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.
The Bishop
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Monty Python had a sketch called The Bishop. The Bishop was always arriving moments too late to save a priest from imminent demise.
That Bishop was Episcopalian and a thug. But the real news recently has been about Roman Catholic Bishops and the pervert priests they protect.
A Pennsylvania grand jury accused 300 priests of sexually abusing over 1,000 children over the past 70 years.
Where do we get such men you may wonder? Seminaries. The former Archbishop of Washington, DC Cardinal Theodore McCarrick allegedly sexually molested young seminarians. He was kind of a Harvey Weinstein of the church.
The current Washington archbishop, Cardinal Donald Wuerl, called the news about his predecessor “a terrible disappointment.”
Free Press Group-Think
The Boston Globe organized an editorial writing campaign last week. The idea was for independent newspapers to tell Trump to stop calling them “the enemy of the people.” All on the same day.
Three hundred plus papers including the New York Times obliged.
Some of the editorials also complained about Trump calling the media an “opposition party.” But here’s Jim Rutenberg in the NY Times two years ago:
If you view a Trump presidency as something that’s potentially dangerous, then your reporting is going to reflect that. You would move closer than you’ve ever been to being oppositional.
Free Press Group-Think
Others like the Los Angeles Times and Washington Post took a pass on the campaign. Carl Cannon in Real Clear Politics called the joint effort “group-think.” And he recalled H.L. Menken’s journalistic advice to “be a party of one.”
Jack Shafer in Politico added this bit of advice:
Editorial pages of America, don’t unite! Think for yourselves! Reject this stupid pro-press assignment!
He also agreed with Cannon that the whole scheme played into Trump’s tiny hands. (Okay, he didn’t really say “tiny.”)
All Tweet No Action
Former CIA Director and cable tv personality John Brennan has tweeted that Trump is a traitor and a danger to our nation. So the president took away his security clearance. Now Brennan says Trump is punishing a critic and suppressing free speech.
All Tweet No Action
Earlier this week WSJ columnist William McGurn complained that Trump is “all tweet and no action”. McGurn feels the FBI is slow walking documents Congress has subpoenaed. So he wants Trump to declassify them.
