Michael Cohen to testify publicly on Capitol Hill - 2/27

Nothing consensual about what Lewinsky and Jones said. Can't only be rape when it's someone not on your team?

We've seen this charade before, many time, and it leads to nothing when it's those highest on the chain of command.

 

Except he still finished his Presidency, still sells out speaking engagements, book deals, uses a charitable foundation to add to his wealth and is still seen as an asset supporting Hillary who shushed a lot of these women behind the scenes so she could run for Pres.

Once again, it's fake symbolism that leads to nothing.

 

It's just wild to me how Trump/GOP supporters in this thread seem to lack values, reasoning, and old-fashioned patriotism. Any standing president, Democrat or Republican, two or three decades ago would be torn apart by both sides if he had committed the things Trump has.

Now it seems the right are willing to support a person like this as long as their agendas are passed. How degenerate has the right become?

 

A year or so after Trump's out of office it's going to be very hard to find any Trumpers. They will go in hiding just like all the people that 'never voted for Bush'.

 

Trump, a proven liar thousands of times over can still say whatever he wants to get his lunatic deplorables in a frenzy at the next pep rally. But hey, some you trust him because he tells you what you want to hear. The best kind of lie.

Derp.

I just think it's hilarious that you think Cohen is going to get a lighter sentence for lying to freaking Congress. The FBI is going to suborn perjury against the President of the United States? What? Yep, that's the ticket.

 

Well, I don't trust him which I have made clear. Why is this a pissing contest about Trump? Of course he is full of crap. All politicians are. As are their lawyers. Just lawyers in general actually.

 

False equivalency.

 

I didn't compare them as equals nor say that they were. Your objection is trash.

 

One of the more bizarre and pathetic parts of the hearings. And no surprise, a republican part. First, patton has a questionable history, and yet she is brought in a "character witness". And note they brought her in to only stand there, uncomfortably, and then told to sit. And after all that, they didn't even answer cohen's challenge to name one black exec at the trump org.

I guess she got the gig at the hearing because diamond and silk were already booked...

 

The Wall Street Journal Editorial Board on what it all means:

Cohen in the Colosseum
The legal fixer unloads on his former boss, with little new information.
553 Comments
By The Editorial Board
Feb. 27, 2019 7:38 p.m. ET


Are you not entertained? That disdainful line from “Gladiator” came to mind watching Democrats and Republicans maul each other Wednesday over Michael Cohen’s long denunciation of Donald J. Trump. The day proved again that Mr. Trump has associated with some dreadful characters, and has no great character himself, but Democrats will need more than the testimony of a former fixer to impeach him.

Mr. Cohen spared no nasty noun in describing the mogul turned President he served—blindly he now says—for 10 years. “Con man,” “racist” and “cheat” were highlights, as Mr. Cohen unburdened himself of what he called a decade of lies. He admitted lying for years to protect Mr. Trump, including to Congress, though he now says he’s telling the truth to ruin him. He will soon serve a three-year sentence for his crimes, most unrelated to Mr. Trump.

Histrionics aside, the hearing revealed few new details. The most potentially damaging was Mr. Cohen’s disclosure that Mr. Trump knew in advance about the WikiLeaks dump of hacked Democratic documents in July 2016. He says he was present in Mr. Trump’s office when Roger Stone, a Trump hanger-on, called to say he’d personally confirmed the dump with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. Mr. Cohen says Mr. Trump replied “to the effect of, ‘wouldn’t that be great.’”

Yet there is no evidence that Mr. Stone ever communicated with Mr. Assange, and Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s indictment makes no such claim. Mr. Cohen offered no evidence that Mr. Trump had a hand in hacking or releasing any emails, and it is hardly a surprise if Mr. Trump privately cheered the release of damaging information on Hillary Clinton. He said so publicly during the campaign.

Mr. Trump could be in trouble if he lied to Mr. Mueller about what he knew about WikiLeaks, but we won’t know that until the special counsel reports.

The same goes for evidence of Russia-Trump collusion, as Mr. Cohen said he had none. Instead he offered “my suspicions” based on overhearing a conversation between Mr. Trump and his son, Don Jr., that suggested Mr. Trump knew in advance about the 2016 Trump Tower meeting with a Russian lawyer. Don Jr. said an unspecified meeting had been "set,” and his father said “OK, good.” The main political risk here would also be if Mr. Trump lied to Mr. Mueller about what he knew.

