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Michael Cohen Investigation


DanTheHorn

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2 minutes ago, Pescado_Rojo said:

She was pretty obviously next in line for the dems from the moment Obama was sworn in. They had 8 years to focus on her and focus they did. The dem field in 2020 will be pretty crowded, so they can't laser focus on any one potential candidate like they did Hillary. You did see a little of it when Oprah's name got floated. I'd guess it took less than 24 hrs for the right wing memes to start showing up on the usual suspect's Facebook posts, but then she downplayed it and the memes stopped. Since the nomination likely won't be decided before summer of 2020, it will be much harder for them to gin up the hate like they did with H.  

Surely you jest. 

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10 minutes ago, Francisco 2.0 said:

Surely you jest. 

Pocohantas narrative has been firmly saturated in right wing media.  

Lots of anti-Biden propaganda out there too, mostly being a touchy-feely creepo.

They see the biggest threats.

And don’t for get the big bad Pelosi boogeyman 

Edited by Hugo Stiglitz
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15 minutes ago, Longhorn94 said:

im not talking about being a lobbyist. as an attorney, he has a fiduciary responsibility to not engage with anyone that presents a conflict of interest with a current client. if he does not disclose his relationship with ATT to Trump, accepts $600k from ATT to persuade Trump to allow the merger with TimeWarner to proceed, then tries to talk Trump into allowing the merger, he has committed a major breach of ethics. he MUST disclose that relationship to Trump. he must tell his client that he may be hired by another with a potentially competing interest and it MAY not be in Trump's best interest for him to accept it.  Trump must waive the conflict before Cohen can accept it. So either Trump did that and is in trouble or Cohen did not disclose/get waivers and is in trouble. 

You're right that the conflict is Trump's to waive, and the claim for breach of fiduciary duty belongs to Trump alone.  Which he will not assert.

He didn't have to waive the conflict (even if he did, I'm not seeing how that could get Trump in trouble -- yeah, it's just slimy, but it's not a violation of any law that I can think of right now, so long as Trump wasn't receiving compensation from the third party).  The conflict could exist, Cohen could have failed to get a waiver, and breached his fiduciary duty to Trump.  But if Trump doesn't bring a breach of fiduciary duty claim against Cohen, that issue is dead (nobody else has standing to assert that claim).

The whole setup is shady AF.  But I'm thinking that no law will have been broken unless some of that money filtered up to Trump.

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7 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

You're right that the conflict is Trump's to waive, and the claim for breach of fiduciary duty belongs to Trump alone.  Which he will not assert.

He didn't have to waive the conflict (even if he did, I'm not seeing how that could get Trump in trouble -- yeah, it's just slimy, but it's not a violation of any law that I can think of right now, so long as Trump wasn't receiving compensation from the third party).  The conflict could exist, Cohen could have failed to get a waiver, and breached his fiduciary duty to Trump.  But if Trump doesn't bring a breach of fiduciary duty claim against Cohen, that issue is dead (nobody else has standing to assert that claim).

The whole setup is shady AF.  But I'm thinking that no law will have been broken unless some of that money filtered up to Trump.

Or was used to pay off people to Trump's benefit which is the same as the money filtering up to Trump.

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8 minutes ago, Judge Roybeanbag said:

The most telling thing to me is Trunp hasn’t thrown Cohen under the bus.  He hasn’t said much shit about it at all.  He tried to get Giuliani to handle it and it backfired. 

He never threw Manafort or Flynn under the bus either... They are great guys!

Comey? Fuck that loser.

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Don't forget that Cohen was involved with that Beverly Hills mansion property that got deeded to Trump for $0 supposedly by a highly unusual paperwork accident. Maybe that is the next thing that comes out...why is he buying properties with his own cash?  It might have something to do with money laundering.

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3 hours ago, Longhorn94 said:

maybe this has been covered and i missed it but isnt it a conflict of interest for Cohen to accept these engagements in order to give insight on and access to his only client? Wouldnt he be required to notify Trump of his engagement by ATT, Novartis, etc and get a waiver for each? What happens if the obligation to provide insight or access conflicts with his fiduciary responsibility to Trump as his personal attorney? I believe Trump knew about each and hope they have proof of such knowledge. But if they dont, is this another opportunity for Trump to hang Cohen out to dry? And yet another reason for Cohen to flip?

