Whitaker isn't performing to expectations

President Donald Trump has at least twice in the past few weeks vented to his acting attorney general, angered by federal prosecutors who referenced the President's actions in crimes his former lawyer Michael Cohen pleaded guilty to, according to multiple sources familiar with the matter.

Trump was frustrated, the sources said, that prosecutors Matt Whitaker oversees filed charges that made Trump look bad.
  CNN

Whitaker was supposed to curtail the prosecutors' activity. That wouldn't be obstruction of justice, I guess. Trump's new butt boy.

The first known instance took place when Trump made his displeasure clear to acting attorney general Matt Whitaker after Cohen pleaded guilty November 29 to lying to Congress about a proposed Trump Tower project in Moscow. Whitaker had only been on the job a few weeks following Trump's firing of Jeff Sessions.

Over a week later, Trump again voiced his anger at Whitaker after prosecutors in Manhattan officially implicated the President in a hush-money scheme to buy the silence of women around the 2016 campaign -- something Trump fiercely maintains isn't an illegal campaign contribution. Pointing to articles he said supported his position, Trump pressed Whitaker on why more wasn't being done to control prosecutors in New York who brought the charges in the first place, suggesting they were going rogue.

The previously unreported discussions between Trump and Whitaker described by multiple sources familiar with the matter underscore the extent to which the President firmly believes the attorney general of the United States should serve as his personal protector.

[...]

Trump has already shown a willingness to use the Justice Department to settle political scores. As CNN previously reported, the President questioned Whitaker about the progression of the investigation against Hillary Clinton when Whitaker was Jeff Sessions' chief of staff.

"It seems very clear that the only reason that Matt Whitaker was ever appointed to this role was specifically to oversee the Mueller investigation," Mueller biographer Garrett Graff said on Friday in an interview on CNN's Newsroom.

Whitaker's not going to get my sympathy. He lobbied for the job, and he was well aware of how Trump treated Sessions. If he's got no more pride than Sessions, he deserves his whippings.

One source close to Whitaker pushed back on the notion that the Cohen situation caused tension between the two, emphasizing that Whitaker and the President have a "great relationship."

Sounds like.



Indeed, and yet another piece of evidence supporting any obstruction of justice charges Mueller might levy.

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

UPDATE:



This strikes me as accurate.

UPDATE:



Renato Mariotti is a former federal prosecutor.



UPDATE 12/24:

Comments on the "rat"

Are we sure his lawyers are telling him not to do it?  I mean one of them is Rudy G.


video here







Also in that interview Giuliani first says the SDNY doesn't have corroborating evidence of Cohen's claims, because he knows how that office does things - he used to run it.  A not two minutes later he says, "I don't know how the Southern District is run."

And then he runs on with a number of other lies and bullshit and incorrect interpretations of set  law.
He's neck and neck with Trump for being impossible to listen to.



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

UPDATE:

I fear Judge Napolitano is going to lose his job

link

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

How does he still even HAVE lawyers?

He won't listen.

I think his best defense in the end is going to be that he has a medical condition that prevents him from keeping quiet.

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

He was simply relying on his attorney

As a presidential candidate in August 2015, Donald Trump huddled with a longtime friend, media executive David Pecker, in his cluttered 26th floor Trump Tower office and made a request.

What can you do to help my campaign? he asked, according to people familiar with the meeting.

Mr. Pecker, chief executive of American Media Inc., offered to use his National Enquirer tabloid to buy the silence of women if they tried to publicize alleged sexual encounters with Mr. Trump.

Less than a year later, Mr. Trump asked Mr. Pecker to quash the story of a former Playboy model who said they’d had an affair. Mr. Pecker’s company soon paid $150,000 to the model, Karen McDougal, to keep her from speaking publicly about it. Mr. Trump later thanked Mr. Pecker for the assistance.

[...]

The Wall Street Journal found that Mr. Trump was involved in or briefed on nearly every step of the agreements. He directed deals in phone calls and meetings with his self-described fixer, Michael Cohen, and others. The U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan has gathered evidence of Mr. Trump’s participation in the transactions.

