CTH:
The Michael Cohen plea agreement (full pdf here) is a total of eight counts claimed by the SDNY as unlawful activity. However, one count is entirely political and not supported by the Federal Election Commission. Guess which one the media focus on?
Yeah, lets review.
Within the plea agreement the first five charges relate to tax avoidance, or tax evasion. Each count relates to a specific tax year: 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016. The sixth charge, a bank fraud charge, relates to lying on a credit application. These six charges appear valid, documented and agreed in the plea. The seventh charge, relates to structuring financial transactions through the use of a corporation. This charge is tenuous, but arguable.
However, the eighth charge is the one the media are focused on. The charge of an illegal campaign contribution.
This Count Eight transaction surrounds a payment to Stephanie Clifford (Stormy Daniels) of $130,000 for a nuisance claim. Who says it is a campaign contribution? The SDNY does, no-one else. Not even the FEC considers this a campaign contribution.
Count eight is a political charge/plea specifically included for the purpose of pulling Donald Trump into the SDNY Cohen case. There is no FEC violation here. *Note it is not the Federal Election Commission making the claim, only the SDNY prosecutors.
Despite the media hype it is not a campaign contribution for a candidate to instruct his attorney to pay-off a nuisance claim to avoid any issues or embarrassment. It is not a campaign donation for Donald Trump to reimburse his attorney for paying the claim.
♦The issue of the Cohen payment being an “in kind” campaign contribution is the bottom line question which underpins the charge.
There is no FEC rule or law that says a candidate cannot pay-off an accuser to avoid further issues, a nuisance claim. Paying an accuser to avoid controversy or embarrassment, is no different than a candidate buying an American made car -with personal funds- to gain the beneficial public optics of not driving a foreign car. Neither expense example makes the payment an aspect of am “in kind” campaign contribution.
There is no connected claim that President Trump used campaign funds to repay his attorney for eliminating the nuisance claim. President Trump, a businessman, used his own business income to repay his attorney; an attorney on a monthly retainer.
The entire charge of Cohen making a campaign contribution, or campaign finance violation, is a manufactured claim, made only by the SDNY, for political benefit. MORE
One of the comments at CTH points to this intriguing observation:
Mark Levin went off about this and gave some great examples on Hannity earlier tonight.
If you are thinking about running for office and want to settle nuisance lawsuits beforehand it IS NOT ILLEGAL.
My feeling on this is sit back and let the idiots on the Left work themselves into an orgasmic tizzy.
It will make it all the more Schadenfreuderrific when it doesn’t turn out the way they hope.
The shock, anger, disappointment and tears will surpass those of election night 2016
“My feeling on this is sit back and let the idiots on the Left work themselves into an orgasmic tizzy.”
Oh hell no. November is not that far away and this will influence the weak minded. CNN is busy meeting tonight on their 8 week propaganda blitz, and mean while we need every vote we can steal. No, this needs slam dunked asap.
Agreed Brad, it’s past time to break out our ammo and let the bastards have it. We have already waited too long if you ask me.
*Yawn*, please wake me up when they are talking about Russian collusion…
joe6pak
Agreed, Trump need to go mid evil right now. The swamp currently owns the narrative.
Hey idiots on this site that have excluded Mark Levin, he is your best friend right now. Don’t be so sweeping next time, because if you act like the left, there may not be a next time for all of us. Open your tent, and don’t create these divisions. Yea, you wanted Trump from the get-go but we also voted for him. You don’t own him.
“Hey idiots”
Wow, some body need to beat this guys dumb ass. How to gather friends and influence enemies was obviously not on this jack asses reading list.
If you think you can stand by idly and watch this shit storm go away you are mistaken. Hot off the press.
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2018/aug/21/paul-manafort-michael-cohen-developments-fuel-part/
ChristianPDX, if we lose 2018, there is no 2020.
ChristianPDX must have deleted his comment. Mine stands. We need to wake up, and when I say “we” I mean Trump and company too! 2018 is coming quick and if we lose then we’re in trouble!
I’m with Dianny, let it either blow over or the fire will become so hot so fast that it will blow itself out. No worries here only because we have a different president. Calm down!