Two things:

1.  This is not going to be what he gets nailed for.

2.  If he was selling insight I'll guess (with only a Holiday Inn Express right to practice law) he'd be ok.  But I'll bet the house that the Koreans weren't buying his accounting expertise.  We don't know the facts but we will.

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3 hours ago, Pescado_Rojo said:

She was pretty obviously next in line for the dems from the moment Obama was sworn in. They had 8 years to focus on her and focus they did. The dem field in 2020 will be pretty crowded, so they can't laser focus on any one potential candidate like they did Hillary. You did see a little of it when Oprah's name got floated. I'd guess it took less than 24 hrs for the right wing memes to start showing up on the usual suspect's Facebook posts, but then she downplayed it and the memes stopped. Since the nomination likely won't be decided before summer of 2020, it will be much harder for them to gin up the hate like they did with H.  

They will also most likely be heavily defensive over Trump at that point, and/or trying to preserve seats in Congress.  The GOP will be spread very thin. 

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The domains, which include alternate-right.com, alt-rights.com and alternate-rt.com, were created in August 2016 during the presidential campaign season. That same month, CNN and other news outlets reported on the rising profile of the alt-right movement and its white nationalist connections. 
 
Records show an employee, Frederick Intrater, whose brother Andrew Intrater is the CEO of Columbus Nova, used his company email address to register the web domains, and listed Columbus Nova as the registrant organization, along with the company's address.
Edited by Hugo Stiglitz
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50 minutes ago, SuingToGetAMessageBoard? said:

Lol.  “Remember, Stormy does not have the right to choose her counsel.”  - Cooley Law Grad.  

Yeah...that one's pretty funny.

"Hey, we have a binding agreement with person X that prevents her from showing it to an attorney of her choosing."

That's pretty nifty.  DOA, but nifty.

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26 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

Yeah...that one's pretty funny.

"Hey, we have a binding agreement with person X that prevents her from showing it to an attorney of her choosing."

That's pretty nifty.  DOA, but nifty.

Is it DOA, though?  I deal with NDAs to protect trade secrets and confidential information all the time, along with covenants not to compete.  In covenants not to compete, there is a public interest in the restraint of trade, hence the additional scrutiny and reluctance to enforce.  But in the realm of NDAs, they are generally agreements between private parties and enforced no matter how stupid they may be, because there isn't much public interest implicated.

 

I can see a public interest in covering up criminal activity (Weinstein type NDAs), but I'm not convinced that these type NDAs (embarrassing but otherwise lawful behavior) don't get enforced to the hilt.  Stormy can validly waive her right to counsel entirely, why can't she waive the right to "other" counsel?  Assuming it's informed and whatnot.

 

Just askin, not sayin.

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Clients "own" "their" documents and files. They effectively "paid" for them, even if bills remain outstanding or it is a contingency case. Those documents should transfer completely to new counsel.

 

The exceptions are for things like attorney notes, untransmitted drafts, and background forms the attorney used to produce a client's docs.

 

 

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14 minutes ago, TwiceHorn said:

Is it DOA, though?  I deal with NDAs to protect trade secrets and confidential information all the time, along with covenants not to compete.  In covenants not to compete, there is a public interest in the restraint of trade, hence the additional scrutiny and reluctance to enforce.  But in the realm of NDAs, they are generally agreements between private parties and enforced no matter how stupid they may be, because there isn't much public interest implicated.

 

I can see a public interest in covering up criminal activity (Weinstein type NDAs), but I'm not convinced that these type NDAs (embarrassing but otherwise lawful behavior) don't get enforced to the hilt.  Stormy can validly waive her right to counsel entirely, why can't she waive the right to "other" counsel?  Assuming it's informed and whatnot.

 

Just askin, not sayin.

