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Holder: If Trump directed Cohen to lie, impeachment proceedings ‘must begin’
The Hill ^ | 01/18/19 | Tal Axelrod

Posted on 01/18/2019 6:34:25 AM PST by yesthatjallen

Former Attorney General Eric Holder called for impeachment proceedings to begin if a report from Buzzfeed News saying President Trump directed Michael Cohen to lie to Congress about plans to build a Trump Tower in Moscow during the 2016 presidential campaign are true.

“If true - and proof must be examined - Congress must begin impeachment proceedings,” Holder tweeted Friday.

“[William] Barr must refer, at a minimum, the relevant portions of material discovered by Mueller. This is a potential inflection point,” he added, referring to Trump’s nominee for attorney general.

Holder, who is reportedly considering a 2020 presidential run, has cast himself as a staunch opponent of Trump’s, particularly over the White House’s sprawling legal entanglements.

The BuzzFeed News report says that Trump met with Cohen, his former attorney and fixer, at least 10 times to discuss the tower while maintaining to the public that he had no business ties in Russia. Two law enforcement officials told Buzzfeed News that the president backed a plan for him to visit Russia and meet with President Vladimir Putin to begin negotiating the project’s construction.

“Make it happen,” the report says Trump told Cohen around the time.

Cohen admitted in November to lying to Congress about Trump’s Moscow property plans. He made the false statements while testifying before two congressional intelligence committees in 2017.

He reportedly told special counsel Robert Mueller, who is leading an investigation into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia in 2016 and obstruction of justice, of the pressure to lie.

The report was met with swift reaction from a number of Democrats who demanded answers, with House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) saying, “We will do what’s necessary to find out if it’s true.”

Cohen was sentenced in December to three years in prison on multiple charges, including lying to Congress about the Trump Tower Moscow project.


TOPICS: Cheese, Moose, Sister
KEYWORDS: cohen; holder; impeachment; trump
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To: 1Old Pro

BUZZFEED released the phony dossier too.


61 posted on 01/18/2019 7:14:40 AM PST by mplc51
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To: struggle

The Buzzfeed journalists haven’t seen any evidence, and one of them got canned for lying before.


I don’t care if Buzzfeed has seen any evidence. I still can’t get my head around a court allowing an ex-lawyer statements used against his ex-client. Imagine the implications of this in the future on our legal system. There is no way a court will allow this even the 9th Circuit. No lawyer will allow this evidence. Cohen could say any lie without any hard evidence to save his own skin.


62 posted on 01/18/2019 7:14:54 AM PST by outpostinmass2
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To: precisionshootist

“You don’t want to go there buddy”. Contempt of Congress is perfectly fine though. What a disgrace. And he is thinking about running for President.


63 posted on 01/18/2019 7:15:32 AM PST by freefdny
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To: yesthatjallen

A liar says he was told to lie? Really? That is the basis to impeach anyone? I don’t thinh so.


64 posted on 01/18/2019 7:16:19 AM PST by Phlap (REDNECK@LIBARTS.EDU)
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To: Toespi
And if impeachment hearings begin, their next “must” will be, a President under impeachment can not be allowed to nominate Supreme Court justice.

McConnell won't allow this to happen. A conservative judiciary will be his legacy.

65 posted on 01/18/2019 7:18:01 AM PST by Drew68
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To: yesthatjallen

Another big fat nothing burger.


66 posted on 01/18/2019 7:18:16 AM PST by DarthVader (Not by speeches & majority decisions will the great issues of today be decided but by Blood & Iron)
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To: Coronal

There are exceptions. If an attorney and their client hatch a plan to do something illegal, as has been alleged here, that’s not covered under attorney-client privilege.


Can you site some cases? A client telling his lawyer to lie is not a plan. That happens daily in the courts.


67 posted on 01/18/2019 7:19:30 AM PST by outpostinmass2
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To: Yaelle

Just border patrol agent Brian Terry


68 posted on 01/18/2019 7:21:03 AM PST by Jeff Vader
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To: goldstategop
So what, even if its true?

Suborning of perjury is a felony. Does not matter if one is President or Pope or a private businessman. It is a felony. Now, it may be another matter of whether a President can be indicted. But if this is true (responding to the question above), it is serious...

