Will Trump plead the 5th if required to testify?

jnug said:

If I am not mistaken Watergate start to finish was 930 days and only ended then because Nixon resigned.

Just based on the cast of characters for sheer complication, this thing makes Watergate look like a walk in the park.

I should mention though that if Mueller decides to subpoena Trump for the grand jury and trump fights it, the case will be fast tracked through the system for the good of the American people. Trump will lose and be sitting in front of the grand jury taking the 5th.

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PIPEWRENCH said:

Watergate was not a witch hunt. People were caught in the act. it was just a matter of tracing it back to the person who authorized it. This bringing in people one after the other and investigating them until they find something in their past to charge them with is a witch hunt. A witch hunt that almost nobody could escape from. Especially people that deal internationally.

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Cardinal said:

That option is of course available to him. It would be politically catastrophic to his hopes of retaining Independent support, but he could do it.

No matter how often lawyers explain that pleading the fifth isn't admitting to guilt, you're never going to eliminate the widespread perception that it does precisely that.

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Skeptic Bob said:

In most cases I would agree. Trump supporters won’t care.

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jnug said:

For one thing, Rudy has been all over the map on prepayment saying at one point that Cohen had a slush fund and at another point Trump was sending him retainer checks.

It does not matter which it was if it was either and the FBI now has the information to prove whether it was either or neither. So won't have to guess about this forever.

Cohen had a responsibility to keep his client informed of his activities on his behalf. This stuff of just doing it or "getting the job done" is nonsense. Cohen will be disbarred at least. In addition, its a fig leaf at best for a political campaign. If Cohen either had the slush fund or was getting payments regularly and just "doing the job" it stretches credibility to believe that once they were into a political campaign they could continue to do business that way or even thought they could. Nobody in a court room is going to believe it and that fig leaf is going to be ripped to shreds.

Also just this evening Michael Avenatti, the Daniels attorney has said that he has evidence that Michael Cohen insisted that the payment and any dealing with Daniels must be completed before the election and that the payment was related to the election. That contingency existed for a reason and Avenatti and SDNY is going to hang it around Cohen's and subsequently Trump's neck because big mouth Rudy has brought Trump right into the middle of that payment.

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