Michael Cohen pleads guilty to lying to Congress about Trump real estate project in Russia

[Atomic Kid]

Yes that is obvious. AG refused to prosecute. With that is THAT normal operation that the DOJ is to take the recommendation if the FBI? That is the "unprecedented" step taken by Lynch for which she has NEVER done that in her career except in this case ONLY.

Secondly when did the DOJ get to pick and choose. Their job is to pursue justice?

The IG has NOTHING to do with my point that and adjudication was to take place once the investigation was complete.

Next the IG discussed more about BIAS in the FBI, they are currently still investigating the handling of the Email server. Hence the reason for Lynch and Comey called to testify.

Has nothing to do with actually doing the job of prosecuting a suspected crime.

Im am not crying, BUT if this is the case be prepared that if a suspected crime against Trump is not prosecuted because the AG chose NOT to prosecute...."Dont Cry me a river" now....

Yes, you are crying. To the point of ad nauseam. Mr Comey and many others involved in the leadership, oversight, and investigatory reached a decision to decline to prosecute a case that no reasonable prosecutor would elect to prosecute because they did not have a provable case that would be able to meet the statutory burden of proof required for a successful prosecution. The Inspector General independently reviewed declination recommendation and found that it was based on sound assessment of facts, law, and past Justice Department practice and standards.

The Midyear team concluded that such proof was
lacking. We found that this interpretation of Section
793(f)(1) was consistent with the Department’s
historical approach in prior cases under different
leadership, including in the 2008 decision not to prosecute former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales for
mishandling classified documents.
We analyzed the Department’s declination decision
according to the same analytical standard that we
applied to other decisions made during the
investigation. We did not substitute the OIG’s
judgment for the judgments made by the Department,
but rather sought to determine whether the decision
was based on improper considerations, including
political bias. We found no evidence that the
conclusions by the prosecutors were affected by bias or
other improper considerations; rather, we determined
that they were based on the prosecutors’ assessment of
the facts, the law, and past Department practice.
We therefore concluded that these were legal and policy
judgments involving core prosecutorial discretion that were for the Department to make.

For a more detailed summary of the critical factual conclusions reached by the midyear prosecutors (note the plural) in it's recommendation not to prosecute please refer to pages 253 to 257 of the Inspector General's report.

 

[beefheart]

We are planning a few days in Vegas next year and that was one show we were thinking of seeing. Did you also do the buffet there at the Rio? I hear it is one of the best on the strip.

No, we drove up, did the pinball museum, the show, and we were on the road to Santa Barbara the next day. I can't handle all the noise and smoke and tackiness at casinos.

 

[Atomic Kid]

Why is it that Democrats refuse to believe what is written on Comey's letter of termination

Well for one thing because for one thing the words 'therefore I recommend his the Director's termination appeared nowhere in it.

 

[bubbabgone]

But do you think ONLY Russians will be indicted.


You can't afford my going rate to work for you.
A few examples of lies are sufficient to show repeated lies.

Earlier Wednesday, Trump tweeted, "Russia has never tried to use leverage over me. I HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH RUSSIA - NO DEALS, NO LOANS, NO NOTHING!"
“I have nothing to do with Russia,” he said. “To the best of my knowledge, no person that I deal with does.”
“I have nothing to do with Russia. I never did.”
“There was no talking to Russia. There was no phone calls.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/29/us/politics/fact-check-cohen-trump-.html

Just below the headline of your own link it says "For years, the president has denied that he had any business interests in Russia during the 2016 election. His former personal lawyer now says otherwise.".
The first part still appears to be true ... unlike the second part.
Also from your link ...
"On at least 23 occasions since the summer of 2016, Mr. Trump has said either that he had “nothing” to do with Russia, or that he has “no deals,” no investments and no “business” in Russia."
Looks like that was true too.
And I hope you realize, as an example" he had bragged about working with Russia on the Miss Universe pageant back in 2013. Business people gonna do business.

