Idea: No Mueller interview with Trump, but in exchange everyone on his team gives hourlong softball interviews where they accidentally admit stuff.
— ryan teague beckwith (@ryanbeckwith) May 3, 2018
Rudy Giuliani, super genius:
Rudolph W. Giuliani, the former New York mayor and a recent addition to President Trump’s legal team, said Wednesday night that Trump made a series of payments reimbursing his attorney Michael Cohen for a $130,000 settlement with an adult-film actress — despite Trump’s assertion last month that he was unaware of the payment.
“The president repaid it,’’ Giuliani told Fox News Channel’s Sean Hannity.
Trump “didn’t know about the specifics of it, as far as I know. But he did know the general arrangement, that Michael would take care of things like this, like I take care of things like this with my clients,” Giuliani said. “I don’t burden them with every single thing that comes along. These are busy people.’’
Later, Giuliani said in an interview with The Washington Post that when Cohen paid the settlement to actress Stormy Daniels, he knew he would eventually get paid back by Trump, as he was for other expenses.
Giuliani said it was his understanding that repayment from Trump came in a series of transactions after the election that he believes were completed in 2017 but could have included a reimbursement in 2018.
***Michael Avenatti, an attorney for Daniels, said Giuliani’s comments were an indication of campaign finance violations and possibly bank fraud and money laundering.
“According to Mr. Giuliani, Mr. Trump and Mr. Cohen were co-conspirators in a felony,” he said. “Now it is time for justice to be served, and we intend to serve it.”
And then there is this:
Giuliani also offered new rationale for why Trump fired then-FBI Director James B. Comey in May 2017, saying the president was justified in removing Comey because Comey would not publicly say that the president was not under investigation as part of the FBI’s probe of Russian election interference.
“He fired Comey because Comey would not, among other things, say that he wasn’t a target of the investigation,” Giuliani said. “He’s entitled to that. Hillary Clinton got that, and he couldn’t get that. So he fired him, and he said, ‘I’m free of this guy.’ ”
ORLY? But wait, the Giuliani Foot in Mouth Tour 2018 is just getting started. This morning, “America’s Mayor” (vomit) went on Faux and Friends:
Imagine if, indeed. pic.twitter.com/MNtWVPCTEp
— Carrie Dann (@CarrieNBCNews) May 3, 2018
Imagine!
HOW ARE THESE PEOPLE NOT IN JAIL YET?
GregB
Trump just tweeted that campaign money played “no roll” in the payment.
Bruce Lawton
How is “make it go away” money in the middle of a campaign not illegal??
lollipopguild
These people truly live in their own alternate universe.I can’t wait for the trump press conference where he admits that Putin owns him or the Rudy interview where Rudy admits that trump is Putin’s pawn.
Anonymous At Work
Pretty sure that Guiliani is retiring his law license AND getting revenge for not being named Attorney General, all at once.
MattF
@lollipopguild: A ‘special relationship’ with reality.
Chyron HR
@GregB:
They can’t convict you of a crime if you didn’t spell it correctly.
Shalimar
National Prayer Breakfast this morning. Great chance for Trump to release a little stress by hitting on all the pastors’ daughters in attendance.
Just One More Canuck
seems apropos
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDAmPIq29ro
Waldo
At this rate, Rudy will be gone before Ty Cobb’s seat is cold. Yep, all the best people.
MomSense
@Shalimar:
Do we know how many Russians will be there this time?
guachi
@GregB: I don’t believe that Trump actually wrote those series of tweets this morning. It makes a more logical argument than Trump makes and doesn’t have random capitalization.
chopper
@GregB:
130k, that’s a lot of dough.
aarrgghh
via freeper gulch, where the mulligans are always on tap:
chopper
of course it’s campaign money. trump doesn’t ever pay out of pocket when he has other options, even if they’re heck of illegal.
raven
@chopper: chump change
Anonymous At Work
@Waldo: Ty Cobb’s mustache warmer, not seat. Show some respect.
MomSense
@GregB:
I fucking hate that we have to deal with this stupid motherfucking clown dictator.
chopper
@GregB:
no roll at all, yet you know trump is gonna get schmeared by the press.
kd bart
Cohen: Hey, quit your blubberin’. When I get through with this baby you won’t even recognize it.
Giuliani: Mr. President, you can’t spend your whole life worrying about your mistakes! You f#@*ed up… you trusted us! Hey, make the best of it! Maybe we can help.
Trump: [crying] That’s easy for you to say! What am I going to tell Putin?
Giuliani: I’ll tell you what. We’ll tell Putin you were doing a great job taking care of his rigged election, but you spilled the beans last night and this morning… it was gone. We report it as fake news to the Fox audience.. Cohen takes care of the payoffs. Putin friend’s buys him a new government.
Trump: Will that work?
Giuliani: Hey, it’s gotta work better than the truth.
Hannity: [thrusting six-pack into Trump’s hands] My advice to you is to start drinking heavily.
Giuliani: Better listen to him, Trump, he’s in media.
Cohen: [firing up blow-torch] There you go now, just leave everything to me.
Skepticat
What a team tRudy and tRump make, Tweedledum and Tweedledumber. ! I’d love to see them as cellmates.
r€nato
“I barely knew Rudy Giuliani, who was briefly with my campaign where he mostly served as a coffee boy and I wouldn’t know if I shared an elevator with him.”
-Trump, later today probably
Frankensteinbeck
Question: Trump accused Stormy of extortion in his tweets today, and so did Giuliani in his interviews. Does that give Avenatti the defamation he’s been looking for?
rikyrah
@GregB:
There was some twitter warrior last night who found a series of payments that, if added up, came within $1 of the 130K that Cohen gave Daniels.
OF COURSE THE MONEY CAME FROM THE CAMPAIGN FUNDS!
