Cohen pleads guilty to a bunch of things

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BigDave
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Cohen pleads guilty to a bunch of things

Post by BigDave »

http://thehill.com/regulation/administr ... al-charges

He pleaded guilty to eight counts total, including five tax evasion charges, one of bank fraud, and two for "illegal campaign contributions" related to Stormy Daniels hush money.

Of course, it's really a tortured argument that the Stormy Daniels hush money is even a crime and there is basically never jail time even when there is an actual crime of excess donations (example: Obama's campaign got in trouble for not returning excess donations in a timely fashion, basically treating them like an interest-free loan and nobody went to jail), but I'm sure Mueller cut him a nice deal on the tax evasion and bank fraud charges to get him to plead guilty to a non-existent crime.
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Re: Cohen pleads guilty to a bunch of things

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The good people at Qanon are taking it in stride. LOL

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Re: Cohen pleads guilty to a bunch of things

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HooFighter wrote:The good people at Qanon are taking it in stride. LOL

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Re: Cohen pleads guilty to a bunch of things

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Re: Cohen pleads guilty to a bunch of things

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Re: Cohen pleads guilty to a bunch of things

Post by UpstateSCHokie »

Uprising wrote:
LOL! I think I'll go with the reasoned logic of a Constitutional scholar over a tweet by "TruthIsNotTruthHat"

BTW, where is the "Russian collusion" in all of this?

=========================================

“It is a plea bargain between a prosecutor and criminal. A criminal who doesn’t want to spend the rest of his life in prison. That is not precedent. That applies only to that specific case. Nobody cites plea bargains for precedent,” he continued. “That is number one. Number two, just because a prosecutor says that somebody violated a campaign law doesn’t make it so. He is not the judge. He is not the jury. We didn’t adjudicate anything.”

Levin went on to use an example to illustrate his point that what Cohen alleges Trump did is not illegal.

“Say a candidate had said we owe vendors a whole lot of money. We have had disputes with them. But I want you to go ahead and pay them. I’m a candidate, I don’t want the negative publicity. So he says to the private lawyer, you pay them, I’ll reimburse you, get it done. Is that illegal? It’s perfectly legal. Yet according to the prosecution of the Southern District of New York, it’s paid at the direction of the candidate to influence the election. Yes, Mr. Prosecutor, how stupid is your point?”


http://dailycaller.com/2018/08/21/mark- ... ity-cohen/
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Re: Cohen pleads guilty to a bunch of things

Post by USN_Hokie »

Uprising wrote:
The President was in court? Can't believe I missed that. :lol:
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Re: Cohen pleads guilty to a bunch of things

Post by 133743Hokie »

Uprising wrote:
So David French is saying that one case completely unrelated to the president and another case with only a minor connection to the president, and nothing illegal at that, would have republicans up in arms to impeach Hillary!?

No, they would be up in arms to impeach her over a half dozen actual issues. I know he hates Trump but this is ridiculous.
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Re: Cohen pleads guilty to a bunch of things

Post by cwtcr hokie »

HooFighter wrote:The good people at Qanon are taking it in stride. LOL

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yea, that blue wave thing, ya gotta get the senate also...good luck

w/o the blue wave you have no shot at impeaching him and he can continue to torment you for 6 more years :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:
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Re: Cohen pleads guilty to a bunch of things

Post by UpstateSCHokie »

UpstateSCHokie wrote:
Uprising wrote:
LOL! I think I'll go with the reasoned logic of a Constitutional scholar over a tweet by "TruthIsNotTruthHat"

BTW, where is the "Russian collusion" in all of this?

=========================================

“It is a plea bargain between a prosecutor and criminal. A criminal who doesn’t want to spend the rest of his life in prison. That is not precedent. That applies only to that specific case. Nobody cites plea bargains for precedent,” he continued. “That is number one. Number two, just because a prosecutor says that somebody violated a campaign law doesn’t make it so. He is not the judge. He is not the jury. We didn’t adjudicate anything.”

Levin went on to use an example to illustrate his point that what Cohen alleges Trump did is not illegal.

