More importantly in the eyes of many experts was ABC News’s revelation that Cohen is expected to end his joint defense agreement with Trump once Patrillo formally takes the reins of his defense. That is seen as significant because it suggests the objectives of the two men are diverging. Joint Defense Agreements enable defense lawyers to share documents and other information, but they must end if the clients’ interests come into conflict — for example, if one were to seek a deal to testify against the other. Legal analyst Daniel Goldman told MSNBC’s “MTP Daily” on Monday that the ending of the joint defense agreement was “the biggest thing to me that stuck out” from Cohen’s interview with Stephanopoulos. “That is usually an indication you’re breaking,” he added.
As with so many of the legal issues surrounding Trump — not just in relation to Cohen but regarding the broader probe into alleged collusion with Russia spearheaded by special counsel Robert Mueller — an enormous amount remains unknown. For example, federal agents are completing a review of millions of documents seized from Cohen, according to Bloomberg News — even as he also seeks to assert attorney-client privilege over about 12,000 files that he wants to withhold. What those documents contain is anyone’s guess. But that issue, among others, is likely to cause plenty of unease to the president’s supporters in the weeks ahead.
Cohen all but said he’d be a cooperating witness, and made clear he’s not taking any bullet, as he once said, for Trump. (“To be crystal clear, my wife, my daughter and my son, and this country have my first loyalty.”) In criticizing the Trump Tower meeting in June 2016, he suggested he knows quite a bit more than what has publicly been revealed. He opined that it demonstrated “poor judgment” by those involved. Most ominous for Trump were Cohen’s high praise of prosecutors, his selection of a new lawyer (“a highly regarded former federal prosecutor who once led the criminal division of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Manhattan — the very same office currently conducting the criminal investigation of Cohen”) and his impending decision to end a joint defense deal with Trump.
This is not a man who sounds as though he has no legal liability, or that he is mounting a defense resting on prosecutorial excess. This is a man desperate to remain in the good graces of prosecutors — who hold his fate and that of his family in their hands. And here’s the kicker: Even if Trump decided to pardon Cohen (a move that would set off impeachment talk), Cohen almost certainly has state criminal charges to worry about. Trump cannot pardon him for those. Cohen has zero incentive to stick by Trump at the expense of his own freedom and his family’s well-being. The range of topics on which Cohen could offer prosecutors is potentially jaw-dropping. We know about the Stormy Daniels settlement, but we can speculate about topics which might, if substantiated by facts (and the president enjoys the presumption of innocence in court), prove harmful for Trump:
*Any other settlements with other women, and details about those affairs, including possible violations of campaign-finance or other laws.
*Any financial dealings by Trump that might have violated state or federal laws, relating to Russia or otherwise.
*Trump’s financial dealings (which he has denied) with Russia.
*Any Trump meetings with Russians, or meetings that Cohen took at Trump’s behest.
*Any campaign contacts with Russians about which Cohen had knowledge or discussed with Trump.
In short, just about any topic which is a source of liability for Trump could be illuminated by Cohen.
Most pundits and analysts seem to assume that Cohen was making a Hail Mary pass at Trump, hoping for a presidential pardon before he is indicted and spills everything to prosecutors. That’s certainly possible. In the interview, Stephanopoulos asked Cohen whether he could say that Trump told him to pay off Stormy Daniels and whether Trump knew about the Trump Tower meeting with the Russians in June 2016. Cohen said he could not answer on the advice of his attorney, which certainly implies that the answer to both questions is yes. Of course, Trump would know the answer was yes. If the president is inclined to issue a pardon, Cohen is saying he’d better do it soon. But keep in mind that this is TrumpWorld we’re talking about, and among those people, you really don’t exist unless you’re on TV. All this may have more to do with Michael Cohen trying to figure out how he can parlay this situation into a new career in media once this mess is over. There’s only one clear way for him to do that: Take the John Dean route and become the man who saved America from Donald Trump. Dean lost his law license and did four months in jail, but he is now considered a hero and a national icon. It’s not a bad model. This idea isn’t coming out of thin air. Emily Jane Fox of Vanity Fair reports that Cohen has finally accepted that Trump never had any loyalty to him and that he’s on his own. Friends are telling Cohen, Fox writes, that he could change the course of history, sending messages like this: “Please let him know that he could go down in history as the man that saved this country. I think his family would be so proud of him. Even people like me that were disgusted with the things we heard on those audio recordings, would totally forgive him.” She also reports that Cohen has been planning a big media push for some time — this is just the beginning.