I don't disagree with this, but given what appears to be a pretty suspicious level of cooperation between Cohen and Davidson in these matters, I think it'd be pretty hard to argue that she was sufficiently informed to support a ruling that she legally waived her right to choose other counsel.

On another note, I love that Cohen used one damn LLC as a giant slush fund to handle his "consulting"/bribe funnel graft and his porn star hush money payments because he's apparently too cheap to pay another filing fee (and that he set it up himself instead of paying CT Corp or someone else to do it), but there is no way there aren't at least another half-dozen LLCs like this that he's set up. This asshole had 16 burner phones, there is absolutely no way all of his dirty shit was done through just one entity. Even he can't be that stupid, can he?

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5 minutes ago, woohorn said:

Clients "own" "their" documents and files. They effectively "paid" for them, even if bills remain outstanding or it is a contingency case. Those documents should transfer completely to new counsel.

 

The exceptions are for things like attorney notes, untransmitted drafts, and background forms the attorney used to produce a client's docs.

 

 

Im not sure that's the right analogy.

 

This is an agreement for non-disclosure that has, as a term, that only particular lawyers can see it.  That has the effect of confining Stormy's choice of counsel, at least for this matter.  But assuming she was aware and consented, it isn't immediately apparent to me that that is not enforceable.

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14 minutes ago, wildcat09 said:

I don't disagree with this, but given what appears to be a pretty suspicious level of cooperation between Cohen and Davidson in these matters, I think it'd be pretty hard to argue that she was sufficiently informed to support a ruling that she legally waived her right to choose other counsel.

On another note, I love that Cohen used one damn LLC as a giant slush fund to handle his "consulting"/bribe funnel graft and his porn star hush money payments because he's apparently too cheap to pay another filing fee (and that he set it up himself instead of paying CT Corp or someone else to do it), but there is no way there aren't at least another half-dozen LLCs like this that he's set up. This asshole had 16 burner phones, there is absolutely no way all of his dirty shit was done through just one entity. Even he can't be that stupid, can he?

He had 16 different LLCs for his 32 taxi medallions, so he isn't opposed to setting up as many as he needs.  He may have done all his TrumpCo work with one LLC however.

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16 hours ago, Longhorn94 said:

im not talking about being a lobbyist. as an attorney, he has a fiduciary responsibility to not engage with anyone that presents a conflict of interest with a current client. if he does not disclose his relationship with ATT to Trump, accepts $600k from ATT to persuade Trump to allow the merger with TimeWarner to proceed, then tries to talk Trump into allowing the merger, he has committed a major breach of ethics. he MUST disclose that relationship to Trump. he must tell his client that he may be hired by another with a potentially competing interest and it MAY not be in Trump's best interest for him to accept it.  Trump must waive the conflict before Cohen can accept it. So either Trump did that and is in trouble or Cohen did not disclose/get waivers and is in trouble. 

My guess is that he would have to disclose it to Trump if it was a conflict of interest in a legal matter that he was representing Trump on.  But if it's a question of policy, I don't think Cohen is representing Trump as an attorney in that matter.  White House attorneys or Attorney General/DOJ attorneys would certainly consult with Trump on policy, but it would not be expected that Trump's personal attorney would be doing so. 

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Per WSJ:

"AT&T Inc.’s top Washington executive and policy chief is being forced out of the company after his office paid $600,000 to Trump attorney Michael Cohen last year. 

The company told employees in an internal memo Friday that Bob Quinn was retiring, but a person familiar with the matter said Mr. Quinn was being forced to leave."

 

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26 minutes ago, triplehorn said:

Per WSJ:

"AT&T Inc.’s top Washington executive and policy chief is being forced out of the company after his office paid $600,000 to Trump attorney Michael Cohen last year. 

The company told employees in an internal memo Friday that Bob Quinn was retiring, but a person familiar with the matter said Mr. Quinn was being forced to leave."

 

Believe the AT&T CEO sent an email telling all employees that it was a mistake that they ever hired Cohen for consulting work.  In the same email, he announced their DC lead, Quinn, was retiring.   The CEO knew how the retirement news would be interpreted:  Quinn was fired.     

