The guilty plea of Michael Cohen, the POTUS’S former personal lawyer, to eight felony counts and the guilty verdict of Paul Manafort, the POTUS’S former campaign manager, who was found guilty by a jury of eight felonies, brought the number to five of Trump’s inner circle that are convicted felons. Also charged with felonies on the same day was Congressman Duncan Hunter for spending campaign moneys on personal matters. Hunter is Trump’s second biggest supporter in Congress and joins Representative Collins, Trump’s number one backer who was indicted a few days before for insider trading.
The main defense articulated by the POTUS'S TV lawyer, is that there is more than one truth to all of this. As a result nothing can be proved against the President. However as insurance Trump threatened his appointee as Attorney General for recusing himself from the Russian investigation.
BAD DAY ENDING A BAD WEEK IN TRUMP WORLD
All in all a bad week for Trump especially if you throw in the other bombshell that the WhiteHouse Chief Counsel Donald McGahn spent thirty hours being debriefed by the Mueller team. The latter has been reported as having threatened to resign if Trump carried through with firing Mueller. Now McGahn would not have labelled Trump a felon but the significance of his testimony is that he is crucial to time lines such as who was at what meeting and when and all this helps Mueller connect the dots. Bit players in Trump’s week of woe were Omarosa who was still doing the rounds, the former Intelligence heads such as Mike Brennan who threatened to sue Trump, William McHaven, who lead the actual raid on Osama who like Michael Hayden told Trump that he would consider it a badge of honor to have his security clearance removed.
What Michael Cohen pleaded guilty too, what damage Manafort could potentially effect, what is about to follow in the courts - State and Federal, what will now materialize in the Senate Intelligence Committee, what is out there in the public domain and what Mueller must already know, marks August 21, 2018 as the beginning of the end of the Presidency of Donald J. Trump. This is all subject to one caveat in that Donald Trump is hoping against hope that the midterm electorate will return the spineless Republicans to the House of Representatives who will then ignore the Mueller Investigation. It was thus in sync with Trump’s world that the POTUS, on that very same day, 08/21/18, was on the campaign trail addressing his Nuremberg style rallies trotting out the same old lies and meaningless one liners such as the murderous Mexicans, the swamp in Washington and that there was “no collusion”.
EVERYTHING HE WILL DENY AND TRUMP’S TRUTH IS THE TRUTH AMONG TRUTHS
The beginning of the week that was to signal the beginning of the end, Rudi Giuliani laid down the law as to what truth was for the POTUS. This the Trump lawyer did in two TV interviews to NBC and CNN.Trump is considered the most mendacious President in history and according to the Washington Post’s most rigorous Fact Checker he has told 4,229 lies in the first 558 days in office. The nub of Giuliani’s argument is that corroboratory evidence is irrelevant. All you need to do to defend yourself is state your different point of view. Trump’s targeted audience is the forty percent who approve of his job performance and whom he believes are his insurance against impeachment. He needs them to come out in full force in the midterms.
CNN: Coumo’s Prime Time
Coumo: If fact checking is anything we never had a President with the mendacity he has. Not even close.
Giuliani: Its in the eye in the beholder.
Cuomo: No facts are not in the eye of the beholder.
Giuliani: Yes it is. Yes they are. Nowadays they are.
NBC: Todd’s Meet The Press
Rudi Giuliani “When you tell me that, you know, that he ought to testify because he is going to tell the truth and he shouldn’t worry, well, that is so silly because it is someone’s version of the truth, not the truth”.
Chuck Todd: “The truth is the truth”
Giuliani: “No no it isn’t the truth. The truth isn’t the truth”.
Todd: “Truth isn’t the truth? I think this is going to become a bad meme”.......
Giuliani: “Donald Trump says I didn’t talk about Flynn to Comey. Comey says he’d did talk about it. So tell me what the truth is?
COHEN’S GUILTY PLEA IMPLICATING THE PRESIDENT IN A FELONY
Two of the criminal counts that Trump’s former fixer and personal lawyer plead guilty to were illegal campaign payments. In his sworn plea to the court Cohen claimed that he executed these crimes which involved payments to women who alleged they had affairs with Trump to keep them quiet, with the coordination with and at the direction of a candidate for a Federal Office, (Trump). ( The editor of the National Enquirer has been given immunity and apparently corroborates Cohen). This act was perpetrated with the purpose of influencing the election.
Justice Palley who presided over Cohen’s guilty plea demanded from the prosecution evidence that they may have to back up the electoral charges. In the back up court documents a host of corroboratory instruments were mentioned including tapes, encrypted material, memos, texts, e mails and the like. In this regard Cohen has already made public an audiotape where he discusses in detail how to effect and launder the payment money for Ms. McCaughlin.
