The major takeaway from the 40-page sentencing memorandum filed by federal prosecutors Friday for Michael Cohen, President Trump’s former personal attorney, is this: The president is very likely to be indicted on a charge of violating federal campaign finance laws.
It has been obvious for some time that President Trump is the principal subject of the investigation still being conducted by the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York.
Cohen earlier pleaded guilty to multiple counts of business and tax fraud, violating campaign finance law, and making false statements to Congress regarding unsuccessful efforts to build a Trump Tower in Moscow.
Yes, Cohen has stated he did the hands-on work in orchestrating hush-money payments to two women who claim to have had sexual liaisons with Trump many years ago (liaisons Trump denies).
But when Cohen pleaded guilty in August, prosecutors induced him to make an extraordinary statement in open court: the payments to the women were made “in coordination with and at the direction of” the candidate for federal office – Donald Trump.
Prosecutors would not have done this if the president was not on their radar screen. Indeed, if the president was not implicated, I suspect they would not have prosecuted Cohen for campaign finance violations at all. Those charges had a negligible impact on the jail time Cohen faces, which is driven by the more serious offenses of tax and financial institution fraud, involving millions of dollars. ..."
In marked contrast, though, when it was discovered that Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign was guilty of violations involving nearly $2 million – an amount that dwarfs the $280,000 in Cohen’s case – the Obama Justice Department decided not to prosecute. Instead, the matter was quietly disposed of by a $375,000 fine by the Federal Election Commission.
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When will John Edwards be re-indicted for the campaign finance violation that he was exonerated of in a court of law? When will David Letterman be indicted for admitting that he was being extorted for sex he had with women on his staff that he wanted to keep quiet?
Ball’s in your court, Andrew McCarthy fan.
Any Congressman or Senator who had a sexual harassment settlement payment out of federal funds should be forced to recuse themselves from any pending impeachment/removal action.
Call me old fashioned if you will, but it seems that PDJT is the only party to the Stormy Daniels deal that is actually acting in accordance with the non-disclosure agreement. He refuses to admit to or otherwise acknowledge that the tryst ever happened. I strongly suspect that the terms of the non-disclosure deal require this action. Everyone else, including Michael Cohen, is running around spouting off about their role in the deal. Not PDJT. I suspect that as soon as he opens his mouth acknowledging the deal, the lid comes off and he is liable for the $1 million penalty PER OCCURANCE penalty clause. I think I read not long ago that Stormy is sitting on a $20 million penalty liability right now for just this reason.
Bottom line, he paid the $130,000 and she took it, swearing in an affidavit that the event never happened. He also swore that the event never happened. Case closed.
I will now stand before the court of FREEPER lawyers and quietly accept whatever punishment you have to offer.
Good grief, such a reach. It’s not even a real cause of action, but a mere theory. You’d have to establish that and then prove a set of facts. Against a US President? Whoa, that’s a whole lotta hate for just a few paragraphs.