I read it in the comments of the latest post over at The People’s View.
hitless
@lollipopguild: I find it kind of amazing that these people admit illegal and unethical behavior that was performed in the furtherance of their interests and assume it was OK to do that…because of course you would do that unethical/illegal thing if it help you win. And a huge portion of our electorate apparently agrees.
I fully expect that if a pre-election Trump-Putin pact were to become public, people would be like “Of course he would accept help from Putin..he would be stupid not to. Imagine if Hillary had won…he had to stop that”.
Elizabelle
@Waldo: You know, I wonder if Ty Cobb might be the one person so far to leave with his reputation not entirely shredded?
Yes, he is a lawyer who speaks loudly in public of private matters; that alone is pause for concern. Further, he hired on with Trump in the first place. However, he did counsel cooperation. We will have to see how “to the mattresses” works for Trump and his cronies.
I wonder how Emmet Flood will do with this. He may pine for the days with Mr. Cheney.
Aimai
@Shalimar: I moved on her like a Bishop.
GregB
You people act as if it is unseemly for the lawyer of the US President to go on TV and talk about funneling hush payments to make bad news about porn stars go away.
Leto
@GregB: So of course it played a roll. It’s 24/7/365 Opposite Day with Trump tweets.
Waldo
Can’t argue with Josh Marshall’s theory:
In case you’re wondering, America’s Mayor is 73.
Yarrow
They will be. Tick tock, motherfuckers.
Tokyokie
@Shalimar:
That’s really unfair to our esteemed leader. He would never hit on all the pastors’ daughters, just the ones with big boobs.
The Dangerman
@Elizabelle:
Isn’t that how all of this got started?
So, America’s Mayor pulled a Merkle’s Boner about boning. Interesting.
NickM
@aarrgghh: Wow – I just checked out the thread you linked to. The other arguments are that (1) this defuses the Stormy story – it’s over now; (2) $130K proves that nothing happened, since it’s such chump change, and a real affair with Trump would have netted more; (3) none of this matters because the rule of law is about to get tossed out. Scary shit. I’ll never understand why his supporters love that supporating pile of rancid shit so much.
O. Felix Culpa
@Waldo:
My dad is 83 and he’s a hell of a lot sharper than Rudy G. The issue may not be age but extreme bile-poisoning.
Leto
@lollipopguild:
Trump hasn’t held a press conference since 1 Feb 2017.
Frankensteinbeck
@Tokyokie:
That is unfair to Trump. He won’t hit on any of the pastors’ daughters. He’ll hit on their granddaughters. The blondes with big boobs, of course. In fact, he will ‘move on them like a bitch.’ They let you do it, when you’re president.
Yarrow
@Shalimar: National Prayer Breakfast? Time to see which Russians the Republicans bring to it this year. Like Chuck Grassley did last year and then posted an Instagram photo of it. Traitors.
rikyrah
Another thought about Rudy
https://twitter.com/Only4RM/status/991878840011165697?s=19
CliosFanboy nee Woodrowfan
Dear God. Trump a “considerate man”?? I knew Freepers were delusional but DAMN.
rikyrah
More tinfoil hat about Rudy
https://twitter.com/Only4RM/status/991896139304701952?s=19
JPL
@Tokyokie: Trump: I did not have sex with that woman, and the audience says in unison Praise the Lord.
Frankensteinbeck
@CliosFanboy nee Woodrowfan:
He gives people exactly the amount of consideration any conservative voter would. They know they themselves are the kindest people on the planet, who truly understand things like tough love. That about one third of America looks at Trump and (mostly accurately) sees themselves sums up American politics quite well.
terraformer
And yet, the admission of felonious activity in spite of all previous statements to the contrary will not be heard or recognized by the 27%-ers, who eagerly await an alternate reality explanation to which they can cling to make it all go away so they can go back to “got you libtard fuck yea MAGA!”. Or similar.
? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?
@Frankensteinbeck:
People that to this day still approve of Trump need to be sidelined permanently. They have to be consistently outvoted for the foreseeable future until they learn.
mai naem mobile
I thought Dolt 45 was supposed to come on Fox and Friends on Thursdays. I was kinda sorta looking forward to it this morning. Also does anybody really believe he’s paid Cohen the $130k? He’s a deadbeat. He isn’t paying anybody $130K.
Lee
This guy at WaPo has to be the stupidest reporter in Washington.
Waldo
@Elizabelle: Yeah, I got the sense that Cobb naively believed there was some aboveboard way to manage Trump’s little Russia problem. Silly Cobb.
glory b
@NickM: He hates the same people they do, and he’s in charge.
They can rub it in the faces of Dems and especially people of color: compare him to Obama, who didn’t have any of these personal scandals, was educated, personable, well spoken, etc. They are telling us that they will put the worst of them over the best of us and we have no choice but to accept it.
I heard a researcher from Penn State (I think) on npr On The Media talking about the latest research showing that his voters were concerned with status (read race) anxiety, not economics. And yet, I still here that economic anxiety bs on television (the most recent was Ian Bremer on Morning Joe) as the reason he is here. I’m getting the feeling that too many white people, including the ones on our side, can’t face the reality of how many of their friends, neighbors and family members are that racist.
Aleta
“Sorry …. I’m giving you a fact now that you don’t know.”
-Giuliani to America, via Fox
Betty Cracker
@hitless:
I’ve actually seen that argument made already.
rikyrah
@glory b:
No lie told, except, for we’re NOT ACCEPTING IT…which angers them to no end.
low-tech cyclist
Keep calm and carry on. Mueller’s spearfishing. Their time is coming.
p.a.
Is your preznits legal team learnin?
