I believe her that it happened, it’s odd Trump is silent on her claim. He may be wanting to reduce her exposure by being quiet. I’m not a lawyer, his lawyer may have more exposure over the campaign financing issue than he does. I can see him wanting to lure her in and dangling the TV appearance in the deal. I think she’s primarily a business woman and the pieces didn’t come together for The Apprentice exposure.
Not really. He may finally be listening to legal counsel on this: if he says she is lying, they’ll sue him for defamation (they’ve said so) & then everything would be dragged into ‘discovery’ -LOL! His usual thing is to push back & deny, so you’re right, it’s “odd” considering this is trump we’re talking about, but it appears he realizes he can’t get away with that right now. You can also read it as an acknowledgement that she’s told the truth. That didn’t stop him from saying (in effect) “she’s not the kind of woman he finds attractive”…yeah, right, he’s pulled that line before too, as you may recall. He also said “he doesn’t believe…” which is different from calling her a liar. So far that’s the only way he can figure to respond, & he should know, he’s the liar in chief. We’ll have to see how it plays out as far as trump & attorney Cohen’s legal exposure regarding the $130,000 donation…I hope they get nailed.
My bad, I started to type CBS and just defaulted to CNN.
Interestingly, that interview attracted 22 million viewers, making it the best ratings performer for “60 Minutes” since the airing of Steve Kroft’s interview with Barack and Michelle Obama after the 2008 election, which had more than 25 million viewers.
Maybe not so coincidentally, she’s doing a national stripping tour right now. If I understood the article correctly, her notoriety has allowed her to charge much higher fees than she would have before this mess with Trump/Cohen. As an aside, I found it interesting that in addition to her work in the adult entertainment industry, she owns horses and competes in equestrian events.
An analysis piece, also satirical, on why Stormy’s story keeps hanging around. The legal mistakes noted in this piece are numerous.
Wtf
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OK, do yourself a favor and watch this brief, unintentionally hilarious interview with Keith Davidson, who formerly provided “legal representation” to Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal, but all the while, was actually conspiring against them in cahoots with Trump’s attorney, Michael Cohen. It’s guaranteed to brighten your weekend.
If there were an Oscar for Best Performance by a Shifty Attorney, Davidson would be a shoo-in. I love that he’s so tongue-tied he can’t even decide if he believes his client. At another point, he’s doing such an abysmal job of defending himself, the exasperated interviewer blurts out, “What are you doing here?”
It’s no wonder that a short while after this interview, Davidson decided to start cooperating.
In the coming weeks, if you ever become discouraged about the course of the investigation, just return to this video and remind yourself – Our side: world-class prosecutors and ace attorneys like Robert Mueller and Michael Avenetti. Their side: the likes of this guy.
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As far as I can tell, the Guardian has not reported any financial misdealings related to Hannity’s shell companies, but has pointed out where Hannity should have been more forthcoming making disclosures to his viewers. Considering the intense scrutiny that this report is going to bring to his finances, I’m betting Hannity now wishes he’d never gotten mixed up with Michael Cohen.
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I suspect Hannity doesn’t care, he’s like the Nazis in Germany I mean they were “ making Germany great again.”
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Not really sure what this is all about – but it does confirm we live in strange times.
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Thank you WaPo for committing to dogged investigative journalism. This piece must represent hundreds of hours of research plus a huge effort to collate the data. We still don’t know all the facts, but this goes a long way towards shedding light on Trump’s financial dealings. Where in the world did he come up with all this cash? Now if we could only see those tax returns . . .
I thought this might make some intriguing, casual reading for the weekend – hence, the post in this thread.
Here’s the lead in:
In the nine years before he ran for president, Donald Trump’s company spent more than $400 million in cash on new properties — including 14 transactions paid for in full, without borrowing from banks — during a buying binge that defied real estate industry practices and Trump’s own history as the self-described “King of Debt.”
Trump’s vast outlay of cash, tracked through public records and totaled publicly here for the first time, provides a new window into the president’s private company, which discloses few details about its finances.
It shows that Trump had access to far more cash than previously known, despite his string of commercial bankruptcies and the Great Recession’s hammering of the real estate industry.
Why did the “King of Debt,” as he has called himself in interviews, turn away from that strategy, defying the real estate wisdom that it’s unwise to risk so much of one’s own money in a few projects?
And how did Trump — who had money tied up in golf courses and buildings — raise enough liquid assets to go on this cash buying spree?
And a couple eye-opening info-graphics:
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No collusion! Well, maybe just a little collusion, and just with Russia. OK, maybe with U.A.E, too. Oh, yeah, plus Saudi Arabia. But that’s it, honest, Scout’s honor.
