From the transcript, with George Stephanopoulos and lawprof/defense attorney Alan Dershowitz, legal analyst Dan Abrams, and former prosecutor Mimi Rocah:
ALAN DERSHOWITZ, PROFESSOR EMERITUS, HARVARD LAW SCHOOL: Oh, it's a very serious threat [that Cohen will flip on Trump]. This is an epic battle for the soul and cooperation of Michael Cohen. And prosecutors have enormous weapons at their disposal. They can threaten essentially with life imprisonment. They can threaten his parents. They can threaten his spouse. They have these enormous abilities to really put pressure and coerce a witness. On the other hand, the president has a unique weapon that no other criminal defendant or suspect ever has, he has the pardon power. And go back to Christmas 1992 when President Bush exercised that pardon power and pardoned Caspar Weinberger, precluding him from pointing the finger at him....
MIMI ROCAH, CRIMINAL JUSTICE FELLOW, PACE LAW SCHOOL: ...You know, look, that's not what prosecutors do in my experience... They do not threaten people's parents and children. I mean, I just -- I don't know, it sounds good but I don't know where that accusation is coming from.
DERSHOWITZ: Do you want some examples?... Michael Milken, they told him they were going to indict his brother unless he pleaded guilty. Jonathan Pollard, they told him they were going to indict his wife. I can go down case after case after case... I didn't say no basis. I said they threaten relatives and then they create the basis. They wouldn't otherwise go after these people. But they hold these people hostage. That's what prosecutors do. Every defense attorney knows that. And to look in the camera and say that prosecutors don't threaten relatives is to mislead the American public. Sorry....
ABRAMS: .. They got a warrant here not because there was information on Donald Trump that they wanted from Michael Cohen. They got the warrant because there was information on Michael Cohen potentially committing a crime.
DERSHOWITZ: And if you believe that I have a bridge...
ABRAMS: So you're actually going to say that a judge signed off on a warrant...
DERSHOWITZ: Absolutely.
ABRAMS: … to get to...
(CROSSTALK)
DERSHOWITZ: You can get judges to sign off on warrants like Christmas presents.
ABRAMS: To get information on his client? So they signed off on a warrant saying, we want information on his client not on him?
DERSHOWITZ: There's no way in which they would go after Michael Cohen if they weren't interested in his client. They're interested in his client in two different ways. Number one...
ABRAMS: Because there's no way he could have committed a crime by himself.
DERSHOWITZ: He might have. But they wouldn't have found -- they wouldn't have even looked at what he was doing if he weren't the president's lawyer. They're going after him for two reasons. One, to try to flip him, and two, to try to find information that would show that there is an exception to the lawyer-client privilege under the crime fraud....
STEPHANOPOULOS: What is the significance of moving it to the Southern District? Does that somehow protect the investigation if the president chooses to move against Rosenstein or Mueller?
ROCAH: ... I think it was done because Mueller did what any prosecutor and investigator should do, came across criminal activity about apparently Michael Cohen... And it doesn't fall within the mandate of what he's looking at. So he did the absolute appropriate thing, which is referred it to a U.S. attorney's office.
DERSHOWITZ: This is so naive. Came across. Mueller is looking for low-hanging fruit. He's looking for anything...
ROCAH: That's what's called investigating.
DERSHOWITZ: … he can find against anybody who is associated with the president so he can flip them... You know, crime -- broad federal criminal statutes, campaign contributions, bank records, you can find them against almost every very complex business person or political person. The question is how hard you look. And when you look hard, you have enough for a search warrant, which is fairly minimal. And then the pressure increases....
STEPHANOPOULOS: Do you think Michael Cohen flips?
DERSHOWITZ: I think it's very hard not to flip when they're threatening you with long, long imprisonment. But I don't think we know the answer to that question. I don't know enough about Michael Cohen.
ABRAMS: I don't think he flips.
ROCAH: I think he flips because I think he committed a lot of crimes, and he has got a lot of jail time that he's facing for that reason.
ABRAMS: I think he's going to be pardoned. I think he feels confident about that.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Pardon?
DERSHOWITZ: I don't think he's going to be pardoned.
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193 comments:
The long list of egregious offenses by prosecutors is what Dersh is thinking of. A few examples ?
Ted Stevens.
Scooter Libby
Conrad Black.
Martha Stewart.
Millkin is a good one as he was hated by the right people.
So is Turmp.
This is so naive.
That's a very charitable way of putting it, Mr. Dershowitz.
Lawfare at this level of politics is extremely dangerous.
Dershowitz is right. Cohen wouldn't be under the gun if he wasn't Trump's lawyer. Sessions should have a federal prosecutor do the same to Cheryl Mills. Just to be fair and balanced. Also Mueller has some explaining about Whitey Bulger and among other things.
All this assumes that Cohen has “something”. Based on what we’ve seen so far, I’m guessing he doesn’t. But hope springs eternal for the Golden Shower Left.
> Lawfare at this level of politics is extremely dangerous.
The name on the FBI building is the name of a man who used every dirty trick in the book to stay on as FBI Director. No president dared fire him, no Congress dared chastise him.
Comey was FBI Director and was fired by Trump.
The FBI will do everything and anything, up to and including illegal acts to stop anyone from getting the notion that they can do such a thing.
Trump should have the building demolished. Say that it offends his aesthetic sensibilities and put up a strip club in it's place.
DK:
Surprised you didn't add a bit: ". . . and invite Stormy Daniels to inaugurate the strip club". (Fair's fair.)
If they had anything serious on Cohen, it would have leaked by now.
The off again, on again thing about going to Prague is a tell. Inga believes it and it will be a beacon for the left for a while, Probably until after the election.
Did anybody notice who beat Romney yesterday ? Dr Mike Kennedy
No, my phone is not ringing.
"You have the right to remain silent"
Most people never consider the power of this advice. Most people want to be polite.
But when it comes to law enforcement, and legal proceedings, you need to be silent, except where you must identify yourself.
When the policeman asks "Do you know why I pulled you over?"
The answer is NOT "yes" or "no" or anything emitting from the lips. It is silence.
Put this on your dashboard "shut the fuck up"
Don't be a witness against yourself.
Hoover had limited goals - staying on, mainly.
Besides that he did what he thought was in the general interest, such as persecuting communists and racial activists, much of it independently, almost whimsically, without proper authorization or oversight.
Such behavior is low, but will not cause too much damage.
The modern use of the FBI has been for much broader partisan/factional warfare. This is something else.
Soon after Robert "The FBI Whitewasher" Mueller's goons searched Paul Manafort's home, tabloids published articles that Manafort had a mistress. This news shocked Manafort's two daughters.
Thus Mueller warned all of Donald Trump's associates that they too were vulnerable if they refused to cooperate while having mistresses and daughters.
Buwaya ... You had it almost, communist and racist elements that Hoover went against now form the swamp deep state
They were weedlings in the past.
"The modern use of the FBI has been for much broader partisan/factional warfare"
The CIA is also enrolled in this campaign now. Maybe Jamie Gorelick's "Chinese Wall" was a good idea after all.
For a second I wondered what it was he would “flip” on but then I remembered it doesn’t matter.
Etienne said...
"You have the right to remain silent"
Most people never consider the power of this advice. Most people want to be polite.
But when it comes to law enforcement, and legal proceedings, you need to be silent, except where you must identify yourself.
When the policeman asks "Do you know why I pulled you over?"
The answer is NOT "yes" or "no" or anything emitting from the lips. It is silence.
