It's such a ridiculous story. Cohen pays off Stormy Daniels with 130,000 as part of an agreement not to talk with his own money and doesn't so much as run it by his client? Come on.
Do you really believe Trump's telling the truth about that? Are you that blindly loyal to Trump? I'm curious.
I think Trump must have known about it; 130K doesn't pass hands without the tripwires that proves that banks and agencies are aware of it and everyone is aware of these checks and balances for good reason - including Cohen and Trump.
But could it be said that it is possible that he doesn't know about it? Could reasonable doubt be established within Trump's defence?
It certainly can and this is the problem with being too excited. It seems too easy to get him off of any incrimination with sheer denial of being implicit in any dealings with Daniels. AND that's before the Daniels thing is taken as a set-up from Trump in and of itself.
I wouldn't put it past Trump to be the one in control of his supposed 'enemies'.
Sure. The whole point of keeping lawyers on retainer is they run legal shields to keep the shit off you. There's probably a hundred shady Stormy situations in Trump's closet that he knows nothing about.
shareAnd spend 130k of his money to cover up for Trump, without getting reimbursed?
shareThat's like lunch for a billionaire's lawyer.
shareLawyers will bill you for photocopies. They bill you for phone calls. But 130,000.00 to porn stars to hush up your infidelity....that we'll just take the hit on, never mention it or look for reimbursement from the client AND expose yourself to potential legal problems because your client is a very public and very polarizing figure with a penchant for saying/writing things that no lawyer would want their client to say/expose?
If Trump didn't know, then he's guilty of hiring the worlds single worst lawyer.
The idea that an attorney would spend $130K of his own money without informing his client of the situation is one of the most ludicrous things imaginable. The only way it could possibly be true is if the people involved were completely unethical idiots.....oh yeah so maybe.
shareI'm genuinely curious as well and would love to hear 1 Trump supporter chime in.
I figure it's pretty clear cut. He had an affair, he paid her off to be quiet, that should've been the end of story. But by lying(?) about it now, he's showing he's afraid to be honest about who he is, the 1 thing people respected him for.
If he's really telling the truth that he had no knowledge of the payout, why doesn't he hold a press conference and spell it out clearly, instead of being evasive? I thought Trump supporters admired him for the direct approach.
If it was just a payoff it's really no big deal (well little of a deal as paying hush money to a porn star can be anyway). But if the funds used were any kind of campaign funds it could be bad for all involved (except Stormy). And let's face it, the FBI wouldn't be raiding Michael Cohen's office (wouldn't have even been able to get approval on the warrant) unless they had something pretty compelling to suggest a crime was committed.
shareTrue, so Trump is balancing between pleasing his supporters (coming right out and admitting it all) vs. playing the political game (he wasn't part of it so it wasn't an illegal campaign contribution). He's choosing to play the political game, which is something he campaigned against. I'd love to know how Trump supporters are reacting in their hearts.
Just guessing... they're probably dismissing the whole thing as no big deal morally, then assuming Trump is being clever for sneaking around the campaign laws, so he's justified in lying. Total guess, I don't know how else they can justify it.
For a while now I've been saying that as a liberal, it's very easy for me to be disgusted with Trump's behavior, but if I was a Republican, I'd be twice as mad because in my opinion he really is doing long term, if not irreparable damages to their brand.
shareI'd be twice as mad because in my opinion he really is doing long term, if not irreparable damages to their brand
"Ideally here's what I'd love to see. I want the Republican Party to fracture into 2 separate parties: the traditional GOP & a new "Populist" party which means Trump's GOP. At least then everyone would know where they stand, and nobody has to hypocritically tolerate the policies & shenanigans of the other."
I think the fear here, and it's probably a legitimate one, is that neither of these fractured brands would be big enough to defeat the democrats. This is why so many Republicans who probably don't like Trump are also careful not to upset his base out of fear they'll isolate those voters.
I think the fear here, and it's probably a legitimate one, is that neither of these fractured brands would be big enough to defeat the democrats. This is why so many Republicans who probably don't like Trump are also careful not to upset his base out of fear they'll isolate those voters.
From what I understand, the payment itself is an illegal campaign contribution whether Trump knows about it or not. For weeks, Trump was kinda/sorta taking this position that there wasn't even a payment. He accomplished it by not talking about it. When Trump admitted last Friday that he didn't know about the payment, he accidentally admitted there was a payment, and that's what finally got Cohen in trouble.
But I guess the overall question is, will that somehow get back to Trump? Who knows if Mueller can find proof of that or not.
