WTF Community

Day 554

General Discussion
#1

Updated 7/27/2018 1:10 PM PDT

1/ Michael Cohen says Trump knew in advance about Trump Jr.'s meeting at Trump Tower in June 2016 with a Russian lawyer promising dirt on Hillary Clinton. Cohen doesn't have evidence to back up his claim, but he is reportedly willing to make the assertion as part of his testimony to Robert Mueller. Cohen claims that he, along with several others, were in the room when Trump Jr. told Trump about the Russian's offer. According to Cohen, Trump approved the meeting with Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya. Cohen's claim contradicts Trump, Trump Jr., their lawyers, and administration officials who have repeatedly said Trump didn't know about the meeting until he was asked about it in July 2017. Trump's response at the time was: "No. That I didn't know. Until a couple of days ago, when I heard about this. No I didn't know about that." A few days later, Trump was again asked whether he knew about the meeting. His response: "No, I didn't know anything about the meeting. … must have been a very unimportant meeting, because I never even heard about it … nobody told me."(CNN / NBC News / Washington Post)

This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://whatthefuckjusthappenedtoday.com/2018/07/27/day-554/
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#2

This may be the only razor thin defense T’s team can come up with…deny, deny and try to dismantle any shred of Cohen’s credibility.

The question is whether it 6.9.16 Trump Tower Meeting and Candidate Trump’s knowledge of it can be verified - and corroborated.

What we know that needs further corroboration -

-Setting up the meeting, Hope Hicks, Michael Cohen, DJT jr and T were there to confirm there is to be a meeting. (Allegedly)

  • At least 8 people were at the meeting. (see below)

-Speculation that T was on speaker phone at that meeting, and that he definitely knew everything about it.

  • DJTjr - testified and used an ‘executive privilege’ denial

-Hope Hicks - has been in front of House Intel committee but did not discuss White House activities and resigned days later. She could corroborate.

The fact that someone has an inconsistent earlier story isn’t fatal, but it’s baggage, and potentially pretty serious baggage.” (Barrett law professor quote)

Without any witness accounts or contemporaneous notes or recordings to support Cohen’s claim, his assertion’s main effect may be to erode the president’s credibility. But according to CNN, Cohen has said that other people were present when Trump was informed of the meeting, which suggests that federal prosecutors may be able to find additional witnesses. “Cohen’s testimony is not worth anything unless it can be corroborated,” Whiting said. “But that may be possible here.”

The rift between Trump and Cohen began in earnest earlier this week, with the release of a tape of the two men discussing hush-money payments. Trump’s attorney Rudy Giuliani has pivoted from praising Cohen for doing “his job” by making the payments, to lambasting Cohen as a “pathological liar” who has “lied all his life,” as he did Thursday night on CNN after the Cohen story broke.

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#3

I have to talk about Jason Lewis, a Republican congressman from Minnesota, who reportedly said disgraceful things about minorities and women.

“It is hard to overestimate the damage – go back to Martin Luther King and the struggle for black equality – where blacks, in our sorry history, I mean, this really is a blemish on the American dream or the American experience – blacks fought so hard, indeed, and alongside a number of whites, thankfully, who fought so hard so blacks could take care of themselves and not be told what to do,” Lewis said in April 2012. “Now, you’ve got the modern welfare state that tells black folks and Hispanic folks and poor white folks: ‘Don’t worry. We’ll take care of you.’ What is the difference? You’ve substituted one plantation for another.”

Working-class whites are the biggest beneficiaries of federal poverty-reduction programs, even though blacks and Hispanics have substantially higher rates of poverty, according to the CPBB. So not only is the Congressman wrong, he’s a terrible person, who says terrible things.

Jason Lewis is a racist plain and simple, vote him out Minnesota!

image

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#4

There is a large microscope where these influence meetings could take place…and looks like the Prayer Breakfast is the place for more setting up meetings.

Ahead of Mr. Trump’s first appearance at the breakfast last year, some of the people said, foreign politicians clamored for tickets, with some offering to pay steep fees to get into the event and the myriad gatherings on its sidelines.

One lobbyist, Herman J. Cohen, offered what he billed as an exclusive invitation to last year’s breakfast, and three days of meetings around it, to an African leader for $220,000.

“Several contacts will be made with American authorities for official meetings with you as President of Chad and President in office of the African Union,” Mr. Cohen promised in a proposal, calling the breakfast “a special occasion to get to know and converse directly with the President of the U.S.” The letter, written in French, was sent to President Idriss Déby of Chad in December of 2016, and later obtained by The New York Times.

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#5

Lots of threading together evidence and what might weigh more in a case for Trump-Russia Conspiracy…interesting read as we’re gaining a bit more perspective on where this Cohen conjecture about what Trump might have known (he did) and where it may or may not lead.

The Case for a Trump-Russia Conspiracy Just Got a Little Stronger

If proven true, the president’s alleged role in the Trump Tower meeting could help prosecutors make judgments about his “character, truthfulness, and culpability.”

According to CNN, former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen is willing to testify that Trump approved the meeting between his son, son-in-law, campaign chairman, and a Russian lawyer—despite Trump and Don Trump Jr.’s denials that the president knew about the meeting in advance. As my colleague Adam Serwer pointed out, it’s not clear whether Cohen’s word would stand up in court without corroboration. But legal experts say it could certainly influence prosecutors’ perceptions of Trump—and whether he intended to conspire with Russia and then cover it up.

