The Paul Manafort verdict came in at the same time as Michael Cohen’s guilty plea yesterday. And it felt like something else happened within that same 30-minute frame: suddenly, people couldn’t shut up about pardons. Trump could conceivably pardon Manafort and Cohen for some of their crimes, although I still believe that there’s enough on both men to ensure that the state-level charges would keep them in jail for a long time. In any case, Pardons Pardons Pardons. Who would get a pardon, what a pardon would mean, would Congressional Republicans *finally* do something if Trump went on a pardoning spree. But until this very moment, I don’t think I realized that Trump could try to pardon someone and that person could REFUSE to be pardoned? Is that a thing? Michael Cohen’s lawyer thinks it’s a thing.
Lanny Davis, Michael Cohen's lawyer: "Mr. Cohen would never accept a pardon from a man that he considers to be corrupt and a dangerous person in the Oval Office … Mr. Cohen is not interested in being dirtied by a pardon from such a man." https://t.co/tFqZz6gOEV
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) August 22, 2018
STEPHANOPOULOS: Is Michael Cohen prepared to tell everything he knows about President Trump to special counsel Robert Mueller and other prosecutors?
LANNY DAVIS: Yes.
(via ABC) pic.twitter.com/KUwrr5wbT8— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) August 22, 2018
While I’m still not a lawyer, I think this is all interconnected: Cohen’s plea deal, a verbal refusal to take a pardon, the public moves from Cohen to indicate that he’s the FBI’s bitch now, all of it. Cohen made the choice to flip on everybody, especially Trump. He made that decision months ago. And now we’re seeing it all play out in real time.
Meanwhile, Trump is especially itchy this morning.
If anyone is looking for a good lawyer, I would strongly suggest that you don’t retain the services of Michael Cohen!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 22, 2018
I feel very badly for Paul Manafort and his wonderful family. “Justice” took a 12 year old tax case, among other things, applied tremendous pressure on him and, unlike Michael Cohen, he refused to “break” – make up stories in order to get a “deal.” Such respect for a brave man!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 22, 2018
A large number of counts, ten, could not even be decided in the Paul Manafort case. Witch Hunt!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 22, 2018
Michael Cohen plead guilty to two counts of campaign finance violations that are not a crime. President Obama had a big campaign finance violation and it was easily settled!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 22, 2018
If Trump is trying to preview his legal arguments, he’s doing a terrible job of it.
Page One of the @NYTIMES, 8/22/2018. #NYTimes pic.twitter.com/K9k0Nm0zWo
— Tom Jolly (@TomJolly) August 22, 2018
Photos courtesy of Backgrid, WENN and Avalon Red.
Let the Impeachment begin! ASAP!
Not gonna happen.
He’s done a fantastic job of selling the fake news/witch hunt/media lies narrative to his base and no matter what comes out they will believe HIM. With that in mind why would the GOP scum risk alienating their voters? They’re all disgusting, and we’d be silly to expect them to behave like human being with morals.
You have to remember his base is about 33%. The majority of the people don’t believe the dotard and knew he’s pulling a scam with his nonsense, “no collusion”.
The dotard won his election by cheating, lying 🤥 and help from Russia. Hillary received about three million, 3,000,000, more vote than 45. He won because of the Electoral College, not by the number of people who voted for him. His base is very loud and he has rabid followers. we will see what’s going to happen comes November if the Democrat takes over the House, there will be hearings about impeachment you can be sure.
Maybe that will change if the Blue Wave comes through.
This is pure Lanny Davis, who is very aggressive about owning his clients’ story. Shoving drump’s possible pardon back in drump’s face is great theater. And underscores Davis’ firm stand that drump is more corrupt and guilty of high crimes and treason. It also makes Cohen look a little bit like a righteous underdog.
I heard him for the first time on NPR this morning and you are right, he was very firm about Cohen’s story and the fact that he now wants to make things right. Hard to say just hearing his voice but he sounded a little emotional. I can see the underdog angle being crafted.
As for Trump, his tweets are ridiculous. And for the first time I sensed his desperation, more so than with any previous tweetstorms. Why would Cohen plead guilty to something that’s not a crime? Seems like Trump barely grasps basic law 101.
I read that Cohn plead guilty because his father (a Holocaust survivor) didn’t want the family name sullied.
Yeah, right! Sure…cohen is trash like trump. Accepted payment from at &t for access to trump. Worked for trump all those years. Guarantee he’s flipped on our POS. Yay!!!! These scummy people have no morals, they flip on each other in a heartbeat
True. But if it helps take Trump down, I’m on Team Cohen, even if he’s a little late to the remorse party.
The interview with Cohen’s lawyer is on the news right now. Cohen is hardly a hero. He’d still be doing what he was doing if he hadn’t gotten caught (ie: had his home raided by the FBI and had recordings and docs seized before he could destroy everything).
