Manafort, Cohen, and Individual 1 Are in Grave Danger
Dec 8, 2018 14:35:17 #
Twardlow
Loc: Arkansas
My preceding Post Topic was attacked as being from a too liberal a source; in order to soothe the panic of the conservative mindset, I add another—from likely Republican sources—reaching a similar conclusion.
Read it and Relax.
Manafort, Cohen, and Individual 1 Are in Grave Danger
Robert Mueller is closing in on the president and all his men.
Ken White
Attorney and former federal prosecutor
Federal prosecutors filed three briefs late on Friday portending grave danger for three men: the former Trump campaign chair Paul Manafort, the former Trump fixer Michael Cohen, and President Donald Trump. In an age when Americans usually get mere squibs of breaking news from Twitter, Facebook, and red-faced cable shouters, many started their weekend poring over complex legal filings and peering suspiciously at blacked-out paragraphs. The documents were stunning, even for 2018.
In brief No. 1, Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s office argues that Paul Manafort breached his cooperation agreement with the government by lying to the FBI and the Special Counsel’s Office in the course of 12 meetings. The brief oozes a level of confidence notable even among professionally hubristic prosecutors: Mueller says he’s ready to present witnesses and documents, and that he gave Manafort’s lawyers an opportunity to refute the evidence but they could not. Mueller is sure he has the receipts.
According to the brief, Manafort lied about his communications with the reputed Russian intelligence agent Konstantin Kilimnik, whom Mueller has scrutinized as a possible conduit between the Trump campaign and the Russian government. Although Mueller’s brief is heavily redacted, it’s clear that Manafort minimized the frequency, duration, and subject of his meetings with Kilimnik. Mueller has emails contradicting Manafort’s description of those meetings, which—we can infer from the unredacted snippets—related to the Trump campaign’s interactions with Russian interests. Mueller also asserts that Manafort lied about some of the payments he received and about an investigation in another district—possibly, based on the context, the Southern District of New York investigation of Michael Cohen and the president. Finally, and of great concern to the White House, Mueller claims that Manafort lied about his contacts with the Trump administration before his guilty plea, and that text messages, documents, and witnesses prove that he was in contact with administration officials.
In brief No. 2, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York asks a federal judge to sentence the former Trump attorney Michael Cohen to a “substantial term of imprisonment”—meaning between three and four years. Last week, Cohen’s lawyers filed a brief lauding their client’s cooperation with the Special Counsel’s Office, the Southern District of New York, and the New York attorney general, downplaying the significance of his crimes and asking the court to sentence Cohen to probation. Such gambits are tricky: Defense lawyers must thread the needle between praising their client’s cooperation and seeking leniency enough to sway the judge, but not doing this so effusively that they trigger a prosecutorial rebuttal. Here, Cohen’s lawyers’ pirouette turned into a disastrous face-plant.
The prosecutors’ rebuttal of Cohen’s sentencing brief is one of the more livid denunciations I’ve seen in more than two decades of federal criminal practice. The Southern District concedes that Cohen provided some information to it, to the special counsel, and to the New York attorney general. But Cohen refused to cooperate fully; he declined to engage in a full debriefing about everything he knew or to commit to ongoing meetings, and he only spilled about the things he’d already admitted in his plea. That’s not how cooperation works. In this game, you either cooperate fully or you shut up; there is no middle ground. It’s not surprising that Cohen’s stance angered the notoriously proud Southern District prosecutors.
The New York prosecutors blast Cohen’s “rose-colored view of the seriousness of his crimes,” accusing him of a “pattern of deception that permeated his professional life.” Prosecutors portray Cohen as stubbornly obstructing his own accountant to cheat at taxes, even refusing to pay for accounting work that raised inconvenient issues he wanted suppressed. When it comes to Cohen’s campaign-finance violations, the prosecutors’ fury leaps off the page. Cohen, they say, schemed to pay for two women’s stories (Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal, we now know) in violation of campaign-finance laws in order to influence the 2016 election, and did so “in coordination with and at the direction of Individual-1”—that is, the president of the United States. As the brief puts it:
While many Americans who desired a particular outcome to the election knocked on doors, toiled at phone banks, or found any number of other legal ways to make their voices heard, Cohen sought to influence the election from the shadows. He did so by orchestrating secret and illegal payments to silence two women who otherwise would have made public their alleged extramarital affairs with Individual-1. In the process, Cohen deceived the voting public by hiding alleged facts that he believed would have had a substantial effect on the election.
