Escaping justice by virtue of being president

On Thursday, in New York, the FBI unsealed a treasure trove of documents related to its investigation of how the president* and Cohen bought off Stormy Daniels in the middle of a presidential campaign. The reason the FBI could do this is because the actual investigation has been brought to an abrupt end. However, there is no question now that the FBI believed that the President* of the United States was involved in paying off a former mistress and, very likely, a lot of people in his inner circle have been lying about it in a variety of law-enforcement forums ever since.

  Charles P Pierce

Newly released court documents show Michael Cohen kept his boss in the know as he hammered out a deal with Stormy Daniels during the 2016 campaign.

  Politico

Yeah, I know. You're shocked.

From start to finish, Trump was in regular contact with his lawyer at the time, Michael Cohen, who arranged the payment. In October, Trump was brought in on a conference call with his longtime communications adviser, Hope Hicks, to discuss efforts to purchase and kill Daniels’ story. Over the coming weeks, Trump had numerous phone calls with Cohen as he went back and forth with Daniels’ attorney. And days before the November election, after The Wall Street Journal published a story detailing a similar hush-payment Cohen also made during the campaign to Playboy model Karen McDougal, Cohen texted “he’s pissed,” an apparent reference to Trump.

And, on the orders of Trump, Hope Hicks has refused to testify before Congress.

The newly unredacted portions of the applications [for search warrants] show the FBI special agents detailing how the hush-money agreement was made — and how Cohen appeared to keep Trump in the know about the deal every step of the way. Cohen is now serving three years in prison for a series of campaign finance, tax fraud and lying charges.

And Trump is president!

Among the items also released on Thursday is a letter sent earlier this week by Audrey Strauss, the lead U.S. attorney in New York on the Cohen case, notifying the judge that the government’s probe had concluded into who else might be criminally liable for the campaign finance violations to which the former Trump campaign lawyer has already pleaded guilty, as well as whether anyone else gave false statements or obstructed justice.

While Strauss made no mention of any new charges, legal experts told POLITICO on Wednesday that the government’s confirmation that this portion of its investigation is over suggests no one else from the Trump Organization faces legal liability.

[...]

On Oct. 8, 2016, the day the [Access Hollywood] tape was released, Hicks, then the Trump campaign press secretary, called Cohen. Sixteen seconds later, Trump himself was dialed into the call, which continued for over four minutes. It was the first call Cohen had received or made to Hicks in at least several weeks, and Cohen and Trump had spoken only about once a month prior to that, according to the FBI. Cohen and Hicks spoke again for about two minutes after the call with Trump ended.

In case you were wondering why Hope Hicks had to resign.

During this period, Cohen connected with Trump several times. Cohen was particularly frantic on Oct. 17, when he incorporated an LLC called Essential Consultants in Delaware to funnel the money to Daniels. It’s also when Davidson threatened to cancel the deal by the end of the day if Cohen didn’t pay up.

[...]

Daniels didn’t end up going public that day, and the talks picked up again on Oct. 25. On Oct. 26, Trump and Cohen spoke twice in the morning, according to the search warrant. Less than 30 minutes later, Cohen began working to open an account within Essential Consultants. By the end of the next day, Cohen’s Essential Consultants had wired Daniels the $130,000. Cohen used a home equity line of credit to pay it, according to the document.

[...]

[O]n Nov. 4, 2016, The Wall Street Journal reported that the National Enquirer had also paid [Karen] McDougal, the Playboy model, $150,000 to bury her story about an alleged affair with Trump. The payment was made under the guise of McDougal being a “columnist” for the Enquirer.

[...]

After that Journal story was published, Cohen, Hicks, Davidson, Howard and AMI CEO David Pecker “spoke frequently” about the need to keep both the Daniels and McDougal stories from gaining national attention, according to one of the agent’s reviews of phone and email records.

[...]

The morning after the story was published, Cohen seemed optimistic. “So far I see only 6 stories. Getting little to no traction,” he texted Hicks. “Same,” she responded. “Keep praying!! It’s working!”

She should be sitting beside Cohen in jail. Along with the Criminal in Chief.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.