As long as the lying is on Rudy’s indictment, sentencing document, and disbarment order, he can keep his tombstone. State rules for attorney conduct do NOT permit knowingly lying or suborning perjury. Rudy is a fraud and a con-artist, just like his idiot client, and he can have an adjoining cell.
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If trump gave the order to Cohen from the Oval Office I would bet my farm that the Secret Service has the “smoking gun” tape. They record everything in the Oval Office out of their need for security I suspect. And those tapes won’t be revealed.
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Somebody refresh my memory here (it’s gotten hazy in my old age): what does the bible say about bearing false witness?
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If Trump were stupid enough to do that, Cohen would have that evidence on the receiving end and it would not be privileged. What I think happened is that Trump translated his orders to his underlings who made those objectives known. In addition, we cannot overlook what Cohen has written in his own sentencing memo and which Rudy acknowledged might be true: that Cohen coordinated his testimony with WH aides and Trump lawyers. Trump would’ve told those folks what he wanted Cohen to say and they would’ve reflected those wishes uncritically, because they didn’t want to know what they didn’t want to know. They just followed orders. Still, Mikey would’ve needed inducements to do something that brazen and that’s why Buzzfeed referred to records from Trump Tower. Cohen got reimbursed or paid for his cooperation and it was folded into his regular payment/reimbursement stream so it could be concealed.
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IOKIYAR, Book of Newt, 3:25
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I concur, with one pretty significant caveat. One of the main reasons the House doesn’t have some of the evidence you speak of, is because the House Intel Committee was purposefully working against acquiring such evidence. That all changes in the months ahead of us. Dems launching multiple investigations in these matters puts a new pressure on Mueller and his team. They either has to move faster to stay ahead of the House, or they have to go to the House and request they slow down so as not to get into the SCO’s existing investigation lanes. And that outcome of that conversation will be, Mueller has to reveal evidence to House members in closed sessions.
So either way, I feel the House is going to have the evidence to begin impeachment sooner than later.
The bigger problem of course, which is where your analysis is much more important, is getting the Senate to vote to remove once impeachment passes the House. THAT’S where Mueller’s report and a mountain of damning evidence becomes crucial. We are only going to have one shot at this, it cannot ride on opinions, it has to be an ironclad case against Donald committing serious crimes. That is where the GOP screwed up with Cliinton, their charge largely rested on the Senate’s opinion of whether or not what he did was a removable offense. The Senate decided it wasn’t.
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I don’t disagree. We could get a majority in the House just based on what Adam Schiff uncovers from what Nunes kept under lock and key. But to get 67 votes in the Senate, or other criminal referrals for prosecution to pressure Trump to resign early, we need what the SCO has. That’s why I think Buzzfeed might end up being a big player in all of this. I do think we will hear from them again.
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Rudy is accomplishing basically what he set out to accomplish. A full day as tRump’s PR guy distracting the media with his bullshit while the punditry talks ad nauseam about what he said instead of the lies behind all of his comments, which all point to Russian influence peddling and tRump’s willingness to suck up to it.
Meanwhile, the lifting of sanctions on Deripaska has become steeped in controversy made worse by new revelations. tRump’s fucking Shutdown where workers are going without a second paycheck, contractors won’t get paid, and the economy is taking a huge hit over his antics, while McConnell’s shell game continues. And the news reported here that tRump’s inaugural committee failed to disclose key financial info to the IRS, most likely because it was all one big shakedown for key access to our gov’t once he took power and was able to dole out favors to those donors, should be the big story of the day. How many were from those foreign Russian donors? We may never know because its been obfuscated once again by tRump’s criminal cabal.
The media has already decided to give McConnell a free pass on all of this, which is the biggest failure by corporate media, since at any moment he could end this manufactured crisis over tRump’s shutdown if he gave two shits about workers, our gov’t or the economy. Absolutely no pressure is being applied to him. Instead they go after Pelosi with stupid retorts “why won’t the Dems negotiate?” or basic bothside-isms.
