Michael Cohen

Finally, the Hush Money case begins this Monday

by Dave

Opening arguments lay out the basics of the case for the jury from both the prosecution and defense side. Of course, from the defense side, Trump is innocent. The jury will hear two months of evidence and then decide.

So, everyone has their job. The judge, prosecutors and defense lawyers know their job. But the jury doesn’t unless they have served on a jury before. It is basically weird. They are the deciders, but they can’t solve this problem like any others. They can’t go into Google. They can’t talk it over with the others in the jury. They can’t talk to their spouse or neighbors. Lots of can nots.

And they are not going to know what laws Trump is accused of breaking until the very end. My experience on juries, is in general, that the people act very conscientiously, they respect each other, and obey the orders of the judge. Some are more engaged than others, but they all play by the rules.

So, the system is working. Hardly headline news, but it should be. The delay tactics of Trump failed. Every defendant has a right to a speedy trial so they can clear their names. In this case, Trump wants just the opposite, namely indefinite postponements. If he can slow down this trial, the ones that follow, particularly the Classified Documents case, will also get pushed back.

Judge Cannon, in the Classified Documents case, has now ruled against Trump on a motion to dismiss. Apparently, there are many more motions pending, and she’ll have to rule on these soon. If she can do this expeditiously, then just perhaps in July, the documents case can begin. Trump’s team is trying to use the Hush Money case, and the need for his lawyers in NY, to further push back the Document case. No start date has been scheduled.

The Jan 6 case is awaiting a decision on the immunity claim by Trump. Oral arguments will be held in the Supreme Court. This will be interesting, because the appellate court ruled against him, and legal experts do not expect this will go well for Trump on Thursday.

Court reporters are will get no break, as they go from Manhattan, NY to Ft. Pierce, FL (Documents Case), Atlanta, GA (Election Conspiracy Case) and Washington, DC (Jan 6 election interference case).

Stay tuned,

Dave

Cohen v. Trump – Oct 24

by Dave

Michael Cohen will testify for the prosecution of Donald Trump in the civil case on the overvaluation of properties in New York State. I think at this point there is hardly anything that Trump’s defense team doesn’t know. Trump’s Chief Financial Officer, Allen Weisselberg, has already testified that properties were overvalued, followed by an outside appraiser who corroborated this, and provided his involvement in the process.

What Cohen will bring to the table today, is testimony that Donald Trump met with Allen Weisselberg and gave his approval. That connection is essential. The defense will likely attack Michael Cohen’s credibility. Cohen officially surrendered to the FBI on August 21, 2018. That afternoon, Cohen pleaded guilty to eight criminal charges: five counts of tax evasion, one count of making false statements to a financial institution, one count of willfully causing an unlawful corporate contribution, and one count of making an excessive campaign contribution at the request of a candidate (Trump) for the “principal purpose of influencing [the] election”. (Wikipedia, see link at bottom)

Donald Trump is expected to attend. I am sure his defense team wishes he would not. He has been warned to be quiet in the courtroom, and is restricted on what he can say about court employees outside of court. What is motivating Trump, is that he wants to be in front of the cameras and tell his followers that the charges are baseless.

All this political rhetoric is wearing thin. The court already ruled in a summary judgement that there was overvaluation of properties. So, Trump will be found guilty. He will lose control of valuable properties in NY State, and pay millions in fines. Michael Cohen is there to fill in some of the gaps of who was responsible.

So, today’s question is can Trump control himself? If there is an outburst, will the judge jail him, at least for a day? Will his followers continue to buy his story that his is just a witch hunt? We shall see.

Stay tuned,

Dave

Wikipedia Michael Cohen

I’ll see you in court

by Dave

Trump didn’t like the election results. After 62 lawsuits, not one single vote changed. But, this was pure Trump. A barrage of lawsuits. Now the tables have turned, and he’s the one in the firing range, without much to fire back.

