February 27, 2019

THERE ARE NO BAD REASONS TO INDICT/IMPEACH HIM:

Michael Cohen proves it: The president is a crook (Ryan Cooper, February 27, 2019, The Week)

The most damning piece of evidence Cohen provided was a copy of the $130,000 hush money payment he made to Stormy Daniels -- bribing her in October 2016 to keep quiet about allegedly having sex with Trump in 2006, just after his wife Melania had given birth to their son Barron. And contrary to Trump's insistence that Cohen did that on his own initiative, Cohen also provided copies of two reimbursement checks, one from Trump himself and one from the trust that owned his business, for $35,000 each in March and August 2017 -- after he had become president.

Even if Cohen had conducted the payment himself, this would be a violation of campaign finance law by the Trump campaign, as it constituted a campaign contribution that must be disclosed (which would obviously have negated the entire point of the bribe -- to hide the affair from the American people). But now we know that Trump personally arranged the payment -- including at least one check from his own personal bank account bearing his unmistakable signature.

Second, Cohen alleged that Trump engaged in major financial crimes regarding his net worth, possibly amounting to both bank and tax fraud. He said: "It was my experience that Mr. Trump inflated his total assets when it served his purposes, such as trying to be listed among the wealthiest people in Forbes, and deflated his assets to reduce his real estate taxes." [...]

Cohen further alleged that Trump had arranged a "straw bidder" for a portrait of himself, who paid $60,000 to win the auction. Trump then allegedly repaid the bidder with money from the Trump Foundation, and hung the portrait in one of his country clubs. If true, that would be a stark violation of IRS rules about private foundations, which state that such an "organization must not be organized or operated for the benefit of private interests."

Once again, it's worth noting the Trump Foundation was shut down in December amid a lawsuit from the New York attorney general, who accused it of "persistently illegal conduct," said it "was little more than a checkbook for payments to not-for-profits from Mr. Trump or the Trump Organization," and that it engaged in extensive illegal political activity in addition to buying paintings and a Tim Tebow football helmet for Trump personally.

Finally, Cohen alleged that Trump implicitly directed him to lie to Congress about the Trump Tower deal in Moscow (which Cohen pleaded guilty to in November), and that contrary to CNN's reporting of statements Trump gave to Robert Mueller, knew about Roger Stone's contacts with WikiLeaks.

Posted by at February 27, 2019 5:23 PM

  

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