 

[Exactice]

Are you actually going to push the narrative that this investigation is a "witch hunt"?

As for the rest of your post, it's like you expect the end result of the investigation to happen in the middle. Yes you are waiting to see the results of the investigation just like the rest of us are. Until then, of course the bulk of what it discussed about it will be speculation until the evidence is released.

IN all fairness I am happy to see justice served. If Cohen is guilty. He should go to Jail, If Manafort is guilt he should go to Jail. If Trump is guilty he should go to Jail. With that being said. Why are we trying on side of the law to only the republicans ALL of those that did break the law in the last administration. Seem to get immunity or never were charged. Thats my concern. I am ABOUT the fairness of the law to included Kavanaugh type situation. When accused with no factual evidence.

 

[bubbabgone]

The only thing I saw was that it wasn't Trump who discussed that penthouse offer and it's not clear if it would have been illegal anyway.

So you admit you have blinders on. OK.

I got that from the Washington Post.
Got tunnel vision do ya?

 

[JANFU]

Also going to be interesting to see what comes out of the Deutsche Bank raid and the accountants.

Not only the that but the Fund manager in Russia who was handling a massive outflow of funds. Then add in the other banks, including, spelling may be off, Danske Bank, they alone funneled a few hundred billion.

 

[poweRob]

IN all fairness I am happy to see justice served. If Cohen is guilty. He should go to Jail, If Manafort is guilt he should go to Jail. If Trump is guilty he should go to Jail. With that being said. Why are we trying on side of the law to only the republicans ALL of those that did break the law in the last administration. Seem to get immunity or never were charged. Thats my concern. I am ABOUT the fairness of the law to included Kavanaugh type situation. When accused with no factual evidence.

Mueller is not going to come forward having accusations and punishment without evidence. That just won't happen.

 

[SLC]

Mueller won't be indicting Trump. He is passing much of that evidence to SDNY. Trump claimed he can always pardon himself. He can't do that for state crimes, so looks like a constitutional crisis will be avoided here.

Isn't the SDNY federal?:roll: U.S. District Court • Southern District of New York

 

[SLC]

Mueller is not going to come forward having accusations and punishment without evidence. That just won't happen.

You didn't answer his question.

 

[SLC]

IN all fairness I am happy to see justice served. If Cohen is guilty. He should go to Jail, If Manafort is guilt he should go to Jail. If Trump is guilty he should go to Jail. With that being said. Why are we trying on side of the law to only the republicans ALL of those that did break the law in the last administration. Seem to get immunity or never were charged. Thats my concern. I am ABOUT the fairness of the law to included Kavanaugh type situation. When accused with no factual evidence.

100% agree.

 

[SLC]

No, we drove up, did the pinball museum, the show, and we were on the road to Santa Barbara the next day. I can't handle all the noise and smoke and tackiness at casinos.

The car museum at the Imperial Palace is very good.

 

[Atomic Kid]

AGAIN Trump was pissed that Comey wouldn't announce that Trump wasn't under FBI investigation, he wasn't at that time. Comey himself told Congress that Trump had pressed him to announce that Trump wasn't under FBI investigation.

Trump felt that the public not knowing he was not under investigation was casting a cloud over his administration. When that was coupled with the fact that Rosenstein thought Comey was doing a bad job and had lost the confidence of the FBI persuaded Trump to fire Comey.

That is 100% legal and consistent with Comey's termination letter and Trump's TV interview with Holt. You might as well find another dream because that one is going nowhere.

Trump pressuring Comey to make public statements about an ongoing investigation and statements that are personally exculpatory is at the very least improper, unethical and possibly even illegal and impeachable. Couple that with his pressuring the Director to drop an investigation into one of his high up cabinet members occupying a very sensitive position and it puts the President even further out onto thin ice. The primary factor determining whether these acts amount to obstruction of justice depends upon establishing the President's intent and state of mind at the time he was making those demands upon the Director of the FBI. The President's TV interview with Lester Holt gave us a very good glimpse into President Trump's intentions and state of mind. I would say given what is known just in the public domain alone, never mind what more Mueller may know, which I would imagine would be much more than any of us, that obstruction of justice is practically a slam dunk.