Last night lawyer Michael Avenatti pointed out that there's two serious charges of Bank Fraud from Cohen, and (more or less) T-rump can be considered an accomplice.
1. He applied for the $130K against his home equity. The federally insured bank asks on the application 'the purpose' of the loan, standard for any loan in that amount. What did he put for reason? Paying off a porn star? Or did he say something else - which would be a federal crime.
2. KYC / "Know Your Client" - he has the money wired to his LLC account which he set up to payoff the porn star. The bank does a KYC screening on him as part of their anti-money laundering process. Of course, they ask what the purpose of his LLC is, and he lies - surely, he doesn't say he's paying a porn star hush money to influence the election. Now he's committing federal wire fraud.
And if T-rump (no doubt) is in on this with him - he's cooked.
Good one . all clear cut. those are facts .
execpt neither of them will actually be cooked over it.
Trump supporters don't care one way or the other. I thought liberals supported the idea that what happened in the bedroom was nobody else's business.
shareThe issue isnt what's happening in Trump's bedroom. The issue is that conservatives have long claimed moral superiority to liberals and the longer they stand by a man who had an affair on his newlywed 3rd wife (who had their newborn son) the bigger hypocrites they look like.
The bigger issue at play is if the hush money paid to Stormy Daniels was misappropriated campaign funds. No idea what exactly they were looking for in raiding Cohen's place but they must've had some compelling evidence to have gotten a search warrant authorized on the President's lawyer.
Burk48917's answer explains it all. "Trump supporters don't care one way or the other." Willful ignorance.
shareI recall Republicans trying to remove Clinton from office for the trivial crime of lying about cheating on his wife.
What Trump may be involved in includes campaign fraud, bank fraud, wire fraud, as well as lying about an affair. Altogether much more serious.
Right, this isn't just another moral scandal like Clinton's philandering or even Roy Moore cruising for some tail at the high schools. This is a direct violation of the rules of government. Any Republican who calls himself a defender of the Constitution should call out any politician, R or D, who gets elected illegally. The "don't care" attitude just exposes the faux patriots who only defend the country when it suits their interests.
shareThe issue here, to my mind, is that Hilary had a Super-PAC and campaign to Correct The Record alongside a dubious email server which all seemed to slide by the eyes of the Forth Estate mostly unchallenged.
The problem you have with Trump supporters is that they see him getting scrutinised something rotten by the press (And rightly so) but they watched as Hillary walked away with not a scratch from them.
Uneven and unfair handling of stories is what brought Trump into office, and it will keep him there too until the media have a responsibility to tell a whole picture of events and thanks to the Internet people know when they are being hoodwinked (Or at least will read information to support their personal biases).
Sorry but the investigation into Hillary was seen through to conclusion and even re-opened publicly just before the election giving many voters the go-ahead in their minds to vote for Trump. The press covered all this (I watched) but in the end an investigation was concluded and no charges filed. I’m not sure what you feel the press should’ve been reporting on at that point.
Trump doesn’t seem willing to let this investigation run to its conclusion and the more he protests the more he looks like he’s desperately hiding something...or several things. Now a year into office he still can’t stop talking about Hillary. He promised if elected he would be appointing a special prosecutor to “look at her situation” yet he hasn’t. It’s because like with so many other things he said he’s simply full of shit.
I'll give you that Trump is full of shit.
I won't let you get away with the Hillary didin du nuffin hijinks.
Top level, confidential and absolutely secret communications were being sent to and from her private server and printed out on paper by all manners of people for her to read and reply to. Her email server operator was a Reddit user by the name of /u/StoneTear who implicated the absolute level of competence in her entire operation with regards to fulling national security protocols and ensuring the people were kept in the loop regarding who she was talking to and about what. The enormous Correct The Record Super-PAC was highly illegal and was being used to push propaganda and change the outcome of the election and let us not forget when she spoke of Trump blaming Russian hackers for winning the election and how that was tin-foil hat poppycock as the election couldn't be rigged.
Yup, Trump's a proper fool and make no mistake about it. Still better than Hillary though, just on basic competence (I'm not a Trump fan for the record, but I'd take him over the deplorable Hillary).
I didn’t say Hillary “diddin du nuffin”. I said the FBI investigation was seen through to its conclusion and the press reported on both it and the FBI’s conclusion. The press doesn’t decide on the course of an investigation.
shareThe press did decide on the election though. Why do you think everyone flocked towards Trump when they didn't give the server story and investigation story proper focus.