Welcome to New York City, Mr. Trump. There is no hometown advantage here. This is where he was sued for fraud in the Trump University ($25 million) and Trump charities ($3 million).

There are a lot of cases chasing Donald Trump, but I’m keeping my eye on the Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance case, because it is a criminal case, and has a good chance of finally going forward after 3 years. It began in 2018, when Trump could claim protection to his records as president. And yes, it is all about defrauding the government on taxes.

Vance has the treasure trove of the Trump’s organization tax records, courtesy of a Supreme Court ruling. Michael Cohen, Trump’s all important fixer, is helping him. Be careful of the enemies you make when you are going up, they may be the same ones you see going down. The focus with the Vance case is the legitimacy of a 46 million dollar tax break in real estate transactions. See Washington Post article for details.

A second case is spearheaded by New York Attorney General Letitia James, and yes, more real estate transaction. But this one is a civil suit, so I think it could be settled out of court. Again, the Washington Post has the details.

Now, in reference to these cases, remember those that know, don’t talk, and those that talk don’t know. Or they speculate. Vance and James can’t share tax information.

Trump can pay some of the legal fees from his PAC money, reported as “over 31 million dollars.” Sorry, these are unbelievable suckers to think “Saving America” and bailing out a billionaire with tax fraud problems are some how compatible.

If successful, Michael Cohen will likely be pleased. Likely he learned from his former boss – Revenge is sweet.

Stay tuned,

Dave

Links:

Washington Post, Lawsuits against Trump

Trump’s fixer man, Michael Cohen, and his secret business dealings

by Dave

Michael Cohen is both a lawyer and a business man.    Search warrants  were served on Mr. Cohen because he is  being investigated for possible campaign finance violations, bank fraud and wire fraud.   It is part of a federal grand jury investigation which was empaneled months ago.  On Monday,  Mr. Cohen lost in his request to have all items seized in the raid returned to him.     It was established in court, that in the last year and a half,  Cohen provided legal advice to only three clients,  Donald Trump,  Elliott Broidy and Sean Hannity.   Sean Hannity denied he was Mr. Cohen’s client.

In their search, investigators also sought to obtain records relating to Cohen’s ownership of taxi medallions — high-value assets that are often used as collateral for loans, according to people familiar with the matter.  The value of the medallions was sharply dropping in value, as a result of Uber and Lyft.   Between April and June 2017, the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance filed seven tax warrants against Cohen and his wife for $37,434 in unpaid taxi taxes due to the MTA.[13]

Prosecutors are following the money on this one.   The  $130,000 payoff to Stormy Daniels, might be the most visible sign of shady business, but I suspect there are far bigger targets.   Elliott Broidy  needed Cohen’s help to hide the fact that his affair with Playboy model, Shera Bachard, who he made pregnant, and Cohen arranged a 1.3 million dollar payment to hush up the affair.    The child was aborted.

According to the New York Times, Mr. Broidy was a national deputy chairman of the R.N.C.’s finance committee, a title he shared with Mr. Cohen.  Mr. Broidy is the second member of that committee to resign this year amid questions involving their behavior with women and deals to silence them.

So,  how big is this swamp?   Here is more from the New York Times article:

During the wide-ranging October meeting, Mr. Broidy raised numerous topics high on the agenda of the United Arab Emirates, a country that has given his security company a contract worth hundreds of millions of dollars. He pitched the president on a paramilitary force his company was developing for the U.A.E. and urged Mr. Trump to fire Rex W. Tillerson, then the secretary of state, who the U.A.E. believed was insufficiently tough on its rival Qatar.

The documents show that Mr. Broidy has worked closely with George Nader, an adviser to the U.A.E. and a witness in the special counsel’s investigation, to help steer Trump administration policy on numerous issues in the Middle East. Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel, is examining Mr. Nader’s possible role in funneling Emirati money to finance Mr. Trump’s political efforts. There is no indication that Mr. Mueller’s team is looking into Mr. Broidy.