ETA: for our own legal eagles, what is the standing of the Costanza “If I believe it, it’s true” defense? ;- 0
El Caganer
@Tokyokie: And he won’t have a chance if Roy Moore gets there first.
gene108
@Waldo:
Gotta feeling Trump wasn’t on the level with Cobb, regarding how corrupt he is. Trump probably tried to bullshit Cobb about his innocence, so Cobb figures “my guy’s innocent, Cooperating with Mueller will just exonerate him quicker.”…..nah……Cobb can’t be that naive.
The Moar You Know
From a PR standpoint – the PR for the Anxiety-Ridden Rubes, not the rest of us – this has been handled nicely. Like the proverbial frog in the pot, Trump has gone from “Stormy who?” to quibbling over how she was paid off.
They’re standing by their man. Can’t wait to see how they handle the abortion payoff.
Waldo
@O. Felix Culpa: Jimmy Carter is 93 and still pretty sharp. I wouldn’t rule out the possibility that Rudy’s decline is just good old-fashioned karma.
Obvious Russian Troll
@gene108: The guy who was caught discussing Trump’s legal affairs in public *twice* can’t be that naive?
Tokyokie
@Frankensteinbeck: Well, maybe the daughters from the pastors’ second (and subsequent) marriages with big boobs.
Jamey
Clearly, Trump is getting a head start on his legal malpractice defense.
Snarki, child of Loki
@? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?: “People that to this day still approve of Trump need to be sidelined permanently.”
C’mon NASA, hurry up with that B Ark! You’re cutting it awfully close.
Waldo
@gene108: Cobb knew Trump had made some, uh, mistakes — perhaps even some serious ones — but he probably had no idea how deep the Russia connections ran. Then Mueller started asking questions Cobb couldn’t answer because his client is a pathological liar.
LAO
I just sitting here chuckling. I have no doubt that this “disclosure” was prompted by the documents seized from Cohen’s office, remember the government was required to turn over the seized items to Trump’s legal team, as well as Cohen’s team.
oatler.
@Snarki, child of Loki: When Trump’s gone we’re gonna have a Cecil B DeMille bloody civil war in Panavision Technicolor.Not hopin’, just sayin’.
Frankensteinbeck
@glory b:
That’s one big part of it. I’ve seen here the stories of people who find it hard to swallow how the neighbor who is so sweet to them can be a Trump voter. Having grown up surrounded by these folks and on both sides of their love/hate, it makes perfect sense to me. Another big part of it is that there are racists on our side, at least to the point where they have no investment in minority suffering but not racist enough that it overwhelms their self-interest. For them, it’s easiest to go along with the longstanding white social rule that accusing someone of racism is so extreme that you must provide every imaginable benefit of the doubt. But I think among liberals, Democrats, and Lefties, the biggest contributor is this: Most of us care a lot about economic issues. For a big chunk, the issue is so front and central that it seems like it must drive everyone.
Separate but important is that center-right Republicans, which includes the vast majority of the national press, cling to the rule about not accusing someone of racism fanatically. It reassures them that their screaming terror over ebola-infected immigrants and urgent need to prove any murdered black man was a thug means they’re not racists themselves.
low-tech cyclist
So far this week, we’ve learned about:
1) Michael Cohen’s extensive background with insurance fraudsters
2) The heist of Trump’s medical records
2a) *Confirmation* that Trump dictated his own medical report
3) The apparent Ukraine missile quid pro quo
4) Pruitt’s $100K trip to Morocco
4a) which was arranged by a lobbyist who got rich off the deal
5) The latest Stormy payoff news
And it’s still just Thursday morning. How the fuck can anyone keep up with all this??
ETA: It’s been just three and a half weeks since the FBI raided Cohen’s office etc. So much has happened since then, it’s hard to believe it was such a short time ago.
Waldo
@Jamey:
That’s the most sensible explanation I’ve seen so far.
Platonailedit
So many corrupt & criminal shitheads and yet not even one in jail so far. Worse than a banana republic.
LAO
@gene108:
Clients, especially people like Trump, are never on the level. Cobb wanted to try to control the narrative, the problem is his client is too bugfucked stupid to take any legal advice.
Frankensteinbeck
@Waldo:
Which is why it’s wrong, since Trump sure as Hell doesn’t do ‘sensible.’
different-church-lady
In the fictional version of this, Michael was the competent one and Fredo was the one who revealed things accidentally.
jonas
So last week on FnF, Trump goes on about how Cohen is just a business guy who maybe did a teensy little bit of legal work on the side, such as make the Stormy problem go away. But now he and Giuliani are saying that Cohen’s payment to Stormy was repaid via a large monthly retainer — which DEFINITELY is not laundered through the campaign — that Trump kept him on? So a guy who does hardly any legal work and is mainly a businessman makes thousands a month on retainer for Trump as a lawyer. Sounds legit.
Also, Trump (of course) and also Giuliani seem not to grasp that the money doesn’t have to come directly out of a campaign account for the settlement to have violated campaign finance laws.
Peale
@LAO: Yep. I’m guessing that Stormy Daniels is a small potatoes issues compared with other things, which is why they’ve finally decided its more important that Cohen be seen as Trump’s lawyer rather than the “lone wolf never heard of him acting on his own” lie they were peddling. They do want it both ways, but I think they might not be powerful enough yet to get both.
glory b
@rikyrah: I know, right? Remember all of the times we were told we should respect the office and accept him as president, “Get over it?”
rikyrah
@Yarrow:
Never gets old.
glory b
@jonas: Yep. This morning, Michael Avenatti was saying the same thing, $35,000 a month, almost half a million total, what was he doing that justified that?
Emma
@Waldo: it’s not the age. My father is 84 and has better brains and superbly better common sense. It’s all the evil he has deliberately embraced that has addled his brains.
rikyrah
@low-tech cyclist:
Uh huh
Uh huh
different-church-lady
@Peale: I think what they’re missing here is that Mueller and his team have a grasp on events and statements that took place in moments that are not the immediate present — utterly unlike Trump and large portions of the general public.
