WTF Community

Day 510

General Discussion
#1

Updated 6/13/2018 10:15 AM PDT

1/ Michael Cohen is expected to cooperate with federal prosecutors in the criminal investigation into his business dealings as the law firm handling his case is not expected to represent him moving forward. No replacement counsel has been named at this time. Cohen has until Friday to complete a review of over 3.7 million documents seized in the April 9 raids of his New York properties and law office. (ABC News / Wall Street Journal / CNBC)

This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://whatthefuckjusthappenedtoday.com/2018/06/13/day-510/
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#2

Cohen’s going to flip…a LOT on this coming today, right?!

WSJ is downplaying it a bit.

Expected to Quit His CaseFirm expected to cease representation after review of seized documents for client-attorney privilege

Updated June 13, 2018 11:36 a.m. ET

The attorneys for Michael Cohen, President Donald Trump’s longtime personal lawyer, are expected to stop representing him in the criminal investigation into his business dealings, according to a person familiar with the matter.

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Day 509
#3

The 150 subpoenas are enough for Mueller to serve up to 75 witnesses (2 subpoenas forms are needed for each witness - 1 copy for the prosecution and 1 for the defense).

As these are served, they will likely cause quite a fracas. Lovin’ it. :man_dancing:

And here’s a fun cartoon to honor the occasion.

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#4

I was wondering too about the about those large numbers, but according to NBC, the subpoenas are to replace the ones already presented to those who are to testify in Manafort’s trial. Because the trial date changed, they need to reissue. Could be a fracas…TOO!!! (will add link).

Here is more detail on them…

Still looking for Pete William’s story (nbc news justice reporter)…but in car!! And need to get to my next stop! :-:grin:

Here’s the Pete Williams take.

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#9

McGahn is the White House lawyer. He plays the same role as John Dean, from Nixon’s era. He was the one who spilled the beans on Nixon. McGahn has seen too much obviously, from the ‘re-writing’ of the Comey dismissal letter etc.

McGahn made the decision to halt his staff’s interactions with Special Counsel Robert Mueller because many of his own attorneys “had been significant participants” surrounding the firings of national security adviser Michael Flynn and FBI Director James Comey, Cobb said.

“The White House made a decision to recuse his entire office,” Cobb said during a panel discussion hosted by George Mason University in Northern Virginia.

The former Trump White House lawyer explained that McGahn’s recusal was a key reason for why he was hired last summer to manage President Donald Trump’s official response on the Russia case, including filling Mueller’s requests for documents and arranging interviews with current and former White House aides.

While it’s been widely known that McGahn handed over day-to-day responsibilities to Cobb when he started working in the White House last July, neither of the Trump lawyers had ever specified that the entire White House legal office had been recused from the Russia probe in its entirety.

“It tells us how deeply rooted this scandal is in every different part of the White House,” said Norm Eisen, a former top Obama White House ethics attorney in the audience for Cobb’s remarks.

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#11

Me too, but trump got elected anyway…:roll_eyes: I’m right there with most here, hoping Cohen really does flip. Just afraid to jinx it by saying so.

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#12

@Keaton_James Came across this partial “witness list” for Manafort which Manafort was attempting to tamper with…Here’s where the replacement subpoenaes will land.
@natashabertrand

Unredacted government exhibit showing alleged attempts by Manafort and Kilimnik to influence witness testimonies has been released. The witnesses, journalists Alan Friedman and Eckart Sager, produced the messages to the FBI. https://twitter.com/NatashaBertrand/status/1006986884550098944/photo/1

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#13

Notables- Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet… Uhmm …Wha…? YEP. Ya got me!!

Of course, “Mr. Smarty-Pants,” whose curiosity sometimes borders on life-threatening, runs immediately to Google Translate for what, he is absolutely certain, is a cleverly disguised secret message meant to be hidden from the prying eyes and imperceptible intellect of #45 and his staff.