If I sent an email telling everyone how George in accounting screwed up, and announce in the same email that George has decided to retire, I don't think anyone would think the two events are unrelated.

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1 hour ago, TwiceHorn said:

Im not sure that's the right analogy.

 

This is an agreement for non-disclosure that has, as a term, that only particular lawyers can see it.  That has the effect of confining Stormy's choice of counsel, at least for this matter.  But assuming she was aware and consented, it isn't immediately apparent to me that that is not enforceable.

 You can test Cohen‘s conviction on his position on this matter by looking in seeing whether or not he counterclaimed against Daniels for hiring Avenatti (in violation of the NDA). 

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2 minutes ago, shnsajax said:

Whatever happened to the excuse that Cohen had to use his heloc to pay for Stormy Daniels? Can't wait to see all of these money trails.

You know you’re dealing with a bunch of incompetent criminals when the lie they come up with to try to cover up their crime is also a crime. 

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On 5/9/2018 at 8:33 AM, Pig Bellmont said:
24 minutes ago, Anastasis said:


"“While my finances are personal to me and my family, at the risk of being trashed with ‘fake news,’ I am fortunate to have created a portfolio of assets and investments that are well diversified,” he said. “While medallion values have suffered negatively and impacted so many individuals and lenders, I sincerely hope that evenhanded regulation and legislation by the Mayor and TLC will assist this iconic NYC service in making an economic comeback.” 

 

 

Translation: I sure hope the state bales me out of this mess, because otherwise these taxi medallions will be worth as much as a pile of  old 9-track tapes. 

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16 minutes ago, burntorangebongos said:

Yall, i cant post it but another interesting bit of news on Micheal Avenattis twitter about an atty who went to Trump with info about NY AG Schneiderman. He sent a letter to judge Kimba Woods trying to suppress any info on that. Haha. Jesus. Somebody post it when you can. 

NBC has an article, but I can't seem to link it. 

Basically an attorney filed a brief that judge Woods would seal any communication between him and Cohen,  which occurred in 2013, about Scheiderman sexually assaulting his clients, for the protection of his clients. So Cohen knew about Schneiderman in 2013. 

Trump tweeted out a vague accusation about Schneiderman shortly before the story broke.  My assumption is that someone had caught wind of what the reporters were writing.  Now it seems possible that Cohen had informed Trump, possibly years ago.  Edit: actually Trump was contacted first, and Cohen followed up with their attorney. 

But it also sounds like the attorney, Gleason, is a bit of a nutball.  So he may just be seeking to get his name in the paper.   

 

Quote

The investigation of Trump lawyer Michael Cohen and the domestic-violence scandal that toppled New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman collided Friday when a colorful attorney not representing either man asked that certain court records be sealed.

Peter J. Gleason, best known for defending the so-called "Soccer Mom Madam," sent a letter to a federal judge overseeing a dispute over records seized during FBI raids on Cohen's office and hotel room for an investigation into $130,000 in hush money paid to a porn star.

Image: Anna Gristina Accused madam Anna Gristina in court with her attorney Peter Gleason on March 12, 2012.Louis Lanzano / AP FILE

In the letter, Gleason requested that any paperwork concerning a conversations he had with Cohen in 2013 — about two women who supposedly claimed Schneiderman was "sexually inappropriate" with them — be kept under wraps to protect the women.

 
 

Gleason's account of how those conversations came about is an "only in New York" tale with tabloid flair: the letter says Steve Dunleavy, legendary former editor and columnist for the New York Post, was the go-between who put the lawyer in touch with Donald Trump's people.

It also left many unanswered questions, including whether Cohen followed up on Schneiderman's information more than five years before the New Yorker reported that four different women had accused the attorney general, a frequent Trump critic, of physically and emotionally abusing them. Schneiderman denies the allegations but resigned.

The authors of the New Yorker article, Jane Mayer and Ronan Farrow, took to Twitter to assure readers that their sources had nothing to do with with Trump or Cohen.

"Our sources are all deeply opposed to Trump and deeply disappointed that Schneiderman let them and their cause down," Mayer wrote.