HOWEVER… whatever caused his Come To Moses moment (he’s Jewish 😊) the fact that he implicated Dump, in open court, makes my heart sing!
Here’s to the first of many dominoes falling down the line! 🥂
‘come to Moses moment’ – this is why I love reading the comments on this site, there is some damn fine wit in this group!
😊 Thank you, Maggi! ❤️
Meanwhile, the top story at Fox is Mollie Tibbetts and the need to crack down on illegals. His base is never going to turn on him—they’re getting alternative news
There was a tweet yesterday, showing ALL the news/cable news’ headlines were about Manafort/Cohen…except Faux, which had “ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT MURDERS….” UNBELIEVABLE!
Pence, the pathetic, drump prostrater (but having his staff call him “Mr President” behind drump’s back), also tweeted about her murder with an emphasis on cracking down on illegal immigrants. Sure drump dictated that to Mother’s husband. Faux concern for this poor woman in order to divert and bring back rabid hatred of immigrants.
Yes , I saw that too, last night I checked out Fox news to see how they framed this house of cards, and predictably the headline was ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT! I want to say that I mean no disrespect to that poor woman’s family, but unfortunately there are so many criminals that have no issues w citizenship or immigration.
I flipped channels several times last night, just to see what their lead story was. Using that young woman as a diversion is pathetic. Had it been her clean-cut boyfriend that was the suspect, I doubt they would have uttered a word about her.
Did Faux mention that that “illegal immigrant” was employed by a US Rep’s family business? A GOPer?
An illegal murders someone and the republicans keep screaming about deporting everyone, but an American citizen shoots up a school and kills a bunch of kids and all they worry about is their right to own guns
Yup. I can’t.
Or, you know, like a husband strangles his wife, who is pregnant btw, and kids all because he’s having an affair! But he’s white, so that’s okay! He probably just snapped! But MS 13 and build a wall for the undocumented person who killed the college student!
#RIPMollieTibbetts
Exactly… crickets. Makes your stomach turn, doesn’t it?
That’s because if he gets pardoned, that means he accepts the charges and can be charged with State crimes.
State crimes comes with higher jail sentence and Cohen cannot plead the 5th once he has been pardoned.
^^THIS.
Pleading guilty also means he accepts the charges, and he pled to them in open court today, so I don’t think that’s the motivation. I think he finally got some clarity and realized that the person he idolized, lied for, covered up for, broke the law for, and lived to please threw him away like a dirty Kleenex, and now he’s paying him back. 45 may be learning a very, very late life lesson in doing unto others, and if it’s what you say it is, I LOVE IT!!!!
Eh the no pardon no way thing is pure posturing. We do it all the time. What we tell the media and what is going on – with our client, with the prosecutors, even what is known within our office – are usually two very different things LOL. Basically don’t believe anything about legal matters until you see it in the public record. And I say that also bc I’ve had journalists sitting ten feet away from me during a hearing and I read their article in the evening and it’s like WHAT COURTHOUSE WERE YOU IN BUDDY
His wife was his bookkeeper. I am sure the Feds let it know that if he accepts a pardon, they will go after his wife.
…go ahead, pardon me, see how fast I refuse it, go ahead, c’mon already, pardon me!?
He is not eligible for that sort of pardon though. The Governor of New York would have to pardon him. His lawyer knows this so I just see it as them making the tiny bit of noise possible out of spite.
He’s still potentially exposed to far more charges. Cohen knows all the dirt and it is far more than just paying off Stormy and the other one. Dump is worried because he knows all the money laundering schemes and dirty deals well before he was president. Lanny Davis is showboating about being too honorable for a pardon, but the reality is that if Cohen loses his ability to plead the 5th, there are so many other crimes he could be exposed to.
Lanny’s role appears to be similar to Rudy’s. Work the TV shows to build a narrative. Lanny is far more focused, though. He’s pitching remorseful, family man Mikey will be a hero. Stay tuned.
Someone mentioned last night that Karen (the playboy model) scares Orange more than Stormy. They had a longer-term relationship. Not sure what he fears, as she seemed to still have goo-goo eyes for him when she was interviewed a few months ago.
I think he fears what she knows, as in what she saw and heard. She followed him around often flying out to where he was for a booty call. EZ likes to brag so god only knows what he told her to get those panties off.
I feel like the tide is turning but don’t want to get my hopes up. I guess I do have my hopes up that the tide may turn.
I also think Cohen is a criminal weasel, BUT I will give him a modicum of approval for doing the right thing–even if it’s late in the game. In this case, Better Late than Never is true.
He has been making moves to protect his family in the previous months. I think he bought a new apartment and some other stuff to set them up while he’s in prison. He has younger children, so maybe he’d rather have them think their father has some “honor”(coughcough) by admitting to his crimes, doing his time (albeit MUCH shorter stint), than going down in history as traitor. No one wants another Benedict Arnold in their family tree. Maybe??