Michael Cohen

What’s Roasting Trump’s Nuts? Jurors Believed Stormy Daniels and Michael Cohen, But Not Him

Posted by on May 31, 2024 at 12:56 pm. 2 Comments :

Convicted felon Donald Trump is not taking his convictions very well. The morning after a jury found him guilty on all 34 felony counts of falsifying business records to cover up a sexual encounter with a porn star that threatened his presidential campaign, Trump returned to his eponymous office tower in Manhattan to do what he does best – whine like a colicky infant.

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Donald Trump, Snowflakes

Trump’s address to the gathered press was mostly a rehashing of everything he has been saying in his hallway harangues outside of court for the past few weeks. He attacked the judge and the district attorney, complained that the trial was a “sham” that was somehow “rigged” by President Biden, and regurgitated the canned lines that his handlers and MAGA GOP confederates had prepared for him.

SEE THIS: The Cult of Trump Received Their Orders to Recite the Pre-Approved Lie that ‘There is No Crime’

One thing, however, was clear in Trump’s tantrum. He was seething with anger at the outcome of his trial. And the targets of his animosity, in addition to the Judge, the D.A. and the Democrats, were a couple of people with whom he previously had uncommonly close relations: adult film actor/producer Stormy Daniels, and lawyer/fixer Michael Cohen.

Trump couldn’t restrain himself from mentioning Daniels and Cohen, because he surely held them materially responsible for his convictions. They both testified against him court. And in order for the jury to find him guilty, they had to believe that Daniels and Cohen told the truth, and that Trump was lying. That undoubtedly rattled his already shaky mental foundation. So he let them have it in his post-verdict speech, calling Cohen a “sleazebag,” and Daniels a liar…

There were several other witnesses in the trial that Trump could have gone after, but didn’t. And like Daniels and Cohen, they were all former close associates. Including…

  • Hope Hicks: Trump’s White House communications director.
  • David Pecker: publisher of the National Enquirer and longtime Trump friend.
  • Jeffrey McConney: The Trump Organization’s former controller.
  • Rhona Graff: Trump’s former executive assistant.
  • Deborah Tarasoff: The Trump Organization’s accounts payable supervisor.
  • Madeleine Westerhout: Trump’s White House secretary.

Despite Trump’s rancid wrath directed at American justice and the citizens who participate in it, Trump knows very well that Biden didn’t run the prosecution. He knows that Judge Juan Merchan and D.A. Alvin Bragg didn’t determine the verdict. He knows that the trial wasn’t “rigged.” But the only response that Trump and His MAGA GOP confederates have left is to denigrate the individuals and institutions that they blame for the legal misfortune that is entirely his own fault.

Therefore, he lashes out furiously with baseless allegations of corruption, and attacks on America’s justice system as “shameless” and “disgraceful.” But it’s his own shamelessness that is so disgraceful. And it’s troubling that someone so averse to the rule of law and the principles enshrined in the constitution can be considered a serious candidate for president by a major political party.

What’s more, it’s too bad that public servants like the Judge and the D.A. cannot sue Trump for defamation. But what about the jurors? If they are identified, their lives will be at risk. They have been viciously vilified by Trump as accomplices in the “rigged” trial and the “corruption” that he falsely claims took place. Where do they go to get back their reputations and security for themselves and their families?

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Fox News Breaks the Hush Money Trial Wide Open By Reporting that ‘Trump is a Really Nice Guy’

Posted by on May 13, 2024 at 3:46 pm. 4 Comments :

Week five of Donald Trump’s trial for election interference and campaign finance fraud has begun with a bang. The week is beginning with perhaps the most anticipated witness, after Stormy Daniels, of the whole sordid affair. Michael Cohen was Trump’s attorney and “fixer” for ten years before his role in the “hush money” payoff to buy the silence of Daniels prior to the presidential election.

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Donald Trump, Wah

Throughout the first four weeks of the trial, the prosecution has effectively built the case against Trump with documentary evidence and testimony affirming his intention to keep his tryst with Daniels secret so that it wouldn’t cause further harm to his campaign. Trump’s defense team, on the hand, has failed to do any damage to the witnesses who have taken the stand so far. And the only thing Trump himself has done is to whine in the hallway outside of court.

SEE THIS: Trump Fixates on Fox News Phonies While Lying that a Gag Order Prohibits Him from Testifying

Meanwhile, Trump’s Ministry of Propaganda, Fox News, is playing its part in this melodrama, which is to whitewash the most wretched aspects the story as they unfold. Unfortunately, there is little that they can do to erase the harm resulting from Trump’s noxious and unlawful behavior. So they are resorting to lame depictions of Trump as a beneficent figure who is a candidate for sainthood. For example, on Fox and Friends First they gushed…

“Listen to what the witnesses say about Trump and their time working for him. Madeline Westerhout. ‘A very good boss. Very enjoyable to work for.’ Hope Hicks: ‘A very good time.’ Rona Graff: ‘He was fair. I don’t think I would have been there 34 years if he didn’t respect me.’