Senate Intel Confirms What Trump & His House Puppets Keep Denying
Folks, by now it is confirmed & proven. Yes, it was Russia who did interfere in our last election! And they’ll probably do it again, since Trump refuses to do anything to stop them! The proof of Russian meddling is now established fact as seen in trump-russia-senate-
The Senate Intelligence Committee has unequivocally upheld the conclusion of the intelligence community that Russia developed a “clear preference” for then-candidate Donald Trump in the 2016 election and sought to help him win the White House. The assessment, announced in an unclassified summary released Tuesday, represents a direct repudiation of the committee’s counterpart in the House – and of President Trump himself, who has consistently rejected assertions that Moscow sought to bolster his candidacy. “The Committee has spent the last 16 months reviewing the sources, tradecraft and analytic work underpinning the Intelligence Community Assessment and sees no reason to dispute the conclusions,” said Chairman Richard Burr (R-N.C.) said in a statement.
The so-called “intelligence community assessment,” or ICA, is a “sound intelligence production,” according the Senate panel. “A body of reporting, to include different intelligence disciplines, open source reporting on Russian leadership policy preferences, and Russian media content, showed that Moscow sought to denigrate Secretary Clinton,” the unclassified summary reads. The ICA relied not only on public Russian leadership commentary and state media reports, but also “a body of intelligence reporting to support the assessment that Putin and the Russian Government developed a clear preference for Trump,” the committee found. Senate investigators also rejected the notion that the ICA was inappropriately influenced by politics, as some of Trump’s supporters have alleged.
The committee says it reviewed “thousands of pages of source documents” and interviewed all the relevant officials who were involved in developing the ICA, from agency heads and managers to line analysts-and “heard consistently that analysts were under no politically motivated pressure to reach any conclusions.” A subtle difference in confidence between the NSA and the CIA and FBI on the assessment that Russian President Vladimir Putin wanted to help Trump’s election chances “appropriately represents analytic differences and was reached in a professional and transparent manner,” the Senate panel found. In yet another contradiction to Trump allies claims, the Senate panel also found that a piece of Democratic-funded opposition research known as the Steele dossier did not “in any way the analysis in the ICA – including the key findings.” This was “because it was unverified information and had not been disseminated as serialized intelligence reporting,” the Senate report found. All in all, the Senate panel’s report was a unflinching contradiction of many of the core claims made by Trump allies in the House.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) on Sunday said it is “fake news” to say that Russia did not meddle in the 2016 presidential election. “The idea that Russia did not meddle in our election is fake news,” Graham said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “They did meddle in our election and they’re doing it again in 2018,” he added. President Trump said on Friday that he will press Russian President Vladimir Putin on Moscow’s meddling during their meeting later this month. “We don’t want anyone tampering with elections,” Trump said, promising Russia’s interference in U.S. elections will be on the summit’s agenda. Trump has previously denied that Russia influenced the 2016 election, despite an assessment from U.S. intelligence agencies confirming some degree of interference.
On “Meet the Press,” Graham said he supports the meeting but hopes Trump will come out strongly against Russia’s actions. “I would urge President Trump work with Russia in Syria,” Graham said. “We have to deal with Russia. They’re a power throughout the world. But let Putin know that what he did in the past is unacceptable.” “Most importantly, if you continue to undermine our democracy and others, you’re going to pay a heavy price,” Graham added. “If Putin doesn’t understand that after this summit, then we’ve made, then we’ve made a big mistake.”
For months, the National Rifle Association has had a stock answer to queries about an investigation into whether Russian money was funneled to the gun rights group to aid Donald Trump’s presidential campaign. The NRA, which spent $30 million-plus backing Trump’s bid, has heard nothing from the FBI or any other law enforcement agency, spokesman Andrew Arulanandam reiterated in an email the other day. Legal experts, though, say there’s an easy explanation for that. They say it would be routine for Justice Department special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigators, who are looking at the NRA’s funding as part of a broader inquiry into Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. elections, to secretly gain access to the NRA’s tax returns from the Internal Revenue Service. On the returns, the group was required to identify its so-called “dark money” donors – companies and wealthy individuals who financed $21 million of the group’s publicly disclosed pro-Trump spending, as well as its multimillion-dollar efforts to heighten voter turnout. The NRA’s nonprofit status allows it to shield those donors’ names from the public, but not the IRS.