Put this on your dashboard "shut the fuck up"
Don't be a witness against yourself.>>
This may be true about criminal offenses, but it is my belief that asshattery behavior definitely helps swing the pendulum to a traffic citation. Being polite, without admitting fault except when you did something such as an illegal u-turn, usually can assist in getting that citation reduced to a warning, verbal or written. There is, you know, a great difference in running a stop sign and doing the California Roll.
I'm glad the press is openly proclaiming this is all a reasonable use of power and that the so called "taint teams" are a joke. This is all good to know in the future when the power of the state is used to track down democrats in the future (and you know it will at some point) You can guaran-fucking-tee it!
buwaya said...
The modern use of the FBI has been for much broader partisan/factional warfare. This is something else.
First of all it is ridiculous to dismiss the FBI's racist behavior as a nothing burger, but this statement deserves some particular attention. By chance I listened to an interview with Comey on the car radio. Comey comes across as as non-partisan as a human can be. He is center-right but did his best to be fair to all sides in a very difficult situation.
Comey interview.
He is quite funny and self-aware.
Dershowitz used to quote NKVD chief Beria's much more succinct formulation of this point: “Show me the man and I'll find you the crime.”
Is there relevant information about pre- and post- Chinese wall ---
Couldn't Cohen just agree to be waterboarded a few times instead of being threatened with bankruptcy, emotional anguish for his family, and life imprisonment? Waterboarding would be the lesser tourture. Couldn't the lefties just cut off a finger or two if he doesn't say the things they want to hear?
Are we already in hyper-rational phase of belief that these proceedings show we have rule of law?
If they didn't want information on Cohen's client, why did a Judge ever release Sean Hannity's name?
What does "he was Trump's lawyer" mean?
In Hannity's case, it seems he was a friend, and Hannity sometimes asked him his opinion about matters that might come up on Hannity's show, but he never represented Hannity in any legal matter.
And what does "flip" mean?
If Cohen knows anything about Trump's affairs in which he represents, or represented, Trump, that is privileged information.
If they just hope that he knows something, anything, illegal, or at least unfavorable, that is non-privileged, that is a "fishing expedition."
Mimi Roach claims prosecutors don't threaten? Was her job to run the copy machine at SDNY? Perhaps she has a different definition for threaten than most sentient beings do, because prosecutors most definitely threaten people. "Gee, that's a nice family you have. It's be a shame if they had to hire lawyers at great personal cost, because we have the unlimited budget of the DOJ."
BCARM: Comey comes across as as non-partisan as a human can be. He is center-right...
Your continued odd usage of terms like "Republican" and "center-right" really makes you sound like a foreign observer who has no native understanding of American politics - continually applying out-dated or textbook definitions onto a political map where they don't fit anymore, or into contexts where they explain nothing about any existing political reality.
Those words...you keep using those words...
The FBI sucked up all of James Rosen's emails when they wanted to find out who his source was. Are we really going to pretend they would have threatened him if his dad had emailed him that he shaved a little off his tax bill?
Why does Mimi Roach feel so comfortable lying to the American public. I'm guessing because as a prosecutor, she gets to lie to people all the time.
The current situation actually has a quite recent parallel:
Freeh thought Clinton disgraced the presidency; Clinton felt Freeh was out to get him, and that Freeh was an insufferable Boy Scout.
It's Art of the Deal vs plea bargain with gun to your head + hostages + judge graveling against you ?
May not be fun to watch.
Prison rapists exist need not be in prison
ARM,
Its obvious they deliberately did not investigate things that were inconvenient to the Democratic party. That email thing, just an example- this would have been known from day one, as a security risk, to the agency chiefly responsible for counter-espionage, of all things. They "investigated" it when it became public knowledge in 2015, not in February of 2009 when they certainly knew all about it.
The disingenuousness of these people is really quite an achievement.
Remind me, again, what's the alleged crime against Cohen?
Angle-Dyne, Angelic Buzzard said...
Your continued odd usage of terms like "Republican" and "center-right" really makes you sound like a foreign observer who has no native understanding of American politics
Is it not fair to say that the Bush family are both Republican and center-right? They are a central part of American life, as evidenced by the recent funeral. These terms do not suddenly lose their meaning because of the ascendance of Trump. Trump himself has done nothing of substance other than be a tool of the Republican party and Paul Ryan in particular.
ARM thinks Comey is non-partisan. Comey withheld info about Clinton's opposition research. You know, Democrat oppo reaearch, used by the FBI to get FISA warrants to spy on President Elect Trump.
ARM is ridiculous.
buwaya said...
Its obvious they deliberately did not investigate things that were inconvenient to the Democratic party.
This is factually untrue. You should listen to Comey's interview.
Am I the only one who thinks Dershowitz has been trying to make up for getting OJ off? He suggested the other lawyer interrupt Marsh Clark's closing statement constantly with frivolous, over ruled objections.
Another defense lawyer, Barry Scheck? started innocence project in order to atone for his OJ sins.
That point above, about turning a blind eye to HRC shenanigans, was brought up last night by Michael Mukasey, GWBush's Attorney General (on Fox).
He said pretty much what I've been saying since 2015 which must have been the case - that the FBI was told by the then-administration to not investigate, and when it did eventually have to, to give HRC a pass, because this would have opened a can of worms, because of course they all knew, they could not help but know. And moreover that they were not just complicit but many others, including Obama, were doing the same thing or very similar.
Now, imagine a Mueller-type fishing expedition based on such probable cause.
Angel-Dyne, it never occurred to me that ARM might be a foreigner, but you may be right. He has that un-American servility and devotion to the State I've noticed a lot in Canadians, for example.
ARM ... What questions would you have asked Comey? Did all get asked and answered?
Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...
buwaya said...
Its obvious they deliberately did not investigate things that were inconvenient to the Democratic party.
This is factually untrue. You should listen to Comey's interview.
4/22/18, 2:33 PM
Sure, if you believe Comey is telling the truth, this time.
Bush? Center-right? You mean because he grew government but opposed abortion and didn't change anything about the abortion laws?
Odd definition.
“Soon after Robert "The FBI Whitewasher" Mueller's goons searched Paul Manafort's home, tabloids published articles that Manafort had a mistress. This news shocked Manafort's two daughters.”
The flip side of that is that some think that Trump’s full pardon of Scooter Libby was a message to Cohen that Trump had his back.
This country is in the middle of a political-cultural realignment, not yet complete, because the interests and issues along which the upper classes were previously split have changed.
The Bush clan has made common cause with the Democratic party.
Not to say the obvious, but...
If Trump committed no crime, there is nothing to "flip" over. A flip is someone who knows information about criminal acts committed by another individual, usually higher up in the organization.
Cohn could flip on someone else who committed a crime. But he cannot "flip" on someone who did not commit a crime.
Unless it is a "lie," in which case it is not a "flip."
Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...
"The current situation actually has a quite recent parallel:
Freeh thought Clinton disgraced the presidency; Clinton felt Freeh was out to get him, and that Freeh was an insufferable Boy Scout."
Oooh! Ooooh! There it is! The precise moment when the Left threw Bill Clinton under the bus!
That's a pretty sloppy statement by Dershowitz, regarding George H.W. Bush's pardon of Cap Weinberger. The pardon didn't "prevent" Weinberger from testifying; it opened a door where Weinberger (charged with lying to Congress as his crime) would no longer be able to claim any self-incrimination privileges.