And then let’s bring in Michael Cohen, the star witness of the prosecution. He said: ‘It was fantastic working for him for those ten years. Was an amazing experience. There were great times. There were less great times, but for the most part, I enjoyed the responsibilities given to me.’” And the Fox News host then added that “By and large Donald Trump is a really nice guy. If you get to know him he’s a friendly, nice, gregarious, human being.”

Seriously? The best that Fox News can do is to peddle the nonsense that Trump – a notoriously noxious individual who is filled with hostility and a penchant for vengeance – is “nice”? Well then, in that case they should throw the whole case out. The appraisals of Trump above are all by his former loyal employees who have already appeared as witnesses for the prosecution. It shouldn’t surprise anyone that they have fond memories of the many years they worked for him. But that only makes their consistently incriminating testimony all the more credible – and detrimental to Trump – because they can’t be dismissed as enemies.

It’s also notable that Fox’s most reliable Trump-fluffers couldn’t come up with any coherent legal defenses that actually argued for his innocence. And neither, by the way, can Trump. So they focus on these irrelevant personal characterizations instead. Never mind that there are innumerable examples of people who have worked for Trump who were later cast out as “stupid, incompetent, liars,” and worse when they were of no further use to him. Further proof of his niceness.

Cohen isn’t the only former Trump loyalist who is now unable to support him. His former White House Chief of Staff, Attorney General, U.N. Ambassador, National Security Advisor, Joint Chiefs Chairman, and an assortment of other administration officials, have concluded that he is a danger to the nation. Even his own vice-president, Mike Pence, has publicly announced that he won’t endorse him.

So these old and no longer held opinions of Trump by his past employees are a truly worthless exercise in distraction. Particularly when they have all now testified against him. But it’s the only thing that Fox News could come up with to counter all the bad legal news for Trump. Look for Trump’s defense to rest on feeble accusations that he is the victim of a “rigged” justice system. Because when all the evidence points to guilt, all the defendant can do is whine. Which this defendant is especially good at.

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Desperately Seeking a Trump VP Nod, Gov Kristi Noem Manages to Thoroughly Humiliate Herself.

Posted by on April 21, 2024 at 4:41 pm. 1 Comments :

The ranks of servile sycophants swimming around Donald Trump like the symbiotic fish species that leech off of whales is peculiar phenomenon that generally leads to repudiation and rejection. Trump notoriously demands unflinching loyalty from his supplicants, but refuses to reciprocate when they are no longer useful to him.

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Donald Trump, Woman, Fear

This is especially notable in the grueling contest for who will join Trump’s ticket for the 2024 presidential race. There is already a flock of fawners hoping to land the number two post, whose job it will be to prop up Dear Leader’s corpulent husk and ego. They include such bottom-feeding bootlickers as Tim Scott, Vivek Ramaswamy, Elise Stefanik, Byron Donalds, Kari Lake, and JD Vance. All vying to be the next hangman, aka Mike Pence.

SEE THIS: Trump Renews Whining that Mike Pence is a Deep State Traitor for Not Overturning the Election

Among the throbbing throng of VP aspirants is South Dakota governor, Kristi Noem. And she made a big play for the part of vice-president this weekend on CNN’s “State of the Nation” during an interview with Dana Bash. It went something like this (video below)…

Bash: Donald Trump acknowledged in 2018 that he authorized payments to Stormy Daniels and reimbursed Michael Cohen. And we actually have the reimbursement checks to Michael Cohen. Those are the facts. Are you comfortable with this?
Noem: Michael Cohen worked for ‘president’ Trump. ‘President’ Trump paid his legal fees. He paid his Michael Cohen legal fees and bills. And that’s what this trial will bringing forward hopefully is the truth.

Noem’s response is a bald-faced lie. Trump was not paying Cohen’s legal fees. He was reimbursing Cohen for the $130,000.00 that Cohen paid to Stormy Daniels to buy her silence, in order to influence the outcome of the election. Then Trump purposefully lied in his financial reporting to cover that up. Those are the facts, and Noem knows it. Despite that, she continued…

Noem: What a ridiculous case that this is. That it is based on a narrative today that is coming from a man that is proven to be a liar. So, I’m hoping that this judge makes the right decision. I’m hoping these jurors can come in and be unbiased. And we’ll let this case go forward in a swift manner that allows ‘president’ Trump to get back on the campaign trail.