  WSJ

Donald Trump was the third person in the room in August 2015 when his lawyer Michael Cohen and National Enquirer publisher David Pecker discussed ways Pecker could help counter negative stories about Trump's relationships with women, NBC News has confirmed.

As part of a nonprosecution agreement disclosed Wednesday by federal prosecutors, American Media Inc., the Enquirer's parent company, admitted that "Pecker offered to help deal with negative stories about that presidential candidate's relationships with women by, among other things, assisting the campaign in identifying such stories so they could be purchased and their publication avoided."

[...]

The "statement of admitted facts" says that AMI admitted making a $150,000 payment "in concert with the campaign," and says that Pecker, Cohen and "at least one other member of the campaign" were in the meeting. According to a person familiar with the matter, the "other member" was Trump.

Daniel Goldman, an NBC News analyst and former assistant U.S. attorney said the agreement doesn't detail what Trump said and did in the meeting. "But if Trump is now in the room, as early as August of 2015 and in combination with the recording where Trump clearly knows what Cohen is talking about with regarding to David Pecker, you now squarely place Trump in the middle of a conspiracy to commit campaign finance fraud."

  NBC

Ooops.

Keep talking, fool

And...what about AMI?  They're lying, too?  You better hope Cohen doesn't have tapes.  Or that Weisselberg didn't keep notes.  What are the odds of that?  What are the odds the feds tossed that into a pleading without having corroborating evidence?

Many campaign finance lawyers in Trump calculation = "more than ten."  And, I bet he can't even name one, unless he's calling Rudy a campaign finance lawyer.



Who among us hasn't pled guilty to a crime that wasn't a crime and been sentenced to jail time for it?  The word is "pled" but do go on.



So, go ahead.  Sue him.



Ooops, misspelled basis.

Let's see:
1) I never had sex with those women
2) Maybe I had sex but they were never paid hush money
3) Maybe I had sex and they were paid hush money, but I didn't know about it
4) Maybe I had sex and they were paid hush money and I knew about it, but it wasn't a crime
5) Maybe I had sex and they were paid hush money and I knew about it and if it was a crime, I relied on my lawyer's adivce, who, as I've been saying, is a liar and not even a good lawyer.

Works for me.

Devil in the details

According to the allegations in Information 18 Cr. 602 (WHP), filed by the United States States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York (the “Office”), as well as previous court filings and statements in public court proceedings:

Between 2012 and 2016, COHEN concealed more than $4 million in personal income from the Internal Revenue Service, avoiding more than $1.3 million in income tax. COHEN also made false statements to a federally insured financial institution to obtain a $500,000 home equity loan. Finally, in 2016, COHEN made or caused two separate payments to women to ensure that they did not publicly disclose their alleged affairs with a presidential candidate in advance of the election. In one instance, COHEN caused American Media, Inc. (“AMI”), which was identified in previous court filings as “Corporation-1,” to make a $150,000 payment to one woman; in the other, COHEN made a $130,000 payment to another woman through an LLC he incorporated for the purpose of making the payment. COHEN was reimbursed for the latter payment in monthly installments disguised as payments for legal services performed pursuant to a retainer, when in fact no such retainer existed. COHEN made or caused both of these payments in order to influence the 2016 election and did so in coordination with one or more members of the campaign.

In addition to the sentence of imprisonment, Judge Pauley also ordered COHEN, 52, of New York, New York, to pay a fine of $50,000, to forfeit $500,000, to pay $1,393,858 in restitution to the IRS, and to pay a mandatory $800 special assessment. Separately, COHEN was ordered to pay a $50,000 fine and to pay a $100 special assessment in the case brought by the SCO. COHEN was also sentenced to concurrent three-year terms of supervised release in both cases, to follow his term of imprisonment.

The Office also announced today that it has previously reached a non-prosecution agreement with AMI, in connection with AMI’s role in making the above-described $150,000 payment before the 2016 presidential election. As a part of the agreement, AMI admitted that it made the $150,000 payment in concert with a candidate’s presidential campaign, and in order to ensure that the woman did not publicize damaging allegations about the candidate before the 2016 presidential election. AMI further admitted that its principal purpose in making the payment was to suppress the woman’s story so as to prevent it from influencing the election.