“Say a candidate had said we owe vendors a whole lot of money. We have had disputes with them. But I want you to go ahead and pay them. I’m a candidate, I don’t want the negative publicity. So he says to the private lawyer, you pay them, I’ll reimburse you, get it done. Is that illegal? It’s perfectly legal. Yet according to the prosecution of the Southern District of New York, it’s paid at the direction of the candidate to influence the election. Yes, Mr. Prosecutor, how stupid is your point?”


http://dailycaller.com/2018/08/21/mark- ... ity-cohen/
Or as Democrat pollster Mark Penn puts it, this is nothing more than an attempted deep state hit job....

==============================
Think about this for a minute: Suppose ABC had paid Stormy Daniel for her story in coordination with Michael Avenatti or maybe even the Democratic National Committee’s law firm on the eve of the election; by this reasoning, if the purpose of this money paid, just before the election, would be to hurt Trump and help Clinton win, this payment would be a corporate political contribution. If using it not to get Trump would be a corporate contribution, then using it to get Trump also has to be a corporate contribution. That’s why neither are corporate contributions and this is a bogus approach to federal election law. (Note that none of the donors in the 2012 John Edwards case faced any legal issues and the Federal Election Commission (FEC) ruled their payments were not campaign contributions that had to be reported — facts that prosecutors tried to suppress at trial.)

Now, when it comes to Stormy Daniels, Cohen made a payment a few days before the election that Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani says was reimbursed. First, given that this payment was on Oct. 27, it would never have been reported before the election campaign and so, for all intents and purposes, was immaterial as it relates to any effect on the campaign. What’s clear in this plea deal is that, in exchange for overall leniency on his massive tax evasion, Cohen is pleading guilty to these other charges as an attempt to give prosecutors what they want — a Trump connection.

The usual procedures here would be for the FEC to investigate complaints and sort through these murky laws to determine if these kinds of payments are personal in nature or more properly classified as campaign expenditures. And, on the Daniels’ payment that was made and reimbursed by Trump, it is again a question of whether that was made for personal reasons (especially since they have been trying since 2011 to obtain agreement). Just because it would be helpful to the campaign does not convert it to a campaign expenditure. Think of a candidate with bad teeth who had dental work done to look better for the campaign; his campaign still could not pay for it because it’s a personal expenditure.

Contrast what is going on here with the treatment of the millions of dollars paid to a Democratic law firm which, in turn, paid out money to political research firm Fusion GPS and British ex-spy Christopher Steele without listing them on any campaign expenditure form — despite crystal-clear laws and regulations that the ultimate beneficiaries of the funds must be listed. This rule was even tightened recently. There is no question that hiring spies to do oppo research in Russia is a campaign expenditure, and yet, no prosecutorial raids have been sprung on the law firm, Fusion GPS or Steele. Reason: It does not “get” Trump.

So, Trump spends $130,000 to keep the lid on a personal story and the full weight of state prosecutors comes down on his lawyer, tossing attorney-client privilege to the wind. Democrats spend potentially millions on secret oppo research and no serious criminal investigation occurs.

Remember that the feds tried a similar strategy against Democrat John Edwards in the 2012 case and it failed. As Gregory Craig, a lawyer who worked both for President Clinton and John Edwards, said: “The government’s theory is wrong on the facts and wrong on the law. It is novel and untested. There is no civil or criminal precedent for such a prosecution.” Hey, tried it there anyway and it failed.

And let’s not forget that President Clinton was entrapped into lying about his affairs and, although impeached, was acquitted by the Senate. The lesson was clear: We are not going to remove presidents for lying about who they had affairs with, nor even convict politicians on campaign-finance violations for these personal payments.

With Cohen pleading guilty, there will be no test of soundness of the prosecution theories here, and it is yet another example of the double standards of justice of one investigation that gave Clinton aides and principals every benefit of the doubt and another investigation that targeted Trump people until they found unrelated crimes to use as leverage. Prosecutors thought nothing of using the Logan Act against former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn and, now, obscure and unsettled elements of campaign finance law against Trump lawyer Cohen to manufacture crimes in what is a naked attempt to take Trump down and defeat democracy.

http://thehill.com/opinion/white-house/ ... t-up-trump
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Re: Cohen pleads guilty to a bunch of things

Post by cwtcr hokie »

UpstateSCHokie wrote:
UpstateSCHokie wrote:
Uprising wrote:
LOL! I think I'll go with the reasoned logic of a Constitutional scholar over a tweet by "TruthIsNotTruthHat"

BTW, where is the "Russian collusion" in all of this?

