Posted on 02/28/2019 7:54:23 AM PST by be-baw
Near the end of Michael Cohen's testimony yesterday, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez asked the former fixer whether President Trump had ever run an insurance fraud. Cohen said yes, naming three Trump Organization executives: Allen Weisselberg, Ron Lieberman and Matthew Calamari.
Why it matters: Cohen offered no proof for this allegation — and given his record of lying, his claims can't be believed without evidence. But by making this allegation — and coughing up the names of the executives — Cohen gave House investigators and federal prosecutors yet another trail to chase.
Unless you're a student of The Trump Organization — the thinly-staffed Trump family business — you may never have heard of Weisselberg, Lieberman or Calamari.
But over the next year, these men and their colleagues may become household names as they endure a far-reaching, multi-armed investigation into Trump's family business and personal finances.
The bottom line: "This organization has never had a proctology exam like it's about to get," Bloomberg's Timothy O'Brien told me shortly after watching Cohen's testimony. "It's going to surface records. That's going to become problematic for all of them to keep their stories straight."
O'Brien is in a good position to know. In 2006, Trump tried — and failed — to sue O'Brien for $5 billion for writing that Trump had a much lower net worth than he claimed.
In the course of that litigation, because Trump went after O'Brien on financial grounds, O'Brien got his tax returns and financial records.
Here's what Trump's businesses face: Five House committees (Financial Services, Intel, Judiciary, Oversight, Ways and Means) plan to look at Trump's business deals and finances.
The state of Maryland and the District of Columbia are suing Trump, alleging he violated the Emoluments Clause of the Constitution by taking gifts from foreign governments through his properties.
The New York attorney general has a lawsuit against the Trump Foundation, alleging Trump misused his charitable foundation in a "shocking pattern of illegality." Cohen may have bolstered that case yesterday.
The Southern District of New York has dealt with Trump Organization executives in its investigation of Cohen.
By all accounts, Trump still has Weisselberg's loyalty. NBC reported yesterday that Weisselberg still works with The Trump Organization and has never been a cooperating witness against Trump.
"Any law enforcement person who's trying to build a case around insurance fraud, tax fraud, money laundering is going to have to wind up spending a lot of time [with] ... Allen Weisselberg," says O'Brien, who spent time with Weisselberg while writing his book "TrumpNation."
"It's the classic thing: Follow the money."
Axios reached out to senior Trump Organization executives Alan Garten and George Sorial for comment on Cohen's allegations against Weisselberg, Lieberman and Calamari. They didn't respond.
I wonder when the Clinton Foundation “proctology exam” is coming. Never, right?
Whatever.
Those who love to worry will be sick another year.
Those with brains will pay no heed.
I actually think it Helps Trump in the polls as it becomes every day more and more an obvious and rabid witch hunt.
Not a popular thing in the US.
I totally agree. I worry more about Democrats rigging and stealing votes than them actually coming up with policies that will help them legitimately win elections. All this garbage thrown at Trump doesn’t move the political needle all that much when the other side has nothing of substance to offer to the American people! It’s vote fraud that keeps the Democrats afloat as a political party!
Somehow I think the days of just “accepting the outcome” of elections here are long gone. A faint memory of a time of chivalry now dead. We may end up accepting “they” won but it won’t be an election and it won’t be a victory for anybody.
“Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez asked...”
WTF is THIS little newly-minted Bimbo involved in any of this?
The fact that the official witchhunt to Mueller escapade has completely and totally failed to produce one scintilla of evidence of what they were after means that even liberals now are going to be very suspect of anything trying to go after Trump
I mean are great and very wonderful president Donald J Trump of course
The flipside of this says they’re going to have very little time to try to pass their stupid take over the whole healthcare industry and take everybody’s guns away and murder babies bills what’s look at it that way
Yes, this kind of over the top outrage will become the new normal in politics. The behavior of Democrats over the last few years is not about Trump. It is their strategy for acquiring and maintaining power.
As if Trump hasn’t had the IRS doing this exam for years.
Do a re-wind, and watch her question Cohen. That was the most rehearsed questioning/answering that I’ve ever witnessed. He knew every question, and she knew every answer. She’s an idiot who knows nothing. She was ready for her close-up, Mr. DeMille. None of that show was by accident.
“None of that show was by accident.”
That makes perfect sense, then!
I have a brain, and I pay heed:
How many American citizens will have their Constitutional rights abrogated, and their lives destroyed, while the UniParty pursues its vendetta against Trump?
They may not get Trump, but others will suffer from this illicit lawfare.
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