Category Archives: Law
Unindicted Co-Conspiritor Witch Hunt
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President Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen ratted him out. He says Trump directed him to arrange hush money payments to a playboy model and a porn star. Trump then reimbursed him for the Stormy Daniels payment. Cohen claims that helped Trump’s 2016 election chances and therefore it was an illegal in-kind campaign contribution.
Witch Hunt
Democrats are wary of impeachment talk but Cohen’s lawyer (and Bill Clinton’s old impeachment defender) Lanny Davis is howling “high crimes and misdemeanors.”
But Bill Clinton’s former speech writer Mark Penn says there’s nothing illegal about it. Had Trump used campaign funds to pay hush money it would have been an illegal personal use of campaign funds. So using his own money can’t be considered a campaign contribution. And Professor Dershowitz says even if it is a campaign contribution there’s no limit to the amount Trump can contribute to his own campaign.
Trump tweets “witch hunt.” Stay tuned.
Manafort’s Money
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President Trump’s former campaign manager Paul Manafort was convicted on eight charges of bank and tax fraud. The judge ruled a mistrial on 10 other charges. The conviction isn’t related to Robert Mueller’s collusion investigation.
But maybe it was related to Manafort’s taste for the the finer things in life. He once spent $15,000 on an ostrich jacket. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. Except that he lied to banks for loans and didn’t pay taxes on $16 million.
Vox follows Manafort’s money here.
Strzok Strikes Out
Peter Strzok was the lead FBI investigator of both the Hillary Clinton email caper and Russian 2016 election meddling. His own text messages showed his bias in favor of Clinton and against Trump. He claimed he could smell Trump supporters at Walmart. But he insisted he was too professional to allow his opinions to affect his work.
Strzok Strikes Out
Deputy Director David Bowdich wasn’t buying it . He fired Strzok on Monday. So Strzok responded with a link to a GoFundMe account. By Tuesday it was worth $325,000.
Here’s a Washington Post story about the Steele dossier funded by the DNC and Clinton campaign .
Possible Fake News Tesla Tweets
Elon Musk tweeted that he wants to take Tesla private and has $70 billion in backing to do it. Tesla shares jumped 10% on the news. But now that the S.E.C. is on his case for possible fake news Tesla tweets the stock is back to ground zero.
Cardinal McCarrick
Pope Francis accepted the resignation of 88 year old Cardinal Theodore McCarrick. The former Bishop of Washington DC is under investigation for sexual abuse of a minor 47 years ago.