Lots of people are a fault for what's gotten us all here. At fault on the public dime too.
Now wait, the press simply reported on how the investigation unfolded, which was that no charges were filed. So it would seem to be that if people did in fact vote for Trump as a revolt as you indicate, it would be a revolt against the Justice Department and not the press. The JD decided not to press charges....that wasn't the media.
I'm not sure how old you were in the 90s when the Monica Lewinsky thing was blowing up but I was in my 20s and I remember not being able to turn around without reading about it. The media is sensational and will follow a sensational story regardless of what side of the aisle it falls in (I know way more about democrat Anthony Weiner's buldge than I'd ever care to).
I'm just going to leave this with the US press reporting on Hillary Clinton winning the 2016 US elections by over 98% of the vote.
I remember Lewinsky, Weiner and everything in between. The sensationalism which has been brought forward since 2012 is in direct correlation to the quality of articles published by "News outlets" on both sides of the spectrum.
Social media drives clickbait which drives ridiculous opinion pieces and poorly researched stories.
Jon Stewart was always right about NRA members and supporters. They'd go to the boring meetings, have their rears in community halls and take the vote on issues most liberal people don't think they have time for.
Trump's election was based on people getting off their asses or seeing more of Clinton's campaign of courting left wing media which looks down on the working classes whilst claiming to have their best interests at heart.
When the DoJ overlooks what the people actually want investigated properly and supply immunity to all involved you have Pravda not an open market of news media in a democratic country.
I've said it many times. Trump supporters aren't conservatives, they are mostly anti establishment. That's why sex scandals don't bother us. Not to mention we all realize the Russian investigation went nowhere,so suddenly banging a chick got really important. The term "grasping at straws" comes to mind.
share"I've said it many times. Trump supporters aren't conservatives, they are mostly anti establishment. "
That reminds me of when Dubya was President, and all conservatives/republicans suddenly became "Independents leaning conservative". They didn't want to associate themselves with Dubya as being 'Republican'. Please....
"Not to mention we all realize the Russian investigation went nowhere,so suddenly banging a chick got really important. "
The Russian investigation is "on going" with plenty of progress in the past year. You must be thinking of the Republicans appointing Ken Starr in 1994 to bring down Clinton in "White Water" which went nowhere - and then banging Monica Lewinsky got really important in 1998.
Burk48917, sex scandals, hiring your rich friends, bowing to lobbyists, lying to the people... that *is* the establishment. Wanting to tear down the hypocrisy of DC is admirable, but you can't give someone a free pass just because he's on your team. And for the record I'm an Independant who thinks Trump as well as Bill Clinton should be shoved in a dark hole for disgracing the presidency.
shareHe's certainly not "my team". I've never voted for a republican before,just to be clear. He was the better choice of the two, and represents a first step towards moving away from paint by the number politicians. At this point, I think it's unlikely to achieve the office of President without doing some shady shit. I hope that changes,and I think it will because Hillary was as paint by the numbers as it comes, and her loss was a lesson. The fact is, Trump is helping me as a middle class American in a rural area,and we've been getting overlooked for decades. If my choice is between two crooked politicians, but one of them will actually help my family improve, it's obvious who gets my vote.
shareTotal agreement that both candidates are crooked. I had no reason to vote for either one so I stayed at home and mowed the lawn. That probably accomplished more for this country than either vote would have.
share"The fact is, Trump is helping me as a middle class American in a rural area,and we've been getting overlooked for decades."
I don't read many - if any at all - statements such as this.
So I'm very curious - how has he helped you, as a Middle Class American in a rural area? And how have you felt over-looked before?
Is this the first election you have voted in, or have you voted in the past? If so, may I ask for whom (Presidential elections)?
If you care to reply, I would be very interested in your answers.
"And for the record I'm an Independant who thinks Trump as well as Bill Clinton should be shoved in a dark hole for disgracing the presidency."
Another interesting statement.
How do you feel Trump and Clinton disgraced the Presidency?
I do feel Trump disgraced the Presidency within the past year for a variety of reasons. But I don't feel that way at all about Clinton. So I'm curious to know why you feel this way about each of them.
Sttrictly on a moral level. I think the leader of this country should be someone we all can idolize as a policy maker as well as a human being. You have to admit (especially in light of the racist/haters that Trump is coaxing out of the woodwork) that a nation's citizens feel free to emulate their leader.