A central question for Mueller’s office is whether any of the confidential donors’ names hold clues that could enable investigators to trace a donation camouflaged to hide its Russian origins – such as a shell company that might be the end point in a chain of offshore transactions. It is illegal for foreign funds to be spent to influence U.S. elections. Prosecutors’ requests to federal magistrates or judges for access to tax information are usually made “entirely in the background, with no notice to the subject of the investigation,” said David Axelrod, a Columbus, Ohio, lawyer who previously prosecuted cases for the Justice Department’s Tax Division. The main focus of Mueller’s inquiry, as McClatchy reported in January, has been whether Alexander Torshin, deputy governor of Russia’s central bank and a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, arranged for Russian money to flow through the gun rights group to aid Trump, people familiar with the inquiry say.
Do they give out Nobel Peace Prizes for praising and appeasing brutal dictators who threaten nuclear war — without getting anything in return? President Trump claimed he would use his world-class dealmaking skills to convince North Korea’s dictator, Kim Jong Un, to surrender his nuclear weapons. Instead, Trump got played. Kim, who pledged in wishy-washy language to “denuclearize,” is now accelerating his nuclear program. The nuclear threat from North Korea — and the risk of a preemptive war launched by Trump — are both growing. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is heading to North Korea this week hoping to contain the fallout. Twenty days ago, Trump shook hands with Kim in Singapore. At the summit, Trump played the role of apologist in chief for Kim’s human rights abuses while praising Kim as a “very talented” person because he can “run it tough.” In North Korea, “running it tough” means executing dissidents, torturing political prisoners in gulags and threatening to wipe a few U.S. cities off the map with a nuclear blast.
The White House and Trump’s surrogates insisted that the unsavory handshake would be vindicated. They claimed we were witnessing a history-making deal from a history-making dealmaker. Former presidents, guided by experts who understood every intricacy of North Korean politics, had failed. All it would take from Trump, they claimed, was a one-on-one handshake, a photo-op and some touting of North Korea’s prospects for developing beachfront resorts. Hit by that sophisticated diplomatic approach, Kim would trade missiles for condos. Then, the president’s cheerleaders argued, Trump could accept his well-deserved invitation to Oslo. It was risible then. Now it is being revealed as fatally naive. Sunday, the Wall Street Journal reported that North Korea is rapidly completing a major expansion of a key manufacturing facility for missiles — missiles that can strike American allies, American military bases in those allied countries and, yes, the mainland United States. North Korea watchers also used recent satellite images to conclude that “improvements to the infrastructure at North Korea’s Yongbyon Nuclear Scientific Research Center are continuing at a rapid pace.” NBC News and The Post also reported this weekend that “U.S. intelligence agencies believe that North Korea has increased its production of fuel for nuclear weapons at multiple secret sites in recent months.”
Trump’s Corrupted Cabinet Member Swamp Creature Has Resigned
Only time can tell as the evidence will be revealed from the current investigation, but this case could turn into a major powder keg, which are seen in several articles like jim-jordan-accused-
Rep. Jim Jordan, the powerful Republican congressman from Ohio, is being accused by former wrestlers he coached more than two decades ago at Ohio State University of failing to stop the team doctor from molesting them and other students. The university announced in April that it was investigating accusations that Dr. Richard Strauss, who died in 2005, abused team members when he was the team doctor from the mid-1970s to late 1990s. Jordan, who was assistant wrestling coach at the university from 1986 to 1994, has repeatedly said he knew nothing of the abuse until former students began speaking out this spring. His denials, however, have been met with skepticism and anger from some former members of the wrestling team. Three former wrestlers told NBC News that it was common knowledge that Strauss showered regularly with the students and inappropriately touched them during appointments, and said it would have been impossible for Jordan to be unaware; one wrestler said he told Jordan directly about the abuse.
