The Russia Investigations and other Trump-related cases

[Frelga]

Trump Acknowledges Michael Cohen Represented Him In Stormy Daniels Payment

Trump's interview also complicate legal matters for Cohen, who is dealing with a criminal investigation into his business practices in federal court in New York City. Cohen and lawyers for Trump want a judge to restrict how much evidence prosecutors can review from an earlier FBI raid of Cohen's home and office, citing the importance of attorney-client privilege.

But Trump on Thursday downplayed his relationship with Cohen, saying the attorney barely represented him. Cohen, Trump said, is mostly a businessman and federal investigators are looking at that aspect of his life, not his legal work that might be connected to Trump.

At this point, I'm just putting up these quotes in hopes that V will help make some sense of it.


Eta: but wait, there's more! If this were fiction, I'd be enjoying the heck out of this show. As it is..

Now: SDNY says Hannity, Trump statements about ties to Michael Cohen 'suggest that the seized materials are unlikely to contain voluminous privileged documents'

The tweet links to the... court filing?
https://twitter.com/MikeScarcella/statu ... 1747690499

[Voronwë the Faithful]

I don't think Clarence Darrow (were he still alive) would be able to make sense of all the crazy statements made by Trump in his phone call to Fox and Friends this morning, only some of which are reported in that NPR article. For instance, in another article that I briefly glanced through earlier, I saw that he claimed that Cohen was pleading the Fifth with regard to things not related to the $130,000 payment to Stormy Daniels. But the civil action in which Cohen is (correctly, as I stated above) pleading the Fifth in is only about the $130,000 payment so how can it be that Cohen is pleading the Fifth for some other reason? Trump also maintained that Cohen did nothing wrong in making that payment, but presumably also still claims that he himself was not informed of the payment or the agreement, even though he was supposed to sign it in his "DD" alias. However, it is at the least a clear violation of attorney rules of ethical conduct to fail to inform a client of any actions taken on their behalf, so by definition, Cohen did something wrong if it is true that he made the payment and entered into the agreement with Trump's knowledge (of course, its not true that he made the payment and entered into the agreement without Trump's knowledge, but that is what both Cohen and Trump are claiming).



And yes, that is the filing of the U.S. Attorney's office, which I am extremely impressed with. Not only have they withdrawn their objection to special master, they have provided an explicit process suggested by a retired magistrate judge which I suspect Judge Wood will find attractive. Checking the court file, the status conference is scheduled today at 12:00 p.m. EDT (a weird time for a hearing) which is in less than an hour, so we should find out soon what she decides. I think she is likely to appoint the special master suggested by the AG's office and follow his proposed process.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

I should add, however, that just because Trump and Hannity claim that their ties to Cohen are limited doesn't mean that it is actually true, or that the documents seized won't completely contradict their statements.

[River]

Leaves me wondering why Trump even bothers with lawyering up. How do you work with a client who does this sort of thing?

[Voronwë the Faithful]

As one of the tweets in response to the one posted by Frelga above said, "The base loves him because he has no filter. Prosecutors love him for the same reason."

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Well, Judge Wood did appoint a Special Master, but not one suggested by either side (after she requested suggestions by both sides). The Special Master is a former District Court Judge (not a magistrate judge) who was appointed by Clinton, Barbara S. Jones. It is not clear whether she will follow the procedure outlined by the U.S. Attorney's office; more likely she will set her own procedure.

The UAO revealed that they seized eight boxes of documents from Cohen, in addition to hard drives, iPads, and cell phones.

And this morning the ubiquitous Michael Avenatti filed a motion to intervene in the case on behalf of Stormy Daniels.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Continuing to follow Stephen Brown's reporting on the hearing.

1. Wood indicates she is inclined grant the Stormy intervention but the government wants a chance to object.

2. Trump's attorney Hendon objects to the process for evidence review because she doesn't want a third party seeing his material before he can decide what is protected. "From my client’s standpoint we’re already at a compromised position." No word yet on what Wood says in response (wish I was there myself rather than waiting for someone else's reporting).

[Frelga]

Thank you, V! And to be clear, I don't expect you to make all of this become sensible. That would require a direct divine intervention and possibly a reset back to 2015.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

It's still not clear to me what exactly Judge Wood ordered, other than appointing Judge Jones as the special master and being inclined to grant the Stormy invention. Presumably, documents related to the $130,000 payment would not be privileged if that payment is part of the illegal conduct that they are alleging Cohen engaged in. But just as presumably, Cohen and Trump's lawyers will try to argue that that material is privileged.

I also wonder whether by being so dismissive of Cohen's work for him, Trump made it more likely that Cohen will flip?

[Primula Baggins]

That's just typical of our ignorant, impulsive, incurious, amoral, narcissistic, and deeply stupid president. The day he leaves office will be the best day this country has ever had. It should become a national holiday.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

But tell us how you really feel, Primula??!!

[Primula Baggins]

No, I think a restrained and muted tone is more appropriate, Voronwë dear.

[RoseMorninStar]

Amen Prim.

[Primula Baggins]

I forgot to add vainglorious. That's a word I've always wanted to use, and here was the perfect chance, and I muffed it.

[River]

There there. It's only 2018. You still have time.

[Primula Baggins]

*bursts into tears and runs out of the room*

[River]

*sigh*

**pours a couple cups of whole milk in a pan. Starts heating.

**busts out the high quality hot chocolate. Adds saturating amount to hot milk

**beats with one of those Mexican milk foaming devices (can't remember the name but we have one because we take hot chocolate seriously in our house)

**pours a very big mug for Prim

Here. I've got some single malt and some of my FiL's homebrew if you want to give it an extra kick.

Or I can just pour you a shot. Your call.

[Primula Baggins]

Oh, thank you, River!

*glances at sun*

*glances at yardarm*

*glances at "To be edited today" file*

Alas, I'll have to take a rain check on the single malt. . . .

[Frelga]

I've debated putting this in the WTF thread, but I don't think it clears the 2018 weirdness bar. And Cohen's investigation is directly tied to Trump.

APNewsBreak: Trump lawyer loaned to taxi mogul in weed biz

NEW YORK (AP) — President Donald Trump’s personal attorney, whose business dealings are being investigated by the FBI, and the lawyer’s father-in-law have lent $26 million in recent years to a taxi mogul who is shifting into the legalized marijuana industry, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press.

...

One former Cohen business partner, who managed Cohen’s taxis for years, is accused in a lawsuit by creditors of hiding his assets in financial disclosures to his bank — including a luxury apartment in a Trump skyscraper.

Another former cab manager of Cohen’s has declared bankruptcy and is facing criminal charges from state prosecutors in New York, who accuse him of pocketing nearly $5 million in taxes.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Meanwhile, back to the Trump Tower meeting of July 2016. No big surprise here, but the lawyer that met with Junior, Kushner and Manafort to give them dirt on Hillary Clinton, Natalia V. Veselnitskaya, has admitted that she really was a Kremlin operative, not the private actor that she had previously claimed to be.

https://www.cnn.com/2018/04/27/politics ... index.html