While the legal damage Cohen can effect on Trump may well be far greater than this charge it strikes at Trump’s very legitimacy as President. These women had their silence bought on the eve of the election just after The Access Hollywood Tapes had shaken the Republican Party rigid. There is legitimate conjecture that this would have been the last straw for the very same suburban Republican women who have conspicuously absent in the special elections. It must be remembered that the combined majority that put Trump over the top in the three Mid Western States was only 78,000. Whatever the outcome was, Trump urgently ordered his fixer to cover up a scandal in order to win the Presidential election.
THE TRUMP CAMPAIGN RESPONSE
The narrative has not changed. This is still a witch hunt. The focus is still to work up the masses at rallies, smear the “media as the enemy of the people”, “lock her up” and “drain the swamp”. As for 08/21/18 - “Manafort is a victim” and in any case Trump hardly knows him. The line from the Whitehouse is to signal to his former Campaign Manager, “Hang in there the pardon will come”. Cohen gets the full treatment - the biggest liar ever. As far as the alleged crimes, Trump has done nothing wrong as he hasn’t been charged.
Trump of course just carries on lying. He told Fox and Friends that he never knew about the payments. In the next sentence he says it is not a crime because he personally paid the money and it didn’t come from campaign funds. The cover up as to the creation of a dummy company and the false invoices from Cohen to repay him are ignored. Trump forgets that when asked about the payment to Stormy Daniels on Air Force One he pleaded ignorance and referred the media to his personal lawyer, Michael Cohen.
The inner circle sit and reassure one another. Rudi calls from Ireland whistles past the graveyard and states informatively that Mueller will wind up his investigation because he has found nothing. Sarah Sanders tells the world that all is well and the chorus of lies is sung again and again.
They will survive this one but not what is to come. This is not even a rehearsal for the extravaganza that is to follow.
WHAT COMES NEXT WITH COHEN AND MANAFORT?
Lannie Davis, Cohen’s TV lawyer, has stated that Cohen, with his tapes, memos, encrypted messages, texts and the like, has evidence on the POTUS’S prior knowledge of the June 16 Trump Tower meeting and the Russian hacking. Cohen was involved with dealings with Russia during the campaign for a Trump Tower in Moscow and on and on.
As far as Manafort is concerned Trump is in a lose lose situation. If Trump pardons him for all Federal offenses he stops the September trial where there is far more on the Russian connection. However, Manafort then can be subpoenaed and cannot claim fifth amendment protection as he has been pardoned. Also there are potentially state charges which Trump cannot pardon. If Manafort has any sense he will do a deal with Mueller as he then knows where he stands. Also to rely on Trump delivering is taking a massive chance even though the Trump camp are signaling that that is what they are prepared to do. The former campaign manager’s counsel wisely stated, “His client is weighing all his options”
There are sixteen Republican Senators that voted for Bill Clinton’s impeachment for lying in a civil deposition about a sexual relationship. They are ignoring this egregious behavior where the intent was to influence a Presidential election. They might well replay the videos of their high sounding, self righteous and sanctimonious rhetoric as to what constitutes Presidential behavior. But to quote Clinton out of context,”It is what it is’”
ITS THE RUSSIA THING - STUPID.
However at the end of the day if the Republicans lose seats in the midterms they might well find “The Russian Thing” just too much to stomach. What sticks in their and everyone’s crawl is the humiliation Trump inflicted on America by his fawning behavior at Helsinki where he favored Putin’s word over all his intelligence and security chiefs. The only time the Republicans have sent Trump a message is when they joined the Democrats in a 98 - 0 vote to stiffen sanctions on Russia.
This is the area that Trump himself feels the most vulnerable. The lie, according to Fact Checker that he has repeated most often, one hundred and thirty times, is, “Collusion is not a crime but that doesn’t matter because there was No Collusion except by Crooked Hillary and the Democrats”. The evidence for “collusion” is out there in the public just to quote one example the June 16, 2016 Trump Tower meeting with his chief campaign officials and Russians. Even if he knew nothing about it, which according to Steve Bannon is inconceivable, it is a conspiratorial action by his campaign. What Mueller can ultimately produce is what is terrifying him.
TRUMP’S RESPONSE TO IMPENDING LITIGATION
With Cohen on a roll giving evidence left right and center to anyone and everyone, the Stormy Daniels litigation where he will be deposed, his Foundation facing court proceedings, the emoluments litigation moving slowly though the courts and the newest court case against him by protestors that were beaten up at his rally with his encouragement, Trump has plenty to occupy himself. He also believes, like the mob, that no one should assist the prosecution and they should keep to their oath of silence.
His defense is uncomplicated. He just lies and denies. There is after all more than one truth and Trump's truth trumps them all.
No comments:
Post a Comment