Discussion: Toobin: Cohen's Plea Deal Means Trump Trusted A 'Credentialed Criminal'

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O Donny boy, the pleas, the pleas are calling,
From grift to con, Cohen the millions hide.
The Russian’s gone, and all the proffers falling,
It’s you, it’s you must go for bail’s denied.

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Order in the courtroom, here comes the womp!

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Cohen pleas out
Trump ballistic with fury
Heart attack awaits

My lame attempt at haiku to capture the moment.

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Criminal Lawyer (noun or adjective – amounts to the same thing)

crim¡i¡nal

ˈkrim(ə)n(ə)l

noun
a person who has committed a crime.
“these men are dangerous criminals”
synonyms: lawbreaker, offender, villain, delinquent, felon, convict, malefactor, wrongdoer, culprit, miscreant; More

adjective
relating to crime.
“they are charged with conspiracy to commit criminal damage”
synonyms: unlawful, illegal, illicit, lawless, felonious, delinquent, fraudulent, actionable, culpable;

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Everytime people talk about Michael Cohen, he’s referred to as the president’s lawyer and FIXER, as if that is normal and everyone has one.

— David Axelrod (@davidaxelrod) August 21, 2018
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Two big unanswered questions for me:

  1. Does this deal mark the end of Cohen’s exposure to prosecution? If yes, then Trump has probably dodged an enormous bullet, because Cohen would v probably not enter a non-cooperative (ie regular) plea of guilty on the footing that the sentence he gets today may be reduced ex post facto to reflect post-conviction cooperation. In any case, a 4-year sentence is not the stuff of which cooperation deals are made when you’re basically a professional mafioso with a lot of gangsta credibility on the line, as Cohen is. If no, and there are further, potentially more serious charges that he could face, then the prospect of flipping remains well and truly alive.

  2. Is Cohen banking on a Trump pardon in return for noncooperation?

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…Donald Trump placed his trust in someone who was a very elaborately — a very extensively credentialed criminal,” Toobin said.

As Josh said the other day, people are still refusing to see the reality staring them in the face. It’s absurd to make this about the “trust” Trump placed in Cohen - if Toobin had any cojones, he’d make the more obvious and salient point that Trump had a criminal working for him, and that the only conclusion to draw is that Trump is a criminal, too.

At some point the news guys are going to have to start addressing this directly, because the fake-news guys are already miles ahead of them in establishing their own, fraudulent narrative. Maybe Toobin could start by talking to any random former senior intelligence officer.

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I guess this afternoon hadn’t been sufficiently infrastructurey.

@AaronBlake
Manafort jury has sent the judge another note

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Is it wrong that I’m smiling?

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Is that the Perjury Trap™ Giuliani is so exercised about?

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Oooohhh, what a wordsmith…“credentialed criminal”!!! What an idiotic effort at trying to win the internet.

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Thanks to Sally Struthers I got my credentials in gun repair and criminality.

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As the Beatles sang:

:musical_note: Pleas please me, whoa yeah… :musical_note:

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I think it is time to declare the 2016 election null and void because it was rigged and illegitimate.

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Jury has just passed another note to Judge Ellis.

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I don’t get how this plea deal puts his family first.

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