  Justice

Let me repeat that quote:

AMI admitted that it made the $150,000 payment in concert with a candidate’s presidential campaign, and in order to ensure that the woman did not publicize damaging allegations about the candidate before the 2016 presidential election. AMI further admitted that its principal purpose in making the payment was to suppress the woman’s story so as to prevent it from influencing the election.

It's not looking good for "the candidate", is it?

Assuming AMI’s continued compliance with the agreement, the Office has agreed not to prosecute AMI for its role in that payment. The agreement also acknowledges, among other things, AMI’s acceptance of responsibility, its substantial and important assistance in this investigation, and its agreement to provide cooperation in the future and implement specific improvements to its internal compliance to prevent future violations of the federal campaign finance laws. These improvements include distributing written standards regarding federal election laws to its employees and conducting annual training concerning these standards.

Cohen hasn't been getting much sleep lately.

Not that he deserved to.

Ah, the penitent

His what?!?

The judge ordered Cohen to surrender March 6 for a three year prison stay.  After having listened to his protestations of turning a page toward goodness.










That should be fun.


Then again, he's got three years in prison where some accident could befall him.  And suddenly, three years looks like a long time.



Yeah, better get what you can before he goes away to prison, just in case he doesn't make it out.

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

The worst client ever

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

Unicorn fanatasies

No, that's because there's no such thing as a smocking gun.



No, it's not only a civil case, like Obama's.  We've been over that.  And the lawyer who "made the mistake" made it at his client's direction.  I have no doubt they've got proof of that.

Whatever happened to "there were no hush payments"?

Ba-dum-dum.



UPDATE:  Mr. Kellyanne Conway weighs in.

Conway replaced that tweet with this one:

UPDATE:

Here's a wonderful hilarious thread showing rabid Trump supporters trying to convincethemselves Trump wrote "smocking" on purpose.

And here's my favorite response to the tweet:

(play on the DeNiro/Stiller movie title, if you need an explanation)

The House wallopping has gone to Adam Schiff's head

"Little Adam Schitt" is getting the last laugh.

In a nutshell

(It either required lifting sanctions, or illegally ignoring sanctions.)

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

Another Easter Egg

Would it possibly be connected to the numerous sealed indictments?

Another analysis of the Cohen plea agreement effect

New evidence from two separate fronts of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s investigation casts fresh doubts on Trump’s version of key events involving Russia, signaling potential political and legal peril for the president. Investigators have now publicly cast Trump as a central figure of their probe into whether Trump’s campaign conspired with the Russian government during the 2016 campaign.

Together, the documents show investigators have evidence that Trump was in close contact with his lieutenants as they made outreach to both Russia and WikiLeaks — and that they tried to conceal the extent of their activities.

[...]

A draft special counsel document revealed Tuesday also indicates that prosecutors are closely scrutinizing Trump’s interactions with a longtime adviser, Roger Stone, as Stone was allegedly seeking information about WikiLeaks’ plans to release hacked Democratic emails.

[...]

Trump, identified as “Individual 1” in Cohen’s guilty plea, was said to have received direct updates from Cohen as he pursued a Moscow Trump Tower project with the Kremlin up until June 14, 2016. The president also appears in the draft charging document for Trump ally Jerome Corsi, who allegedly told Stone about WikiLeaks’ plans to release damaging Democratic emails in October of that year because he knew Stone was in “regular contact” with Trump. The Washington Post reported this week that Trump spoke with Stone the day after he got the alert from Corsi.

[...]

Trump has given slightly differing accounts of his Moscow business ties over time. In July 2016, he tweeted: “For the record, I have ZERO investments in Russia.” A day later he claimed, “I have nothing to do with Russia.”

In January 2017, he told a reporter: “I have no deals that could happen in Russia, because we’ve stayed away.”

[...]

“The president, as far as he knows, he remembers there was such a proposal for a hotel,” Giuliani said. “He talked it over with Cohen as Cohen said. There was a nonbinding letter of intent that was sent. As far as he knows it never came to fruition. That was kind of the end of it.”

  WaPo

Very convincing, Rudy.

[Tim O’Brien, a Trump biographer said,] “I think the unforgiving grinding force of the U.S. justice system, which he has tried to undermine since he became president, is encircling him. I don’t think we know where he will land. But he is certainly mired in something that he is ill-equipped, legally and personally, to handle.”

