President Trump: The NEW one and only politics thread

Then this is just a big scam by Mueller and the prosecutors?

 

Whenever somebody brings him up, wingnuts dismiss it by talking about the Bush National Guard thing.

 

Whatever you thought of his politics, John McCain is a goddamned American hero.

 

Trump Organization executive Allen Weisselberg, who allegedly helped arrange hush-money reimbursement to Cohen, granted immunity.

Trump says he barely knew this guy, too?
Weisselberg and Cohen. How long until Hannity claims it’s a Jewish conspiracy?

 

Um, nothing in what you posted points to a campaign finance law violation.

Here is the quote from what I posted from Alan Dershowitz:

"If [the prosecution] believes Cohen, that the president directed him to do it, then it’s not a crime at all," Dershowitz said. "If he doesn’t believe Cohen, then Cohen has committed a crime, but not the president."

Dershowitz also took issue with the idea that Trump was an unindicted co-conspirator with Cohen, saying, "You don’t become an unindicted co-conspirator if your action is lawful, even though the action of the other person is unlawful."

 

David Foster Wallace:

But, see, we do know how this man reacted. That he chose to spend four more years there, in a dark box, alone, tapping code on the walls to the others, rather than violate a Code. Maybe he was nuts. But the point is that with McCain it feels like we know, for a proven fact, that he’s capable of devotion to something other, more, than his own self-interest. So that when he says the line in speeches in early February you can feel like maybe it isn’t just more candidate bullshit, that with this guy it’s maybe the truth. Or maybe both the truth and bullshit: the guy does – did – want your vote, after all.

But that moment in the Hoa Lo office in ’68 – right before he refused, with all his basic normal human self-interest howling at him – that moment is hard to blow off.

David Foster Wallace on John McCain: ‘The Weasel, Twelve Monkeys and the Shrub’ – Rolling Stone

 

Remember when this column was widely mocked by very smart conservative posters here? Seems to becoming more and more on target each day.

Michael Cohen and the End Stage of the Trump Presidency

 

Maybe bringing this up in 2016. The family is so cautious, that they tend to make their biggest declarations (or hottest takes) days, weeks, months or in this case years after what they are referring to is no longer relevant.
I have to think the Trump/Pecker relationship wasn't a secret in 2016, should have done it then.

 

In the case of McDougal, Cohen pleaded guilty to encouraging American Media, publisher of the supermarket tabloid National Enquirer, to pay McDougal $150,000 to keep quiet. That violated two campaign-finance laws: one that makes it illegal for a corporation to give money directly to a campaign, and another that limits how much any individual can contribute.

The Daniels case is different. If Trump had paid the money to her directly, that would not necessarily be illegal, if it had been accounted for correctly. A candidate can contribute any amount of money to his own campaign. But all such contributions have to be publicly reported as campaign expenditures, and the Daniels payment, which Trump clearly did not want disclosed, was not reported.


Did Trump just inadvertently admit to violating federal law?

 

Interesting strategy by Hunter to blame everything on his wife. Do you think she's OK with that plan?