 

Gleason is best known for representing Anna Gristina, who allegedly ran a Manhattan brothel from her suburban New York home and pleaded guilty in 2012 to one count of promoting prostitution in exchange for a time-served sentence.

In his letter to Judge Kimba Wood, in which he misspelled Schneiderman's name repeatedly, he said his office has "an open door policy for any individual who has been victimized by entities that because of their status and power are able to destroy lives with impunity."

Image: New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman Eric Schneiderman speaks to colleagues in his office last year.Frank Franklin II / AP file

That, he wrote, is how he came to be contacted by two unrelated woman, a year apart, with misconduct complaints about Schneiderman. He said he advised them that because Schneiderman was part of the "power elite," they would not get help from prosecutors.

 

But, he added, he wanted them to know that someone believed them and that their experiences would not be "brushed under the rug," so he turned to the retired Dunleavy, who suggested he discuss the matter with Trump.

"Mr. Dunleavy did indeed discuss this very matter with Mr. Trump as evidenced by a phone call I received from Attorney Michael Cohen," Gleason wrote. He said he shared "certain details" of the women's allegations with Cohen.

Gleason admits he has no idea if Cohen wrote down anything about their call or if there is anything in the records seized by the feds about it. But as a precaution, he wrote, he wants the court to issue a protective seal.

Image: President Donald Trump's personal attorney Michael Cohen, center, chats with friends President Donald Trump's personal attorney Michael Cohen, center, chats with friends near the Loews Regency hotel in New York on April 13, 2018.Yana Paskova / Getty Images file

He took a shot at Michael Avenatti, the attorney who is representing adult film actress Stormy Daniels in a bid to invalidate an agreement to keep quiet about an alleged affair with Trump; Cohen brokered the $130,000 settlement, which is now under investigation by federal prosecutors.

 

Gleason accused Avenatti of "reckless behavior," citing his release this week of a report detailing payments that companies like AT&T and Novartis made to Cohen for consulting work after Trump was elected president.

Avenatti suggested more revelations are in the pipeline.

"Individuals and companies are finally coming to the realization that much more information is going to come to light regarding their dealings with Mr. Cohen and Mr. Trump," he said in a statement. "They are nervous and should be."

“There is never anything reckless about providing the American people with facts, evidence and the truth,” he added.

 

Cohen's attorney, Schneiderman's spokesman, and Dunleavy did not immediately respond to inquiries from NBC News. Gleason also did not return calls.

Gleason was a police officer and a firefighter and fire marshal before he became a lawyer. He once sued his law school over a grade. He also sued eBay when he and psychic Uri Geller lost out on a attempt to buy Elvis' first home.

He once ran for a New York City Council seat but in 2012 told the New York Daily News he had abandoned plans to pursue politics.

"I would rather play piano in a brothel," he said.

 

Edited by Tuco
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Meeting over but I'm on mobile so can't link it myself. Avenatti last twitter post teases about something and I dont think it is this at all. But a guy named Brian Krassenstein broke the news on that post. Gleason wasn't  their lawyer because he didnt take the case but took the info they told him about schniederman to Cohen via a reporter and Trump. Looks like it happened when Schniederman was dealing with Trump University. 2012 or 2013. 

Again, i don't think this has to do with Avenatti's tease.

 

Edited by burntorangebongos
I like that you can edit way later...stuff I saw that looks shady AF
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The FBI cautioned four years ago that a foundation controlled by Russian oligarch Viktor Vekselberg might be a conduit for Russian espionage, NPR reports.

In 2014, FBI Assistant Special Agent in Charge Lucia Ziobro wrote in the Boston Business Journal that Vekselberg, one of the richest men in Russia and a member of President Vladimir Putin's inner circle, could have been a part of a spying campaign with interests in American technology.

"The foundation may be a means for the Russian government to access our nation's sensitive or classified research, development facilities and dual-use technologies with military and commercial applications," Ziobro wrote at the time. "This analysis is supported by reports coming out of Russia itself."

Vekselberg's name has resurfaced in the news due to a $500,000 payment a subsidiary company he owns made to Michael Cohen, President Trump's personal lawyer.

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