As for McConnell, he will simply let it all burn down to enable an unfit, incompetent and lying charlatan get his way. ‘Pity the fools’ that ignore Mitch’s role in all this and allow this to be the standard for how our gov’t should work. The media have been contributing to this farce by pretending this is about mythical wall that needs negotiating right now rather than relief for workers over this evil manipulative shutdown, where using the cruel whims of an egoist with no actual plans for his monstrosity, is allowed to continue as if its some kind of real thing.
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Its shockingly bad lawyering. Largely because they have shown zero interest in building any actual legal defense, and instead have spent all of their time on waging a PR campaign. Which is why Giuliani is on the news here for this interview, and why he has been on the news for every interview he has given.
The base problem legally here, is they are ignoring the bigger picture. Its pretty clear that Mueller is building a quid pro quo case against Trump regarding his dealings with Putin. What Giuliani is admitting is that of course Trump was looking to be enriched. Or in other words, he is freely agreeing that there was a quid…quite a lot of quid. The quo is trading policy for the quid. That also is pretty clear, though building the evidence that shows the policies are directly a result of the quid being offered is a bit more tedious.
Trying to work a business deal in Moscow isn’t necessarily illegal. Nor is changing US policy towards Russia. But receiving favorable treatment for a business deal in exchange for more favorable policy? Yeah, that puts Donald in a deep pot of boiling legal troubles. Its the two things together that moves it into a different legal lane.
Further complicated because…since we are ultimately talking about motive in both acts, which can be difficult to prove in court…the Trumpers have destroyed that defense by the continued involvement in coverup and obstruction., which makes it abundantly clear they were all quite aware that what they were doing was wrong and illegal.
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Word!
Or, as Tena would say, “Wordy word word!” (I think I got that right…)
McConnell McConnell McConnell McConnell McConnell McConnell McConnell McConnell McConnell McConnell McConnell McConnell
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Well that is the choice u made when u decided to lie for trump
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My intiial thoughts on the Buzzfeed story and SCO response is that the SDNY is largely where BF is getting their story…SDNY has a different set of legal motivations and goals than Mueller has, and are the ones who are largely running the Cohen case. It also is looking like it was very probable that Whittaker leaned on Mueller to release that statement.
I am guessing Mueller’s main problems from that story come from two places. First, because it reads like the SCO leaked information, something he has notoriously not let happen ever. Second, because it raises the bar, from a prosecution perspective, in the public eye…instead of just proving that Trump intimated that Cohen should lie to him through any of a number of devices, the story requires Mueller prove that Trump told Cohen directly, and that Mueller has ironclad evidence of that conversation. Anything less, doesn’t meet the public’s expectation, and thus eventually hurts the Senate trial
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I read Buzzfeed’s article to say that they got the leaks from SDNY or FBI NY, not SCO. I don’t think Mueller was yet prepared to bring a case on Trump for suborning perjury based on what is in the public record (though I think he should). He is focused on going after Donald Trump Jr (which is fine by me). A more cynical view is that he is gathering evidence to suppress it against the big fish and settle for going after the Roger Stones of the world.
Buzzfeed represents that outside force that may have found evidence not presently in the SCO’s possession that could accelerate this and lead to Trump being targeted directly. At least, what I want Buzzfeed’s involvement to do is eliminate any attempt by the DOJ, WH or even the SCO to let the big fish off the hook.
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Please! No!
Rudley is doing just fine.
Just fine…
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I find myself with exactly that cynical attitude all too often. Mueller may well keep.to a very narrow path and Barr will come up with some reason for keeping “no-indictment” info from the House.
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I Am Afraid It Will Be On My Gravestone
The only thing Rudy’s afraid of is being ignored …
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“Rudy Giuliani: He lied for Trump.”
Good luck with that, Rudy.
“Because I have been through all the tapes, I have been through all the texts, I have been through all the e-mails, and I knew none existed.”
“I shouldn’t have said tapes. No tapes. Well, I have listened to tapes, but none of them concern this.”
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feeling very dark lately. This shutdown is designed to crack the back of the government and there are too many on the right who see that as a very good thing.
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Alzheimer’s, coupled with the patient’s pre-existing putrefaction of the soul.