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This week has been all about the noise around Omarosa’s one woman news cycle and Trump’s authoritarian reaction-according to Russia House staff he’s very pleased with himself in taking away John Brennan’s security clearance and wants to take away the security clearance of more officials connected with the Russia investigation.
Turns out he finds obstruction of justice and cracking down on free speech invigorating. Maybe Michael Cohen felt left out, but a new major revelation regarding him and the hush payments he made for Trump just came out. It turns out he was initially opposed to making the payment but changed his mind after the Hollywood Access tape hit.
Michael Cohen initially balked at the idea of buying the silence of a former adult-film star who says she had sex with Donald Trump, but he did an about-face after a video of Mr. Trump talking about groping women became public in October 2016.
“A day after the recording surfaced of outtakes of Mr. Trump speaking to a host of NBC’s “Access Hollywood,” Mr. Cohen, then Mr. Trump’s senior counsel, told a representative for the performer that he was open to a deal, according to a person familiar with the conversation.”
“Within days, Stormy Daniels, whose given name is Stephanie Clifford, signed a nondisclosure agreement that provided her $130,000 for her silence. Mr. Cohen had resisted paying Ms. Clifford when it was floated in September 2016, the person said.”
This revelation has major legal implications.
“Federal prosecutors in New York view the “Access Hollywood” tape as a trigger that spurred Mr. Cohen to bury potentially damaging information about his boss, as they investigate whether the payment amounted to an illegal, in-kind contribution or an expenditure that should have been disclosed by the campaign, people familiar with the matter said.”
“Mr. Cohen, who served as Mr. Trump’s personal attorney after leaving the Trump Organization, is under investigation for potential violations of campaign-finance laws, as well as possible tax fraud, bank fraud and illegal lobbying, The Wall Street Journal has previously reported.”
That the SDNY is investigating violations of campaign finance laws is thanks to Michael Avenatti and-Stormy Daniels, of course, who’s his client.
It makes it even clearer that this was a payment made to influence an election-to help Trump win.
“A campaign-finance charge would require prosecutors to prove the payment to Ms. Clifford was meant to help Mr. Trump prevail in the coming presidential election. Individual political contributions are capped at $5,400 per election cycle, and corporations are barred from giving directly to candidates.”
The timing has always made it pretty clear it was to influence the election. After all, this affair with Daniels happened in 2006 and yet no payment was made to her for 10 years until there was only a month left before the election?
But this new revelation that the Hollywood Access video changed his mind makes it even clearer that this was about influencing an election and thereby violate campaign limits.
“Mr. Cohen’s apparent change of heart on buying Ms. Clifford’s silence, after the “Access Hollywood” tape surfaced and nearly capsized Mr. Trump’s campaign, could help investigators make the link, said Anthony Capozzolo, a defense lawyer and former federal prosecutor in Brooklyn who handled corruption cases.”
“Lanny Davis, one of Mr. Cohen’s attorneys, said that, under the advice of counsel, he can’t comment on “any matters even possibly remotely related to those that might be under investigation.”
“The White House didn’t respond to a request for comment. President Trump denies Ms. Clifford’s allegations of their sexual encounter. Ms. Clifford stood by her story in a March interview with “60 Minutes,” saying she denied having sex with Mr. Trump previously because she felt threatened.”
Trump’s denials, of course, make no sense. Cohen’s initial claim-though he’s changed his tune since turning against Trump-was that he just chose to make this payment out of the goodness of his own heart that was in no way connected to the campaign. He just wanted to spare Melania Trump’s feelings. The fact that he didn’t do this over 10 years but only when it was a month before the election was all just another coinkidink.
But if there was no affair why would he make the payment?
“He was acquitted of one charge, and a jury deadlocked on the rest, dealing the Justice Department a defeat in a case that remains controversial within the agency to this day, legal experts said. The Edwards prosecutors struggled to prove the donor payments were “for the purpose of influencing any election for federal office,” part of the legal definition of campaign contribution. Mr. Edwards’s defense lawyers argued that the true purpose of the payments was keeping the affair from Mr. Edwards’s wife.”
The “Access Hollywood” tape “is exactly the kind of evidence that beats that argument,” by helping prosecutors frame the Clifford payment as a response to the damage the tape inflicted on Mr. Trump’s campaign, said Mr. Capozzolo.
In a conversation Mr. Cohen secretly recorded with CNN anchor Chris Cuomo earlier this year, Mr. Cohen said of the payment: “It wasn’t for the campaign. It was for him,” referring to Mr. Trump, according to a person familiar with the recorded conversation. The tape was one of several seized in the April raid.
Note though that Cohen has recently seemed to change his tune and the tape he released in July showed Trump talking about how they just needed to kill the story about marital rape in his first marriage for a ‘few’- and then the recording cutoff. That certainly seems to be referencing the election.
https://lastmenandovermen.com/2018/07/21/lordy-there-are-tapes/
Back to the Wall Street Journal:
“Keith Davidson, a lawyer who had represented Ms. Clifford in 2011, spoke with Mr. Cohen in September 2016 to gauge his interest in buying Ms. Clifford’s silence, according to a person familiar with their conversation.”
“Mr. Cohen was dismissive, saying the story was bogus, the person said. Ms. Clifford had denied it years earlier, telling E! News that a celebrity blog’s report on her alleged sexual encounter with Mr. Trump was “bulls—.”
“Messrs. Davidson and Cohen spoke again in October 2016, soon after the “Access Hollywood” tape surfaced, about a potential deal with Ms. Clifford, the person said.”
“This time, Mr. Cohen agreed to match what Mr. Davidson told him Ms. Clifford had been offered by one of the news outlets—$130,000—for her story, the person said.”
Stormy Daniels herself recently sued Keith Davidson for being Cohen’s ‘puppet.’
“Ms. Clifford hadn’t received any offer of that size, but her representatives used the figure as a bargaining tool, according to people familiar with the negotiations.”
“On Oct. 10, Ms. Clifford signed the agreement, which barred her from publicly discussing her alleged sexual encounter with Mr. Trump.”
“Rudy Giuliani, a lawyer for Mr. Trump, has said the president paid monthly installments of $35,000 to Mr. Cohen beginning in early 2017 to reimburse him for the Clifford deal.”
“Eleven days after the release of the tape, a blog called “The Smoking Gun” published a post recounting the alleged affair between Ms. Clifford and Mr. Trump. Then-Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus and Trump campaign chairman Steve Bannon confronted Mr. Trump over the allegation, people familiar with the talks said.”
“Mr. Trump, who that month denied allegations of sexual harassment and assault from more than a dozen women, said the affair with Ms. Clifford never happened, the people said. The question of a payment to Ms. Clifford didn’t come up, they said.”
https://twitter.com/gregpmiller/status/1030252677945585664?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1030252677945585664&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Flastmenandovermen.com%2Fwp-admin%2Fpost.php%3Fpost%3D38239%26action%3Dedit
Yes it was quite a day and we can add Cohen’s return to the news cycle to those years of chaos contained in one day.
Between Omarosa’s tapes and Michael Cohen’s hush payments the Russia White House is shaking off its hinges.