=========================================

“It is a plea bargain between a prosecutor and criminal. A criminal who doesn’t want to spend the rest of his life in prison. That is not precedent. That applies only to that specific case. Nobody cites plea bargains for precedent,” he continued. “That is number one. Number two, just because a prosecutor says that somebody violated a campaign law doesn’t make it so. He is not the judge. He is not the jury. We didn’t adjudicate anything.”

Levin went on to use an example to illustrate his point that what Cohen alleges Trump did is not illegal.

“Say a candidate had said we owe vendors a whole lot of money. We have had disputes with them. But I want you to go ahead and pay them. I’m a candidate, I don’t want the negative publicity. So he says to the private lawyer, you pay them, I’ll reimburse you, get it done. Is that illegal? It’s perfectly legal. Yet according to the prosecution of the Southern District of New York, it’s paid at the direction of the candidate to influence the election. Yes, Mr. Prosecutor, how stupid is your point?”


http://dailycaller.com/2018/08/21/mark- ... ity-cohen/
Or as Democrat pollster Mark Penn puts it, this is nothing more than an attempted deep state hit job....

==============================
Think about this for a minute: Suppose ABC had paid Stormy Daniel for her story in coordination with Michael Avenatti or maybe even the Democratic National Committee’s law firm on the eve of the election; by this reasoning, if the purpose of this money paid, just before the election, would be to hurt Trump and help Clinton win, this payment would be a corporate political contribution. If using it not to get Trump would be a corporate contribution, then using it to get Trump also has to be a corporate contribution. That’s why neither are corporate contributions and this is a bogus approach to federal election law. (Note that none of the donors in the 2012 John Edwards case faced any legal issues and the Federal Election Commission (FEC) ruled their payments were not campaign contributions that had to be reported — facts that prosecutors tried to suppress at trial.)

Now, when it comes to Stormy Daniels, Cohen made a payment a few days before the election that Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani says was reimbursed. First, given that this payment was on Oct. 27, it would never have been reported before the election campaign and so, for all intents and purposes, was immaterial as it relates to any effect on the campaign. What’s clear in this plea deal is that, in exchange for overall leniency on his massive tax evasion, Cohen is pleading guilty to these other charges as an attempt to give prosecutors what they want — a Trump connection.

The usual procedures here would be for the FEC to investigate complaints and sort through these murky laws to determine if these kinds of payments are personal in nature or more properly classified as campaign expenditures. And, on the Daniels’ payment that was made and reimbursed by Trump, it is again a question of whether that was made for personal reasons (especially since they have been trying since 2011 to obtain agreement). Just because it would be helpful to the campaign does not convert it to a campaign expenditure. Think of a candidate with bad teeth who had dental work done to look better for the campaign; his campaign still could not pay for it because it’s a personal expenditure.

Contrast what is going on here with the treatment of the millions of dollars paid to a Democratic law firm which, in turn, paid out money to political research firm Fusion GPS and British ex-spy Christopher Steele without listing them on any campaign expenditure form — despite crystal-clear laws and regulations that the ultimate beneficiaries of the funds must be listed. This rule was even tightened recently. There is no question that hiring spies to do oppo research in Russia is a campaign expenditure, and yet, no prosecutorial raids have been sprung on the law firm, Fusion GPS or Steele. Reason: It does not “get” Trump.

So, Trump spends $130,000 to keep the lid on a personal story and the full weight of state prosecutors comes down on his lawyer, tossing attorney-client privilege to the wind. Democrats spend potentially millions on secret oppo research and no serious criminal investigation occurs.

Remember that the feds tried a similar strategy against Democrat John Edwards in the 2012 case and it failed. As Gregory Craig, a lawyer who worked both for President Clinton and John Edwards, said: “The government’s theory is wrong on the facts and wrong on the law. It is novel and untested. There is no civil or criminal precedent for such a prosecution.” Hey, tried it there anyway and it failed.