Noem is right that this case is based on the narrative of “a man that is proven to be a liar.” Donald Trump. And the last thing that Trump wants is for the case to “go forward in a swift manner.” He has been doing everything he can to delay it from the start. Because unlike defendants who are innocent and want to clear their names, Trump knows he’s guilty and wants to avoid his inevitable conviction. Noem continues…

Noem: Americans deserve to hear from their candidates, and the Democrats and the activists are using this trial to derail him, to keep him in court instead of out talking to Americans about what their real concerns are. And their real concerns are their every day lives. They need a leader in the White House who gets up every day and puts them first and doesn’t raise their taxes. Doesn’t over-regulate them, take away their freedoms and give all our money to other countries instead of making sure that we’re taking care of America first and keeping us safe and secure.

The trial is only going to be in session four days a week. The other three days, and every night, Trump is free to campaign. So far he has not done so any of the days when court has not been in session. He is not, and never has been, a leader who “gets up every day and puts [the people] first.” He puts himself first at all times. He rarely stops talking about himself. And when he does address policies, they are always aimed at benefitting wealthy people, corporations, or his foreign authoritarian pals.

Bash then fact-checks Noem’s utterly unfounded insinuations that Democrats and President Biden had something to do with Trump’s prosecutions in order to “keep him in court.” Which leads to Noem bizarrely unleashing totally unrelated references to imaginary crimes by Biden and the controversies surrounding his son, Hunter. Then Bash interjects…

Bash: I just want to say for the record, there’s absolutely no evidence that President Biden is involved in this. This is a a case that is being brought in the state of New York by the Manhattan D.A.
Noem: Yes, that’s, that’s what I think is remarkable, is that if you look at President Biden, and what he’s done, and what his son has done, and the fact that…
Bash: That has nothing to do with this.

Noem is a strong contender for Trump’s VP slot because she is a shameless lickspittle who will dodge and lie in order to deflect from the illegal and unethical record of Trump’s public life. But she won’t be much help appealing to voters if she persists in these pathetic displays of dishonesty. But then, she shares that with all of the other VP contenders and, of course, with Trump himself. So it’s a lose-lose proposition for the biggest loser in American politics.

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Trump Literally Pledges to Stage ‘RIGGED’ Trials to Punish Democrats for Upholding the Law

Posted by on October 25, 2023 at 2:22 pm. 2 Comments :

If there is anything that America has learned in the past few years about Donald Trump, it is that he is congenitally disposed to violate the law whenever he deems it to be in his interest to do so. Those who have followed his misconduct in the business world, prior to his political misadventures, have known this all along.

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Donald Trump, Constitution

Some of Trump’s past wrongdoings have come to light only after he entered politics. And in some measure he has been held accountable. For instance, his phony Trump University was shuttered and he was ordered to pay $25 million in restitution. His charitable foundation was also closed, and he and his family were prohibited from operating any such enterprise in New York for five years. More recently, his Trump Organization, the core of his real estate business, was found to have committed financial fraud, and he is currently in court where the penalties will be assessed and imposed.

SEE THIS: Crybaby Trump Returns to the New York Courtroom Where He Whines that ‘This is a Rigged Trial’

On Wednesday Trump made another appearance at the New York courtroom where his former attorney and fixer, Michael Cohen, is testifying. On this occasion, as on others, Trump took to his pitifully failing social media scam, Truth Social, to whine that he is a victim of a massive cabal that is determined to destroy him. He yowled that…

“I have a very partisan and angry Judge, a Corrupt Attorney General, and am not allowed a Jury Trial under the Statute they have chosen to use (for the very first time ever!). The good news, that even the Fake News is seeing, is that the facts are ALL on my side! [and that] This is a RIGGED TRIAL, right out of a Banana Republic, but sadly, it gives the Republicans the right to do the same thing when we assume office.”

Setting aside his tedious babbling about partisan judges and corrupt Attorney Generals, Trump made an explicit promise to any of his cult disciples who might be listening. Referring to the prosecutions that he insists are unconstitutional witch hunts, Trump says that Republicans now have “the right to do the same thing when we assume office.” So he is, in effect, pledging to conduct unconstitutional witch hunts if he gets the opportunity.

That shouldn’t surprise anyone. Trump has spent the past three years trying to unlawfully reverse the outcome of the 2020 presidential election. To that end, he has threatened government officials and filed dozens of frivolous lawsuits, which he lost. He currently has 91 felony charges pending against him. And three of his former lawyers have already pleaded guilty to election interference.

