Free Republic

An IRS staffer who authorities say gave former Stormy Daniels lawyer Michael Avenatti financial information about former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen pleaded guilty Wednesday to gaining and distributing that information illegally. John C. Fry had worked as an investigative analyst with the IRS Criminal Investigation Division when he in 2018 downloaded five Suspicious Activity Reports connected to Cohen and his company, according to NBC News. The news outlet reported that Fry on Wednesday admitted to emailing Avenatti screenshots of the reports. He pleaded guilty to unauthorized disclosure of suspicious activity reports. "Fry was given access to sensitive and powerful government...

Count Michael Cohen, President Trump’s former lawyer who’s serving a three-year sentence in federal prison, among those frustrated by former special counsel Robert Mueller’s performance on Capitol Hill. Cohen, who watched the testimony with other inmates at the Federal Correctional Institution Otisville in upstate Orange County, said he was let down by Mueller’s “reluctance” to go beyond the report of his two-year investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election. “Mr. Mueller today had the world stage to answer questions regarding obstruction of justice and witness tampering. Sadly, his reluctance just continues to leave the debate open and those responsible...

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) is demanding that former White House communications director Hope Hicks clarify her testimony before the committee after he said new court filings suggested there were “inconsistencies” between her words and evidence collected by federal investigators in Michael Cohen’s case. “We write regarding your testimony before the House Judiciary Committee on June 19, 2019, which appears to be inconsistent with evidence unsealed this morning by a federal judge in New York,” Nadler wrote in a letter released Thursday evening. “As I reminded you at the outset of your interview, anything other than complete candor...

Court records released Thursday show that President Donald Trump took part in a flurry of phone calls in the weeks before the 2016 election as his close aides and allies scrambled to pay porn star Stormy Daniels to keep quiet about an alleged affair. The documents detailing calls and text messages were made public as federal prosecutors closed their investigation into the payoff — and a similar payment to Playboy model Karen McDougal — with no plans to charge anyone in the scandal beyond Trump’s former lawyer and fixer, Michael Cohen. Federal prosecutors in New York said in a court...

Appearing Thursday on MSNBC, Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN) claimed President Donald Trump’s Wednesday evening rally in Greenville, North Carolina, was reminiscent of Nazi Germany.

A federal judge Wednesday confirmed federal prosecutors in New York City ended their investigation into Trump campaign finance violations, which focused on former Trump attorney Michael Cohen and the Trump Organization. Judge William Pauley confirmed the end of the probe in an order to release the remaining files in the case against Michael Cohen, the former Trump attorney who is serving a three-year prison term for several crimes. The end of the investigation indicates that no additional Trump Organization executives — a group that includes Donald Trump Jr. — will be charged in the investigation, which was led by attorneys...

A federal investigation into whether Trump Organization executives violated campaign-finance laws appears to be wrapping up without charges being filed, according to people familiar with the matter. For months, federal prosecutors in New York have examined whether company officials broke the law, including in their effort to reimburse Michael Cohen for hush-money payments he made to women alleging affairs with his former boss, President Donald Trump. In recent weeks, however, their investigation has quieted, the people familiar with the inquiry said, and prosecutors now don't appear poised to charge any Trump Organization executives in the probe that stemmed from the...

Remember when the media kept insisting that Palin's map was a death threat? Nothing to see here. Though. Right? Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Tenn., stunningly claimed on CNN that people will die if President Trump is not impeached. Rep. Cohen, who sits on one of the main House committees charged with investigating the president and his administration. Cohen told CNN on Thursday that Democrats had a "moral imperative" to impeach the president. "I think impeachment proceedings will help see that he is beaten but that’s not the reason to do it – I think we have a moral imperative to bring...

The Mueller report appears to have been carefully worded by the lawyers working under former special counsel Robert Mueller, and perhaps Mueller himself, in a manner designed to inflict political damage on President Donald Trump. ... We know that sections of the report were selectively edited to provide damaging portrayals. ... there are troubling and disturbing details surrounding a heavily used witness in the Mueller report, George Nader. ... access to the underlying material used in the Mueller report is extremely limited. ...documents released in the ongoing Flynn case, a rebuttal letter from the lawyers mentioned in the Mueller report,...

Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.) on Tuesday said President Trump should not be allowed to attend next week’s D-Day anniversary event after Trump sided with North Korean leader Kim Jon Un in his criticism of former Vice President Joe Biden. “Disgusting display by Trump. No mention of #MemorialDay. He shouldn’t be allowed at anniversary of D-Day June 6. I was there Sunday. What an honor to recall what brave Americans did for freedom,” Cohen tweeted Tuesday. Cohen cited recent comments by Rep. Pete King (R-N.Y.), who called out Trump’s remarks about Biden, but also asked where the rest of the GOP...