LAO
@Peale: I think that the seized documents probably establish the Daniels payoff and Trump’s knowledge of the payoff and Giuliani is doing some “clean up.” Remember, there has been no denial, under oath, at this point.
efgoldman
@NickM:
Cleek’s Law and Davis X Machina’s corollary, always
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@jonas:
Ooh, tell me more about this, please. Everything added to the list of “laws T has broken” and “laws there is open-and-shut PROOF T has broken” is good news for the country.
LAO
You know, it’s as if WH aides have never heard of the “the scorpion and the frog.”
rikyrah
Found at another blog:
different-church-lady
@NickM:
Asshole recognize asshole.
Leto
@Waldo: Just an idea of how fucking horrid a client Trump is, it was reported last night on Maddow that both Trump and Cohen refuse to tell their lawyers what the documents contained that the FBI seized. They won’t tell their own lawyers, who are trying to save them, what’s in the documents. What are the documents about? What matters are discussed? Why won’t you tell us? That’s the type of client they’re dealing with.
Edit: I know it’s 24/7/365 corruption, but still…
Lee
@low-tech cyclist:
If a Dem wins the Presidency in 2020 and then pulls the same shit Obama did about ‘we need to look forward not backwards’ and not go after every single one of these fuckers, I will lose my shit.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
An old joke that needs to be updated for our current era.
Three old guys are sitting around a pool in Florida. First guy telling the story of how there was a big fire that wiped out his business, he decided to take the insurance settlement and retire.
Second guy says his story is pretty much the same: big fire, business wiped out, insurance settlement, retired.
Third guy says “that’s pretty much my story too, but it was a flood.”
Long pause while the first two guys look at each other. Finally one asks, “Who do you go to for a flood?”
Obviously there needs to be an update somehow pulling in Cohen and Mar-a-Lago and Trump Tower. I know you jackals can do it.
rikyrah
Ukraine stops helping Mueller to avoid upsetting Trump: NYT
Rachel Maddow reminds viewers of former Donald Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort’s history in Ukraine, and reports on the suspension of Ukrainian investigations into Manafort as they dovetail with the Mueller investigation because they don’t want to risk upsetting Donald Trump when weapons deals are on the line.
LAO
@Leto: The government is required to turn the seized documents over to both Cohen and Trump’s legal teams on a rolling basis (in addition to the independent reviewer). So, they will know soon enough and I understand, the process has already begun. Should be fun times.
rikyrah
Key Mueller witness runs to Russia as Ukraine courts Trump favor
Ken Vogel, reporter for The New York Times, talks with Rachel Maddow about Paul Manafort’s former colleague Konstantin Kilimnik and how a lack of cooperation from Ukraine has put him out of reach of Robert Mueller’s investigation.
Lee
@rikyrah: I saw that yesterday. How much you want to bet Mueller already has everything he needs?
rikyrah
Continued Trump admin turnover forces expansion of departure wall
Rachel Maddow adds yet more names to the list of high-level Donald Trump administration departures, requiring the addition of a second wall to display them all legibly.
rikyrah
Trump, Cohen keep lawyers in dark on contents of seized documents: NYT
Michael Schmidt, reporter for The New York Times, talks with Rachel Maddow about Emmet Flood replacing Ty Cobb as presidential lawyer, and challenges facing the Trump legal team.
Barbara
Real lawyers don’t talk to the press like this. Rudy Giuliani went on TV and disclosed that Trump did in fact authorize Cohen to pay off Stormy Daniels, and then paid Cohen back. He then told someone, at Washington Post or maybe Hannity again, that his client Donald Trump authorized him to say these things. Someone theorized that they are now admitting the pay off in order to try to make a more credible claim that the documents that were seized from Cohen were all privileged. But in doing it this way, they have opened the door for an argument that even if privilege existed it has been waived — not just because Giuliani disclosed or summarized the gist of the communications between Trump and Cohen but because, according to Giuliani, Trump authorized him to do so.
lollipopguild
@different-church-lady: These assholes love other assholes. See Pence loving on Sherriff Joe.
Shana
@chopper: I saw something earlier where Rudy said the money came from The Family or something. I assume he meant the family foundation, which, thanks to David Farenthold, has now been shut down. “His own money” bullshit.
rikyrah
Giuliani sheds new light on Trump’s decision to fire James Comey
05/03/18 08:40 AM—UPDATED 05/03/18 10:16 AM
By Steve Benen
One of the most important decisions Donald Trump has made as president was firing James Comey as the director of the FBI a year ago this week. It was the first domino in a series of developments that has put the Republican’s presidency in jeopardy.
Rudy Giuliani, the former New York City mayor who’s now a member of Trump’s legal team, told Fox News last night why the president made this decision.
As a rule, when a group of people, in the midst of a scandal, repeatedly change their story about basic details, something is amiss.
rikyrah
China has had it with Trump’s trade war bullshit.
They are cancelling $14 bil worth of orders for Ag products, mostly soybeans
This will cripple Midwest Ag, and damage US economy everywhere else
This needs to be a huge story
— (((Huxenstein))) (@BethGoldHux) May 3, 2018
rikyrah
Wolf Announces Nov. 6 Special Election to Replace Meehan, Signals Same for Dent’s Seat https://t.co/OzfKVkrEK6 pic.twitter.com/AeVVqFbG6j
— Sy Snyder (@PoliticsPA) May 3, 2018
efgoldman
@LAO:
You’re actually having a blast with this, aren’t you? Watching these big name klowns go down in flames.
rikyrah
THE LAST WORD WITH LAWRENCE O’DONNELL 5/2/18
Giuliani: ‘president can’t be subpoenaed’
Attorneys Jill Wine-Banks and Joyce Vance say there is no legal justification for the claim a president can’t be subpoenaed except for in Rudy Giuliani’s mind. Lawrence also discusses Giuliani’s view on what would happen if Mueller subpoenaed Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner
J R in WV
@glory b:
I won’t have any problem getting over Trump, once Trump is over, if you know what I mean. Or at least in prison, hopefully using a cell in our Cuban resort prison.
different-church-lady
@rikyrah: Hey, he promised those farmers America First, and they’re getting what he promised.