And let’s not forget that President Clinton was entrapped into lying about his affairs and, although impeached, was acquitted by the Senate. The lesson was clear: We are not going to remove presidents for lying about who they had affairs with, nor even convict politicians on campaign-finance violations for these personal payments.

With Cohen pleading guilty, there will be no test of soundness of the prosecution theories here, and it is yet another example of the double standards of justice of one investigation that gave Clinton aides and principals every benefit of the doubt and another investigation that targeted Trump people until they found unrelated crimes to use as leverage. Prosecutors thought nothing of using the Logan Act against former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn and, now, obscure and unsettled elements of campaign finance law against Trump lawyer Cohen to manufacture crimes in what is a naked attempt to take Trump down and defeat democracy.

http://thehill.com/opinion/white-house/ ... t-up-trump
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Re: Cohen pleads guilty to a bunch of things

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I find it hilarious that a Clinton ass licker is his lawyer. Fancy that one.....LOL.
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Re: Cohen pleads guilty to a bunch of things

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My cousin is in the Hoosegow for selling drugs...I rekkin' I'll be associated with him and sent away too.

They couldn't get me for anything else but they got my friends and family. Just last week they busted my best friend for tearing off the labels from his pillows.
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Re: Cohen pleads guilty to a bunch of things

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Major Kong wrote:My cousin is in the Hoosegow for selling drugs...I rekkin' I'll be associated with him and sent away too.

They couldn't get me for anything else but they got my friends and family. Just last week they busted my best friend for tearing off the labels from his pillows.
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Re: Cohen pleads guilty to a bunch of things

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Re: Cohen pleads guilty to a bunch of things

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HooFighter wrote:
And it won’t amount to anything because he’s a bad witness and a liar.........
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Re: Cohen pleads guilty to a bunch of things

Post by cwtcr hokie »

HooFighter wrote:

Again, NDA's are not illegal, used often by many folks. And Trump can use them also and per past precedent even if he is a candidate it is not a violation of campaign finance.

So Cohen can do what? This will fail as all the other stuff has, enjoy the next 6 years :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:
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Re: Cohen pleads guilty to a bunch of things

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HokieHam wrote:
HooFighter wrote:
And it won’t amount to anything because he’s a bad witness and a liar.........
Hey, you're right! He is a liar.
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Re: Cohen pleads guilty to a bunch of things

Post by USN_Hokie »

HooFighter wrote:
HokieHam wrote:
HooFighter wrote:
And it won’t amount to anything because he’s a bad witness and a liar.........
Hey, you're right! He is a liar.
So this is more perjury trap crap.
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Re: Cohen pleads guilty to a bunch of things

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USN_Hokie wrote:So this is more perjury trap crap.
Not exactly.
Trump cooked up a quid pro quo using US foreign policy in exchange for getting a building built in Moscow.

Which hunt?
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Re: Cohen pleads guilty to a bunch of things

Post by USN_Hokie »

HooFighter wrote:
USN_Hokie wrote:So this is more perjury trap crap.
Not exactly.
Trump cooked up a quid pro quo using US foreign policy in exchange for getting a building built in Moscow.

Which hunt?
:lol: That's a lot of non-existent dots you're connecting.
Sounds even more benign than I thought. Stupid.
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Re: Cohen pleads guilty to a bunch of things

Post by ElbertoHokie »

Total perjury trap. But why lie about the real estate dealing?
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Re: Cohen pleads guilty to a bunch of things

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USN_Hokie wrote::lol: That's a lot of non-existent dots you're connecting.
Sounds even more benign than I thought. Stupid.
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Re: Cohen pleads guilty to a bunch of things

Post by awesome guy »

HooFighter wrote:
USN_Hokie wrote:So this is more perjury trap crap.
Not exactly.
Trump cooked up a quid pro quo using US foreign policy in exchange for getting a building built in Moscow.

Which hunt?
LOL!
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Re: Cohen pleads guilty to a bunch of things

Post by BigDave »

(groan) He said that the deal was stopped in January 2016, but it really went on later into 2016? That sounds like a case of just mis-remembering the date more than it sounds like intentionally lying.
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