berg80
Diamond Member
- Oct 28, 2017
- 15,010
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Because after all.......
Trump makes a desperate attempt to downplay illegal payments to women
President Donald Trump began his week by trying to downplay illegal hush payments to women made late in the 2016 presidential campaign ā ones that federal prosecutors now say he directed and coordinated ā as a mere āsimple private transaction.ā
Trump makes a desperate attempt to downplay illegal payments to women
However............
Inside Barrās Effort to Undermine Prosecutors in N.Y.
Shortly after he became attorney general last year, William P. Barr set out to challenge a signature criminal case that touched President Trumpās inner circle directly, and even the presidentās own actions: the prosecution of Michael D. Cohen, Mr. Trumpās longtime fixer.
The debate between Mr. Barr and the federal prosecutors who brought the case against Mr. Cohen was one of the first signs of a tense relationship that culminated last weekend in the abrupt ouster of Geoffrey S. Berman, the United States attorney in Manhattan. It also foreshadowed Mr. Barrās intervention in the prosecutions of other associates of Mr. Trump.
By the time Mr. Barr was sworn into office in February, Mr. Cohen, who had paid hush money to an adult film star who said she had an affair with Mr. Trump, had already pleaded guilty and was set to begin a three-year prison sentence, all of which embarrassed and angered the president.
But Mr. Barr spent weeks in the spring of 2019 questioning the prosecutors over their decision to charge Mr. Cohen with violating campaign finance laws, according to people briefed on the matter.
Inside Barrās Effort to Undermine Prosecutors in N.Y. (Published 2020)
Eventually, Billy the Bagman pushed to have the charges against Cohen dropped. From Berman's book..........."While Cohen had pleaded guilty, our office continued to pursue investigations related to other possible campaign finance violations. When Barr took over in Feb. of 2019, he not only tried to kill the ongoing investigations but...incredibly...suggested that Cohen's conviction on campaign finance charges be reversed."
Why?
Because Individual 1 was implicated in the same illegal campaign finance violations Cohen had plead guilty to.
Book: The DOJ almost implicated Trump more directly in a crime
It was a shocking enough document as it was. Donald Trumpās former lawyer, Michael Cohen, had pleaded guilty to illegally concealing hush money paid to two women who were accusing Trump of extramarital affairs. The 2018 charging document implicated Trump, named as āIndividual-1,ā notably by saying he attended a meeting about how he might quash any negative stories about his relationships.
And it might have implicated Trump even further, then-U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman now says ā were it not for the kind of politically tinged meddling that he says was endemic in the Trump Justice Department.
The New York Times last week briefly noted that Bermanās new book alleges that a Justice Department official tried to get references to Trump removed from the Cohen charging document. And now that the book is out, we have Bermanās fuller account of the events.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/poli...-almost-implicated-trump-more-directly-crime/
Much has been made by people like me about how ugly things could get with respect to the DoJ should Trump be re-elected. In part based on what kind of retribution he has promised against those involved in trying to bring him to justice. But also because of his track record of using the DoJ, one could say weaponizing it, for his own benefit or against his perceived enemies. Like this...........
āReally shocking': Trumpās meddling in Stone case stuns Washington
President Donald Trumpās post-impeachment acquittal behavior is casting a chill in Washington, with Attorney General William Barr emerging as a key ally in the presidentās quest for vengeance against the law enforcement and national security establishment that initiated the Russia and Ukraine investigations.
In perhaps the most tumultuous day yet for the Justice Department under Trump, four top prosecutors withdrew on Tuesday from a case involving the presidentās longtime friend Roger Stone after senior department officials overrode their sentencing recommendationāa backpedaling that DOJ veterans and legal experts suspect was influenced by Trumpās own displeasure with the prosecutorsā judgment.
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/02/12/trump-roger-stone-justice-department-114684
Past, as they say, is prologue.
Trump makes a desperate attempt to downplay illegal payments to women
President Donald Trump began his week by trying to downplay illegal hush payments to women made late in the 2016 presidential campaign ā ones that federal prosecutors now say he directed and coordinated ā as a mere āsimple private transaction.ā
Trump makes a desperate attempt to downplay illegal payments to women
However............
Inside Barrās Effort to Undermine Prosecutors in N.Y.
Shortly after he became attorney general last year, William P. Barr set out to challenge a signature criminal case that touched President Trumpās inner circle directly, and even the presidentās own actions: the prosecution of Michael D. Cohen, Mr. Trumpās longtime fixer.
The debate between Mr. Barr and the federal prosecutors who brought the case against Mr. Cohen was one of the first signs of a tense relationship that culminated last weekend in the abrupt ouster of Geoffrey S. Berman, the United States attorney in Manhattan. It also foreshadowed Mr. Barrās intervention in the prosecutions of other associates of Mr. Trump.
By the time Mr. Barr was sworn into office in February, Mr. Cohen, who had paid hush money to an adult film star who said she had an affair with Mr. Trump, had already pleaded guilty and was set to begin a three-year prison sentence, all of which embarrassed and angered the president.
But Mr. Barr spent weeks in the spring of 2019 questioning the prosecutors over their decision to charge Mr. Cohen with violating campaign finance laws, according to people briefed on the matter.
Inside Barrās Effort to Undermine Prosecutors in N.Y. (Published 2020)
Eventually, Billy the Bagman pushed to have the charges against Cohen dropped. From Berman's book..........."While Cohen had pleaded guilty, our office continued to pursue investigations related to other possible campaign finance violations. When Barr took over in Feb. of 2019, he not only tried to kill the ongoing investigations but...incredibly...suggested that Cohen's conviction on campaign finance charges be reversed."
Why?
Because Individual 1 was implicated in the same illegal campaign finance violations Cohen had plead guilty to.
Book: The DOJ almost implicated Trump more directly in a crime
It was a shocking enough document as it was. Donald Trumpās former lawyer, Michael Cohen, had pleaded guilty to illegally concealing hush money paid to two women who were accusing Trump of extramarital affairs. The 2018 charging document implicated Trump, named as āIndividual-1,ā notably by saying he attended a meeting about how he might quash any negative stories about his relationships.
And it might have implicated Trump even further, then-U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman now says ā were it not for the kind of politically tinged meddling that he says was endemic in the Trump Justice Department.
The New York Times last week briefly noted that Bermanās new book alleges that a Justice Department official tried to get references to Trump removed from the Cohen charging document. And now that the book is out, we have Bermanās fuller account of the events.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/poli...-almost-implicated-trump-more-directly-crime/
Much has been made by people like me about how ugly things could get with respect to the DoJ should Trump be re-elected. In part based on what kind of retribution he has promised against those involved in trying to bring him to justice. But also because of his track record of using the DoJ, one could say weaponizing it, for his own benefit or against his perceived enemies. Like this...........
āReally shocking': Trumpās meddling in Stone case stuns Washington
President Donald Trumpās post-impeachment acquittal behavior is casting a chill in Washington, with Attorney General William Barr emerging as a key ally in the presidentās quest for vengeance against the law enforcement and national security establishment that initiated the Russia and Ukraine investigations.
In perhaps the most tumultuous day yet for the Justice Department under Trump, four top prosecutors withdrew on Tuesday from a case involving the presidentās longtime friend Roger Stone after senior department officials overrode their sentencing recommendationāa backpedaling that DOJ veterans and legal experts suspect was influenced by Trumpās own displeasure with the prosecutorsā judgment.
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/02/12/trump-roger-stone-justice-department-114684
Past, as they say, is prologue.