If the Southern District’s fury at Cohen is notable, its explicit accusation that President Trump directed and coordinated campaign-finance violations is simply stunning. The prosecutors’ openness suggests that they are sure of their evidence and have mostly finished collecting it. It’s a sign of a fully developed, late-game investigation of the president’s role, one that may soon make its way to Congress.
And that brings us to brief No. 3: Special Counsel Mueller’s separate sentencing brief in Cohen’s lying-to-Congress case. He does not recommend a sentence but informs the court about the nature of Cohen’s assistance to his office. Mueller discloses that Cohen has “taken significant steps to mitigate his criminal conduct” by pleading guilty to lying to Congress and meeting with the special counsel seven times to discuss his own conduct and other “core topics under investigation.” That includes information about multiple cases of contact between other Trump-campaign officials and the Russian government, and about Cohen’s contact with the White House in 2017 and 2018, suggesting an ongoing inquiry into obstruction of justice. Most significant, the special counsel indicates that Cohen “described the circumstances of preparing and circulating his response to the congressional inquiries, while continuing to accept responsibility for the false statements within it.” That statement suggests that the special counsel believes that someone in the Trump administration knew of, and approved in advance, Cohen’s lies to Congress. That’s explosive, and potentially impeachable if Trump himself is implicated.
The president said on Twitter that Friday’s news “totally clears the President. Thank you!” It does not. Manafort and Cohen are in trouble, and so is Trump. The special counsel’s confidence in his ability to prove Manafort a liar appears justified, which leaves Manafort facing what amounts to a life sentence without any cooperation credit. The Southern District’s brief suggests that Cohen’s dreams of probation are not likely to come true. All three briefs show the special counsel and the Southern District closing in on President Trump and his administration. They’re looking into campaign contact with Russia, campaign-finance fraud in connection with paying off an adult actress, and participation in lying to Congress. A Democratic House of Representatives, just days away, strains at the leash to help. The game’s afoot.
KEN WHITE is a contributing writer at The Atlantic, an attorney at Brown White & Osborn LLP in Los Angeles, and a former federal prosecutor. He practices First Amendment law, civil litigation, and criminal defense.
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2018/12/mueller-briefs-bad-news-trump-manafort-and-cohen/577681/
Read it and Relax.
Manafort, Cohen, and Individual 1 Are in Grave Danger
Robert Mueller is closing in on the president and all his men.
Ken White
Attorney and former federal prosecutor
Federal prosecutors filed three briefs late on Friday portending grave danger for three men: the former Trump campaign chair Paul Manafort, the former Trump fixer Michael Cohen, and President Donald Trump. In an age when Americans usually get mere squibs of breaking news from Twitter, Facebook, and red-faced cable shouters, many started their weekend poring over complex legal filings and peering suspiciously at blacked-out paragraphs. The documents were stunning, even for 2018.
In brief No. 1, Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s office argues that Paul Manafort breached his cooperation agreement with the government by lying to the FBI and the Special Counsel’s Office in the course of 12 meetings. The brief oozes a level of confidence notable even among professionally hubristic prosecutors: Mueller says he’s ready to present witnesses and documents, and that he gave Manafort’s lawyers an opportunity to refute the evidence but they could not. Mueller is sure he has the receipts.
According to the brief, Manafort lied about his communications with the reputed Russian intelligence agent Konstantin Kilimnik, whom Mueller has scrutinized as a possible conduit between the Trump campaign and the Russian government. Although Mueller’s brief is heavily redacted, it’s clear that Manafort minimized the frequency, duration, and subject of his meetings with Kilimnik. Mueller has emails contradicting Manafort’s description of those meetings, which—we can infer from the unredacted snippets—related to the Trump campaign’s interactions with Russian interests. Mueller also asserts that Manafort lied about some of the payments he received and about an investigation in another district—possibly, based on the context, the Southern District of New York investigation of Michael Cohen and the president. Finally, and of great concern to the White House, Mueller claims that Manafort lied about his contacts with the Trump administration before his guilty plea, and that text messages, documents, and witnesses prove that he was in contact with administration officials.