Special prosecutor Walsh could have, if he had wanted, "threatened" Cap Weinberger the way that Dershowitz describes long before the eve of Weinberger's trial. And if Walsh had thought that Bush was guilty of any crime, Walsh could have pursued that too. He didn't.
That's Dershowitz sounding like his old Democrat-lefty self, going after Bush 41. And it is Dershowitz sounding unusually, peculiarly, sloppy on his facts.
the posthumous pardon for heavyweight champion should also roil the Democrats.
Throw in the bogus eletion-year prosecutions of Tom DeLay and Rick Perry in Texas by the Austin Democrats...
"Show me the man and I'll find you the crime." -- Lavrenti Beria
https://www.cato.org/policy-report/januaryfebruary-2010/criminalization-almost-everything
buwaya said...
Its obvious they deliberately did not investigate things that were inconvenient to the Democratic party.
This is factually untrue. You should listen to Comey's interview.
Please ARM. Try not to sound like an idiot. Explain to me why the DNC server was not examined. Why was Cheryl Mills, a defendant, allowed to remain while Hillary was interviewed? Why were the Hillary staffers allowed to destroy evidence ?
Come on. You can't be this dumb. Try for an instant to be objective.
But there has to be a pony in here somewhere!
Chuck actually defended a Republican. Granted it was a Bush, so barely a conservative at all. And a terrible politician who went along with pretending to get rolled by Democrats.
But Chuck, fopdoodle extraordinaire, defending a Republican is noteworthy.
By way of clarification, I'd like to add that Canadians and other foreigners do not, by any means, have a monopoly on servility in regard to the State. Sadly, many native-born citizens of what was once called "the Land of the Free" have that brain disease, too. They tend to become Democrats, although the ones who fancy themselves "rebels" become Bernie Bros and Occupy Wall Street types, depending on how deep the dementia and ignorance of economics runs.
The faction the Bush family represents will be still be here long after Trump is gone, and many of you will line up behind it just as you have always done in the past.
Bush Jr disgraced himself and his faction, but memories are short and you will all line up behind it again. To try to pretend this isn't the case is disingenuous. Most of the representatives and senators that you vote for are members of that faction.
“Am I the only one who thinks Dershowitz has been trying to make up for getting OJ off? He suggested the other lawyer interrupt Marsh Clark's closing statement constantly with frivolous, over ruled objections.”
He really is pretty good. Guy I know hired him a decade or so ago, and was happy with the results. He was able to procure a stiff fine, and no prison time, for a BS charge, and the real charges were dropped.
Still don’t see why getting OJ off requires atonement. Prosecution’s theory of the case never made much sense, the police totally screwed it up, and the DA put his second team in, knowing that it was an uphill fight, thanks to the venue (too many blacks in the jury pool for a conviction), so he assigned a woman and a black as a Hail Mary. Story, from a good friend of the DA, was that a delegation of black clergy met with the DA, and told him that if they didn’t move the case downtown, with more blacks in the jury pool, and OJ was convicted by an all white jury, LA would burn. The rest is history.
The Bush family is Republican but certainly not center-right unless you think that center-right is pretty much the right side of left. Have you forgotten Medicare Part D? What about the bank bailout which was necessary to save capitalism? How about $5T in debt in 8 years? What about signing off on campaign finance reform? Calling other Republicans racist for not wanting open borders? Etc. Bush’s legacy is a lasting one and if Obama could claim it as his own, he would. But maybe you’re one of the leftists that think Obama was center-right?
No, ARM, W Bush is why I am not a Republican.
Conservative, yes.
Every political Bush can kindly go to hell.
The crime is moping with intent to creep.
Part of the Bush problem is, I think, the old matter of the House of Saud, with factions of which they were quite close.
Some of these relationships are much like the old Roman patron-client system, which for influential Senators, and their houses, often included foreign governments. Pompey was notorious for this.
So the House of Bush had as clients the House of Saud, or a faction of it, a leading member of which was Prince Bandar, who was a frequent visitor and family friend of the Bushes. This faction has, it seems, suffered badly from the acts of their new crown prince, and Prince Bandar seems to have been under arrest at some point.
What OJ did shouldn't really be considered a crime.
This may be true about criminal offenses, but it is my belief that asshattery behavior definitely helps swing the pendulum to a traffic citation.
Could not agree more. The last time I was pulled over by California Highway Patrol and asked how fast I was traveling, I answered "the speed limit -- but since you pulled me over, I'm obviously mistaken." He gave me a warning and sent me on my way.
Cheryl Mills, David Kendall, Heather Samuelson, the Platte River Networks guy (especially him!) and Huma all would have flipped on Hillary. But the FBI and DOJ point shaved that entire investigation. That's obstruction of justice by the people in charge.
If you know what point shaving is in basketball you will understand what Comey did.
So, the criminal justice system is criminal? Makes sense.
Have you forgotten Medicare Part D? What about the bank bailout which was necessary to save capitalism? How about $5T in debt in 8 years? What about signing off on campaign finance reform? Calling other Republicans racist for not wanting open borders?
GW Bush's list of "achievements" would make any Democratic President proud. Bill Clinton's record by comparison is far more conservative.
Well, the nice thing about not having charged or tried them is that all those Democrats are still open to being investigated once more and given the same treatment as the Left is trying to foist on Republicans.
Birkel said...
Chuck actually defended a Republican. Granted it was a Bush, so barely a conservative at all. And a terrible politician who went along with pretending to get rolled by Democrats.
But Chuck, fopdoodle extraordinaire, defending a Republican is noteworthy
Only to you. Only in TrumpWorld, would my Republican bona fides ever be questioned. Anybody who has ever read my comments here with any seriousness and any fairness knows that I have supported and praised Justices Scalia, Thomas and Gorsuch, and Chief Justice Roberts. And both Presidents Bush. I defended Scooter Libby, Tom Delay and Ted Stevens from what I thought were rotten, meritless, unprincipled prosecutions. I've supported Mitch McConnell, John McCain, Mitt Romney, Scott Walker, Rick Snyder, Lindsey Graham, Tim Scott, Jeff Sessions, Betsy DeVos, Dick DeVos, Judge (Sixth Circuit) Jeffrey Sutton, Rep. Paul Ryan, and too many others to continue listing.
It would be hard, to find any negative mention by me, of any Republican, before Donald Trump invaded the American political scene.
chuck said...
So, the criminal justice system is criminal?
This is the only choice when the president says that Comey should be jailed and yet no one in law enforcement takes any action.
Chuck, fopdoodle extraordinaire,
Great, now defend a conservative.
Have you forgotten Medicare Part D? What about the bank bailout which was necessary to save capitalism? How about $5T in debt in 8 years? What about signing off on campaign finance reform? Calling other Republicans racist for not wanting open borders?
A few good points there!
Medicare Part D: By itself, without other reforms, it was a costly mistake.
Bank bailout: Ugly, by itself, but probably necessary. And in the end not so costly at all!
Debt: Another big problem. We need a Senate with about 66 Republicans, to go with a Republican House.
Campaign finance (McCain-Feingold): A terrible law; but remember who was the chief spiritual and procedural opponent. It was Mitch McConnell. Thank goodness for Senator McConnell, Citizens United and SpeechNow.org!
"Open borders" and "racists": What Republican ever called other Republicans "racists"? I'm aware of "open borders" trashtalk. No Republican wants "open borders." Few Republicans have ever countenanced anything like "amnesty," although Donald Trump is someone who has.
ROCAH: I think he flips because I think he committed a lot of crimes, and he has got a lot of jail time that he's facing for that reason.