Former head coach Russ Hellickson, Jordan’s mentor, said in a recent video — made by Mike DiSabato, a former wrestler — that Hellickson had told Strauss that he was being too “hands on” with students. DiSabato, whose allegations against Strauss prompted Ohio State to open its investigation, called Jordan a “liar.” “I considered Jim Jordan a friend,” DiSabato said. “But at the end of the day, he is absolutely lying if he says he doesn’t know what was going on.” DiSabato said he reached out to Jordan this year, before going to the university, to tell Jordan that he planned to go public with his allegations. Jordan told him to “please leave me out of it,” DiSabato said. “He asked me not to get him involved.” Dunyasha Yetts, who wrestled at Ohio State in 1993 and 1994, said he and others told Jordan about Strauss. “I remember I had a thumb injury and went into Strauss’ office and he started pulling down my wrestling shorts,” he said. “I’m like, what the f— are you doing? And I went out and told Russ and Jim what happened. I was not having it. They went in and talked to Strauss.” Yetts said he and his teammates talked to Jordan numerous times about Strauss.
As for Jordan, Yetts said, “He’s a great guy. We would have all these great talks with him and he talked about how one day he’d be the president of the United States.” “So it’s sad for me to hear that he’s denying knowing about Strauss,” he said. “I don’t know why he would, unless it’s a cover-up. Either you’re in on it, or you’re a liar.” A former teammate of DiSabato’s who asked not to be identified said he never told Jordan directly that Strauss had abused him. But there is no way Jordan could have avoided the rumors “because it was all over the locker room.” “Congressman Jordan never saw any abuse, never heard about any abuse, and never had any abuse reported to him during his time as a coach at Ohio State,” his spokesman, Ian Fury, said in an email to NBC News.
DiSabato and his former teammates said Jordan and Hellickson were close, and if the head coach had qualms about Strauss he would have shared them with his No. 2. “Jim was Coach Russ’ right-hand man,” one former wrestler said. Hellickson, an Olympics silver medalist in wrestling in 1976 who has done commentary from the games for NBC News, did not return calls for comment. In response to a series of questions from NBC, Ohio State emailed a statement saying that the law firm Perkins Coie was overseeing the probe into the Strauss allegations for the university. OSU said it has also reached out “to the Columbus Division of Police and the Franklin County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office for any potential criminal investigation.” “To date, Perkins Coie has interviewed more than 150 former students and witnesses and is engaged in further investigative efforts,” the university said in the statement. “Ohio State has shared all additional information that has come to the attention of the university with the independent investigators whose work is ongoing.” It’s unclear whether former Ohio State coaches or administrators could face any penalties from the university for not protecting wrestlers from Strauss.
DiSabato, who runs a Columbus-based sports and entertainment agency called the Profectus Group, said the recent conviction of former Olympics gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar prompted him and other Ohio State athletes to come forward about Strauss. Strauss’ primary job was to give wrestlers physicals, treat them for injuries and monitor their health, DiSabato said. He said Strauss also preyed on students who played other sports. “Strauss sexually assaulted male athletes in at least fifteen varsity sports during his employment at OSU from 1978 through 1998,” DiSabato wrote in a June 26 email to Kathleen M. Trafford of Porter Wright Morris & Arthur, the Columbus-based law firm that represents Ohio State. “Athlete victims include members of the following programs: football, basketball, wrestling, swimming, cheerleading, volleyball, lacrosse, gymnastics, ice hockey, soccer, baseball, tennis, track and cross country.”
Chillingly, DiSabato added: “Based on testimony from victim athletes from each of the aforementioned varsity sports, we estimate that Strauss sexually assaulted and/or raped a minimum of 1,500/2,000 athletes at OSU from 1978 through 1998.” Ohio State has confirmed that investigators have received “confidential reports of sexual misconduct committed by Strauss” from former athletes in 14 sports and from former patients in Student Health Services. In the video, DiSabato said Strauss knew that many of the athletes were small-town kids who weren’t likely to protest if the doctor told them to disrobe, for fear of losing their scholarships. He said coaches knew that Strauss was a predator. “Everybody knew before you were going into the [examination] room that Doc Strauss was going to touch you,” DiSabato said. “It was like a joke before you went in there.”
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