Briefly thereafter, Google alchemy reveals… Latin (as Mr. S-P smugly suspected) AND, “Lorem ipsum carrots…” Wha…? T? F? :flushed:

After extensive and time-sucking research reveals that these coded messages are nothing more than typesetting placeholders, Mr. Smarty-Pants chuckles quietly to himself and returns to his everlasting pursuit of triviality.

#14

A post was merged into an existing topic: Day 511

#15

A new filing from the special counsel Robert Mueller unsealed on Wednesday identifies two former journalists and the content of messages former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and a Russian associate sent them in February, just two days after a superseding indictment against Manafort.

The 21-page document also names members of the so-called “Hapsburg group” – described by Mueller in the February superseding indictment of Manafort as "a group of former senior European politicians to take positions favorable to Ukraine, including by lobbying in the United States.”

According to the document, some of the key participants of the Hapsburg group are former Austrian Chancellor Alfred Gusenbauer, former Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi, Belgian Judge Jean-Paul Moerman, head of the German Federal Chancellory Bodo Hombach and former Spanish NATO head Javier Solana.

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#16

This topic was automatically closed 15 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.

#10

Yes, good point – I have a tendency towards wishful thinking! :slight_smile:

Like most WTFJHTers, I’ll be riveted to the news in the coming days. :newspaper:

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#5

@dragonfly9 Thanks for alerting us to the earthshaking news about Cohen splitting with his legal team. It is now the lead story at CNN.

And here’s a related development that flew under the radar yesterday. It further supports the narrative of Cohen’s shift towards a plea deal.

If Cohen intended to plead not guilty and fight the charges against him, we would expect him also to fight tooth and nail to suppress as many of the documents seized from his office as possible. That would be a crucial first line of defense. But it appears he is just rolling over and accepting the fact that only a minuscule number of those documents are being suppressed due to attorney-client privilege.

And here’s one more very significant thing: Objections to the fact that only a small number of documents are being excluded due to attorney-client privilege would need to come from Cohen (the attorney) and Trump (the client). But not a peep out of Trump here. Yes, he has bloviated on Twitter, claiming the seizure of Cohen’s documents was a travesty, but when it comes right down to it, he hasn’t taken the necessary legal steps to exclude any of those documents from being used as evidence in court. It’s almost as if he already knows that Cohen will be flipping so such a move would be useless.

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#7

There ARE other possible explanations for replacing his legal team (maybe THEY grew some ethics & no longer want HIM for a client, or maybe they weren’t tough enough to suit Cohen?) but I sure hope Cohen just flips like a pancake…I want this whole shit-show to be over with & Cohen is a key player. Let’s hope his “me & my real family-first-survival-mode” has kicked in…I want to see trump thrown under the bus so badly that I can see the tire tread marks when I close my eyes.

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#6

@dragonfly9 Ah. I see what you’re saying – most (or even all) of the new blank subpoenas may be serving as replacements to existing subpoenas due to the change in the trial date. As you say, it is still a kind of fracas since it helps bring the trial back into the spotlight.

I also imagine the press will be looking closely to see if any of these are used for new witnesses – even a single new witness would probably be considered a big deal. I think most (or all?) of the subpoenas that have been issued were “under seal” so we don’t officially know who was served (is that correct?). However, I understand that the fact that someone was served often becomes public either because the person served tells the press or someone else finds out.

Does anyone know if any of the names of witnesses in Manafort’s trial have been uncovered by the media? That would make a fascinating list.

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#8

And another great indicator that Cohen has stopped fighting the prosecution, good spotting @Keaton_James

Pundits are saying that Cohen’s legal bills so far, have been about $500K per week, and could be up there in the neighborhood of $3 million, ever before trial. The searching thru documents to protect Cohen’s atty-client privilege did not appear to bring more defensible territory for Cohen, so he must be hoping to shortcut the Mueller Investigation by laying down.

Pundits have also indicated that it does not look like Cohen has done any direct pleas or gotten immunity etc. Like Gates before him, first there was the rejection of his lawyers and then turning state’s witness it looks like.

We’re buckled in and ready for the games to begin…:-:running_man::man_dancing::dancing_women:

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