SEE ALSO: Trump Lies that Sidney Powell Was Never His Attorney After Her Election Interference Guilty Plea

Trump’s post was also notable for lying that, due to the statute that was “chosen,” he was not “allowed” to have a jury (if he wanted a jury he should have broken a law that permitted one), that the statute was never used before (yeah, it was), and that the media sees that the facts “are ALL on my side” (only if you limit your media to Fox News and Newsmax).

It isn’t unusual for a criminal defendant to complain about a prosecution being unfair or unlawful. But it is profoundly bizarre to then promise to exact revenge by engaging in the very same unlawfulness that was alleged. But that’s how Trump’s mind works. He thinks that if his car were repossessed for non-payment by the dealership, it would be okay for him to steal another car off the lot.

What’ more, Trump made some comments outside of the court that violated the gag order he was already under to refrain from disparaging or intimidating court personnel or witnesses. The Judge fined him $10,000, and warned that any further violations would result in more severe sanctions.

These are all additional reasons why Trump – or any of his MAGA cult – must not be allowed to hold any positions of power. They will abuse it for their own benefit, at the expense of the nation. They have no respect for the law, the Constitution, or democracy. And Trump has provided us with explicit evidence – in his own words – of the mob-like tactics he would impose were he to be reelected.

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LOL: Trump Quotes Some Old Praise By His Former Fixer, Michael Cohen, Who He Then Calls a Liar

Posted by on October 24, 2023 at 12:50 pm. NO Comments :

The soap opera that is chronicling Donald Trump’s legal quagmire continues to unfold with Trump himself providing the most perverse plot twists. His relentless determination to sabotage his own self-interests is a case study in narcissistic sociopathy, wherein the subject is convinced of his own infallibility, and even immortality.

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Donald Trump, National Enquirer

On Tuesday morning Trump returned to the New York courtroom where he is being tried for financial fraud. His presence was neither requested nor necessary. He just wanted to show up on the day that his former attorney, Michael Cohen, was scheduled to testify. Trump attempted to set up this face off previously, but Cohen had it postponed due to illness. Trump made an appearance anyway so that he could complain – again – about what a poor, pathetic, victim he is.

SEE ALSO: Crybaby Trump Returns to the New York Courtroom Where He Whines that ‘This is a Rigged Trial’

The Cohen testimony was rescheduled and he arrived at court ready to square off with Trump and his attorneys. However, in advance of that testimony, Trump posted a comment on his pitifully failing social media scam, Truth Social, that featured the following twelve year old quote from the Huffington Post of Michael Cohen sucking up to his then-boss:

“Trump lawyer Michael Cohen told The Huffington Post that Trump is worth ‘a lot … substantially more than what’s recorded in Forbes.’ ‘They don’t take into account the value of the Trump brand, of the mark, one of the most valuable marks that’s ever been created,’ Cohen said. ‘He has very little debt, triple-A assets.’ (HuffPost, April 2011)”

At the time Cohen was a devoted lawyer representing Trump and described himself as “fiercely loyal to him and committed to protecting him at all costs.” A quote that Trump also posted. Cohen later recanted those complimentary remarks, admitting that he lied on Trump’s behalf and at his direction.

Trump’s reference to those flattering statements show that he is relying on Cohen’s loyalty and honesty to defend himself against the charges of financial fraud that the court has already ruled are valid. But before court on Tuesday Trump called Cohen “a liar trying to get a better deal for himself.”

That brief statement holds a surprising quantity of bullcrap. First of all, Cohen was already tried and has served his sentence, so there’s nothing pending to make a deal on. Also, calling Cohen a liar violates the gag order prohibiting Trump from attacking witnesses in the case.

But more to the point, Trump is now maligning Cohen as a dishonest witness who must not be believed. That’s right, the same guy who Trump just embraced for his honesty and adulation is simultaneously a scoundrel who can’t tell the truth. Trump is, in effect, discrediting his own character witness. Who else but a “stable genius” like Trump would execute such a boldly schizoid strategy?

For his part, Cohen told reporters before he entered the courtroom that “This is not about Donald Trump vs. Michael Cohen, or Michael Cohen vs. Donald Trump. This is about accountability, plain and simple. and we leave it up to Judge Engoron to make all the determinations on that.” Whatever one thinks of Cohen, he clearly has a more rational approach to how behave in such legal proceedings.

Trump, on the other hand, continues to demonstrate that he is an attorney’s worst nightmare. In addition to Cohen’s relationship with Trump leading to a conviction and prison sentence, three of Trump’s former lawyers (Jenna Ellis, Sidney Powell, and Kenneth Chesebro) have pleaded guilty in the election interference case in Georgia. You really have to wonder how Trump gets anyone to represent him at this point when all they get is indicted, imprisoned, or stiffed – or all of the above.