On one point Mr. Cohen helped Mr. Trump by confirming that the President had not ordered him to lie to Congress about when discussions ended over an attempt to build a Trump hotel in Moscow. Mr. Cohen originally told Congress those talks ended in January 2016, though they had stretched into the summer. Instead, Mr. Cohen said he knew Mr. Trump wanted him to lie because his former boss talks in “code.” Don’t try using that as evidence in court.

More factually substantial was Mr. Cohen’s account of his hush-money payments to two women during 2016, including one in October. The fixer said that Mr. Trump’s order to pay came soon after the Access Hollywood tape “wildfire” and reflected Mr. Trump’s concern that news of the alleged affairs would hurt him with women voters. Part of Mr. Cohen’s December conviction related to his role in what prosecutors said was this campaign-finance crime.

Mr. Cohen showed a personal check from Mr. Trump to reimburse him for the payoffs, and it’s hard to dispute that the President lied to the public about his involvement. It’s also another self-inflicted wound since Mr. Trump didn’t need to pay the women. Every sentient voter knew Mr. Trump’s history with women, and he was running against a woman who had defended her husband’s mistreatment of other women.

One explanation is that Mr. Trump wanted to conceal the alleged affairs from his wife, and Mr. Cohen admitted that Mr. Trump asked him personally to lie to Melania Trump. But that might help Mr. Trump on campaign-finance liability since his marriage is unrelated to the campaign. Former Sen. John Edwards was acquitted of similar charges in 2012.

The day was above all a reminder that Americans elected a President in 2016 who had spent decades in the sleazier corners of New York business and tabloid life. He surrounded himself with political rogues like Mr. Stone, legal hustlers like Mr. Cohen, and even brought in a Beltway bandit from central casting, Paul Manafort, as his campaign chairman for a time.

Republicans knew all this when they nominated Mr. Trump, and now he and the GOP will pay a political price as Democrats marinate in that blue past in hearing after hearing. Character does matter, especially in Presidents.

How much will it matter politically? Little in Wednesday’s hearing spoke well of Mr. Trump, but little of it will surprise Americans or by itself rise to an impeachable offense. But the impeachment machinery is now up and running. Democrats may find it’s not easy to stop, though they’ll need witnesses who are more credible than Michael Cohen.

Appeared in the February 28, 2019, print edition.
​

https://www.wsj.com/articles/cohen-in-the-colosseum-11551314328?mod=hp_opin_pos1

 

Good editorial. As sad as it is to say, the right (those that are still on the bandwagon anyway) has decided that they're going to ride with Trump no matter what. Yesterday's testimony would have been a big deal 10 years ago, but will do nothing today to change their minds. However, as the author said, there will be a political price to pay and it's probably coming in 2020 and beyond.

 

The main takeaway I have from yesterday's hearing was you don't have to believe Michael Cohen just based on what he is saying. He brought corroborating documents, listed others and other evidence that could corroborate what he says. A lot of what Cohen said isn't new because we've heard it before from other sources.

 

If you paid attention to the questioning in the hearing it was pretty obvious that Cummings setup a pretty strategic predicate to bring in those more credible and potential more damning testimonies. Go back and watch AOC’s line of questioning which was quite good for a bartender and right wing social media star.

Starting with Allen Weisenberg. This hearing laid the groundwork for him to be called in as the start witness of an investigation of the Trump org. Cohen served his purpose and gave Congress the predicate they need to essentially provide a Public facing investigation mirroring the SDNY investigation.

Schiff’s investigation obviously is setup to mirror Mueller’s. That’s where the focus of Russian influence with mostly be covered and it’ll be more quiet I would think.

And I think people are jumping too quick into impeachment predicate. I think Schiff, Cummings, and Pelosi are ultimately focused on 2020 with a more methodical approach to getting the facts out to the American people so they never make this kind of mistake again. If he’s going to be impeached AND REMOVED early, it’ll be the Republicans in the Senate who make that call. House Democrats understand that and the hearing yesterday reflected that imo. They didn’t go for the kill... they went for an approach to open up a much larger and revealing investigation with more impactful hearings.

 

Or because he has the records/checks signed by Trump etc. to back up what he's saying in addition to the fact that he has little or nothing to gain from this testimony. Mueller doesn't care what he tells congress. Mueller already knows all of this. He won't go back and lighten his sentence for this.

 

The setup is that removal from office requires Republicans. So before 2020 they have to pick a side Trump or Decency. Then they have to run on that, from President down to dogcatcher. They can defend or deny in every debate. Either way we root out the perversions of conservatism, win/win.

 

Friendly reminder to our conservative friends.

Calling Cohen a "proven liar" is not smart on your behalf as Cohen was caught lying about Trump's innocence.