Name some, please.
Quite, the legal system is obviously corrupt. That is, the group of human beings who run the system are, a great number of them, scoundrels.
"Criminal" is a pejorative or a matter of law, which may or may not work as designed, since it is of course corrupt.
Anyone with experience in a banana republic should be able to draw a distinction between the law, humans excluded, a pile of text and written organizational procedures, and those who staff and operate the system.
Did anybody notice who beat Romney yesterday ? Dr Mike Kennedy
Yes. I assumed it was a call-by-name, and not a call-by-reference.
Birkel said...
Chuck, fopdoodle extraordinaire,
Great, now defend a conservative.
You think that's so hard for me? Which conservative do you want me to defend? George Will? Kevin Williamson? Bill Kristol?
I'll pass on Sean Hannity, as long as he is using both his radio show and his tv show to bash Republicans. And I'll pass on Rush Limbaugh, who has notably abandoned his claiming the title of "The Limbaugh Institute for Advanced Conservative Studies" for the much more blandly accurate, "Limbaugh Institute for anti-Democrat Studies." They don't care so much about conservatism as they care about supporting and defending Trump.
BCARM: Is it not fair to say that the Bush family are both Republican and center-right?
Sure, whatever, it's "fair" (whatever the hell that means in this context). But what does calling them that usefully describe or predict?
They are a central part of American life, as evidenced by the recent funeral.
Well then, I guess that's why the base, comprising a whole bunch of people who also label themselves as "Republicans" and "center-right", were crazy about ¡Jeb!, and nobody in the Bush clan went out and voted for Hillary Clinton. Because "republican" and "center-right" are deeply meaningful and predictive labels.
These terms do not suddenly lose their meaning because of the ascendance of Trump.
They don't lose all meaning, they change in what they signify (or cease to signify). The "ascendance of Trump" is a point along the path of change and re-alignment in American political life. You want to think it signifies absolutely no change, no ongoing re-alighment, nothing of interest, just the old' Donk v. Pach, same as it ever was.
Trump himself has done nothing of substance other than be a tool of the Republican party and Paul Ryan in particular.
OK, so Trump is a tool of the Republican party (and Paul Ryan), and the Bushes are "Republican" and "center-right", and Comey is "center-right", making those deeply meaningful and predictive terms that give one all sorts of insight into what's going on here. And we know that nothing disturbing is going on here (except for Trump being president) because, hey, how could that be? Mueller is a Republican. Just like the Bushes. Investigating a tool of the Republicans so that makes him non-partisan. Because D v. R is all the "partisan" there is in this country.
You know, ARM, there is a point on the other end of the spectrum from the Dale Gribble crazies, a far point where they believe that the republic and its institutions are running along smoothly uncorrupted and unsclerosed, no fear or favor, rule-of-law out the wazoo, laws not men from sea to shining sea, every institution manned top-to-bottom by incorruptible disinterested paragons, but just happened to run into a big orange bump in the road, a momentary unpleasantness that signifies nothing of import.
They're crazier than Dale. What are you doing over there?
I'm thinking I really need to read Three Felonies a Day.
And Dershowitz's commentary certainly lends support to Buwaya's oft-stated opinion that this is just a political power struggle from top to bottom.
I expect Trump to eventually grant pardons or commutations to Cohen, Manafort, McCabe, Flynn, and just for the heck of it, Comey and Hillary. Basically anyone involved in the 2016 campaigns, the email investigation, FISA abuses and dossiergate. Trump will do it so we can move on.
Unless Trump gets impeached, in which case Pence will pardon all or most of those people as well as Trump.
So Dershie says we're all criminals as long as we all didn't go to such lengths to hide the evidence.
Yeah... I'm not really buying it.
Remind me, again, what's the alleged crime against Cohen?
Association with Trump.
Have anyone outside the DOJ and the issuing judge seen the Cohen search warrant? If it really was just for a possible election law violation, having to do with Stormy Daniels, then I’m appalled that the higher ups at DOJ aproved the search. Particularly since Cohen was being cooperative and producing documents when asked.
There had better be much more to the application, otherwise it’s a fairly transparent attempt to obtain secret information on Trump through the backdoor. Rosenstein et al. should not have approved such a search. The fruits of the search that are relevant to Russia in any way will quite obviously be shared with Mueller.
We need a Senate with about 66 Republicans, to go with a Republican House.
I take it you're looking to double our current deficit.
Drunken-sailor spending is, if anything, worse when Republicans control all three branches of government.
"It would be hard, to find any negative mention by me, of any Republican, before Donald Trump invaded the American political scene."
Since Trump is not a Republican (in the limited sense you categorize him) your record is still intact. Trump is closer to the Tea Party than the Republicans. There are some similarities, so I can see how you could get confused.
I love Dershowitz. Big fan. He's not a Trump guy. But he's ferociously honest. And principled. Not always right. He thinks O.J. Simpson was rightly acquitted. Talk about selling a bridge to people! But you can count on him to be a defense attorney, and to fight that fight. Regardless of who the person is that is being prosecuted/persecuted.
Aside from Althouse herself, maybe the most anti-mob law professor I know. He's not going to join your mob and attack the person charged with a crime. He did this with George Zimmerman, too. Kudos.
And Dershowitz's commentary certainly lends support to Buwaya's oft-stated opinion that this is just a political power struggle from top to bottom.
Lol. Because certainly Dotard Deficit-Spender Trillion-Dollar-Loss Leader Don never engaged in one of those. He just couldn't manage to get a popular majority and then pretended millions of extra hidden surplus voters actually wanted him to govern from the far-right.
Cohen is innocent, protests the guy who got O.J. off the hook!
Does Dershie still think O.J. was framed? Is he going to help him find the real killer? And one in a billion chance the DNA was someone else's - that means it could have been another person!
Lol. Nice company you keep. Dershie's wicked smart but like all or at least most good lawyers his capacity for self-delusion is infinite.
Get me a Gerry Spence any day.
"Which conservative do you want me to defend? George Will? Kevin Williamson? Bill Kristol?"
He asked about conservatives, not squishes -- at least one above who voted for Hillary.
Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...
... Comey comes across as as non-partisan as a human can be. He is center-right but did his best to be fair to all sides in a very difficult situation.
[chuckle] That would be the non-partisan Comey whose pussy-hatted womenfolk attended the Women's March right after the Inauguration? The non-partisan Comey who has clearly opposed everything about Trump from the get-go? That non-partisan Comey? LOL.
Once again, why all the fucking mystery? Why can't we know what Cohen is being investigated for?
Trump needs to FIRE Rosenstein. We've been having to deal with Mueller and his nonsense for a year now. There was NEVER a need for a special counsel - let alone giving him a blank check.
Trump needs to get out his Pardon pen, and shut down this circus. Pardon Flynn. Pardon Cohen. Pardon anyone else the Left decides to declare "Lawfare" on. Quit being a patsy!
We went through a big and song and dance about the "classified" FISA warrants. Big Mystery. Turned out to have almost ZERO classified info. Same with the Comey memos.
Same with Trump not being a target. 'member when Comey would get all mysterious and say he could say if Trump was a target EXCEPT in closed session. Only it wasn't classified and it wasn't a mystery.
So, what's the deal with Cohen? The US Public has a right to know.
Come on guys. Any Republican who hasn't sworn a loyalty oath to him isn't Republican enough for you.
You'd be happy supporting a president with a 3% approval. It would prove how elite and special and presidential he is... to you.