One of President Trump’s lawyers asked another one to lie about the extent of Mr. Trump’s business interests in Russia, according to Michael Cohen, one of the lawyers involved in the exchange. Cohen told Congress in testimony earlier this year that Jay Sekulow told him to say the president’s dealings on a Trump Tower in Moscow ended in January 2016, or before the GOP primary season kicked off. In fact, Mr. Trump’s team pursued the project through June of that year, according to investigators.

The witness rose from her seat, raised her right hand, and swore to tell the truth before Congress. But four words were missing: “So help me God.” In the House of Representatives, to the winner go the spoils, and Democrats, the new decision makers, control everything, including what legislation gets a vote and the minutiae of procedural choices, such as whether witnesses must utter the traditional plea for divine aid. Democratic chairmen and chairwomen of several key committees have deemed no such entreaty is necessary. “I think God belongs in religious institutions: in temple, in church, in cathedral, in mosque...

If you’re confused as to why Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr, R-N.C., joined forces with Democrats to drag Donald Trump Jr. in for another round of questioning after he had previously given nearly 27 hours of congressional testimony, you aren’t alone. Of course, President Trump’s son isn’t even a politician, a public official, or tangentially involved in the workings of the government. He is a private citizen whose main involvement in public life is supporting his father and the America First political agenda that’s creating a record number of jobs across the country. The subpoena is especially troubling because...

Months before evangelical leader Jerry Falwell Jr.’s game-changing presidential endorsement of Donald Trump in 2016, Falwell asked Trump fixer Michael Cohen for a personal favor, Cohen said in a recorded conversation reviewed by Reuters. Falwell, president of Liberty University, one of the world’s largest Christian universities, said someone had come into possession of what Cohen described as racy “personal” photographs — the sort that would typically be kept “between husband and wife,” Cohen said in the taped conversation. According to a source familiar with Cohen’s thinking, the person who possessed the photos destroyed them after Cohen intervened on the Falwells’...

Michael Cohen, the president’s former lawyer who has since forcefully denounced his former boss, told reporters Monday “there still remains much to be told” as he left his New York City apartment to report to federal prison for a three-year sentence after pleading guilty to numerous crimes. "There still remains much to be told and I look forward to the day that I can share the truth," Cohen said in brief remarks to reporters. In an apparent swipe at President Trump, Cohen also said, “I hope that when I rejoin my family and friends that the country will be in...

The Tennessee congressman who dug into a bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken last week during a House Judiciary Committee hearing in an effort to take a swipe at Attorney General William Barr, who was absent, responded to critics in an interview Sunday and said the move was simply an attempt at "levity." Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Tenn., told MSNBC that the chicken bucket was purchased the night before and was cold. He described the meal as not “wonderful.”

With a menu that includes matzo ball soup and gefilte fish, as well as a full-time rabbi and a chance at the occasional visit home, the U.S. prison where Donald Trump’s former personal lawyer will spend the next three years is unique in the federal system. Michael Cohen is due to report to the Federal Correctional Institute in Otisville, New York, about 70 miles (110 km) northwest of New York City, on Monday. The 52-year-old Cohen will be housed in dorm-like accommodations at the facility’s minimum-security camp, which prison consultants say has become a destination for Jewish inmates due to...

On Friday’s broadcast of CNN’s “AC360,” House Judiciary Committee member Steve Cohen (D-TN) stated that if Attorney General William Barr doesn’t comply with the committee’s subpoenas, the committee has “no other alternative” but to use the sergeant at arms to bring Barr to the House. Cohen said, “I hope it would be inherent contempt. Because in inherent contempt, we’d go out, take him, and bring him in, and have him personally brought to the House.” Host Anderson Cooper asked, “You actually want to send out the sergeant at arms and force the attorney general to come?” Cohen answered, “Yes. Because...

Late night host Jimmy Kimmel mocked House Democrats for using chicken to taunt Attorney General William Barr, hinting on Thursday night that President Donald Trump will win again with these kinds of Democratic "sick burns." Barr was a no-show for his House Judiciary Committee appearance after he and Democratic lawmakers couldn't agree on terms of hearing. Barr's decision prompted Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Tenn., to bring a bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken and a toy chicken to the hearing and branded the attorney general as "Chicken Barr."

Attorney General William Barr’s refusal to appear before the House Judiciary Committee Thursday is giving critics plenty of ammunition, but few are taking advantage of the opportunity like Rep. Steve Cohen. The Tennessee Democrat held a press conference this morning before the Committee met, calling the attorney general “Chicken Barr” while holding a ceramic hen. After he took his seat, though, things got especially surreal. Cohen, once he placed his ceramic chicken in full view on his podium, pulled out a bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken and began to chow down on it. It was not yet 9 a.m. As...