In brief No. 2, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York asks a federal judge to sentence the former Trump attorney Michael Cohen to a “substantial term of imprisonment”—meaning between three and four years. Last week, Cohen’s lawyers filed a brief lauding their client’s cooperation with the Special Counsel’s Office, the Southern District of New York, and the New York attorney general, downplaying the significance of his crimes and asking the court to sentence Cohen to probation. Such gambits are tricky: Defense lawyers must thread the needle between praising their client’s cooperation and seeking leniency enough to sway the judge, but not doing this so effusively that they trigger a prosecutorial rebuttal. Here, Cohen’s lawyers’ pirouette turned into a disastrous face-plant.
The prosecutors’ rebuttal of Cohen’s sentencing brief is one of the more livid denunciations I’ve seen in more than two decades of federal criminal practice. The Southern District concedes that Cohen provided some information to it, to the special counsel, and to the New York attorney general. But Cohen refused to cooperate fully; he declined to engage in a full debriefing about everything he knew or to commit to ongoing meetings, and he only spilled about the things he’d already admitted in his plea. That’s not how cooperation works. In this game, you either cooperate fully or you shut up; there is no middle ground. It’s not surprising that Cohen’s stance angered the notoriously proud Southern District prosecutors.
The New York prosecutors blast Cohen’s “rose-colored view of the seriousness of his crimes,” accusing him of a “pattern of deception that permeated his professional life.” Prosecutors portray Cohen as stubbornly obstructing his own accountant to cheat at taxes, even refusing to pay for accounting work that raised inconvenient issues he wanted suppressed. When it comes to Cohen’s campaign-finance violations, the prosecutors’ fury leaps off the page. Cohen, they say, schemed to pay for two women’s stories (Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal, we now know) in violation of campaign-finance laws in order to influence the 2016 election, and did so “in coordination with and at the direction of Individual-1”—that is, the president of the United States. As the brief puts it:
While many Americans who desired a particular outcome to the election knocked on doors, toiled at phone banks, or found any number of other legal ways to make their voices heard, Cohen sought to influence the election from the shadows. He did so by orchestrating secret and illegal payments to silence two women who otherwise would have made public their alleged extramarital affairs with Individual-1. In the process, Cohen deceived the voting public by hiding alleged facts that he believed would have had a substantial effect on the election.
If the Southern District’s fury at Cohen is notable, its explicit accusation that President Trump directed and coordinated campaign-finance violations is simply stunning. The prosecutors’ openness suggests that they are sure of their evidence and have mostly finished collecting it. It’s a sign of a fully developed, late-game investigation of the president’s role, one that may soon make its way to Congress.
And that brings us to brief No. 3: Special Counsel Mueller’s separate sentencing brief in Cohen’s lying-to-Congress case. He does not recommend a sentence but informs the court about the nature of Cohen’s assistance to his office. Mueller discloses that Cohen has “taken significant steps to mitigate his criminal conduct” by pleading guilty to lying to Congress and meeting with the special counsel seven times to discuss his own conduct and other “core topics under investigation.” That includes information about multiple cases of contact between other Trump-campaign officials and the Russian government, and about Cohen’s contact with the White House in 2017 and 2018, suggesting an ongoing inquiry into obstruction of justice. Most significant, the special counsel indicates that Cohen “described the circumstances of preparing and circulating his response to the congressional inquiries, while continuing to accept responsibility for the false statements within it.” That statement suggests that the special counsel believes that someone in the Trump administration knew of, and approved in advance, Cohen’s lies to Congress. That’s explosive, and potentially impeachable if Trump himself is implicated.
The president said on Twitter that Friday’s news “totally clears the President. Thank you!” It does not. Manafort and Cohen are in trouble, and so is Trump. The special counsel’s confidence in his ability to prove Manafort a liar appears justified, which leaves Manafort facing what amounts to a life sentence without any cooperation credit. The Southern District’s brief suggests that Cohen’s dreams of probation are not likely to come true. All three briefs show the special counsel and the Southern District closing in on President Trump and his administration. They’re looking into campaign contact with Russia, campaign-finance fraud in connection with paying off an adult actress, and participation in lying to Congress. A Democratic House of Representatives, just days away, strains at the leash to help. The game’s afoot.