When the story of Bill Clinton's sexcapades came out, I was crushed. That openly ok'd the culture of womanizing and sexual deception that we're stuck with today (and the ante is raised by Trump's porn star and Playboy model cheating). Call me crazy, but I think this country desperately needs a good guy (or girl) in the Whitehouse who can act as a role model.
Disclaimer: I'm not religious by any stretch of the imagination. I'm going by the personal morality that I live by and hope my girlfriend will live by!
Interesting, but I have to say I disagree.
I honestly don't care about T-rumps affairs with Stormy Daniels (or Karen McDougal, etc) - that's between him and his wife/son. I DO CARE about the hush money paid to SD days before the election (and I still say his hands are all over that payment) and how that fraudulently affected the election. That's my main worry about this scandal.
As for Clinton, again the affair is between him and his wife and daughter. There was no hush money, there was no payoff before an election. Sure, perjuring himself was absolutely wrong - and he paid the price for it.
But when it comes to affairs, we would have to look down on just about every President in history for those who had affairs.
But when it comes to affairs, we would have to look down on just about every President in history for those who had affairs.
I know you and many Trump supporters don't consider yourself conservatives but many do. A guy like Jerry Falwell Jr. and his followers claim to be devoutly Christian but unabashed support for Donald Trump makes it look like his religion is nothing but a front. Even better look at Mike Pence. His religious convictions make up a big part of his political convictions but how do you take him seriously when he supports Trump?
shareAgreed, but the American terrorist organization ANTIFA is responsible for riots,and violence. They loudly supported Hilllary. That doesn't mean they are a representative of all liberals. The far right is just as bad. Unfortunately we are stuck dealing with a two party system for now, so it's just a matter of the lesser of two evils. I'd say Trump choosing Pence was to appeal to the religious right, because you still need the votes to come out on top. I really don't think Trump is very conservative, but he knows how to win. Hillary probably would have won in a landslide if she'd have been a little more moderate.
shareAntifa has yet to cause a single death. Can't say the same for right-wing terrorists.
Yet Trump will happily go out there and berate Antifa while calling Neo-Nazis "fine people."
But that's what the alt-right wants to hear, so it works every time.
So violence, intimidation and destruction of property are ok as long as nobody dies....give me a break. Even the feds started referring to their "terrorist activities" appropriately.
shareNowhere did anyone say or imply it was ok. However, it is on the record how Trump has repeatedly chosen to criticize something that has a history of being far less despicable than something he has praised.
But again, he does it because it's what the alt-right wants to hear. He is merely acting in that role. He acts like a despicable human being because that's who they want him to be. He is their fantasy troll persona come to life.
Another demokkkrat nothing burger that once again proves there was no Trump/Russian collusion.
While the zero platform, zero ideas, zero solutions demokkkrat party and their media and lemmings were getting their panties in a wad over the latest nothing burger...
The stock market was going up 400 points despite last weeks demokkkrat nothing burger, the so-called trade war, oooooooo scawy.
#HateIsNOTaPlatform
Cohen hasn't been charged. Mueller is losing credibility by the day.
share"Cohen hasn't been charged. "
Yet. The justice system is not the same as the drive-through where you work at McDonald's, you idiot.
" Mueller is losing credibility by the day."
T-rump is the one losing credibility by the day. I don't think you understand the meaning of credibility.
One of the biggest nothing burgers in history. What started out as accusations the Russians rigged our election, (mind you there was and never has been a shred of evidence), has now turned in a complete circus.
No election rigging. No Russian collusion.
130k to buy someones silence about an alleged consensual relationship that happened a decade ago? Lmao!!! $130k? Lmao!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hundreds of millions being spent, national security being put at risk by spreading FBI recourses thinner, and all while the Clintons are connected to over a hundred murders, 30,000-60,000 emails deleted after they were subpoenaed, and at least 2 billion dollars in bribes given to the so-called “Clinton foundation”. 20% of the Uranium being sold to Russia under Clinton while bubba is getting millions for speeches.
The 2 billion in the Clinton foundation could pay off over 15,000 stormy hookers. Of course insiders say the Clintons just have them wacked instead.
The demokkkrat party, their media, and their lemmings, have never been more exposed for having a total lack of substance. No ideas, no solutions to problems facing Americans, no ability to debate important issues that people face everyday. They are an absolute laughing stock obsessed with hatred for a man who’s help create the strongest economy in a quarter of a century.
Keep up the hate demokkkrats!
[spoiler]#HateDoesNotCreate[/spoiler]
This is what regularly watching Fox news does to you.
share