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Michael Cohen Investigation


DanTheHorn

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21 minutes ago, Bozo_Casanova said:


Source?

Cohen has other recordings of the President in his records that were seized by the FBI, said a source with knowledge of Cohen's tapes and Giuliani, who described the other recordings as mundane discussions.

......

Giuliani said Trump had no idea he was being recorded during the McDougal discussion, which took place in the then-candidate's office at Trump Tower in September 2016. When informed about the recording, Trump said, "I can't believe Michael would do this to me," a source familiar with the tapes told CNN.

https://www.cnn.com/2018/07/20/politics/michael-cohen-donald-trump-playboy-model-recording/index.html

Edited by SmokeyTheBear
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Nothing new ("spinmeister" Guilliani is still nothing but a Baghdad Bob) but posting the full NYTimes story for posterity:

Michael Cohen Secretly Taped Trump Discussing Payment to Playboy Model

WASHINGTON — President Trump’s longtime lawyer, Michael D. Cohen, secretly recorded a conversation with Mr. Trump two months before the presidential election in which they discussed payments to a former Playboy model who said she had an affair with Mr. Trump, according to lawyers and others familiar with the recording.

The F.B.I. seized the recording this year during a raid on Mr. Cohen’s office. The Justice Department is investigating Mr. Cohen’s involvement in paying women to tamp down embarrassing news stories about Mr. Trump ahead of the 2016 election. Prosecutors want to know whether that violated federal campaign finance laws, and any conversation with Mr. Trump about those payments would be of keen interest to them.

The recording’s existence further draws Mr. Trump into questions about tactics he and his associates used to keep aspects of his personal and business life a secret. And it highlights the potential legal and political danger that Mr. Cohen represents to Mr. Trump. Once the keeper of many of Mr. Trump’s secrets, Mr. Cohen is now seen as increasingly willing to consider cooperating with prosecutors.

Rudolph W. Giuliani, Mr. Trump’s personal lawyer, confirmed in a telephone conversation on Friday that Mr. Trump had discussed the payments with Mr. Cohen on the tape but said the payment was ultimately never made. He said the recording was less than two minutes and demonstrated that the president had done nothing wrong.

“Nothing in that conversation suggests that he had any knowledge of it in advance,” Mr. Giuliani said, adding that Mr. Trump had directed Mr. Cohen that if he were to make a payment related to the woman, write a check, rather than sending cash, so it could be properly documented.

“In the big scheme of things, it’s powerful exculpatory evidence,” Mr. Giuliani said.

Mr. Cohen’s lawyers discovered the recording as part of their review of the seized materials and shared it with Mr. Trump’s lawyers, according to three people briefed on the matter.

“We have nothing to say on this matter,” Mr. Cohen’s lawyer, Lanny J. Davis, said when asked about the tape.

The former model, Karen McDougal, says she began a nearly yearlong affair with Mr. Trump in 2006, shortly after Mr. Trump’s wife, Melania, gave birth to their son Barron. Ms. McDougal sold her story to The National Enquirer for $150,000 during the final months of the presidential campaign, but the tabloid sat on the story, which kept it from becoming public. The practice, known as “catch and kill,” effectively silenced Ms. McDougal for the remainder of the campaign.

David J. Pecker, the chairman of The Enquirer’s parent company, is a friend of Mr. Trump’s, and Ms. McDougal has accused Mr. Cohen of secretly taking part in the deal — an allegation that is now part of the F.B.I. investigation.

When The Wall Street Journal revealed the existence of the payment days before the election, Mr. Trump’s campaign spokeswoman, Hope Hicks, said, “We have no knowledge of any of this.” She said Ms. McDougal’s claim of an affair was “totally untrue.”

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If Trump knows the Enquirer is paying off his girlfriends to help with his campaign, doesn't that constitute an illegal campaign contribution?   Which if the feds investigate, they get to see everything that was said between Trump and the Enquirer guy?  Which could uncover other potential crimes, or embarrassing material at worst.

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3 minutes ago, Nice Guy Eddie said:

If Trump knows the Enquirer is paying off his girlfriends to help with his campaign, doesn't that constitute an illegal campaign contribution?   Which if the feds investigate, they get to see everything that was said between Trump and the Enquirer guy?  Which could uncover other potential crimes, or embarrassing material at worst.

IANAL, but I should certainly think so.

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As with every so many other Trump stories, this would have been the biggest news story of Obama or Bush 43's terms.   For Trump, it's Friday afternoon.

But seriously could anyone here imagine the news explosion if there was a tape of Obama talking about paying off a girlfriend.

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2 minutes ago, texas08 said:

Fuck Trump.

Only reason Melania sticks around is because she’s more than likely Butina 2.0.

She's a grifter like him.  She'll stick around while the grifting is good.  And First Lady ain't a bad grift.

 

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11 minutes ago, deech said:

Wait, so there is a tape where the president is discussing paying off one of the women he allegedly bedded outside of his marriage that he denied repeatedly having occurred b/c fake news?