Leto
@LAO: I read your comment concerning the disclosure after I already posted my thing. Will the lawyers actually see those documents, or can both Trump/Cohen take them before the lawyers see them? Documents delivered to lawyers office, but they never open the box? If not, I wonder with how that squares with what Maddow was reporting?
Also to you, and the other lawyers here on the blog, thanks for always explaining this stuff to us. It’s always such a huge help!
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@rikyrah: As the odious Meehan has been my representative, I can not begin to describe my joy at his resignation and the elimination of his gerrymandered district.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@rikyrah: Hey no big deal if we go bankrupt, right? Trump has always come out of “his” bankruptcies with extra cash in his pocket.
Of the many awful things about this guy, one of the worst is that he apparently believes he was elected CEO of the US, that its assets are his, that Congress and we are his employees, and that he can indeed “run the country like a business”. Like his scam businesses, that is.
Leto
@rikyrah: By the time this is all done, Maddow will have to project all the names on at least 2 exterior sides of 30 Rock. There is no more “looking forward”. Expose it all, burn them all.
LAO
@efgoldman: Sure, why not? Shitty lawyering should be mocked.
Frankensteinbeck
@Leto:
Question for the lawyers: If the answer is ‘explicit proof of criminal activity’, what are Trump’s lawyers’ legal obligations?
catclub
@Lee:
what I find most interesting is that both Daniels and Karen McDougal were ‘helped’ by the same lawyer, and at least Daniels has dropped that lawyer.
It certainly appears that Cohen and the other lawyer were in collusion against their (female) clients.
JPL
@LAO: I was hoping that you would comment about the circus. How do you think the Giuliani/Trump plan is going? Giuliani also said they had better not go after Ivanka, so I guess Jared is okay.
I’m beginning to think another indictment might be coming down.
LAO
@Leto: I think a lot of the reporting has been incorrect. I love Maddow, but I question many of the so-called cable news legal experts, federal criminal investigations and prosecutions, proceed in a pretty standard way regardless of the targets and subjects of those investigations/prosecutions. Everyone wants to treat this has somehow different because the relation to Trump but it’s really no different from a run-of-the-mill federal case.
Also, the Cohen and Trump legal teams are going to want to make a privilege argument, so I expect that the lawyers will see the seized documents.
JPL
Yesterday Trump was tweeting about ridding us of that special counsel and today he’s moved onto Cohen. He knows he can’t get rid of that.
LAO
@JPL: I think the plan is to litigate everything on Fox News, where these nutjobs control the narrative. I expect Mueller is going to be fired any day but since that won’t stop the SDNY, the plan appears to be quite stupid.
catclub
@Lee:
you have plenty of time to be ready for that. How about a full Ford-Nixon pardon to save the nation from the distress of the legal process?
No Drought No More
From the moment he was elected, the only question was simply how much damage Trump and the political racketeers of the republican party* would inflict on this country before they were driven from power legally. Which is why the fucks haven’t been jailed yet.
A better question concerning accountability in governance is why did the war criminals of the Bush-Cheney administration escape justice for their treason? Because they did.
rikyrah
Because our current Governor took an axe to Chicago State and did all that he could to try and destroy the college – which services a majority Black population. What Rauner did to Chicago State is but one of the many reasons THAT HE MUST BE DEFEATED IN NOVEMBER.
Chicago State announces 3 finalists for president
Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times
Associated Press
CHICAGO (AP) — Chicago State University has narrowed its search for a new president to three finalists.
University officials say the finalists are Zaldwaynaka Scott, a former federal prosecutor; Patricia Ramsey, provost at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania; and Heidi Anderson, special assistant to the president at Texas A & M in Kingsville were chosen from among about 50 applicants. The final choice would be the fifth president or interim president since December 2015.
Board of trustees’ vice chairman Nicholas Gowen says the goal is for the new president to start July 1. Interim President Rachel Lindsey, who took over in April 2017, had her one-year contract extended until June 30.
In addition to uncertain leadership, the 151-year-old university is battling fiscal issues and enrollment that’s declined from 7,362 students in 2010 to 3,101 last fall.
Spanky
@Aimai:
Diagonally?
catclub
@JPL:
someone should ask Giuliani specifically if Ivanka is also his client.
LAO
@Frankensteinbeck:
Attorney-client privilege protects admissions of prior criminal conduct. The “crime/fraud exception” only applies to ongoing or contemplated future criminal conduct.
efgoldman
@LAO:
And shitty lawyering + the world’s worst client since Nuremberg….
Spanky
@Shalimar: Roy Moore is gonna be pissed when Trump moves on his territory.
rikyrah
Lips pursed.
Condoleezza Rice defends Kanye West
05/02/2018, 07:04pm
USA TODAY Network
Former secretary of State Condoleezza Rice stood up for Kanye West’s right to express himself amid a backlash against the musician’s recent comments in support of President Trump and a controversial statement that implied African-Americans made a “choice” to suffer 400 years of slavery.
Fox Business’ Maria Bartiromo asked Rice what she thought, “as a successful woman of color,” of the pushback against West’s remarks in an interview Wednesday.