69 posted on 01/18/2019 7:24:09 AM PST by nwrep
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To: yesthatjallen

The Benghazi lies were directed.


70 posted on 01/18/2019 7:24:15 AM PST by G Larry (There is no great virtue in bargaining with the Devil)
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To: odawg

The Democrats are accustomed to not being held to account on anything, most especially their naked hypocrisy.

This is how the media treats them.

But everyone isn’t the media, Eric.


71 posted on 01/18/2019 7:24:45 AM PST by chris37 (No wall? No vote.)
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To: Alas Babylon!
".... democrats want to use impeachment as a political tool...."

Problem is, impeachment IS a political tool, not a legal one.

I suppose the opposition democRATS could bring articles of impeachment against Trump for spitting on the sidewalk.

Doesn't sound like high crimes and misdemeanors?

Well, the founders original intent of "high crimes" was referring to wrong doing by officials in "high" places or office, not that they necessarily committed major crimes or misdemeanors.

But it's wrongly misinterpreted today as meaning the latter.

So look for the democRATS to attempt to impeach Trump on anything they can make sound good.

Remember, Republicans impeached BJ Clinton for lying about getting a Lewinsky in the Oval Office.

But just as in Clinton's case, this won't go anywhere though. They still need 67 votes in the Senate to convict. They don't have anywhere near that total.

The threats of impeachment by Holder, other democRATS (Tom Steyer) and the media (Atlantic magazine) are flights of fantasy political theater not based in reality.

Their goal is to get rid of Trump via impeachment. Ain't goin' to happen.

72 posted on 01/18/2019 7:25:32 AM PST by HotHunt (Reagan was good but TRUMP IS GREAT!)
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To: HighSierra5

The Democrats and media wag the tongue without evidence.


73 posted on 01/18/2019 7:27:01 AM PST by FreedBird
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To: yesthatjallen

Then we have to impeach Nanzi Peolosi for lying to the President (American people) about a security concern making the time and place of the State of the Union unsafe.


74 posted on 01/18/2019 7:27:02 AM PST by Jumper
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To: RegulatorCountry
Michael Cohen wasn't some low-level functionary in the Trump Organization. He was a freaking lawyer. Instructing your attorney to break the law is like instructing your doctor to give you a lobotomy to cure your headache.

The doctor's ethical -- and legal -- responsibility is to tell you: "You don't need a lobotomy, you moron. Take two aspirins and go home."

The lawyer's ethical -- and legal -- responsibility is to tell you: "That's against the law, you moron. Of course I can't do that."

75 posted on 01/18/2019 7:27:12 AM PST by Alberta's Child ("In the time of chimpanzees I was a monkey.")
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To: outpostinmass2

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attorney%E2%80%93client_privilege#Disclosure_in_case_of_a_crime,_tort,_or_fraud


76 posted on 01/18/2019 7:27:38 AM PST by Coronal
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To: HotHunt

The question is whether there’s other proof besides Cohen’s word. Don’t forget that Cohen had been taping all his phone calls with Trump and that all that info was seized with legally approved warrants.

I don’t know if “buzzfeed” (sheesh) is right or not, but if they are, it’s more than just Cohen’s word against Trump’s.

At least Trump didn’t have sex with an intern, but he may have suborned perjury to obstruct justice.


77 posted on 01/18/2019 7:31:13 AM PST by babble-on
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To: nwrep

So what, even if its true?
Suborning of perjury is a felony. Does not matter if one is President or Pope or a private businessman. It is a felony. Now, it may be another matter of whether a President can be indicted. But if this is true (responding to the question above), it is serious...


One can say anything to their lawyer without that being used against you in court including perjury.


78 posted on 01/18/2019 7:32:05 AM PST by outpostinmass2
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To: HotHunt

I agree with you. As long as Trump’s popularity with Republicans is so high, the Senate will not flip on him.

Nixon was in the low 20s nationally when Goldwater and Co went in and told him that they couldn’t save him any longer.


79 posted on 01/18/2019 7:34:38 AM PST by babble-on
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To: Coronal

“US Courts have not yet conclusively ruled how little knowledge an attorney can have of the underlying crime or fraud before the privilege detaches and the attorney’s communications or requisite testimony become admissible”


80 posted on 01/18/2019 7:34:42 AM PST by outpostinmass2
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