In 2009, Mr. Broidy pleaded guilty to charges that he made nearly $1 million worth of illegal gifts to New York State officials in order to win an investment of $250 million from the state’s public pension fund. Among the gifts were trips to Israel and Italy, payouts to officials’ relatives and girlfriends and an investment in one relative’s production of a low-budget movie called “Chooch.”

It is also reported that there are no emails between Donald Trump and Michael Cohen.   Trump apparently doesn’t use email.

If true, can you imagine the gall of Broidy, wanting to get rid of the secretary of state,  because of his business dealings in the UAE.    Our environmental policies, have been sold out to the fossil fuel companies,  but was  Trump also trading in our relations with other Middle East countries to help support his donors?    Broidy was also on Trump’s inaugural ceremony committee, where millions  were unaccounted for according to MSNBC’s Rachel Madlow and others (see link).

I’m honestly not that interested in Stormy Daniel’s hush money contract, or  Elliot Broidy’s affair,  but the Middle East connections, by way of George Nader.  This might help Mueller’s team.

At this point, it is a legal battle between the president’s lawyers who want to do anything possible to impede the review by the “taint team”  verses the Department of Justice who want to know to get the team’s  review done as soon as possible.   Judge Kimba Woods has stated that case law on confidentiality, applies equally, be it the president of the United States, or the man on the street.   This has also been the opinion of the Supreme Court,  dating back to claims of Executive Privilege in the days of Nixon and Watergate.   Judge Woods  will likely decide soon whether a Special Master should be appointed.

Stay tuned,

Dave

Links:

Whatever happened to the money from Trump’s inaugural committee?

 

Lawsuits against Buzzfeed and Fusion GPS

by Dave

There is going to be a lot of media coverage on Trump dossier / Buzzfeed / Fusion GPS / Congressional Investigation.  It is way more than this subject deserves.  So why would I want to add to it?  I’ve already posted one blog, with the conclusion that the media in general, has shown incredible restraint in not making the dossier public because the sources of the information were not revealed in the dossier and salacious information on Donald Trump could not be confirmed.

Trump Dossier – Nov 2017

The Trump Dossier could not have affected the elections because the details had not been made public until January 11, 2017 when  Buzzfeed decided to post it on the internet as they have the legal right to under the First Amendment of free speech.   As I reported earlier, they were sued one month later, as follows:

Aleksej Gubarev, chief of technology company XBT and a figure mentioned in the dossier, sued BuzzFeed for defamation on February 3, 2017.

Today,  Michael Cohen,  who is one of Donald Trump’s personal lawyer, filed  lawsuits against Buzzfeed and Fusion GPS for defaming him.   Why now and not a year ago when the Trump dossier was first posted on the internet.  The lawsuits are frivolous and will go nowhere.  There is just a one year limit on filing lawsuits after material has been published.    Michael Cohen has strongly denied a visit to Prague in the summer of 2016 and offered a copy of his passport as proof.  However if is possible his passport would not be stamped if he entered by way of other EU countries.   However,  for those who like to  believe the whole Russian scandal is one big witch hunt, and the Democrats did stuff far worse, these lawsuits give Michael Cohen free air time, particularly on Fox News, which is something his boss (Donald Trump) will appreciate.

Stay tuned,

Dave

— There are way too many links on this topic to list here.    One is a bit misleading, from the New York Times, entitled “I’m Proud We Published the Russian-Trump Dossier”  however if you click on the link,  the “We” refers to Buzzfeed, and not the New York Times. It is written by Ben Smith, CEO of Buzzfeed, and is offered an independent opinion piece.   All the mainstream media (CNN, Washington Post, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and many others) and conservative focused media outlets, including Fox News refused to publish the dossier in either print or electronic form.    I believe it is to their credit, that they refuse publication because several of the allegations have no corroboration.