Walsh was a fucking embarrassment. He was hired to look into Iran-contra in 1986 and he was STILL GOING 7 fucking years later!
Why? Because the Republicans didn't have the guts to shut it down. George Bush, in true wimpy RINO fashion, wouldn't pardon Cap W. until almost his last day in office.
It's not like I don't believe Dershowitz. I just want to know what he's doing to help O.J. find the real killer.
LOL!
BTW, like Comey, Walsh was a "Life Long Republican"
Trump needs to FIRE Rosenstein. We've been having to deal with Mueller and his nonsense for a year now. There was NEVER a need for a special counsel - let alone giving him a blank check.
Exactly which crimes are you afraid that he'll find enough on him to indict him with? ;-)
Trump is closer to the Tea Party than the Republicans.
The Tea Party saw the crushing federal budget deficit as a bug; Trump thinks it's a feature. Trump emerged from bankruptcy far richer than before, so he naturally believes the same will be true when America goes bankrupt.
Lol. Because certainly Dotard Deficit-Spender Trillion-Dollar-Loss Leader Don never engaged in one of those. He just couldn't manage to get a popular majority and then pretended millions of extra hidden surplus voters actually wanted him to govern from the far-right.
Fine. Let's stipulate that DJT is no angel. Almost certainly he's committed multiple felonies a day for many years.
And he would be doing it still, unmolested and uninvestigated, had he never run for president, let alone won the race.
Good luck with the new identity, Ritmo.
A big mistake that the DOJ/FBI Resistance made in trying to frame Donald Trump was to allege that Michael Cohen traveled to Prague to meet with Russian colluders. The information about a Michael Cohen visiting Prague came from improper searches of NSA databases. The Michael Cohen who -- according to an NSA database -- visited Prague was a different Michael Cohen -- was not Trump's attorney.
The information about Michael Cohen visiting Prague was given to Christopher Steele, who then included that information into his dossier and implied that the information came from his sources inside the Russian government.
The DOJ/FBI Resistance planned the scheme to work this way:
* NSA info about Cohen being in Prague is put into Steele's dossier.
* Steele says that Russian insiders told him Cohen was in Prague.
* A group of Trump-hating Intelligence analysts is selected to study the dossier.
* The analysts use NSA databases to confirm that Cohen was in Prague.
* Therefore, the analysts conclude, Steele's sources were Russian insiders.
This Resistance scheme worked well until it turned out that the Cohen in Prague was not Trump's Cohen.
Oops !!!!
I think it's likely that the fundamental reason why Robert "The FBI Whitewasher" Mueller arranged a search of Cohen's home was TO PLANT EVIDENCE THAT THIS MICHAEL COHEN TRAVELED TO PRAGUE.
Mueller is a dishonest, despicable person. That is why he agreed to serve as the Special Counsel even though he obviously had conflicts of interest.
---
The Liberty Unyielding website recently published a superb article titled "It looks like Michael Cohen is being set up on this ‘Prague’ thing", written by J.E. Dyer, a retired Navy Intelligence officer.
There Dyer points out that the the DOJ/FBI Resistance still cannot specify the date when Michael Cohen visited Prague. Supposedly, the information about Cohen's Prague visit comes from some Intelligence Service that knows much about the visit -- EXCEPT ITS DATE
[quote]
.... If they’re relying on the witness information of someone who knew about the meeting – such as an Eastern European intelligence source – they’d know what day the meeting took place. End of story. That’s all they would need to track down other forms of evidence, such as security camera footage.
Even if they somehow found Cohen on security cameras without any cueing, they’d know what day it was. At the very least, they’d have it down to a period of just a couple of days, based on other factors such footage can be narrowed down with. But the need for that probably would not have occurred.
If they had Cohen on a cell phone going through a microwave tower in the Prague area, they’d have a time stamp on that.
Credit card? ATM use? Time stamp.
If they had incidental eyewitness information, such as identification from a photo of Cohen, walked by local gumshoes around the streets of Prague, they would easily have tracked down information about the meeting that clarified which day it occurred on, even if they couldn’t place the identification of Cohen to that precise day.
If they had signals intelligence describing events or plans related to the meeting (including emails or other communications involving Cohen himself), they would have time stamps on those, and in any case would know dead to rights what day the meeting was.
If Cohen made an overnight stay in a hotel, they’d have his passport information from the hotel stay, available from Czech authorities. They’d know exactly when Cohen was there. (This, I suspect, is how the Czechs know for sure that some other Michael Cohen with a U.S. passport was there.)
The bottom line is that they cannot know Cohen was there, for a meeting, without knowing what day he was there. ....
[end quote]
https://libertyunyielding.com/2018/04/15/looks-like-michael-cohen-set-prague-thing/
"Exactly which crimes are you afraid that he'll find enough on him to indict him with? ;-)"
It would be difficult to find a more Lavrentiy Beria-like question than that one.
LLR Chuck is going to absolutely love you for it!
Mike Sylvester, the assertion that Michael Cohen (Trump's Michael Cohen) traveled to Prague even though there are witnesses who saw him at his sons baseball excursion at the University of Southern Cal was indeed the first real clue how the 702 intercept violations occurred.
One question that both the FBI and DOJ have ADAMANTLY refused to answer is which contractors, specifically, were given access to the 702 database raw data info.
I think we are going to find out that both democrat opposition research firms FusionGPS and CrowdStrike were involved.
That is, until Adm Mike Rogers shut them down in April of 2016, which is why they little coup-meisters had to get FusionGPS to reach out and hire Nellie Ohr.
How.....convenient.
Can you imagine, a political parties opposition research firm is given free rein with the entirety of the 702 FISA intercept program.
The oppo research firm would be able to run queries on every single republican at every single level across the country.
Or, as LLR and #StrongDemDefender Chuck would say, a worthy use of the program.
Chuck: "George Will? Kevin Williamson? Bill Kristol?"
Oh, great. I see the problem now. You are confused about the difference between actions and words.
What a cheat!!
The video opens with a repeating GIF. I see the GIF, and assume the video player has started automatically. I press the video player button to STOP the GIF/video. Only now do I realize that I have been baited. I wanted to stop the GIF, but ended up starting the video!!
T3h B45T4RD5!!
If Robert "The FBI Whitewasher" Mueller has managed to plant evidence that Trump's Michael Cohen indeed visited Prague, then he will be able to restore the DOJ/FBI Resistance's original scheme.
* Christopher Steele said Russian insiders told him Cohen was in Prague.
* NSA databases indicate that Michael Cohen was in Prague.
* The search of Cohen's home found evidence he was in Prague.
* Therefore, Steele really got his info from Russian Intelligence insiders.
* Therefore, Steele's dossier is largely true.
======
Mueller must recognize that he is eternally disgracing ...
* himself
* his Special Counsel "investigation"
* the FBI.
Just like the Devil convinced Mueller to leak to journalists that the anthrax poisoner was Steven Hatfill, the Devil recently convinced him to plant Prague-trip evidence in Cohen's files.
This planting of evidence might undo all the disgracing that Mueller has been doing.
======
The DOJ/FBI Resistance's original idea was to prove that Trump was being blackmailed by Russian Intelligence. This idea was not based on any evidence at all. Rather, it was based on a presumption that Trump was so sleazy in his business in Russia that he simply must be being blackmailed by Russian Intelligence.
The DOJ/FBI Resistance felt certain that it would be able to find such evidence eventually.
