This a big deal, I’m sure there’s loads to talk about here. Any lawyers in the house that want to discuss attorney client privilege? Or search warrants?
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Here’s Trump’s reaction
Quote:
“I just heard that they broke into the office of one of my personal attorneys, a good man,” Trump told reporters at the White House. "It’s a disgraceful situation…I’ve been saying it for a long time. I have this witch hunt constantly going on.”
“It’s an attack on our country,” Trump said. “It’s an attack on what we all stand for.”
Trump on Monday did not rule out the possibility he might fire Mueller, who is investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election and whether Trump’s campaign was involved. “We’ll see what happens,” he said. “Many people have said you should fire him.”
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More foreign contributions are being uncovered.
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T projects his own guilt…see crossed arms throughout. He will always hit out…verbally, but will he do the firing of Mueller as he threatens or is it his bully act.
He really is painted into a corner here…more of his dirty laundry is getting to Mueller and NYDA.
What is his next move…?
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More clues as to how evidence against Manafort has been gathered. With a key, from a former employer.
“Former Trump campaign chief Paul Manafort has trouble in his own house. According to court documents, one of Manafort’s former employees led an FBI agent to a storage locker filled with paperwork on Manafort’s businesses and finances.”
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Disturbing rant from T today…
“Trump’s claims of persecution also ring increasingly hollow. If this is a witch hunt, Mueller has uncovered a whole coven. Trump’s former national-security adviser, Michael Flynn, and deputy campaign manager, Rick Gates, have both pleaded guilty to charges and are cooperating with Mueller. So has a campaign aide, George Papadopoulos. There is a damning indictment against Paul Manafort, Trump’s former campaign chairman. There are multiple open lines of inquiry into Trump aides. It is true that no authority has yet indicted anyone for any specific crime of collusion, but to state, as Trump did Monday, that “they found no collusion whatsoever with Russia” is to declare the outcome of the ballgame at the end of the third inning.”
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I’m not a lawyer, but I found this article to be especially informative regarding issues of attorney client privilege as they pertain to the Cohen search warrants. Oddly, the article quotes, Andrew Napolitano, an outspoken Trump supporter, but he does seem to get right to the heart of the matter.
. . . it was the approval of the search warrants themselves that should terrify Trump. The best explanation, remarkably, came from Andrew Napolitano, a Fox News legal analyst. Napolitano explained that, under normal circumstances, communications between Trump and his attorney are privileged. But this privilege does not apply if there is “a serious allegation of illegal activity, by the lawyer with the client,” he said. [The emphasis is mine.]
Napolitano also says he believes Trump is Cohen’s only client.
In other words, it looks like there was sufficient probable cause to convince a judge that Cohen and Trump (assuming he is the “client” in question) may have committed a crime together. At least that’s my takeaway, but, again, I’m not a lawyer – and as @Pet_Proletariat mentioned, it would be great if someone who is a lawyer could weigh in with some analysis on the implications of these search warrants.
The article includes links to a video of the Napolitano interview – I would recommend watching it – a real eye-opener as to how significant these searches could be.
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@Pet_Proletariat.
Thx…a lot of incoming.
But digging for dirt on this regime is like following a dump truck spewing debris. Every time you look up, wham another piece of well, putting it mildly -crap.
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These appointments for important positions in being a steward of wildlife…well, it gets thrown to someone with a complete disregard for that. Sick.
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@dragonfly9
Re:Manafort
I just want tease this detail out of that article purely for comedic purposes.
Quote:
The person whose name was redacted also gave the FBI agent “a key to the lock on Unit 3013 and described the contents of Unit 3013,” according to the affidavit. That person also gave the FBI agent “written consent” to search the storage unit, and opened it for the FBI agent.
The FBI agent then looked into the storage unit and saw about 21 boxes of documents, as well as a filing cabinet. One box was marked as containing expenses, paid bills, invoices, and legal complaints. Another box said it contained “Ukraine Binders,” as well information about ballot security, Georgia, research, and “Ukraine Campaign.”
Who keeps all their evidence of various misdeeds and possible serious crimes in one place?! Seriously?! 
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Lol @Pet_Proletariat
…Manafort could be completely OCD about keeping those files in meticulous order…yes, keep 'em well organized for whomever to find.
Yup, an inescapable trap door of evidence.
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I’ve been wondering the same thing! I mean, really? But ya gotta love it. At least he’s a tidy felon.
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It’s just such a “wow” moment for the case against Manafort & co. A lot happened today.
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Yes, I think that would benefit the whole group immensely!!
I just want to tease the video out of that article only because I like to hear this from a Fox News contributer person. It feels better somehow, like the facts are starting to make their way across the great divide.
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@Keaton_James The fact that a Federal judge approved the raid is big news with the assured probable cause that Michael Cohen AND T were in cahoots with one another in bullying, and paying off their detractors, is a whole new layer of legal trouble for them.
Funny how many people surrounding the could have flipped on them…Flynn, Gates, Sater…any one of 'em.
Am no lawyer either…but this would appear to be a huge legal obstacle for both Cohen and T.
And glad to hear Nepolitano is talking straight on the perils T may face.
Interesting article in ny magazine too…it is a very stormy night for those two.