…
Cohen’s apparent willingness to share information with prosecutors raises questions about what else he could tell them with regard to Trump’s coordination with Russian nationals. Though Cohen has vehemently denied it, the dossier compiled by former British intelligence officer Christopher Steele outlining the campaign’s alleged ties to Russia says that Cohen was dispatched to Prague at the tail end of the campaign to pay off Russian hackers in an attempt to keep them quiet. The dossier also alleges a conspiracy between Trump and Russia was managed by Manafort, using campaign foreign-policy adviser Carter Page as an intermediary. Cohen told me months ago, and has said publicly, that he believes the dossier is a farce. But Mueller is still examining its claims, a person familiar with the investigation told me on the condition of anonymity, making any corroborating information Cohen may have about a possible larger conspiracy incredibly valuable.

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#6

The Witness list for Manafort’s trial just dropped. :smirk:

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#7

When they call Rick Gates, that’s going to be very interesting. Will Manafort plead the Fifth I wonder?

Let the games begin! :facepunch:

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#8

Russian Hackers Appear to Shift Focus to U.S. Power Grid

WASHINGTON — State-sponsored Russian hackers appear far more interested this year in demonstrating that they can disrupt the American electric utility grid than the midterm elections, according to United States intelligence officials and technology company executives.

Despite attempts to infiltrate the online accounts of two Senate Democrats up for re-election, intelligence officials said they have seen little activity by Russian military hackers aimed at either major American political figures or state voter registration systems.

By comparison, according to intelligence officials and executives of the companies that oversee the world’s computer networks, there is surprisingly far more effort directed at implanting malware in the electrical grid.

—

Microsoft blocked the attacks with a special court order that allowed it to seize control of internet domains created by Russians that appeared to be official Microsoft sites, but were not. The company has used that procedure at least three times against hackers who are linked to Russian military intelligence.

But beyond those attempts, Mr. Burt and several American intelligence officials said there have been surprisingly few cyberattack attempts directed at political leaders, at least compared with 2016.

This is happening right now guys

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#9

Thirty minute meeting - symbolic gesture, but no directives given. Dan Coats, DNI and Christopher Wray, FBI there. Plans may or may not be under way.

Trump chairs election security meeting but gives no new orders to repel Russian interference

President Trump chaired a meeting Friday of his most senior national security advisers to discuss the administration’s effort to safeguard November’s elections from Russian interference, the first such meeting he’s led on the matter, but issued no new directives to counter or deter the threat.

The meeting, which lasted less than an hour, covered all the activities by federal agencies to help state and local election officials, and to investigate and hold accountable Russian hackers seeking to undermine American democracy.

“The president has made it clear that his administration will not tolerate foreign interference in our elections from any nation state or other malicious actors,” the White House said in a statement.

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#10

@dragonfly9 It’s too all too much! The Aministration’s actions are a slow walk on these attacks that we know are from Russia. And this is on top of the President discrediting the Russia Investigation openly on Twitter, who took the side of Putin over his own country and we still don’t know what they talked out about in Helsinki. All the while more and more evidence is coming to light that the President may have committed conspiracy against the United States in order to win the 2016 election, obstructed justice, possibly violated campaign finance laws, and also stands accused of violating the emoluments clause. And multiple personal affairs with porn stars and playboy bunnies, sexual harassment and multiple sexual assaults.

Have we hit high crimes and misdemeanors yet?

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#11

I think we definitely have…

Those sins of omissions - no intel on Russian discussions, his quick turn-around trip to rejoin Putin are so very alarming. WTF. It is an awful lot of power centered in one pair of tiny hands.

The staggering amount of real evidence, revealed piece by piece to our horror is debilitating. And with no knowledge or sense for us that there maybe some way to stop him, aside from a 2020 election, then this has been beyond exasperating. God help us all.

I am ever hopeful that Mueller is lightyears ahead with his gathered -tax records, FBI intel, as well as other countries’ intel who watch Putin-led interference campaigns. Hell, Hillary called it from the debate podium…saying ‘you are Russia’s puppet’

Mueller has to knit together ALL of it…he is drawing the noose around T’s finances with calling for his accountant…and that gets creepy close I believe to where fraud, conspiracy to defraud and treason has taken place.

Good signs

-manafort trial

-Cohen’s probable indictment and potential flipping.

-We have Avenatti coming at him with Stormy Daniel’s and others, which demonstrates campaign finance violations.

-We have CREW - Richard Painter, and Lawrence Tribe and many others coming at him with emoluments violations.
-midterms…rise in Blue recently

But we have these obstacles
-T’s loyal base who could care less about anything -
Russian (it is elite’s concerns) .They are low information voters, gun owners, pro-lifers, neo-nazis, anti-immigrant etc

-Recalcitrant R Congress who are powering through
And voting with him, minus the ones who are leaving
They want conservatives filling the Supreme Court and judgeships. They do remark off the record that T is a loose cannon, but not too many are coming at him, like Will Hurd R

-Fox news and conservative media who hate libs,press and lie and conspire, and a dismissive and gullible audience.

-Russia social media manipulators, hackers, NATO destroyers, pro-nationalism, anti-migrants.

We have to be thankful for the press and their relentless uncovering of these truths. We need to have faith that our institutions are strong and divided into 3 separate power centers that check the other.

T still has big disapproval ratings…his thin-skinned tweets to the legal jeopardy he and his family may be in I hope is getting to him.

I too fear that he will give away the keys to the kingdom, promote WWW III -secure he and his family (’‘your favorite President’-Lol) and change the balance of power forever. Before he can be stopped.

So…hold on, it is still a hugely bumpy ride out there.
But history will paint him as the worst US president ever…so there will be poetic justice somewhere. :-:policeman:-:slightly_smiling_face:

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#12

^^^^
This.

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#13

NEW: Attorney General Jeff Sessions announces “Religious Liberty Task Force.”

@ancnews
Sessions says the task force will “help the Department fully implement our religious liberty guidance,” including “making sure our employees know their duties to accommodate people of faith.” https://twitter.com/ABC/status/1023934951920525313/video/1

#14

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