The DOJ/FBI Resistance did not add the accusation that Trump was colluding to enable Russia to meddle in the US election until the end of July 2016, when Trump joked about Russia providing the e-mails that Hillary Clinton had deleted.
After that happened, there were two different accusations:
* Trump was being blackmailed by Russian Intelligence
* Trump was colluding with Russian Intelligence
In theory, Mueller eventually could have abandoned the collusion accusation and fallen back to just the blackmail accusation.
However, if Mueller has managed to plant evidence that Michael Cohen indeed visited Prague, then that means that Mueller has committed himself irrevocably to the collusion accusation. According to the dossier, Russian Intelligence insiders told Steele that Cohen visited Prague in order to collude with Russians to meddle in the US election.
Drago at 4:59 PM
One question that both the FBI and DOJ have ADAMANTLY refused to answer is which contractors, specifically, were given access to the 702 database raw data info.
I think we are going to find out that both democrat opposition research firms FusionGPS and CrowdStrike were involved.
That is, until Adm Mike Rogers shut them down in April of 2016, which is why they little coup-meisters had to get FusionGPS to reach out and hire Nellie Ohr.
That's an excellent summary of the situation.
The thing that jumps out to me is that this is all premised on the non-existent fact that there is something to flip on.
@Earnest Prole
Are you a fiscal conservative then? Or just one of those cheap shot guys? I'm all in if the former, but you seem like the latter.
I would like to see this:
Any time Trump has a new member join his team, he automatically pardons them from any prior wrongdoing or criminal action up to this point and tweets
"Hey, Mueller seems intent on punishing anyone who works FOR THE US PEOPLE in my administration so I am pardoning my people so Mueller can stop the witch hunt and get around to finishing up his fishing expedition and stop harassing honest Americans."
Then he writes about 100 pardons, including his driver, his doorman at Trump Tower, Baron and Melania. Tweet: "Just in case Soulless Mueller decides he needs to Harass my Family next."
Why not?
Bitchmo has a new name I see.
Same retarded cadence and writing style though.
The above will drive the Left crazy...but they are already crazy so that 'abuse of power' thing...it goes both ways.
Stop being assholes!
I see Ritmo has a new ID.
My book is calling.
The Republicans have a new identity and leadership style, I see.
Same retarded priorities as before though.
I'm not sure what a Special Counsel gets paid (I'm assuming close to $200k or more) but wouldn't it make sense to draw out the investigation for as long as possible?
Who else would quote Ritmo?
Not quite the same thing, but I have seen the same sort of tactics when a government agency wants a right-of-way. They will get it one way or another.
Cohen is likely to be indicted. Prosecutors need to find something now to justify the raid.
That doesn't say anything about whether Cohen will flip or fight it in court though.
The raid of his office already has achieved the purpose for which it was intended:
Cohen drops libel suits against BuzzFeed, Fusion GPS
Now Cohen can't get discovery of Fusion employee, Nellie Ohr (wife of DOJ official Bruce Ohr) and how Cohen's name came up possibly from FBI records (wrong cohen).
We might find out anyway if the IG report is ever released.
BCARM, 2:04:
"[Comey] is center-right"
which doesn't at all mean he didn't go into Trump's presidency assuming the (self-fulfilling) worst. You may have noticed some on the center-right have despised the guy right along.
"but did his best to be fair to all sides in a very difficult situation."
I disagree. I think he did his best to protect the FBI's reputation. If he thought that meant publicly letting Hillary off the hook so the left wouldn't blame the Bureau for destroying her candidacy, that's what he'd do. If that meant smacking her around a bit so the right wouldn't claim the fix was in from the start, that's what he'd do (in the same press conference).
When he announced the reopening of the investigation, I assumed he must have something really huge and new. Nope. When he pulled a Mrs. Litella a few days later, just in time for the election, I realized otherwise.
Of course everything he was hoping to avoid, with respect to loss of public confidence, is happening. This just means he didn't calculate very well. But as long as he's hated by partisans both left and right, he can assure himself that he's the unjustly maligned hero in all this.
JPS said...
I think he did his best to protect the FBI's reputation.
I don't disagree that this was a very high priority for him, but this is largely co-extensive with fair application of the law. Very hard to be unfair in the application of the law and protect the reputation of the FBI.
I had not heard his explanation for the Clinton saga until I listened to the NPR interview. It seemed reasonable to me. I came away moderately impressed. He is a bit like Chuck, in that he has a stick up his ass about following the rules, but what do you expect for the head of the FBI? These are not my people but I accept that they are acting in good faith.
If they don't know Cohen but they're still making a guess on whether or not he'll flip, those guesses can only be based on what they would do under similar circumstances.
Dershowitz is a fighter for truth. His confronting with the lying Federal Prosecutor makes me proud to be a lawyer. He brings to mind General McAuliffe telling the German Commander who gave him 2 hours to surrender Bastogne or die, NUTS.
The 101st did not flip facing threats by murderous Nazi Panzers, and Cohn won't flip either.
The corrupt Federal Prosecutors are the ones going down.
Tradguy ... Not if the judge can help it ... She needs to go too.
Any comments on quality of Cohen's legal representation?
Who would have been in contempt for refuse to reveal names on judge's order?
Protecting FBI reputation is his higher loyalty?
ARM: "I had not heard his explanation for the Clinton saga until I listened to the NPR interview. It seemed reasonable to me.!
Comey was lying.
Comey and McCabe sat on the investigation of the Weiner laptop emails for a full month, late sept thru late oct 2016.
It wasnt until the New York office folks started going ballistic about ANOTHER FBI pro-Hillary "Headquarters Special" (their actual term for it) and threatened to go public that Comey and McCabe had to scramble to fake "reopen" the fake investigation in order to rapidly reclose the fake investigation.
Good old "reasonable" Comey and his Boy Wonder McCabe were trying to wait out the election after which they would simply bury this latest "investigation"/whitewash/coverup regarding Hillary.
Same old same old.
What if Cohen is being coached by Jason Bourne or SF/X make up guy from Face-off or Mission Impossible.
The long list of egregious offenses by prosecutors is what Dersh is thinking of. A few examples ?
Add Tom Delay. Dems embrace legal corruption as a political tactic. Why wouldn't you if the only reason anyone opposed your preferences was racism?
The real question in the Michael Cohen matter is: Will Tom Brady play for the Patriots this year? You think I joke, but these guys have about the same level of knowledge of Tom Brady's intentions as they do of Cohen's; yet we are supposed to credit them with some kind of special knowledge or intelligence? Like so many others in the media sphere they are just expelling CO2 to fill the void.
FIDO. It seems DOJ paperwork is involved in issuing presidential pardons. So with Jeff Sessions ????
Or Is there tear off pad for pardons
I will add that Dershowitz has made consistent sense about the special prosecutor situation right from the get go.
Comey isn't center-right or anything else. He is all in on what's best for him and only him. Can't wait for the McCabe trial when Comey will have to be under oath.
"4/22/18, 1:21 PM
Blogger cubanbob said...
Dershowitz is right. Cohen wouldn't be under the gun if he wasn't Trump's lawyer. Sessions should have a federal prosecutor do the same to Cheryl Mills. Just to be fair and balanced. Also Mueller has some explaining about Whitey Bulger and among other things."
It sickens me that Mills and that Jennifer (I forgot her last name) chick were given immunity on the HRC email investigation under Obama. Sessions should be looking real deep into that.
