Posted on 12/08/2018 10:59:13 AM PST by Mariner
“Was you ever bit by a dead bee?” A drunken sailor asks that curious question of actress Lauren Bacall in the 1944 movie classic, “To Have and Have Not.” This week, President Trump can claim two legal stings from dead bees, in the familiar forms of Michael Cohen and Paul Manafort. Indeed, the two late-Friday court filings by special counsel Robert Mueller and one by the U.S. Attorney for New York’s Southern District are detailed accounts of how to get stung by dead bees.
First and foremost, you have to step on them. With both Cohen and Manafort, the Trump legal team could face serious complications after actively seeking out close and ongoing relationships when it should have been cutting both men a wide berth. That does not mean these filings will send Trump into legal anaphylactic shock. Yet, once again, the greatest threats facing Trump may be due to missteps in response to the Mueller investigation, as opposed to the original allegations.
Soon after the release of the filings, Trump posted a tweet declaring, “Totally clears the President. Thank you!” Few others shared his enthusiasm, however, since the accusations directed against Trump — referred to as “Individual 1” in the filings — are about as vindicating as an indictment would be liberating. Nevertheless, there are three positive elements for the president.
First, while prosecutors reveal additional alleged Russian contacts, and even an offer to create some “campaign political synergy,” there is a conspicuous absence of evidence of an alleged conspiracy or collusion by the campaign. As in the Trump Tower meeting between Russian representatives and Trump campaign officials, these limited queries and contacts seemed to go nowhere. Indeed, Cohen apparently did not even follow up on an offer to meet with one Russian official promising political help.
(Excerpt) Read more at thehill.com ...
Directing payments to whores and exercising his constitutional right to coordinate his defense with another party.
Oh yeah.
Let's gitter done.
“Why didn’t you bite it back?”
Directing payments to whores ,Oh I thought you were talking about Congress
That "drunken sailor" was Walter Brennan, a great actor!
BTW, when has Turley ever been right? He’s just a Democrat hack.
They’ve nothing - not even proof actual crimes were ever committed.
Because if they had been, the fake news media would have let us know about fhrm.
This probe has been a huge waste of resources, time and money... for nothing.
Jeff Flake and the Democrats owe an explanation as to why Mueller deserves special protectio.
He hasn’t nailed ONE person for a real crime related to Russia.
Fake News. No threat.
Pathetic attempts. They really have nothing.
Trump is Mister Clean and the dems just can’t handle that.
Millions of taxpayer dollars in opposition research and they have come up dry.
Assuming Trump is accused of lying under oath I hope at least one republican, when Democrats start screaming impeachment, will ask “How did you vote when Clinton was accused of lying under oath?
Even if you grant all his assumptions and take the least favorable interpretation, it’s a box of nothing. After all Bill Clinton’s legacy is that “everybody lies about sex” and the culture has changed greatly since then in terms of what is acceptable. If the worst they have on Trump is that he directed payments to the women, the country is going to yawn.
I agree. With all the leaking from Mueller's side, we'd have heard of anything serious by now...especially in the days/weeks leading up to the mid-terms. As well, I believe Mueller's recommending a 4 year sentence for Cohen means that Cohen didn't deliver on his promise of info on Trump. I said this on another thread within the past two days. Alan Dershowitz basically confirmed my suspicions in this Fox News article linked from The Liberty Daily today:
Dershowitz: Cohen's Harsh Sentencing Recommendation 'Doesn't Sound Like Good News for Mueller
“It was only about sex.”
Turley’s a nervous Nelly on this one, unless he’s trying to rationalize Mueller’s misbehavior and setting up of straw men.
Dershowitz’ view of the situation so far seems much more realistic than Turley’s. One thing for sure: both guys know a lot more about the legal system than I. I just go by gut instinct and the wisdom I’ve gained over 65 yrs. And a desire for justice.
I don’t see any real legal problems for Trump at this moment if the only serious issue at hand is any culpability in violations of campaign laws. Dershowitz and Jarret argue that paying off people for keeping potentially embarassing info out of the public eye is a normal cost of business for Trump. So from where did the hush money originate? Apparently there might be a problem if funds came from campaign funds, but it sounds as if Cohen went out of his way to launder it. Perhaps there is a money trail that has been established but, if there is, I’ve yet to hear anything about it.
Why did he waste our time with a bee analogy? Imagine if this were Bill Clinton an actual rapist and criminal? They would have long ago demonized Mueller and they would ignore these filings.
I’m out of town and ended up listening to an unknown radio show yesterday while driving around. It said that the campaign finance laws demand transparency and Trump directed Cohen to violate this. So this must be where they’re going...paying off the women violated campaign finance law because intent was to hide from WTP Trump’s behavior.
In that case Hillary should go to jail first...along with Obama, Bill, Al Gore...etc...and all of Soro’s money and Steyer’s money to their various groups with deceptive names should also implicate them. And on and on.
“They can sting just you just as bad dead as when they wuz alive. ‘specially if they wuz mad when ya killed ‘em’’
They can pursue that line of thinking, but Cohen used his own money, and Trump reimbursed Cohen from his own money. The real point is, that John Edwards paid his then mistress off with donated campaign funds, and the court found it wasn’t illegal for him to do that.
Interesting. I wonder if the court will have a different opinion for Trump...since he’s Trump.
His first point is enough to put everything else to rest:
'nuf said.
This article and the “dead bee” example shows Turley knows that there is nothing going to happen other than a biased report. You do NOT ever sentence cooperators until they are done cooperating because then you have zero leverage. And you cannot use anything previously said in Court. It’s hearsay. They need to show up live and testify. That aint happening with Cohen against Trump. That’s why Turley produces this strained inapplicable example.
I think the greatest problem for President Trump is the 62,979,879 people who voted for him in 2016, most of whom are now watching politics play out from the sidelines. We all need to stay involved and be active in communicating with congressional representatives.
We should also be working on bringing in new voters to work for the preservation of our republic. If just one in five of the 2016 Trump voters recruited a new supporter we would bury the dems in 2020 with well over 70 million votes.
However, if we just wait for our turn to cast a ballot we are going to let the hateful left roll over us. I encourage everyone to think seriously about the words left for us by Sir Winston Churchill:
“If you will not fight for right when you can easily win without blood shed;
if you will not fight when your victory is sure and not too costly;
you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a precarious chance of survival.
There may even be a worse case. You may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves.”
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