Tuesday, August 21, 2018

Cohen Guilty Plea: He Paid Hush Money at Trump’s Direction


Today was not a good day for Donald Trump, a/k/a Trumpenführer, as a Virginia federal jury found former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort guilty on eight 8 counts of tax evasion, bank fraud, etc. (Manafort still has another trial on additional charges in Washington, DC, on charges much closer to the Russiagate investigation). Worse yet, however, was Michael Cohen's plea deal in which he plead guilty to eight counts, including two counts of violation of federal campaign finance laws.  Indeed, Cohen stated that he paid hush money in violation of federal campaign laws at the direction of Trump with an aim of influencing the 2016 presidential election.   To many, Manafort's conviction and Cohen's plea deal merely confirmed what they had already known: Trump and his circle largely akin to a Mafia crime syndicate. For Trump's base, one has to wonder what mental contortions they will need to engage in to continue believing Trump's lie that the Mueller investigation is a "witch hunt."  An growing number of witches have either been indicted, plead guilty and, now convicted in the case of Manfort.  A piece in Politico looks at Cohen's statement that directly implicate Trump in illegal actions.  Here are highlights:
Michael Cohen, Donald Trump’s combative former personal lawyer, on Tuesday implicated the president in hush money payments he said were designed to sway the election, as part of a plea deal he struck with federal prosecutors on fraud charges.
Cohen, who once stated he would take a bullet for Trump, flipped on his former boss in a dramatic courtroom appearance that went down just as news emerged that former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort had been found guilty in his own fraud trial.
“I participated in the conduct for the purposes of influencing the election” Cohen said about his payments to adult-film actress Stormy Daniels and ex-Playboy model Karen McDougal, two women who claimed to have had affairs with Trump in the past. Trump denies the claims.
The statement came as Cohen formally entered his plea at a Manhattan federal court, in which he admitted guilt to a slate of eight tax evasion, financial fraud and campaign finance charges.
It represented a bombshell moment — and the most politically and potentially legally damaging for Trump, who had previously denied knowledge of the payments.
Cohen said one payment, for $150,000, was made during "summer of 2016, in coordination and at the direction of a candidate for federal office."
The second payment, for $130,000, was made around "October of 2016, at the direction of the same candidate."
Some legal experts speculated that because the Cohen plea included campaign finance violations based on payoffs, it is possible that Trump could be listed as an unindicted co-conspirator.
“It’s certainly possible, and I emphasis possible, that the president could be treated as a co-conspirator,” said the lawyer representing a senior Trump aide in the Russia probe.
“If Cohen broke the law by making these payments, then folks knew about it and agreed with it and assisted with it also broke the law. It’s that simple,” the lawyer added.
And Cohen's attorney, Lanny Davis, didn't shy away from directly calling out the president.  "If those payments were a crime for Michael Cohen, then why wouldn't they be a crime for Donald Trump?” he asked in a statement.
Notably, the documents leave unanswered the question of whether Cohen has agreed to cooperate with special counsel Robert Mueller's probe into Russian interference in the election — and any potential coordination with Trump's campaign on those efforts.
The crimes carry a maximum sentence of 65 years, but sentencing guidelines recommend 46-63 months of prison time.  A source close to Cohen said prior to the plea that Cohen agreed to a plea deal “to save millions of dollars, protect his family, and limit his exposure,” the source said.
Cohen’s plea brings the investigation squarely into the realm of the president’s private life and family, and it marks the most formal break yet between the president and one of his most vocal, visible and forceful defenders.
Campaign finance violations are very hard to prove, and require a lot of mental evidence, or evidence of intent — not just that you know you are doing something wrong, but that you know you are doing something illegal,” Brennan said. “So to get a plea to that charge is a huge win for the government, and for the whole series of investigations.”
Cohen’s willingness to enter into the cooperation agreement “is hugely damaging on two levels,” Brennan added.  On the political level, Cohen can offer investigators and prosecutors critically important details about hush money payments and other potentially damaging information “about willful violations of the law to support the presidential campaign.”
And on the legal front, Cohen’s cooperation could spell trouble for Trump even if Mueller continues to believe a sitting president cannot be indicted. “If you sign a cooperation agreement, you essentially agree to share information with the FBI about any criminal wrongdoing you are aware of,” Brennan said.

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