The Federal Prosecutors and their FBI Stormtroopers have long known they are in absolute power over any target they are told to destroy. They can destroy a business and the rape all the family's assets and put known innocent men and women in jail when they decide to run a CNN fictional Fake Crime indictment and arrest showtime with the alerted Media going wild before, during, and after the arrest by heroic Federal storm troopers.
"These are not my people but I accept that they are acting in good faith."
Democrats ? Of course they are "your people."
Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...
The faction the Bush family represents will be still be here long after Trump is gone, and many of you will line up behind it just as you have always done in the past.
This is just a stupid statement.
The neocons and CoC flunkies all supported and voted for Hillary. We do not want them back.
We will never reconcile with the likes of Chuck. You all are on the same team now.
It will take some time but we will purge the open borders "free" trade war forever traitors.
Earnest Prole said...
Have you forgotten Medicare Part D? What about the bank bailout which was necessary to save capitalism? How about $5T in debt in 8 years? What about signing off on campaign finance reform? Calling other Republicans racist for not wanting open borders?
GW Bush's list of "achievements" would make any Democratic President proud. Bill Clinton's record by comparison is far more conservative.
This pretty much nails it. Both comments.
The Bush wing will be driven out of the Republican Party by the voters. We want no part of that.
President Bonespurs said...
The Republicans have a new identity and leadership style, I see.
Same retarded priorities as before though.
Whomever posted this is really stupid.
Who is the better good scout?
Sessions or Comey?
Chuck said...
It would be hard, to find any negative mention by me, of any Republican, before Donald Trump invaded the American political scene.
No shit Chuck. They were traitors. We know why you like them. That is why Jeb had to spend around 10 million dollars per delegate.
100% of republican voters cheered when Paul Ryan retired. He will disappear forever into some cushy lobbying gig and never be cared about again.
Face it. Trump's endorsement is going to be just as important as Reagan's endorsement for the same reasons.
No republican voter is ever going to care who any of the Bush's or Romney endorse again.
I don't know what the future of the GOP is.
The Whigs failed to deal with slavery. They are long gone.
We now have the worst ruling class since 1860 at least.
Roosevelt botched the Depression but had the excuse that no one knew what to do.
Bush had the 2008 meltdown but he had warnings and some of his administration tried to head it off by reining in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The CRA was a Democrats' identify politics priority.
Read Nicole Gelinas' book about the crisis. We could have had an auction of bad loans and MBS assets but TARP was created out of whole cloth and we are no better off except deeper in debt.
I hope Trump can get the economy going but the interest rates will go up as the economy heats up and I don't see the exit ramp.
Dershowitz is a fighter for truth.
He's going to help O.J. find the real killers!
It was a mob hit!
No republican voter is ever going to care who any of the Bush's or Romney endorse again.
Yes! Because at 71 years of age and no heirs with the sense that god gave a turnip this Trump guy has real long term/dynastic staying power!
He'll lead the Republican party into the year 2100! No other Republican (who's not a paper billionaire) will care about doing the COC bidding again!
After Trump it will be Sheldon Adelson 2024! He'll only be 90 at that point and is basically a single-issue neocon but what the heck! The precedent's been set. Billionaires only from now going forward! Independence from lobbyists forever!!!
Ritmo doesn't care that no one pays attention to him.
Screaming at the moon.
Take the stick out yo ass, Michael K. Stop being so boring and serious!
You admit that my avatar is the best! You love it!
Awww who you kidding. You Republicans only look at the pictures anyway!
Michael K, what are you doing to help O.J. find the real killers? You know, your buddy Dersh could use some help in the matter.
Blogger President Bonespurs said...
Dershowitz is a fighter for truth.
He's going to help O.J. find the real killers!
What kind of fascist nonsense is this? In America, it is the government's job to find the real killers and prove to a jury that they are the real killers.
It was OJ's job to...
Do nothing. As it is every person on trial's job. He didn't have to prove his innocence. Not in America. The government has to convince a jury that he did it and they could not.
What country do you live in? I certainly don't want to live in that country.
I saw perhaps 60-70% of the trial live on Court TV. I am not convinced that he is not guilty but I certainly had enough doubt in my mind that I would not have voted to convict had I been a juror.
Better a guilty man go free than an innocent one go to jail.
John Henry
"I would not have voted to convict had I been a juror. "
I watched the afternoon sessions of the trial as I was living in New Hampshire at the time.
Marcia Clark and the other guy screwed the trial up so badly, I was not convinced he was guilty until the civil trial.
Petrocelli was the one who convicted him, even if it was a civil trail.
So that's why you live in Puerto Rico then, John Henry. How's that statehood drive going?
I'm glad you think O.J.'s unpunished murder of his wife and her boyfriend (except in the civil suit) were such wonderful exercises in freedom, John. Newsflash: Most people don't. They also don't think that an imperfect prosecution - whatever its missteps - going against an unlimited funded defense makes the case anything other than a travesty. Neither do they excuse Ito's bad calls or that idiotic jury.
Anyway, the court of public opinion, and the civil suit and his subsequent actions have all convicted O.J. - in America. The country that you don't really live in.
But maybe you're just as simple as that jury was.
I sure hope that if anything happened to your wife and kids you would feel comfortable acting as guilty before AND AFTER as O.J. did. I mean, if you had any credibility or anything. Which you don't.
Go help O.J. find the real killers John. Unless you think a presumption of innocence for one accused Hall of Famer is a great reason to let innocent women and men get killed without any recourse or even effort at finding justice for them at all.
You care about two things: O.J.'s fame and money and the superior defense he could buy with that and the fact that the people he was found responsible in a civil suit for killing never get any real justice. That's what you care about.
In America, it is the government's job to find the real killers and prove to a jury that they are the real killers.
It was OJ's job to...
Do nothing.
If he didn't care a whit about the victims he was later found responsible for killing. Which he didn't.
Sounds like you don't, either.
How honorable of you.
He did subsequently after he was out of legal jeopardy:
https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2018/04/the_discreet_charm_of_the_first_amendment.html
I think very few really believed that oj didnt do it, the more disturbing thong was they didnt think the deaths of two affluent white people were any of their concern
Blogger President Bonespurs said...
So that's why you live in Puerto Rico then, John Henry. How's that statehood drive going?
Huh?
I live in America. As in United States of. I care about rule of law. I care about requiring proof of guilt, not proof of innocence.
As far as statehood, not much happening. Politicians talk a lot about wanting it but if it ever came, it would break all their cookie jars. That is why they have never asked for it and for all their promises probably never will.
Unless we get someone from outside our political system like a Trump who is not beholden to the main parties. Our politicians are not just the swamp, they are the sludge at the bottom of the swamp. I vote against incumbents every year but other than that, there is not much that can be done. Like you, I'm too squeamish to be a revolutionary.
John Henry
Unless we get someone from outside our political system
Outside the Puerto Rican political system. Not from outside Puerto Rico.
We did have someone in 16. Good guy, a baker. I first met him in the 80s. Unfortunately I was off island that week so I could not vote.
I was in Chicago that week. I considered voting for Candidate Trump there but in the end, decided I had too much important stuff to do than to participate in a Chicago election.
I did get to celebrate election night in the grand ballroom of the Trump Hotel, which was pretty cool. Absolutely first class hotel facility and food.
John Henry
Re 1860 and the fulcrum, one thinks it may have been 1844, if Polk had lost in part because the liberty candidate had gone his own way, there might have been as obvious a conflict with Mexico, whose new states strained the uneasy compact to the limit.
Bonespurs/TTR/Ritmo Brasnapper
Tedious. Pointless. Boring. Flaccid. You have yet to be interesting. And boring is the worst kind of troll. I fart in your general direction.