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WOW! Trump Thinks He Found Proof that Michael Cohen Lied About the Stormy Daniels Hush Money Affair

Posted by on March 23, 2023 at 1:11 pm. 4 Comments :

The seething fear of Donald Trump continues to boil over into ever more belligerent and bizarre outbursts on his failing social media scam, Truth Social. For several days Trump has been posting repetitious and offensive assaults on the Manhattan district attorney, Alvin Bragg, who is reported to be nearing a decision on indicting Trump.

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Donald Trump, National Enquirer

Among Trump’s blathering broadsides are racist and anti-Semitic insults aimed at the Black D.A. Trump refers to Bragg as “A SOROS BACKED ANIMAL,” who is seeking to destroy the country. And he attempts to persuade the NYPD to shirk their duties to protect New Yorkers from the StormTrumpers who are threatening to riot if Trump is indicted.

RELATED: Trump Can’t Imagine the NYPD Defending the City If His Indictment Triggers Riots By His Followers

On Thursday morning Trump persisted with his impertinent prattle in post that reeked of the meritless pride of a confirmed malignant narcissist. He expressed his astonishment at having discovered what he thinks is a bombshell revelation that blows the roof off of the Stormy Daniels “hush money” affair.

The letter was from the attorney for Trump’s former fixer, Michael Cohen, to the Federal Elections Commission (FEC), and said in part that the $130,000.00 that Trump paid to Daniels to buy her silence “does not constitute a campaign contribution.” It went on to say that…

“In a private transaction in 2016, before the U.S. presidential election, Mr. Cohen used his own personal funds to facilitate a payment of $130,000 to Ms. Stephanie Clifford. Neither the Trump Organization nor the Trump campaign was a party to the transaction with Ms. Clifford, and neither reimbursed Mr. Cohen for the payment directly or indirectly.

“Contrary to the allegations in the complaint, which are entirely speculative, neither Mr. Cohen nor Essential Consultants LLC made any in-kind contributions to Donald J. Trump for President, Inc., or any other presidential campaign committee.”

To that Trump responded…

“Wow, look what was just found—A Letter from Cohen’s Lawyer to the Federal Election Commission. This is totally exculpatory, and must end the Manhattan District Attorney’s Witch Hunt, immediately. Cohen admits that he did it himself. The D.A. should get on with prosecuting violent criminals, so people can walk down the sidewalks of New York without being murdered!”

There is an impressive quantity of bullpucky in there. Let’s break it down…

First of all, this letter was not “just found.” It is not exculpatory at all. It won’t end the D.A.’s investigation. It isn’t a witch hunt. Cohen’s “admission” was a lie. And millions of New Yorkers walk the streets without being murdered every day. In fact, crime is down.

The truth is that the letter Trump claims to have found contains nothing new. The claim by Cohen that he “used his own personal funds” for the Daniels payoff has been a part of the public record for at least five years. Cohen told the same story to the New York Times on February 13, 2018. And that article was referenced in a March 8, 2018 letter sent to Trump by the then-ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, Jarry Nadler, seeking more information about the hush money.

SEE ALSO: Trump’s Attorney Admits that Trump Lied About Making Hush Money Payments to Stormy Daniels

What’s more, the phony surprise by Trump is all the more preposterous considering that the claims by Cohen in his February 8, 2018, letter to the FEC were rendered moot when he later pleaded guilty to lying about that. It were those lies that sent Cohen to prison. The Justice Department explicitly referenced these claims in their charging document on August 21, 2018, and noted that “COHEN caused and made the payments described herein in order to influence the 2016 presidential election.”

So to summarize, Trump is bragging that he “found” a letter wherein Cohen lied about matters that everyone already knew that he lied about because he pleaded guilty to doing so and even testified before Congress to that effect. If this is the best that Trump can do to extricate himself from this mess, no wonder he resorts to infantile insults and name-calling. He’s desperate and afraid and at some level knows that he’s going down.

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v

Fox News is Referenced in the Mueller Report Four Times, and Each Makes Trump Look Worse

Posted by on April 18, 2019 at 2:39 pm. NO Comments :

With the release of the redacted version of the Mueller report by Donald Trump’s plant in the Justice Department, Attorney General William Barr, there is going to be a flurry of furious spinning by Trump’s devoted martinets in the right-wing press. Trump himself will continue his frantic robo-rant of “no collusion, no obstruction,” as he has been doing for months.

Fox News, Robert Mueller

Naturally, Fox News will assume its predictable role as the main line of defense for Trump. They will focus exclusively on any positive angles among the vague interpretations of Mueller’s report offered by Barr or other Republican partisans. And they will brazenly ignore anything in the report that is remotely detrimental to Trump, of which there is a significant amount. Even Chris Wallace of Fox News noted that “There is a lot of stuff in here that is damaging to the president, politically embarrassing to the president.”