“First of all, I haven’t spent a lot of time thinking about it,” Rice told the Mornings with Maria host. “But I can say, people ought to be able to express their views. Not all of us have to think politically the same way. I’ve said to people sometimes, ‘You know, I’ve been black all my life. You don’t have to tell me how to be black.’”
hitchhiker
My theory is that their support of Trump is really a measure of how well they’ve been taught to despise us. As long as “the libs” are unhappy, it means he’s doing something right. This shit began in the early Limbaugh/Gingrich years and exploded into a real weapon with the arrival of Fox.
It’s ALL about payback for what they believe is our longstanding and utter contempt for them. I used to get hints of this in early online chatrooms, where people would just Lose Their Minds over perceived slights … like, when southerners were hyper-sensitive to having northerners point out that Bush sounded like a dork when he said nu-cue-ler, and pointing at others who used that pronunciation.
I got into it with one guy who seemed quite rational, and he explained to me how much people from the south resent the hell out of being mocked for their culture. This current moment is a long-cultivated extension & expansion of that resentment.
The Moar You Know
I expect Smoky Eye Sanders to show up with a mop and bucket at her next presser. That one’s going to be one for the ages.
Jack the Second
Does anyone miss the good-old-days when sleeping with the President was a privilege? Did JFK have to pay off any of his mistresses?
different-church-lady
@LAO: I keep saying it: Mueller’s got a dead-hand mechanism put together and it is going to be a MOTHERFUCKER.
celticdragonchick
@J R in WV:
But we won’t get over him. Trump owns the GOP lock, stock and barrel. We won’t be rid of this insanity for the rest of our lives. If you thought the Reagan GOP was bad….wait for Trumpified Tom Cotton running for POTUS.
celticdragonchick
@different-church-lady:
This is true, I think.
LAO
@different-church-lady: I hope so.
@efgoldman: too true.
Just One More Canuck
@low-tech cyclist: it’s been quite an infrastructure week
Lee
@catclub: Honestly I would turn into a ‘fuck you I got mine’ Republican and support every single one of them I could. And I’m wealthy enough to say ‘yes I did get mine’.
Mike in DC
Bored by now with the daily shenanigans. I just want the first conspiracy indictments to come out ASAFP.
Frankensteinbeck
@hitchhiker:
Fuck that. I’m from their culture. If ignorance and hate weren’t at least half of that culture, nobody else would mock it. They’re mad they can’t be assholes without being called out for it.
randy khan
@Lee:
I think that, if the Dems win in 2020, the President should just allow the special counsel to finish his work.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@Just One More Canuck: I’ve had a fairly relaxing week actually, as we spent the last few days in Amish country. I did find myself wondering at one point, do Old Order Amish participate in elections? And if so, which way do they lean?
The Moar You Know
@efgoldman: At least the Nuremburg guys could claim truthfully that what they did was not illegal AT ALL by the laws of their country. Which was true. We had to invent a legal framework to try them.
These people break established, well-known obvious American laws daily and don’t even care.
Leto
@LAO: She usually has on just 3 attorneys, who were former US attorneys, to explain things. And they don’t try to enhance anything, but they do try to state how things usually run in a federal prosecution and how that might be impacted, not from Trump per se, but the Office of the President. Those three are pretty/ dry and don’t try to sensationalize things. I feel like I learn stuff.
trollhattan
@rikyrah:
Two prominent members of my Wouldn’t mind if they went away forever list.
glory b
@Frankensteinbeck: Yes, having only ever seen one side of these folks, it’s hard to reconcile that with people who talk about their dear sweet racist family members.
Lee
@randy khan: Not just the special counsel, but the IGs and FBI (-who has jurisdiction?) need to investigate every person that served under Trump for wrongdoing and press charges if appropriate.
The Moar You Know
@Frankensteinbeck: My family is from the South, over two centuries of history down there. It’s not just the racism and assholery, it’s the vehement contempt for education and intelligence that makes Southerners worthy of not just mockery but legitimate contempt.
It’s one thing to be an asshole. It’s another entirely to be a stupid asshole.
trollhattan
@different-church-lady:
Let us hope, Our Saturday Night Massacre isn’t a yes/no? but rather, a when?
LAO
@Leto: I’ll have to give Maddow another watch, I haven’t watched much cable news coverage on this because it made me crazy. (Or crazier?)
Fair Economist
@hitchhiker:
As a voluntary resident of “California is like granola, full of fruits, nuts, and flakes”, I think his butt-hurt about what everybody else has to put up with too just merits extra derision.
JPL
@LAO: Then you are missing the president’s speech about prayer, religious liberty and the Johnson Amendment.
glory b
@J R in WV: A Cuban resort prison works for me.
Ivanka may have a line of resort wear, she should go too, if for no other reason than it would piss off Giuliani.
Leto
@Frankensteinbeck: All of this. It’s why I roll my eyes anyone talks about “Southern Hospitality” and “how charming Charleston is”. GTFO!
JPL
The asshole is creating a faith initiative in the white house with rights to government money. hmm
I had to press the mute button.
low-tech cyclist
@Lee:
Me too. And I have the feeling we’d have plenty of company.
What pisses me off the most about Obama doing that was, he really could have had it both ways. He could have taken the high road of ‘looking forward not back’ while quietly making available anything relating to the Bush years that could be done without compromising national security or intel sources abroad. Then when outside groups combed through the documents and presented evidence that pretty much required indictments to the US Attorneys in the appropriate jurisdictions, Obama could have shrugged and said, “yes, I know what I said, but look, no one’s above the law, I’ve directed my US Attorneys to review the evidence and determine whether it’s sufficient to support the charges that the presenting legal groups claim it does.”
At the time, I really figured that would be the way he played it. I’m still pissed that he didn’t. Between that and Bush I’s Iran-Contra pardons over Christmas 1992, there are generations of Republican ratfuckers who can go on TV as if they’ve never committed a crime. This has to stop.
different-church-lady
@randy khan:
Ah. So you’re thinking lifetime appointment?