 

[poweRob]

You didn't answer his question.

He didn't ask one.

 

[SLC]

Well for one thing because for one thing the words 'therefore I recommend his the Director's termination appeared nowhere in it.

Got you stuttering? I was talking about Trump's letter terminating Comey. Session , Rosenstein and Comey's boss, recommended Trump fire Comey base on the informayion in Rosenstein's letter. You can read Session's letter here

 

[SLC]

Yes he did. And it is a legit concern of those of us who believe in equal justice under the law. Nothing about Hillary's and Trump's (Muelller) investigations are remotely similar. It makes me and others feel our justice system is seriously broken

IN all fairness I am happy to see justice served. If Cohen is guilty. He should go to Jail, If Manafort is guilt he should go to Jail. If Trump is guilty he should go to Jail. With that being said. Why are we trying on side of the law to only the republicans ALL of those that did break the law in the last administration. Seem to get immunity or never were charged. Thats my concern. I am ABOUT the fairness of the law to included Kavanaugh type situation. When accused with no factual evidence.

Mueller is not going to come forward having accusations and punishment without evidence. That just won't happen.

He didn't ask one.

 

[Stealers Wheel]

A few of things I feel are being lost in all this:

1. People close to Trump during the transition were found to have lied to the FBI. This was long before Mueller was appointed. Mueller didn't create those crimes. They were known well beforehand. I don't think we have heard who all those people are yet.

2. This idea that Mike Flynn took it upon himself to reach out to the Russian government all on his own without discussing it with the transition team and then lie to the FBI is very hard to believe. If others on the transition team, such as Mike Pence, knew of Flynn's activities and lied to the FBI, there could be serious heads rolling when perjury charges come out. Yes, that is speculation, but is it more or less reasonable than to believe Mike Flynn went completely rogue? Or, is it possible Mike Pence is up to his eyeballs in the cover up?

3. Why did Sessions recuse himself? It was because he had contact with Russians during the campaign and like so many others, had conveniently 'forgot' about it until he was confronted with the evidence possessed by the FBI or other intel services. That contact, according to Comey's testimony before congress, would be 'problematic' if Sessions did not recuse himself. Apparently, when confronted with the evidence, Sessions, knowing he had made false statements to both the FBI and congress, decided that recusal was the only option.

4. I recall when Trump's personal lawyers assured White House staffers that they did not need to retain legal counsel because they would be representing them as part of the president's legal team. Why would the president want to do that, other than to be kept abreast of what they were asked about by the FBI or the Mueller team?

5. Some people are suggesting that the Mueller investigation has been just one big fishing expedition, or "witch hunt." These people fail to acknowledge how these investigations are conducted, or more importantly, continued. The special counsel has been required to keep the deputy AG apprised of the progress of the investigation and every quarter judges have to renew warrants and other authorizations to continue the investigations. They would have us believe that all these people are part of a vast conspiracy to destroy the Trump presidency; that there is absolutely no integrity anywhere to be found.

6. Finally, Obstruction of Justice is a crime, even if it turns out there was no underlying crime uncovered during the investigation. Nobody gets to lie under oath - ever! Just ask Bill Clinton.

 

[upsideguy]

Its rather easy to show the firing of Comey was not obstruction.
The president has a right to fire the FBI director. An investigation that Comey was conducting (among others no doubt nationwide) was a counter intelligence investigation, not criminal, into Russian meddling. Such investigations exist to serve the needs of a president in his exercising of his authority by gathering information, not obtaining justice. Thus as justice was not the objective, justice cannot be obstructed.

And what thwarting of Mueller has Trump done? Screaming on Twitter does nothing to stop him. Nothing wrong with seeking to discredit an investigation-- it happens all the time-- heck their were efforts to credit the Nunes investigation for pete's sake.