"Cohen is clearly in a lot of trouble. This is not a case of a highly respected pillar of the community being suddenly revealed to have a dark side. Perhaps the most surprising thing about Cohen’s career is that up to this point he has avoided prison. Cohen is fond of threatening people that Trump needs to intimidate; the subjects of his threats include journalists who report unflattering things about Trump. Cohen has been involved in Trump’s murky business dealings with Russia, along with his childhood friend, legitimate businessman Felix Sater, who once stabbed a guy and was also convicted of a mob-linked pump-and-dump scheme.
Perhaps more pertinently, Cohen facilitated hush payments to women who had sexual encounters with Trump. At the very minimum, he seems to have committed a clear campaign-finance violation by making a payment to Stormy Daniels in October 2016 that was intended to help Trump’s campaign and that exceeded campaign-finance law. Somebody also sent a person to threaten Daniels to keep quiet, and given Cohen’s handling of the matter, he would be a prime suspect for having arranged the threat, or at least having knowledge of it.
Trump has operated his career around the margins of legality. Cohen is the sort of attorney you cultivate to represent you in these kinds of matters.
Of course, the logic of having a Michael Cohen defend you does begin to deteriorate right about the time FBI agents show up at his home and office with search warrants.
Update: The Washington Post reports Cohen is being investigated for bank fraud and campaign finance violations. It is not clear if those are the only alleged crimes that are being investigated.
Second update: The Post’s updated report adds wire fraud to the alleged crimes being investigated. The New York Times states, “The payments to the pornographic film actress, Stephanie Clifford, who is known as Stormy Daniels, are only one of many topics being investigated, according to a person briefed on the search.” Cohen is, indeed, facing a high level of legal risk"
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And more here in the NY Daily News…raid sparked by evidence of the Stormy payola but more intel wanted re: T and MC.
" To what do those “seized emails, tax documents and business records” pertain? It was also noted in the NYT piece that records seized included “communications between Mr. Trump and Mr. Cohen.”
If they only relate to the Cohen-Clifford transaction, they would likely fall directly within the scope of a special counsel referral to SDNY was based solely on a “hush-money” referral. And, rightly so, also fall within the SDNY’s jurisdiction as a separate, if possibly related, matter.
But if said documents also provided insight into — or worse, evidence of — other kinds of wrongdoing, particularly if they have relevance to the Russia investigation, that not only bodes badly for the President (Cohen is his personal attorney. Imagine what he knows about a realm of issues), but are eminently less assailable as evidence if they fall under a warrant that is broader in scope than one involving hush money.
But I digress. What is perhaps most telling about this action is that the special counsel, and by extension, the SDNY, had no compulsion about executing a search warrant on the President’s personal counsel.
Stormy Daniels’ lawyer to try having Trump testify about payout
Again, according to the NYT, Cohen’s attorney called the search “completely inappropriate and unnecessary.” But defense attorneys always say that.
Clearly, the use of a search warrant rather than a subpoena in this instance is another indicator that the special counsel’s prosecutors and investigators (and, now those of the SDNY and FBI New York) don’t trust a word the clowns in the Trump administration are telling them.
These prosecutors and investigators don’t trust them — and are playing hardball, like they would with a drug dealer or a terrorist, not because they don’t like the subject-in-chief or his minions, or because they have a bias against them, but because that trust was long ago violated.
As a result, Trump and company get to face the wrath of a federal investigation scorned. Truth is, it’s their own damned fault. If I were in their shoes, I should think I’d be peeing my pants, too.
Michael Cohen, Trump’s ‘pit bull,’ comes to boss’ aid again"
Montoya is a retired FBI senior executive who served under Bob Mueller and Jim Comey as Special Agent in Charge of two field offices.
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I don’t think T will fire Mueller or Rosenstein . I agree about his body language thought- huge tell.
My guess he will get rid of Sessions and find a flunky to do the deed on Rosenstein. Can you believe that asshat Nunes wants to impeach Chris Wray??? WTF indeed
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Ahhh, what a sordid litte hissy fit this brings up in T. He is just that angry and tempestuous to fire somebody soon, and it could well be Sessions. T has no guard rails against this kind of behavior, particularly with the Hope Hicks not around to hear him out. T does not listen to Kelly…Conway is supposed to appeal to his ego only and mothers him…who knows what is going down today or soon.
T knows that it would be political suicide (per Sen. Graham) to fire Mueller and/or Rosenstein/Sessions.
We’d be wise to listen to what Fox is broadcasting…what Judge Jeannine Pirro, or Alan Dershowitz are spouting. Dershowitz is telling T that he can outright fire Mueller himself. They are also telling him not to testify in front of Mueller (mostly I believe because they believe that Mueller was never supposed to have been appointed)
In any of these moves, T better be prepared to resign…because he’s gonna be forced to do so.
More shoes to drop. Hold on tight.
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If I had confidence in the GOP that insist Mueller’s firing by t would indeed be political suicide for him, I’d say “go ahead, t, fire Mueller” (so we can get you the hell out of the WH that much sooner!), but I still don’t trust the GOP, any of them, any more.
And to lee3miller, yes, I can TOTALLY believe that (complicit) “asshat Nunes wants to impeach Chris Wray” because he’s been running interference for trump all along, & I’m pretty sure he’ll end up in the same sewer as trump when this plays out.
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