The Moar You Know
@glory b: My grandmother. A sweet woman, truly. Never would have permitted the use of the word “nigger” by any family members. Always on the spot for anything the grandkids wanted. Taught me how to cook and can. Tried her best to teach us manners. A genuinely nice, giving, loving person.
Who quit teaching forever, the only thing in her life that gave her joy, once Brown started being enforced in Alabama because black boys would be able to look at the white girls legs. Not kidding. Not one word of that is a joke. That’s why she quit.
I loved my grandmother, and she died a cruel and awful death from ovarian cancer. I don’t know how to square the person she was with me with a person whose line in the sand was “black teenagers should not have any contact with white folks at all“. I can’t.
schrodingers_cat
@Jack the Second: I am surprised that anyone wants to do it, for any amount of cash.
chopper
all i know is, if this is the line of defense trump’s lawyers came up with, then the stuff the investigators got from cohen’s home and office raid must be fucking bananas.
low-tech cyclist
@randy khan:
What’s needed will go well beyond Mueller’s work. Basically, the whole Executive Branch at the level of Presidential appointments will need to be given a good, hard look.
Mueller’s not going to go after Scott Pruitt; he’s got bigger fish to spear. But someone needs to investigate and indict Pruitt and everyone else who’s treated the U.S. government as their personal piggy bank.
Leto
@LAO: If you don’t want to watch, you can always download the podcast of her show.
Here’s the bio’s of 2 of three 3 (I don’t remember her name but she was the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Alabama)
Barbara L. McQuade
Chuck Rosenberg
germy
Rudy called Michael Avenatti an ambulance chaser.
Neldob
There are sooo many peole involved it’s like a Russian novel trying to keep them straight, except it’s a horror comedy.
HOW ARE THESE PEOPLE NOT IN JAIL YET?
money.
lgerard
So the new story is that Cohen negotiated and entered into agreements and made payments without trump’s knowledge or consent?
That doesn’t leave Cohen in a very good position does it?
low-tech cyclist
@catclub:
The good news is that Pence would only be able to pardon Trump for federal crimes. I bet there’s a pile of stuff that Trump could be indicted for under NY state law.
JPL
James Comey is not happy with Rudy
germy
C’mon libs. You all know it’s true.
germy
It’s settled, then. Why are you all making such a fuss?
LAO
@Leto: thanks. I’ll check it out.
Elizabelle
@JPL: I dunno. Some in the NY FBI office are clearly feeding Rudy; don’t praise them all. Behind the scenes, perhaps the good FBI agents can undermine the bad ones. They’re there, and Comey was afraid of them, whatever he says now.
germy
@JPL:
Rudy called the NYFBI stormtroopers? I thought they were his bros.
Baud
@JPL: No stormtroopers, just ratfuckers.
@germy: The guy who said “Thank God George Bush is in the White House” isn’t the most credible person.
? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?
@germy:
Oh dear, it seems he’s suffering asshole-induced amnesia
Heidi Mom
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: My understanding (based solely on having lived in central PA for all but 8 of my 67 years) is that they don’t, because it’s the sort of “worldly” thing that they are not to concern themselves with. For the same reason, as well as the command to turn the other cheek, they don’t undertake lawsuits (or “go to law”) on their own behalf. During past elections there were rumors that Republicans were trying to persuade them to vote, on the assumption that they were inherently conservative, but I don’t know that those efforts met with success.
MomSense
@LAO:
What if Mueller has already filed sealed indictments? I’ve heard several federal prosecutors comment that even if Mueller is fired this continues and I don’t know how that would work.
Amir Khalid
@Spanky:
I think you need magical abilities to get to that part of town.
? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?
@LAO: Like I’ve said this before, Mueller can only fired for cause. He has civil service protections. And on top of that, he’d have to fire several people at DOJ before finding someone willing to fire Mueller.
Frankensteinbeck
@? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?:
And despite the constant, furious snarling, despite Trump furiously wanting to fire Mueller from day one, it hasn’t happened. Trump has no self control. Something is stopping him. The action is not within his power, for reasons unknown.
Amir Khalid
@germy:
Rudy’s with the Empire, didn’t you know?
Spanky
@Amir Khalid: I take you don’t play chess.
schrodingers_cat
@germy: Why in memory, why not pronounce him the best in all time evah.
FlipYrWhig
@hitchhiker:
Scoreboard, cracker bitches.
? Martin
The thing to keep in mind with Rudy is that he almost certainly was in on the information flowing back to the campaign from Russia. He is not a disinterested 3rd party here, suggesting that they won’t be able to claim atty-client privilege just as with Cohen. So why is Rudy doing this? Almost certainly to save his own ass. So who is he willing to sell out in order to achieve that?
LAO
@? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?: Could you post a link?
ETA: about civil service protections. I understand Trump would have to fire Rosenstein first before Mueller.
germy
Amir Khalid
@Spanky:
Not for decades, but I still remember how you move a bishop. That there was a Harry Potter reference.
Formerly disgruntled in Oregon
@germy: Poor Dubya – no love from Rudy
? Martin
@germy:
We’ve reached the point where everyone is expendable in defense of the lost cause.
Frankensteinbeck
@? Martin:
These questions are difficult, because you’re not dealing with rational actors. They let their hate get in the way. Racism does that, even when minorities are not directly the enemy. On top of that, there’s a thick thread of stupidity running through the whole batch.
@schrodingers_cat:
Andrew Jackson.
zhena gogolia
The fate of the Republic hangs on two unelected men, Mueller and Avenatti, because CONGRESS WON’T DO ITS JOB.
? Martin
@schrodingers_cat: Because Lincoln. A lot of people don’t know this, but he was a Republican.
