Important to note that this raid was approved by Trump appointees so can not be a witch hunt. The probable cause apparently was found by Mueller's team who then consulted with Trump appointed senior members at the DOJ who agreed it should be passed onto the FBI in New York. FBI NY would confer with the highly respected Southern District of NY (SDNY) DA office. The Trump appointed SDNY DA must have signed off on an application to a judge. The judge must have concluded that there was probable cause a crime had been committed. The fact that it is a lawyer's office raises the standard even further. Cohen's office is in Trump Tower and his only client is Trump so this likely relates to Trump. Solicitor-client privilege does not apply to communications in furtherance of a crime-fraud. My understanding is that one of the investigations relates to bank fraud. I am going to guess that he did not obtain his line of credit by telling the Bank he wanted to use the money to pay off a porn star. Another investigation relates to a election finance violation so my guess would be an illegal contribution by the payment. Any communications with Trump about these issues may fit within the crime-fraud exception and may possibly be used to indict/impeach Trump. But who knows. This guy is slippery as fuck for some reason. I doubt his base cares and the GOP may not either. p. s. > Mr. Cohen began his career as a personal injury lawyer and taxi fleet manager. lol
Chris Hayes Cohen is one of 2 Vice Chairs of Finance for the GOP. The other is Elliott Broidy.Today the National Deputy Finance Chair of the GOP was raided by the FBI.
Yo, the weirdest thing from the first link in this post: The (ex-)Vice Chair of Finance for the GOP, ladies and gentlemen! God, I could do this all day. We really are living in some fucked up version of Wonderland.One source with close ties to the campaign said Cohen “wanted a bigger and more formal role [in the campaign], but there were a lot of long knives out for him within the campaign and the larger GOP infrastructure in part because he was a Democrat and treated people horribly.”
Geoffrey Berman, Trump’s SDNY appointment was recused from this investigation. Can’t wait to find out why.
A++ comment. Summarizes very nicely things I've gleaned from reputable comments on sites that aren't Breitbart. The constant onslaught of Trump-related scandals has desensitized all of us, which is quite unfortunate, because this one's a doozy. Makes me wonder if this came up: Wikipedia sez "money laundering" is covered under the broader classification of "bank fraud". Did you see the video of Trump reading a statement during a sit-down meeting, flanked by Bolton (his first day on the job, LOL!), Pence and other national security officials? They had (presumably) nothing to do with Cohen and any of Trump's actions prior to and/or during the campaign. How could you not resent POTUS using your presence in what is absolutely an attempt to lend legitimacy to his very off-putting comments, branding the FBI's raid, which undoubtedly used the proper legal channels, as "an attack on this country"? WTF, dude?
Front page of Fox News has had no mention of these events so far as of 12pm eastern time (but Jerry Brown apparently likes illegal immigrants). I have difficulty imagining that Cohen’s raid will somehow be the straw that broke the camel’s back for his base. But this is great analysis/synopsis. Where are you learning of what the investigation concerns. i.e. bank fraud?
I follow lots of lawyers on twitter. eg. Preet Bharara (former SDNY DA), LawfareBlog, PopeHat....
Damn, it'd be funny if they timed the next raid to take place during his program. I've just returned from the Breitbart comments section for their article on the FBI's raid of Cohen, where I learned that Obama was actually a gay prostitute, and Michelle is transgender. I also found out that Hillary lost the 2016 presidential election! This hubski place is fucking boring Edit: but seriously, when Trump condemned Putin directly the other day for the Syrian chemical attack, I was incrementally impressed. A very small increment, but still towards impressed.
I will chalk that up as an impressive distraction for Mr. Carlson, but Hannity has set the bar pretty high.
There was a beat on West Wing where Bartlett's campaign manager pointed out that because everyone had such low expectations of his opponent, if the dude managed to stand on stage without committing a gaffe it would be considered a victory. It was abundantly clear that Sorkin was pointing squarely at GWB... but let's be honest. We'd all vote for GWB over Trump.
If he does try something, I think it'll be this Friday. Because "Saturday Night Massacre" is already taken (ha. ha.). W̶e̶'̶r̶e̶ ̶i̶n̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶m̶i̶d̶d̶l̶e̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶a̶ ̶C̶o̶n̶g̶r̶e̶s̶s̶i̶o̶n̶a̶l̶ ̶r̶e̶c̶e̶s̶s̶,̶ ̶a̶l̶t̶h̶o̶u̶g̶h̶ the Senate is still in session attempting to get Trump nominees confirmed into their positions. We already know he wanted to fire Mueller last June, and the story just broke tonight that he wanted to do it in December. This Cohen raid is arguably a wayyyyyy bigger deal than some subpoenas. I find much solace in the fact that even if Mueller is dismissed tomorrow, there's no legal avenue for Trump to halt the investigation into Cohen's records, or pardon anyone found guilty (state-level investigation). Brilliant move by Mueller. I think it's also likely Mueller feels like he has a decent obstruction of justice case built at this point, along with substantial amounts of dirt on plenty of other little fish. God, I sound positively conspiratorial, I know, and all I'm really doing is assembling the past year's worth of stories from extremely reputable news sources. Edit: I was looking at the 2017 calendar, like an idiot. I apologize, here is the 2018 Congressional Calendar, Congress is not in recess this week. The next lengthy recess is not until August.
What recourse do you see in the event of a Mueller firing?
Firing Mueller and ending the investigation are two different things. It's my understanding that he can possibly get away with both but it'll be incredibly hard so he's pretty well fucked. Even if he had the investigation ended then the tight ship that's been run is going to sink by virtue of a million leaks
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