Which could spell grave danger for the world at large.

As has been noted by many people, the fact that the Kremlin knew Trump, Cohen and all of the Trump cabal were lying about not having any business dealings with Russia during the campaign and, indeed, after Trump was in office, gave them leverage over Trump, as they could have threatened to reveal the truth at any time. How is that not impeachable?

Trump privately stewed as he followed news coverage of Cohen’s plea early Thursday morning, a White House official said.

A Justice official called the White House Counsel’s Office on Wednesday evening to let personnel know that Cohen would be pleading guilty in a case the following day, according to one person with direct knowledge of the notice. They were not told the details, however, which they learned about shortly before Cohen’s plea Thursday morning.

[...]

In public, Trump was defiant, telling reporters that Cohen was a liar and a “weak person” who would do anything to save himself from fraud charges he faces related to his taxi business.

[...]

“He was convicted of various things unrelated to us,” Trump said. “He’s a weak person, and what he’s trying to do is get a reduced sentence. So he’s lying about a project that everybody knew about. I mean, we were very open with it.”

Quite the contrary.

Trump often grows aggrieved seeing Cohen on TV, aides say. Among White House advisers, ­Cohen is seen as an existential threat — as much or more so than the Mueller investigation itself because of his longtime role as Trump’s fixer. Trump’s legal team did not learn until Thursday that Cohen had sat for dozens of hours of interviews with Mueller’s office, according to a senior administration official.

Trump was infuriated earlier this year when Cohen released tapes of him, and asked his lawyers and advisers if anything could be done to stop him from releasing any more.

[...]

The prosecutors’ filings show they have corroborated and buttressed Cohen’s account with contemporaneous emails, and people familiar with the probe say they have also obtained corroborating testimony from other witnesses.

[...]

According to a person familiar with the investigation, Cohen and the Trump Organization could not produce some of the key records upon which Mueller relies. Other witnesses provided copies of those communications.

Hmmmm...were Cohen and the Trump Organization destroying records by any chance?

During the midterm campaign, the president occasionally told advisers that people had forgotten about the Mueller probe and remarked positively that it was no longer dominating TV headlines.

Welcome back.

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

Cohen's plea has spurred Senate Intel referrals

The Senate Intelligence Committee has referred cases to the special counsel investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election after witnesses questioned in the panel’s own Russia probe were suspected of lying, the committee chairman said Friday.

“We have made referrals from our committee to the special counsel for prosecution,” Chairman Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) said at a national security conference in Austin. “In a lot of those cases, those might be tied to lying to us.”

  WaPo

"In a lot of those cases," could imply that a lot of people called before the Committee lied to them. Unfortunately, we don't get to know who those people are at this time. It's damned sure Junior lied to them, but not entirely certain he was referred for prosecution.

[T]he Senate committee, which has interviewed more than 200 people since its investigation began in January 2017, has referred some cases for prosecution that involve suspected lying, said [Chairman Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.)], speaking at the University of Texas.

[...]

“We’re certainly not scared to refer something that we believe is criminal, and lying to Congress is right at the top of that,” he said. “My message . . . was if you lie to us, we’re going to catch you and we’re going to prosecute you, period, end of sentence.”

[...]

Most of those interviewed appeared willingly, but “a handful” of those interviews were conducted under subpoena, Burr said, and he suggested that he may have to issue subpoenas again to bring people before the committee.

Burr also said that, by the end of the Senate Intelligence Committee investigation, Republicans and Democrats might not be able to reach unanimous agreement on all matters.

[...]

Rep. Adam B. Schiff (Calif.), the House Intelligence Committee’s ranking Democrat, said his panel believes “other witnesses were untruthful before our committee.” He would like Mueller to have those transcripts, he said. In particular, Schiff cited Trump adviser Roger Stone as someone whose answers were “far from truthful.”

Which reminds me, we haven't heard much out of Devin Nunes lately.

And also reminds me:




Maybe Trump can top that.

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

Please measure Rudy for an orange jumpsuit

Frankly, I don't know what Giuliani is saying in either of those tweets.

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