However, Fox News itself had a place in the Mueller report with four references to Trump’s State TV affiliate. The following passages from the report illustrate just how deeply integrated Fox is with Trump and his associates. For instance:

Page 70:

“That night, the White House Press Office called the Department of Justice and said the White House wanted to put out a statement saying that it was Rosenstein’s idea to fire Comey. Rosenstein told other DOJ officials that he would not participate in putting out a ‘false story.’ The President then called Rosenstein directly and said he was watching Fox News, that the coverage had been great, and that he wanted Rosenstein to do a press conference. Rosenstein responded that this was not a good idea because if the press asked him, he would tell the truth that Comey’s firing was not his idea.”

What we have here is Trump keeping tabs on the investigation by watching Fox News, and then trying to get Deputy AG Rosenstein to lie for him about FBI Director James Comey’s firing. That’s obstruction of justice right there. The fact that Rosenstein refused doesn’t make Trump’s attempt any less illegal. And then there’s this:

Page 99:

“[Reince] Priebus recalled learning about the June 9 meeting from Fox News host Sean Hannity in late June 2017. Priebus notified one of the President’s personal attorneys, who told Priebus he was already working on it. By late June, several advisors recalled receiving media inquiries that could relate to the June 9 meeting.”

It’s rather remarkable that Priebus, Trump’s chief of staff, found out about the infamous Trump Tower meeting (with Don Jr, Jared Kushner, Paul Manafort, and some Russian operatives) only by watching Fox News. That’s how out-of-the-loop Trump’s closest White House aide was, but also how integral Fox News is to Trump’s affairs. And that’s not all:

Page 126:

“In a Fox News interview on August 22, 2018, the President said: ‘[Cohen] makes a better deal when he uses me, like everybody else. And one of the reasons l respect Paul Manafort so much is he went through that trial-you know they make up stories. People make up stories. This whole thing about flipping, they call it, I know all about flipping. The President said that flipping was ‘not fair’ and ‘almost ought to be outlawed.'”

In this “interview” with the unabashedly pro-Trump “Curvy Couch” potatoes of Fox and Friends, Trump is laying the groundwork for threats directed at his former personal attorney, Michael Cohen, while simultaneously praising his more loyal campaign chairman, Manafort. This is a fairly clumsy attempt at witness tampering. Which he did some more of here:

Page 151:

“In January 2019, after the media reported that Cohen would provide public testimony in a congressional hearing, the President made additional public comments suggesting that Cohen’s family members had committed crimes. In an interview on Fox on January 12, 2019, the President was asked whether he was worried about Cohen’s testimony and responded:

‘[I]n order to get his sentence reduced, [Cohen] says “I have an idea, I’ll ah, tell-I’ll give you some information on the president.” Well, there is no information. But he should give information maybe on his father-in-law because that’s the one that people want to look at because where does that money-that’s the money in the family.'”

Trump made these accusations during an interview with his adoring acolyte, Fox News host Jeanine Pirro. They were directed against Cohen’s family as a flagrant attempt to scare him into keeping his mouth shut.

It’s hard to see why Mueller didn’t think he had sufficient evidence to indict Trump, or at least to recommend that Congress take up an inquiry that could lead to impeachment. And as guilty as Trump now appears to be, it’s plain that Fox News was a willing accomplice every step of the way. It is not insignificant that Fox was referenced four times in the report. They were further included in twenty-seven footnotes. No other national news network was referenced in the body of the report even once. What does that tell you?

How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.
Available now at Amazon.

Devastating Poll: More Americans Believe Convicted Liar Michael Cohen than Donald Trump

Posted by on March 5, 2019 at 1:03 pm. 4 Comments :

In more than two years as President, Donald Trump’s approval rating has never risen above fifty percent. It’s a singular achievement in failure that no other president in history can claim. He is unchallenged as the most unpopular president ever. And yet, in his fantasy bubble world he still believes (and tweets) that he is universally beloved.

Donald Trump

Trump is so delusional that he frequently refers to himself as “your favorite president” in tweets (here and here and here and here and here and here and here). However, the truth is hard to avoid considering the wealth of data that exposes how reviled he is by everyone other than his Deplorable base. And a new poll by Quinnipiac University really drives home the point in a brutal way that will surely trigger spasms from the Twitterer-in-Chief.

Quinnipiac asked 1,120 voters “In general, who do you believe more: President Trump or Michael Cohen?” Fully half of the respondents said they believe Cohen more. Only thirty-five percent said they believe Trump. Let’s put that in perspective. It’s a pretty crushing judgment when a president is viewed as less believable than a confessed, convicted liar. But then again, we’re talking here about a president who has been documented to have lied more than 9,000 times since his inauguration.