You are grasping at straws. Trump's firing of Comey will be listed as one of many attributes of obstruction of justice on the part of the President. The stated reasons were a sham and inconsistent with what Trump himself said about it going forward. OoJ is a crime of intent. Showing intent will be quite easy given there are so many consistent examples going forward.

If Comey's firing were an isolated incidence that could argued as OoJ, you might have an argument, but it wasn't, so you don't.

 

[HumblePi]

Why is it that Democrats refuse to believe what is written on Comey's letter of termination and instead believe a TV interview then they will tell you in the same breath Trump is a pathological liar and has lied 1000's of times in the past two years. Why do they think he was 100% "Honest Abe" in his interview with Holt? I'll tell you why, because it suits their false narrative.

AGAIN Trump was pissed that Comey wouldn't announce that Trump wasn't under FBI investigation, he wasn't at that time. Comey himself told Congress that Trump had pressed him to announce that Trump wasn't under FBI investigation.

Trump felt that the public not knowing he was not under investigation was casting a cloud over his administration. When that was coupled with the fact that Rosenstein thought Comey was doing a bad job and had lost the confidence of the FBI persuaded Trump to fire Comey.

That is 100% legal and consistent with Comey's termination letter and Trump's TV interview with Holt. You might as well find another dream because that one is going nowhere.

Are you really wondering why people believe the words that came out of Trump's own mouth on national television? You believe he lied to fit the 'false narrative' of liberals? Really? (duh) His campaign was under investigation for working with Russians to make HRC lose and the Putin puppet to win. What's so hard to understand here?

 

[Atomic Kid]

Got you stuttering? I was talking about Trump's letter terminating Comey. Session , Rosenstein and Comey's boss, recommended Trump fire Comey base on the informayion in Rosenstein's letter. You can read Session's letter here

Are you illiterate? Show me where the word “terminate” appears anywhere in Rosenstein’s letter. Sessions should not have weighed in on it as he had recused himself from any matters that may pertain to the Russia investigation that Comey was overseeing.

 

[Hatuey]

Lincoln won a plurality, not a majority - he won because of the Electoral College. So you only want Electoral College when it brings in somebody you like, and then reject it when it allows your side to be defeated. Pathetic. You want the rules to be respected or discarded purely on what's convenient to you.

Lmao, did Lincoln win the popular vote, yes or no?

Go on, let us know the basic knowledge they teach at that American school.

Sent from Trump Plaza's basement using Putin's MacBook.

 

[Hatuey]

Theres an fbi investigation, senate investigation, house investigation and a special council investigation but theres no basis for an investigation...

Convincing argument you got there.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G920A using Tapatalk

But the 'upper house'(he means Senate) will protect Truuuuump. He's been showing signs of a political meltdown ever since Democrats took back the house (or as he would say 'lower house'). I bet he lives in 'Murica.

Sent from Trump Plaza's basement using Putin's MacBook.

 

[Fearandloathing]

It's unfortunate that more didn't know about him before The Apprentice. Having grown up in the NY area, I've been subjected to his assinineness (new word) for decades. We in NY have always known that he's a malignant narcissist and a bit of a nut-job with his impersonations over the phone to radio talk hosts pretending he's someone by the name of 'John Barron' or 'John Miller'. He denied those calls were him of course calling it 'a scam'. I've seen him aboard his yacht with Ivana, the one he sold to the Saudis for 20 mil. I've even seen him in the Taj Mahal casino once, (descending an escalator).

Former Director of the CIA, John McLaughlin tweeted this yesterday;

Great post.

Like "asininess" but have used "asininity"

Again, with this odd, or rather behavior issues, I cannot understand how he got elected on a grand scale. Weirdos come and go, **** the first ever premier of this province renamed himself "Armour di Cosmos" - lover of the heavens. He last one term. Then we had Toronto Mayor Doug Ford who made national news in the US, but whose brand faded quickly with news of heavy cocaine use and hookers. His brother is premier of Ontario; it will be one term.