Yes, I plan to stand idly by. I’m going to close down Patriot Retort and do nothing. It’s as if you know me, Brad.
Let me try to articulate this in a way you grasp: I won’t waste breath arguing with dumbass Libs on Twitter who think Trump will be frog-marched out of the White House tomorrow.
Trump won’t surrender the way they want. We won’t be devasted and defeated the way they think. It won’t go down the way they hope it will.
And once again they’ll be crushed and disappointed. Just like they were crushed and disappointed on election night 2016. Which, by the way happened because we all just sat idly by … no … wait.
Now do you understand?
@joe6pak
True that. Deleted it because, as you said, we need to focus on midterms and worry about 2020 after that. First things first. With that said, we need to get Kavanaugh confirmed and slam any Senator who does not tow the line.
Dianny, Hallelujah!
“Yes, I plan to stand idly by. I’m going to close down Patriot Retort and do nothing. It’s as if you know me, Brad.”
You seem like you ‘re itching for a fight. I’m not. I stand by my first comment, These convictions and guilty pleas could not be more poorly timed. Conservatives need to get aggressive.
Dianny, Meerkat, are you not frustrated as hell with all the evidence that we have of wrongdoing by the libs that we are doing nothing with? Hell that damn Awan just skated, the midterms are right around the corner. What do you think is the right strategy? How long do we sit on our hands?
If I want to do a deep dive, joe6pack, I won’t do it in a comment here; I would do it in a column at Patriot Retort. My comment is about one thing: the idiot libs celebrating tonight as if this spells the end of Trump.
Take my comment as is.
I also did not remark on the endless rain in Central New York and not being able to mow my lawn. Doesn’t mean I’m not frustrated about it.
What really bothers me is that Cohen had the Golden Ticket.
He was the top lawyer for a billionaire.
Why do illegal shit and skirt the law?
You already have a license to print money.
Is it fucking greed and ignorance?
Damn!
FUCKING LAWYERS! 🙁
Dianny, why are you bad mouthing this site? This is a fine place to exchange ideas and thoughts.
Joe6pak
Sooner or later, if you keep kicking that dog he will fight back. I’m tired of being kicked. And quite honestly watching what little I did of Trump tonight, I thought he was off his game. Worried.
Brad, agreed, Trump was off his game.
Likely tired as shit of all this crap.
He still held his own and was entertaining.
My guess is his entire crew of lawyers read him the riot act.
Brad, it is time for the Trump Team to fight the war, because it’s a war we are in, and it’s time to win some battles. I don’t care what anyone says, this is bullshit.
Joe6pak
If there’s ANY truth to the “Plan”, they need to implement it now. Shits getting real.
Yup, I’m aggravated enough now I’m not going to get to sleep for a while.
Trump did nothing wrong. He is allowed to pay through his own or company funds. They never actually said he paid through finance campaign funds. If he did, they surely would have said that!
So yea, some assholes got caught doing bad things and they will be punished. And that’s a whole another discussion!
But president Trump, he goes scott free. He broke no law.
MeerKat, as a layman in the world of law I would agree. The war is being fought in the media and that is where we need to fight. We all know the media is as desperate as the swamp, however, between the two of them they control the sheep and the libs. We need to change the narrative, and change it fast.
Meetkat
That doesn’t matter. He’s being tried in the court of public opinion. Which will drastically influence November’s vote. And we have the Libtard/NeverTrumper propaganda department, the MSM, fueling the flames. We need some perp walks bad.
Trust me it’s not the same poker game your parents played. There is both a disfatication and also a rebellion.
Have either of you looked at MSNBC’s ratings lately?
*dissatisfaction*
Stay calm and keep winning!
Meerkat, yes they are in the tank. That does not make me any more comfortable. I’m of the opinion that we need to beat those bastards like rented mules, beginning yesterday. Sure, Trump is a student of SunTsu’s “Art of War”. The Chinese civilization goes back 3000 years, if you tell them time is money they respond with, no money is money, time is time. Meaning Sun Tsu didn’t have midterms in two months, he could wait a generation to make his move. Trump and those of us do not have that luxury.
RINO’s will go full on TDS, because of the MSM & public opinion if this isn’t stopped with a much bigger headline story, and soon (this week).
That’s how it worked before.