Erik Prince, the private security contractor and the former head of Blackwater, arranged the meeting, which took place on Aug. 3, 2016. The emissary, George Nader, told Donald Trump Jr. that the princes who led Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates were eager to help his father win election as president. The social media specialist, Joel Zamel, extolled his company’s ability to give an edge to a political campaign; by that time, the firm had already drawn up a multimillion-dollar proposal for a social media manipulation effort to help elect Mr. Trump.
A few hours after The NYT published the above exposé, Politico reported that Erik Prince, who allegedly orchestrated the meeting, appears to have lied to congress. Prince’s involvement in the meeting contradicts his November, 2017, testimony before the House Intelligence Committee:
Here’s the relevant testimony from page 6 of the transcript:
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On Sunday morning, President Donald Trump tweeted. And tweeted. And tweeted. He said 11 false things in just 5 tweets Sunday morning Is it raining? No golf? @CNNPolitics https://cnn.it/2rZ3Mxy
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A Border Patrol agent detained two U.S. citizens at a Montana gas station convenience store in Havre, Montana after hearing them speak Spanish. Despite showing him their IDs he kept the two women in the parking lot for 35 to 40 minutes.
Chicago Tribune has the full story http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/ct-border-agent-montana-20180520-story.html
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That is such bullshit. Detained for speaking in a non-English language even WITH the appropriate IDs.
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The Handmaids Tale…comes to life.
My favorite quote out of this weekend’s disastrous G7 meeting.
“He’s like Heath Ledger’s Joker—but without the operational excellence.” That was the grim after-action assessment of one senior G7 official with whom I spoke in the shocked aftermath of President Donald Trump’s savage post-summit tweets.
The G7 was pretty much summed up with this photo. I’m shocked that our reality star president didn’t at just shout into the cameras, “I’m not here to make friends!” Could he be any more embarrassing?
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Jaw drop…
Tweet @Adamcbest
Fox & Friends accidentally said this about the Singapore summit: “regardless of what happens in that meeting between the two dictators.”
This gaffe is probably the most honest thing ever said in the program’s history. https://twitter.com/adamcbest/status/1005825231041323008/video/1
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The New Yorker replies to this Tweet from POTUS.
On August 5, 2018, precisely forty-four years after the collapse of the Nixon Presidency, another President, Donald Trump, made his own public admission. In one of a series of early-morning tweets, Trump addressed a meeting that his son Donald, Jr., held with a Russian lawyer affiliated with the Russian government. “This was a meeting to get information on an opponent, totally legal and done all the time in politics - and it went nowhere,” he wrote. “I did not know about it!”
—
The President’s Sunday-morning tweet should be seen as a turning point. It doesn’t teach us anything new—most students of the case already understand what Donald Trump, Jr., Paul Manafort, and Jared Kushner knew about that Trump Tower meeting. But it ends any possibility of an alternative explanation. We can all move forward understanding that there is a clear fact pattern about which there is no dispute:
The President’s son and top advisers knowingly met with individuals connected to the Russian government, hoping to obtain dirt on their political opponent.
Documents stolen from the Democratic National Committee and members of the Clinton campaign were later used in an overt effort to sway the election.
When the Trump Tower meeting was uncovered, the President instructed his son and staff to lie about the meeting, and told them precisely which lies to use.
The President is attempting to end the investigation into this meeting and other instances of attempted collusion between his campaign staff and representatives of the Russian government.
—
Our nation can now focus on another question: What do we do when a President has openly admitted to attempted collusion, lying, and a coverup?
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Excellent analysis of the upcoming bellwether special election in Ohio (just two days away!). If the Republicans lose this on the heels of Trump’s desperate Saturday rally, it will be a massive loss of face for the President and his Party. And, leading up to the mid-terms, it will represent a tectonic shift to the left. Go Danny O’Connor!
P.S. Don’t forget ActBlue! There’s still time to make a difference in this race. 
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This is interesting.
Apple has removed the entire library for five of Infowars’ six podcasts from its iTunes and Podcast apps, BuzzFeed News has learned. Among the podcasts, which were removed from Apples’ iTunes directory (the company only indexed the show and did not it) are the show “War Room” as well as the popular Alex Jones Show podcast, which is hosted daily by the prominent conspiracy theorist.
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In a statement Sunday evening to BuzzFeed News, Apple confirmed removing the five shows under its hate speech guidelines. “Apple does not tolerate hate speech, and we have clear guidelines that creators and developers must follow to ensure we provide a safe environment for all of our users,” a company spokesperson said. "Podcasts that violate these guidelines are removed from our directory making them no longer searchable or available for download or streaming. We believe in representing a wide range of views, so long as people are respectful to those with differing opinions.”
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