I think this is tape of him discussing paying off a different woman he bedded outside of his marriage, not the one he denied having paid off after bedding her outside of his marriage. 

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5 minutes ago, Horn Under a Bad Sign said:


I think this is tape of him discussing paying off a different woman he bedded outside of his marriage, not the one he denied having paid off after bedding her outside of his marriage. 

Just another chapter in... 

53199551?wid=1400

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7 minutes ago, Horn Under a Bad Sign said:


I think this is tape of him discussing paying off a different woman he bedded outside of his marriage, not the one he denied having paid off after bedding her outside of his marriage. 

Trump really is a despicable little man and a perfectly loathsome piece of shit.

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11 minutes ago, Horn Under a Bad Sign said:


I think this is tape of him discussing paying off a different woman he bedded outside of his marriage, not the one he denied having paid off after bedding her outside of his marriage. 

He denied the McDougal affair, or at least Hope Hicks did on his behalf.

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1 hour ago, Ghost of LL said:

I can't imagine the circumstances in which I would record a conversation with a client.  That right there is a tip-off that things aren't really on the up-and-up.

Can you imagine the circumstance where you're the lawyer for a pathologically-untruthful person who aims to screw over every person that crosses their path? A person with a well-documented history of claiming conversations which happened never occurred, and vice versa?

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3 minutes ago, Storm the Field said:

Can you imagine the circumstance where you're the lawyer for a pathologically-untruthful person who aims to screw over every person that crosses their path? A person with a well-documented history of claiming conversations which happened never occurred, and vice versa?

Honestly, no.  I'd fire that client long before we got to the point of me recording him.

Which is probably why I can't imagine recording a client conversation.

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16 minutes ago, Ghost of LL said:

Honestly, no.  I'd fire that client long before we got to the point of me recording him.

Which is probably why I can't imagine recording a client conversation.

Maybe if the client pays their bills like a slot machine with an extra bonus every bill might I consider keeping a client like that.

 

Also, just because this tape is being talked about in a leaky fashion doesn't mean it isn't still attorney-client privileged.  Unless Teh Donald does something overt to waive that privilege, it may not see the light of day in a courtroom.

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3 minutes ago, TwiceHorn said:

Maybe if the client pays their bills like a slot machine with an extra bonus every bill might I consider keeping a client like that.

I'll tell you, though--we recently just fired a client that paid its bills pretty regularly.  But it was a toxic relationship.  They weren't telling us important things, and weren't following our advice.  And we had a nasty feeling that one day (probably soon), they'd do something that got all of us in trouble.

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7 minutes ago, TwiceHorn said:

Maybe if the client pays their bills like a slot machine with an extra bonus every bill might I consider keeping a client like that.

 

Also, just because this tape is being talked about in a leaky fashion doesn't mean it isn't still attorney-client privileged.  Unless Teh Donald does something overt to waive that privilege, it may not see the light of day in a courtroom.

 

Does privilege apply if the subject under discussion between the atty and client represents jointly committing a felony campaign finance violation ?

 

 

Edited by triplehorn
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embarrassing is one descriptive category.  Considering the tape of Cohen/Trump re McDougal is both embarrassing and potentially evidence of a felony, there are likely some folks puckering right knowing that something more than embarrassing is in FBI possession.

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2 hours ago, Brisketexan said:

Not unusual.  That's perhaps a bit above a normal hit-rate for a court deciding that a privilege doesn't apply, but it doesn't shock the conscience.

 

But THAT would be unusual and interesting.  We'll see what it shakes out to be.

All in all they reviewed over 1 million docs - there were only ~4000 claims of privilege, and only 1/3 of those claims stood up to judicial review. Despite the histrionics of tv personalities crying about privilege violations, there really was a very small percentage of materials seized where that was an issue 

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Just now, triplehorn said:

embarrassing is one descriptive category.  Considering the tape of Cohen/Trump re McDougal is both embarrassing and potentially evidence of a felony, there are likely some folks puckering right knowing that something more than embarrassing is in FBI possession.

Oh sweet Jesus I hope it is Hannity.

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1 hour ago, Horn Under a Bad Sign said:


I think this is tape of him discussing paying off a different woman he bedded outside of his marriage, not the one he denied having paid off after bedding her outside of his marriage. 

It's impressive how his money (or the perception of his money) made Donald such a catch, because he sure wouldn't do very well with the ladies on looks, intellect, or charm.

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2 minutes ago, jimmyjazz said:

It's impressive how his money (or the perception of his money) made Donald such a catch, because he sure wouldn't do very well with the ladies on looks, intellect, or charm.

Maybe, Trump is a sociopath and would have been the same con-man if he was born a poor black child. 

He would have been Don King. 

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1 hour ago, Hugo Stiglitz said:

Maybe they're releasing this McDougal tape information to give Trump an opportunity to come clean with the American people?

I wonder if Trump will?  

Sure thing.   We can expect a Presidential prime time address on all networks any day now.  

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