In nearly 30 years of political reporting I have never seen such an off center individual rise to the top. Usually they self destruct before getting there. Having said that, I have a feeling Trump will in time come to see his presidency as the biggest mistake he's ever made. You can see the pressure in his posture and his speaking. He's not enjoying being king. And as I see it, his opposition becomes more steeled, more determined and international. This is not happy, happy for Mr. Windbag.

It is my belief NAFTA 2 will crash and burn once subjected to detailed study in congress and Parliament. The dems want serious changes while the people of Canada have yet to put any attention on it and when they do it will be hockey season and what they will hear is that there is a "doubling" of the amount of American milk product into Canada, and that will be all that's needed as the progressives will make an issue of the chemicals you guy use in your milk, the roll of Monsanto in that and that will enough to panic the Canadian public into opposition. NAFTA II is already an "environmental disaster" which coupled with growing anti-American hostilities will assure the deal never see the light of day.

 

[Mach]

A few of things I feel are being lost in all this:

Good to see you posting!
I feel that none of this is lost, whatsoever, on reasonable people.
I also feel much of it is not *really* lost on Trump nutters, most just tow the line, deny, deny, deny.
In any case, the people that can be reasoned with, I feel understand all of this, and have since the beginning, and *none* of it is academically questioned, and none of it will be legally glossed over.

But the Trump faithful, specially those on these forums, are simply trolling everyone. Deny, deny, deny.

I don't think we have heard who all those people are yet.

Correct. Someone in the Senate remarked recently that others told the same story as Cohen, and these sorts of things will be known to Mueller, and will be followed up on by House Democrats if nothing else.
There are plenty of people who will be named in forthcoming indictments, I don't think anyone reasonable should believe otherwise.

2. This idea that Mike Flynn took it upon himself to reach out to the Russian government all on his own without discussing it with the transition team and then lie to the FBI is very hard to believe.

There is no evidence to support the idea that Flynn did this on his own.
all evidence, including motive, indicate he was doing so in a coordinated effort as part of the Trump campaign.
Remember, there is evidence Flynn may have been compromised BEFORE he was oddly appointed by Trump to be part of his administration, despite all the people warning if off Flynn.
Flynn had that all-expenses paid trip to Russia right before all that, where he sat next to Putin, and was the one leading a standing ovation of Putin's remarks. Putin likely asked Trump to install Flynn.
There is more evidence for that, than for anything else that I'm aware of.

3. Why did Sessions recuse himself?

As you point out, it was required, they know this, it's the end of the discussion, they are just trolling.

5. Some people are suggesting that the Mueller investigation has been just one big fishing expedition, or "witch hunt."

No one reasonable believes this, there is no evidence to support it, and all evidence to the contrary.

6. Finally, Obstruction of Justice is a crime

Indeed. It's a serious crime, a Felony. As is perjury. if it was engaged in by multiple people who coordinated with intent to engage in it, it may also be conspiracy. that will be the tip of the iceberg I hope, on "indictments".

 

[SLC]

Are you really wondering why people believe the words that came out of Trump's own mouth on national television? You believe he lied to fit the 'false narrative' of liberals? Really? (duh) His campaign was under investigation for working with Russians to make HRC lose and the Putin puppet to win. What's so hard to understand here?

You need to reread the last sentence of my post. There will be no obstruction of justice charges on Trumpnfor firing Comey. Sorry but you are still in shock that Hillary lost and you think Trump cheated. Hillary lost because she lied through her teeth about her emails and she spent her time hobknobing with the rich elites on on Martha’s Vinyard and Hollywood. And in the meanwhile Trump was giving up to 5 rallies a day. In states Hillary neglected . It came back to bite her in the ass. Actually I believe what Trump wrote in Comey’s terminayion letter and what he told Holt. And I told you why I think it was legal in my previous post .