KEN WHITE is a contributing writer at The Atlantic, an attorney at Brown White & Osborn LLP in Los Angeles, and a former federal prosecutor. He practices First Amendment law, civil litigation, and criminal defense.
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2018/12/mueller-briefs-bad-news-trump-manafort-and-cohen/577681/
Dec 8, 2018 15:05:26 #
Off Daily Wire
The Mueller Bombshell That Wasn’t
Is this really all they've got?
Special counsel Robert Mueller and federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York filed sentencing memos for President Trump’s longtime personal lawyer Michael Cohen on Friday. Despite Cohen’s cooperation with the special counsel investigation, prosecutors recommended the disgraced lawyer serve 51 to 63 months in prison.
President Trump’s opponents, who eagerly awaited the memos as #MuellerFriday trended on Twitter for hours ahead of the filings, are likely to be disappointed with their findings. The Southern District linked Trump to Cohen’s payments to women who claimed to have had an affair with the President, concluding, “Cohen himself has now admitted, with respect to both payments, he acted in coordination with and at the direction of Individual-1 [Donald Trump].” However, even this implied violation of campaign finance law rings hollow after prosecutors failed to convict ex-Senator John Edwards on a far clearer cut version of this charge in 2012, to say nothing of Trump's long history of similar payouts to women, making it difficult to prove these were campaign-specific and not just business-as-usual at the Trump Organization.
The special counsel’s sentencing memo for Michael Cohen proved even more disappointing for the collusion crowd. Mueller writes,
The defendant recalled that [a Russian national] repeatedly proposed a meeting between Individual 1 [Donald Trump] and the President of Russia. The person told Cohen that such a meeting could have ‘phenomenal’ impact ‘not only in political but in a business dimension as well’…. Cohen, however, did not follow up on this invitation.
In other words, some guy told Cohen that Trump and Putin should meet, and Cohen blew him off. After two years of investigations into Russian “collusion,” is this really all they’ve got?
The Mueller Bombshell That Wasn’t
Is this really all they've got?
Special counsel Robert Mueller and federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York filed sentencing memos for President Trump’s longtime personal lawyer Michael Cohen on Friday. Despite Cohen’s cooperation with the special counsel investigation, prosecutors recommended the disgraced lawyer serve 51 to 63 months in prison.
President Trump’s opponents, who eagerly awaited the memos as #MuellerFriday trended on Twitter for hours ahead of the filings, are likely to be disappointed with their findings. The Southern District linked Trump to Cohen’s payments to women who claimed to have had an affair with the President, concluding, “Cohen himself has now admitted, with respect to both payments, he acted in coordination with and at the direction of Individual-1 [Donald Trump].” However, even this implied violation of campaign finance law rings hollow after prosecutors failed to convict ex-Senator John Edwards on a far clearer cut version of this charge in 2012, to say nothing of Trump's long history of similar payouts to women, making it difficult to prove these were campaign-specific and not just business-as-usual at the Trump Organization.
The special counsel’s sentencing memo for Michael Cohen proved even more disappointing for the collusion crowd. Mueller writes,
The defendant recalled that [a Russian national] repeatedly proposed a meeting between Individual 1 [Donald Trump] and the President of Russia. The person told Cohen that such a meeting could have ‘phenomenal’ impact ‘not only in political but in a business dimension as well’…. Cohen, however, did not follow up on this invitation.
In other words, some guy told Cohen that Trump and Putin should meet, and Cohen blew him off. After two years of investigations into Russian “collusion,” is this really all they’ve got?
Dec 8, 2018 15:07:41 #
What happened to "WAIT UNTIL FRIDAY' from the liberals. Another Blue Wave that turned out to be a yellow puddle!
Dec 8, 2018 15:11:14 #
Ka2azman wrote:
What happened to "WAIT UNTIL FRIDAY' from the liberals. Another Blue Wave that turned out to be a yellow puddle!
You are in denial.
Trump is in trouble.
Dec 8, 2018 17:43:29 #
Twardlow
Loc: Arkansas
Ka2azman wrote:
Off Daily Wire br br The Mueller Bombshell That W... (show quote)
We have an opportunity here to see who most accurately assesses reality.