Frankensteinbeck
@zhena gogolia:
The fate of the Republic hangs on us voting. Period. Mueller and Avenatti are only janitors cleaning up the mess.
rikyrah
Damn sure better happen.
Paul Ryan Warns of Subpoenas, Gridlock With Democratic Majority
By Anna Edgerton and Lisa Lee
May 2, 2018, 12:14 PM CDT
? Martin
@zhena gogolia: I get the sense that Avenatti has never been happier in life.
Baud
@rikyrah: He’s like our best campaign spokesperson.
LAO
@MomSense: Whether or not Muller has filed, under seal, any new indictments, what I have been reading is the investigation would continue because its likely career DOJ would pick up the investigation. I really don’t know whether the Public Integrity Unit would take up the investigation or not. But what is clear, is that the SDNY is pursuing a case independent of Mueller’s investigation.
Baud
@? Martin: This.
schrodingers_cat
@? Martin: God Emperor T is better than Lincoln, shows all those non-Christian, non-male, non-white people their rightful place. Besides Lincoln could spell unlike Dotard, I mean stable genius.
ETA: By lot of people, you mean stable genius, right?
NeenerNeener
@rikyrah: He says that like it’s a bad thing.
low-tech cyclist
@rikyrah:
Yeah, like anyone was contesting that.
It’s amazing how, when Person A says something hateful, stupid, or both, and a few million people loudly criticize, there are dumbfucks who can get on TV to go on about how Person A’s right to free speech is under assault.
schrodingers_cat
@Frankensteinbeck: Wasn’t Jackson a general, or something and not a rich man’s lay about good for nothing son?
jonas
@lollipopguild: I think that’s already baked into his appeal to his base. They think Putin’s awesome and that the US is just a bunch of cucks that deserve to be led by a former KGB thug who likes to horseback ride shirtless. Sort of like the Marlboro Man, but with a machine gun. If Trump helps that happen, they cool.
germy
@Formerly disgruntled in Oregon:
Dubya was the greatest president ever.
Until Mr. Trump came along.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@glory b: “Economic anxiety” is like “Law and order”; a polite way to say “those others aren’t minding their place”.
germy
germy
low-tech cyclist
@? Martin:
Who wouldn’t be, in that position?
trollhattan
@germy:
“in my memory.”
Hey Rudy, a test: do the numbers nine and eleven mean anything to you? What is your wife’s name? Any of them. If you have on one brown shoe and one black shoe, what day is it?
trollhattan
@germy:
Cue up “The Rains of Castamere” and let the wedding commence!
low-tech cyclist
@germy: Nice day for a white wedding.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Frankensteinbeck:
According to my nephews friend, who does lobbying in Washington most of Congress loathes Trump but the Republicans aren’t willing to openly oppose Trump out of fear of Trump’s voters. Apparently firing Mueller, who is a life long Republican, would be a step to far for them.
different-church-lady
@low-tech cyclist: I ain’t versed in GoT, but I’m kinda hoping by the time Mueller is done it’s more like the Red Wedding.
The Moar You Know
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: I can’t and don’t believe that. So far, there has not been a “step too far” for them and I truly don’t think such a thing exists.
low-tech cyclist
@different-church-lady: Neither am I – I was thinking the only incest missing there was brother-sister, hence the Billy Idol “White Wedding” reference, with its repeated “hey little sister” theme.
jonas
@? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?: That’s true. I wouldn’t put it past him to *try* a Saturday Night Massacre-type thing, but I think it would blow up in his face a million times worse than Comey’s firing did. And that’s what led to Mueller in the first place.
Gelfling 545
@germy: Given the state his memory may be in, it’s possible.
rikyrah
@germy:
BWA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA
different-church-lady
@The Moar You Know: It seems to be kind of like a Friedman unit: it’s always a step too far until that step is taken, at which point the next step becomes the step too far. Tomorrow is always a day away.
jonas
@? Martin: Indeed. It must be fun for a lawyer to be going up against such splendid dopes. At some point, I wonder if he doesn’t fear becoming bored after a while? Avenatti’s initial claim was that since Trump claimed not to be a legal party to the NDA and settlement, it can be voided. Trump has now admitted to reimbursing Cohen for the settlement payment — apparently so that he and Giuiiani could go on about not violating campaign finance law, which Giuliani later did anyway — but not actually being aware at the time that Cohen had paid Stormy off. Whether this clarifies or complicates Avenetti’s case, I’ll leave to actual lawyers to comment on. And then there are the defamation suits…
jonas
@different-church-lady: The Overton Window of Presidential Behavioral Norms flew off a cliff and shattered a long time ago. I wonder — FSM willing — if we ever get our country back, what it’s going to feel like to have a POTUS who isn’t in the headlines for some level of incompetence, utter mendacity and/or criminality on a daily basis again?
Ruckus
@NickM:
Rancid shit thinks that rancid shit smells normal. Of course they are going to like drumpf.
Mnemosyne
@LAO:
Narcissists are loyal to NO ONE but themselves. Anyone who expects a narcissist to be grateful or to help them when they need help is in for a long, long wait.
Everyone around Trump will be sacrificed in Trump’s desperate scramble to escape punishment. Yes, even Ivanka, if necessary. EVERYONE.
catclub
@? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?: This is all true. I think the way Cheney would shut it down is kill the budget
for it.
catclub
@rikyrah: someone just posted that Giulianis present wife filed for divorce?
apparently true
TenguPhule
@jonas:
it will feel good.
J R in WV
@Ceci n est pas mon nym:
I don’t think any of the Amish participate in elections at any level, it would possibly influence their relationship with Dog.
Same reason they don’t bust people caught diddling little kids, would influence people’s opinion of leadership for not preventing said diddling. Where diddling is a synonym for rape.