Making matters worse, a plurality (44-36) say that “Cohen told the truth during his testimony before the U.S. House Oversight Committee.” In addition, a plurality of forty-one percent approve of the way Democrats handled the Cohen hearing. But a majority disapprove of the Republicans’ antics. And a broad majority (58-35) say that “Congress should do more to investigate Michael Cohen’s claims about President Trump’s unethical and illegal behavior.” And sixty-five percent say that Trump is not honest.

There’s a lot of other bad news for Trump in this poll. Overall, his approval rating is a dismal thirty-eight percent. He’s underwater on the questions of leadership skills, caring about average Americans, foreign policy, and immigration. Fully seventy-one percent say that he’s a bad role model for kids.

What’s more fifty-four percent say that special counsel Robert Mueller is “conducting a fair investigation.” Sixty-four percent say that “Trump committed crimes before he was president.” And a plurality of forty-five percent say he committed crimes while president.

Considering how furiously Trump has been trying to malign Democrats, Mueller, and what he calls the “Russia Witch Hunt Hoax,” these poll results reveal that his efforts have been profoundly unsuccessful. The majority of the American people are clearly unwilling to succumb to his lies and flagrant distortions of reality. And they haven’t been distracted by his attempts at misdirection (i.e. border walls, North Korea) or his retaliatory attacks on his political opponents and the media.

How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.
Available now at Amazon.

In fact, Trump’s wild flailing only serves to make him look more desperate, frightened, and guilty. While it might make him feel better, and fire up his most devoted cult followers, it is having zero impact on the electorate at large. Which will make it that much easier to hold him accountable via congressional investigations, special counsel and U.S. Attorney probes, and maybe even impeachment. Hopefully his day of reckoning will come before he does much more harm.

Trump’s Lies are Crushed By Senate Intel Vice-Chair: ‘There’s Plenty of Evidence’ of Collusion

Posted by on March 3, 2019 at 2:35 pm. NO Comments :

Donald Trump has been stuck in a frantic and tedious loop of whiny denials for the past couple years. It consists primarily of him impotently proclaiming his innocence with regard to his nefarious associations with Russian operatives in an effort to steal the 2016 presidential election. For the most part his factless proclamations have only served to make him look more guilty.

Mark Warner, CNN

Among his most persistent citations of innocence has been a repeated reference to remarks by the Republican chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Richard Burr. Last September Burr told reporters that he had not seen any direct evidence of collusion or conspiracy with Russia on the part of the President. Note that he did not say it didn’t happen, only that his committee had “no hard evidence” of it. But that was enough to trigger Trump into making multiple identical tweets on the subject. It began on Sep 12, 2018, and continued on Feb 7, 2019, and Feb 8, 2019 and Feb 9, 2019 and Feb 10, 2019 and Feb 22, 2019 and Feb 25, 2019.

Some of these tweets were Trump unleashing his standard “Witch Hunt” rants, and others were retweets from the likes of Sean Hannity. But they all said exactly the same thing incorrectly quoting Sen. Burr: “No Collusion!”

Well, on Sunday morning Trump’s favorite proof that he was a squeaky clean paragon of virtue fell apart. Sen. Mark Warner, the Vice-Chair of the Intelligence Committee appeared on CNN’s State of the Union and explicitly contradicted Trump’s distorted version of events. His remarks could not have been more clear:

“Anyone who says there’s no evidence of collaboration – there’s plenty of evidence. […] The notion that there’s no evidence is just factually wrong. Just in the public domain there are literally reams and reams of evidence of Russian outreach to Trump officials and clear interest from Trump officials, including the President’s own son, welcoming the opportunity to get dirt on Hillary Clinton.”

Warner outlined a small portion of the evidence that was just revealed during the recent House Oversight Committee’s hearing with Trump’s former lawyer, Michael Cohen. He cited three pieces of evidence from Cohen’s testimony:

“One, the fact that Donald Trump and Michael Cohen mislead the American public for months about the whole notion of trying to continue to get a Trump Tower project going in Moscow. […]

“The second is the evidence that Mr. Cohen put out that he was in the presence of Donald Trump when Roger Stone called indicating that he had just gotten off the phone with Julian Assange from Wikileaks, indicating that Wikileaks was about to drop a bunch of very damaging information about Hillary Clinton. […]

“And finally we have this whole question wherein Mr. Trump knew about the meeting in Trump Tower that included Don Jr, Jared Kushner, the campaign manager, Paul Manafort. Clearly a meeting that was not about Russian adoption, but was about the idea of turning over dirt on Hillary Clinton.”