Remember this post and remember also the two topics that I posted today, stating opposing views.
When Mueller speaks, as speak he will eventually, we will have the chance to compare and see who actually knows.
I await that day with confidence.
Dec 8, 2018 17:44:08 #
Twardlow
Loc: Arkansas
Kmgw9v wrote:
You are in denial.
Trump is in trouble.
Trump is in trouble.
You won’t be surprised to learn that I agree with you.
Dec 8, 2018 18:05:49 #
Dec 8, 2018 18:26:49 #
Shutterbug1697
Loc: Northeast
Kmgw9v wrote:
You are in denial.
Trump is in trouble.
Trump is in trouble.
Anyone who refuses to read Mueller's court documents is doing themselves a disservice towards learning the facts that are being revealed to the public through these documents, ensuring that the public is kept up to date.
Could those releases be because Mueller is trying to stay one step ahead of trump by revealing those details that trump would like to keep hidden to protect his precariously tender reputation?
It's a known fact that trump is trying every trick in the book to shut down the Mueller Investigation, because it's now way too close to Individual 1 for comfort.
trump, his 3 oldest children, his staff, his administration, and any of the GOP that worked to protect trump are all under investigation, or will be once the new Congress has been sworn in in January! They've all been compromised by Russia, and several have also been compromised by China as well.
You do remember those two trips to Russia by several high ranking GOP members after the Helsinki Summit, don't you? That's when even more GOP members were snared by Russia.
The legal problems for trump are going to him hard and fast as the Mueller Investigation winds down.
But other Federal, State, and Local cases around the country are just gearing up, as they gather evidence uncovered by the Mueller Investigation.
Tax evasion is a crime at all levels, but the extent of the trump family and business tax evasion schemes elevated their crimes from Civil to Criminal, and it's snarling anyone who was involved in creating and filing their tax returns.
Dec 8, 2018 18:33:29 #
thom w
Loc: San Jose, CA
Kmgw9v wrote:
You are in denial.
Trump is in trouble.
Trump is in trouble.
If he will just wonder out where it is a little deeper, it should get quieter here, for at least while. Wish the poster no harm, but he has become extremely annoying.
Dec 8, 2018 18:46:59 #
Kmgw9v wrote:
You are in denial.
Trump is in trouble.
Trump is in trouble.
LOL you guys have been saying this for 2 1/2 years, yet Trump is still your President. How can Trump be in trouble when he knows he did nothing illegal? How would YOU know Trump is in trouble anyway?
Dec 8, 2018 18:47:48 #
Ka2azman wrote:
What happened to "WAIT UNTIL FRIDAY' from the liberals. Another Blue Wave that turned out to be a yellow puddle!
What ever happened to Trump will be impeached within 6 months of his inauguration? lol Liberals confuse facts with desires.
Dec 8, 2018 18:48:54 #
thom w wrote:
If he will just wonder out where it is a little deeper, it should get quieter here, for at least while. Wish the poster no harm, but he has become extremely annoying.
LOL why would it get quieter? It seems that the opposite is happening, you guys keep making sh*t up as time goes by.
Dec 8, 2018 19:01:10 #
EyeSawYou wrote:
LOL why would it get quieter? It seems that the opposite is happening, you guys keep making sh*t up as time goes by.
Time sped up a little ever since the "Individual 1' incident. Hangfire my friend, don't wear yourself out.
The Rolling Stones - Hang Fire
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3xbtlW16Gts
Dec 8, 2018 19:50:44 #
Shutterbug1697
Loc: Northeast
EyeSawYou wrote:
LOL you guys have been saying this for 2 1/2 years, yet Trump is still your President. How can Trump be in trouble when he knows he did nothing illegal? How would YOU know Trump is in trouble anyway?
Are you as illiterate as trump that you can't read the Mueller court documents?
Dec 8, 2018 22:38:19 #
thom w
Loc: San Jose, CA
EyeSawYou wrote:
LOL why would it get quieter? It seems that the opposite is happening, you guys keep making sh*t up as time goes by.
Talking about the Jack character wondering into deeper water (denial/ the nile) damn.
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