that Trump had paid back the money to Cohen, who had said previously he paid Daniels out of his own pocket and without Trump’s knowledge.
“That was money that was paid by his lawyer” to Daniels, Giuliani told Sean Hannity of Cohen’s $130,000 payment. “The president reimbursed it over several months,” Giuliani said, adding the payment didn’t constitute an illegal campaign contribution, as Democrats and other critics of Trump have contended, because it didn’t come from Trump campaign funds.
But is this a distinction without a difference? And what was Giuliani hoping to achieve in divulging this?
Giuliani, for his part, said on Wednesday night that the payment is “going to turn out to be perfectly legal.”
“That money was not campaign money,” he said of Trump’s reimbursement to Cohen. “Sorry — I’m giving you a fact that you don’t know. It’s not campaign money — no campaign finance violation.”
FN: Of course this was not what an SDNY court ultimately found.
Giuliani told The New York Times later Wednesday evening that after the presidential campaign, Cohen was reimbursed $460,000 or $470,000 in $35,000-a-month installments through a Trump family account for having “settled several problems” for the president.”
Giuliani said he was “not clear” whether Trump was aware of the payments to Daniels when they were made, according to The Times.
“I don’t think he did (know) until now,” Giuliani said. “That removes the campaign finance violation, and we have all the documentary proof for it.”
So allegedly not knowing he made the payment gets him off the hook? But then Giuliani claims Trump was glad he made this revelation.
“In an interview with The Washington Post Wednesday night, Giuliani said the president was “very pleased” he had made public the additional details of the payments on Fox News and that he and Trump had discussed the plan for the revelation in advance.
“He was well aware that at some point when I saw the opportunity, I was going to get this over with,” Giuliani said, responding to a question about whether Trump was “angry” with him for the revelation.
But wait a minute, hadn’t he said earlier that he didn’t think Trump did know until now? And in his Hannity interview Giuliani contradicted his own claim Trump didn’t know.
Asked if Trump knew about the arrangement, Giuliani said: “He didn’t know about the specifics of it, as far as I know. 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. These are busy people.”
So he did know. General knowledge is what matters here. In any case, Giuliani has totally contradicted Trump’s previous statements that he knew nothing about the payment.
Back to NBC:
Giuliani added, during an appearance on Fox News Thursday morning, that the money paid to Daniels was intended to protect Trump’s family.
“On Wednesday night, after his initial appearance on “Hannity,” Giuliani told The New York Times that after the presidential campaign, Cohen was reimbursed $460,000 or $470,000 in $35,000-a-month installments through a Trump family account for having “settled several problems” for the president.”
Several problems? So there were others besides Daniels? Well there was the Karen McDougal payment-what was the other? Another female accuser?
For personal reasons… Back to the Daily News:
Giuliani said that the payment was “for personal reasons” and that the real purpose was to help save the relationship of Trump and First Lady Melania Trump, though also speculated about what would have happened if the Daniels allegations came out less than a month before the election.”
So he insists it was for personal reasons but also admits that the political consequences could have been quite severe if the story had broken before the election. As for allegedly ‘saving the marriage of Trump and First Lady Melania Trump’ why did saving it require a $130 grand payment to quite a false story? If it wasn’t true why was it necessary to pay hush money? And why if Daniel’s story was false would Melania have been expected to believe it?
FN: Of course in retrospect all the various lies and obfuscations of Trump-Rudy and Friends were debunked in the conviction of Michael Cohen. Cohen sits in a prison cell while Trump-who directed his crimes-traipses around scot free of any consequences. While he jokes about telling Putin not to interfere again Pelosi says she hasn’t given the accusation that the ‘President’ is a rapist any thought while the only thing the brilliant consultant Dem extraordinaire Steve Israel has to say is that ‘40% of the country doesn’t care how many women Trump rapes’
So that’s settled then-a ‘President’ of questionable legitimacy can rape any one he wants so long as a sizable political contiuency supports him. Asked and answered, Congressman Israel.
As we begin July, 2019 it’s pretty tough to believe in anything like equal justice before the law. Trump believes he’s above the law-that he can shoot someone on 5th Avenue and get away with it-and everyone in the establishment seems to agree-the GOP establishment, the MSM, Mueller-there are so many ways in how he prosecuted his case and his conclusions that he took a softer line on Trump than he would have any other subject much less someone poor and black-and now we’ve learned the Democratic establishment.
That Trump will ever face any accountability remains very much to be seen.
Regarding Trump’s enablers Pelosi now has to be added to the list