For good measure, Warner’s counterpart in the House Intelligence Committee, Rep. Adam Schiff, spoke on the same issues on CBS’s Face the Nation, saying that “there is both ‘direct evidence’ and ‘abundant circumstantial evidence’ of collusion with Russia.” He elaborated:

“They offer that dirt. There is an acceptance of that offer in writing from the president’s son, Don Jr., and there is overt acts in furtherance of that. That is the meeting at Trump Tower and all the lies to cover up that meeting at the Trump Tower, and apparently lies that the president participated in.”

So this should put an end to the fallacy that there is no evidence against Trump for conspiracy with Russia. Quite the opposite is true. There are mountains of evidence. And that’s even the position of the Vice-Chair of the Senate committee that Trump is so fond of citing on his own behalf. But don’t expect this to end Trump’s plaintive wailing that he’s innocent. When has reality ever interfered with his determination to disgorge obvious lies to shield himself from the consequences of his criminal behavior?

How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.
Available now at Amazon.

Plead the 25th: Trump Disgorges an Insane Tweetstorm About an Imaginary Michael Cohen Book

Posted by on March 1, 2019 at 10:46 am. 4 Comments :

Like Clockwork. Whenever Donald Trump is the most fearful about his snowballing legal peril, he lashes out from his Twitter throne with the most deranged and groundless spasms of utter nonsense he can contrive given his obviously advanced mental infirmity. And on Friday morning he didn’t disappoint. The fury that he unleashed only affirms just how recent events have driven him to near incapacitation.

Donald Trump

Trump just returned from Vietnam where he engineered an historic failure to achieve any of the progress that he promised prior to his meeting with his girlfriend (“We fell in love”), Kim Jong Un. As Jimmy Kimmel put it, “Trump literally got more done in his summit with Kim Kardashian.” And while Trump was embarrassing America abroad, his former lawyer, Michael Cohen, was dishing on him in a hearing before the House Oversight Committee. His testimony was so damaging that even the senior judicial analyst at Fox News recognized that Trump could be liable for as many as four felonies.

It’s at times like these that Trump totally freaks out and decides to go public with his delusions and make things even worse. The following tweets are some of the best arguments that Trump is suffering from senile dementia and needs to be evaluated for a possible invocation of the 25th Amendment. He starts off with this pile of blathering falsehoods:

First of all, nothing about this was either “new” or “just released.” In fact, the Daily Beast reported on a proposal for a book by Cohen last May. It was tentatively titled “Trump Revolution: From The Tower to The White House, Understanding Donald J. Trump.” But it was scrapped due to his legal problems that were beginning to spin out of control. Also, why is Trump always so obsessed with people writing him “love letters,” ala Kim Jong Un? And then Trump tweets that:

Congress cannot demand something that doesn’t exist. There was never a book published or even submitted to the publisher. So it’s impossible to figure out what Trump is referring to that is so head spinning. But it shouldn’t surprise anyone if the pitch for the book featured a vastly different characterization of Trump than the one that Cohen is presenting now. A year ago he was still shilling for the President and telling what he now concedes were lies. The difference between his statements then and now is that now he’s making them under oath. Nevertheless, Trump continues:

No – It’s clear that Trump does not see. The case for his conspiracy with Russia is stronger than ever. And there is still no evidence of any wrongdoing by Hillary Clinton, even after thousands of hours of investigations by a Republican congress. If there were, Trump’s Justice Department would have brought indictments. What’s more, the only reason Trump’s finances are being scrutinized is that there is so much evidence of criminal activity. If this is a “Witch Hunt” then it’s already found a vast coven of witches. And finally:

How does Trump know what Cohen’s book manuscript shows? Does he have a copy? Why doesn’t he just release that to the public? Perhaps because it doesn’t exist. Even the prospective publisher said that he never received a manuscript. And Trump shouldn’t be portraying others as lying “on a scale not seen before,” considering the documentation of his lies since taking office that now exceed over 8,000. As for Lanny Davis (who is not Hillary Clinton’s lawyer), why does Trump care what he has to say? He is representing Cohen and will surely take positions that advance Cohen’s interest. And he’ll probably be more effective than Trump’s legal team headed by the always entertaining Rudy Giuliani.

How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.
Available now at Amazon.

So Trump is once again displaying the signs of a man consumed by fear who has no idea how to respond to the numerous and legitimate allegations swirling around him. So he posts incoherent tirades on Twitter that are filled with lies and slander. And for some reason he thinks this will be helpful. Well, he’s kind of right. It will be very helpful to special counsel Robert Mueller and the prosecutors in the Southern District of New York.