No, John. You care about pontificating and bloviating and acting all high and mighty so that you can disregard two people murdered and then awarded damages by a guy later found responsible who acted guilty as hell about their murders. And he did that because he had money and could buy a superior legal team than that afforded to the victims' families, which the state has an obligation to protect and represent. That money didn't make him a better person, just like it doesn't make Trump a decent person at all. It just shows how gullible you are to money (and other shiny things) as a substitute for truth and justice.
The person who will break through the system won't be someone "too rich to be bribed by it." THat's a false belief in all likelihood and the reason why you mammonites don't stand for liberty or justice - now or 250 years ago. You stand for aristocracy and call it liberty. You're not too "squeamish" for revolution. You're too easily bought by the riches of the system.
The person who won't be bought and who will act without corruption is the person who has ideals and principles that go beyond money. That's not Trump and that's not any of his followers. Money's way too important for him. But honesty isn't. And if honesty were important to you (or if you were intelligent enough) you'd admit that to yourself as well. He's a charlatan and you're just another happy and willing customer for the BS he's selling. After all, he wrapped it up in a neat red baseball cap and a long red tie. Just the kind of emissary for the very personality cult that you're willing to believe and be bought and sold to.
$100 says no one ever had any interest in entertaining anyone as boring as Cliff Birkel Clavin. But he feels cheated. Let's throw him a pity party. On the count of three: One, Two, Three, Awwwww.
Much like the jugurthan and numantian conflicts set the Roman republic off kilter with first the social wars and the triumvirates.
Dershowitz said that the Mueller investigation should be shut down (authorization is too broad). He noted that the business dealings of any millionaire businessman can be nailed for breaking the law and singling out the president for investigation is unfair and a trap. Right. Ok Mr. Dershowitz. Mr. Mueller if you discover any crime perpetrated by the president, ignore it. Dershowitz is feeble.
Dershowitz apparently does not know what an investigation is. Nor does he know this: https://www.dni.gov/files/documents/ICA_2017_01.pdf
Russia attacked us. It's a matter of first impression. Yet here is Dershowitz with all the answers...all the wrong answers.
Yeah, John Henry, quit acting all high and mighty with your call for rule of law and due process. How dare we adhere to the principles of the country when there are political points for TTR to score against the Democrats in the LA DA Office and the Dems on the OJ jury.
Wait. What? Why is TTR attacking Democrat public servants and jurors?
Darrin Rychiak is a bot.
And that is derived from crowdstrike since the fbi never examined the servers, just like fusion also funded by the dnc which may have actually imported dezinforma is the other bookend.
Because unlike you I have values, Cliff. And I also don't think rule of law is run by your need to make an authoritarian circus show out of it. Remember: You demand entertainment. But law can be a boring thing.
Now go back to being a good little partisan and ask yourself why Trump was a registered Democrat all his life.
The political points I'm scoring are against Dershowitz, who is blind to his own self-righteousness.
The Russian spammer are actually challenging Mueller through discovery which will reveal the shoddinesd of the analysis, much like those three oligarchs are doing in london.
The perfect legal talking-head pundit shield for a (p)resident who is just as self-righteous.
It does resemble the Tuttle vs battle mix up in Brazil, there were no drones then.
Values? You mean believing in due process and rule of law are not principles, to you, TTR?
Explains quite a bit of your disagreement with John Henry.
Bonespurs between your ears, maybe?
In Puerto Rico where the electrical grid has been in need of repair for 25 years, they threw out one contractor after a few months, now monthes later the new contractor had just about reached 50% power.
Due process? Meaning Dershowitz deciding the case without knowing what any of the facts are?
Didn't know that was how one defines due process but it explains quite a bit of your disagreement with: Mueller, Comey, the FBI, the SDNY, and virtually every lawyer or paid-off pundit who isn't already in the tank for Trump.
Clearly you weren't entertained enough to figure out where you went wrong on this one, Boring Birkel.
Bonespurs between your ears, maybe?
Do we have to add "bitchy" to your boring list of character traits, Boring Birkel?
The dog that didn't bark was that of John podesta be actually did the lobbying for Russian interests but he used the money to defraud his clients, his firm was shut down but there was no swat team delivering a,warrant to his office.
There is as yet no proof to either McDougal nor Daniels allegations, then again that was also true with judge moore but that was beside the point as the Alabama pAper that accepted falsified evidence won the pulitzer.
In Brazil the system is such a dumpster fire that a hard taking fmr paratrooper who makes trump seem like a,boy scout is,making waves.
Judge sullivan reopened the Stevens case and sanctioned the television, light had his license restored after a long and grueling process.
Are you a fiscal conservative then? Or just one of those cheap shot guys?
I believe it's immoral to send future generations the bill for our profligacy.
Blogger narciso said...
In Puerto Rico where the electrical grid has been in need of repair for 25 years, they threw out one contractor after a few months, now monthes later the new contractor had just about reached 50% power.
Actually, we are at, supposedly, 97.27% of generation/1.4mm customers as of 4/20/18 ( www.status.pr) . Still some problems with the distribution. There are still 75m or so households without electric power. OTOH, Thursday PM I drove by the Privately owned Guayama plant and the govt owned Aguirre plants and both seemed to be offline or running at very low output judging from the stacks. Total of both is around 1,000MW. Palo Seco, as far as I know, is still offline other than some gas turbines. Another half a gigawatt. So I don't really believe that 97% but it is the official number.
The government owned power company is one of those cookie jars I was talking about.
As far as Whitefish, don't get me started. They were the only ones willing to come in with no big money upfront, they mobilized hundreds of teams (workers and bucket trucks) helocopters, barracks barges, Antononovs and more.
Everyone said they were doing a good job. But the mayor of San Juan needed some attention so started making noise. This led the governor to cancel the contract:
The announcement by Ricardo Ramos came hours after Governor Ricardo Rosselló urged the company to scrap the deal. Ramos said Whitefish would continue with current work but the contract would then be scrapped, leading to delay of 10 to 12 weeks in completing the work.
Roughly 70% of the island remains without power more than a month after Hurricane Maria struck as a category 4 storm with winds of up to 154mph.
“It’s an enormous distraction,” Ramos said of the Whitefish controversy. “This was negatively impacting the work we’re already doing.”
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/oct/29/puerto-rico-governor-whitefish-power-contract-cancelled
You can see more info at darkislandpr.blogspot.com
John Henry
No good deed goes unpunished John,
You provide valuable perspective which is missing from the centrAl Florida station.
Prosecution, but it might as we be television one fbi whistleblower called out the bizarre Weinstein like behavior of their star witness.
Yes the patty murrAy of Puerto Rico has done a,great deal of harm.
What happened to the investigations of the diverted supplies did anything come of that.
I'm guessing as with Jefferson Parrish after Katrina some of the louder yelpers will get stung.
Covered in detail on the blog, Narciso. With links
There were NO missing supplies in the incident you are referring too.
100% artificial political shit stirring.
John Henry
Cohen is likely to be indicted. Prosecutors need to find something now to justify the raid.
That's what bothers me the most about this whole affair. Once you sic a prosecutor on someone he's going to root around until he finds something, because that's his job. It's usually something iffy like conspiracy or 18 U.S.C Section 1001, where you can nail someone for lying to his postman. That's not justice.
Michael K said...I see Ritmo has a new ID.
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Same shit, new wrapper..
TTR/Ritmo/Bonespurs, do you type all that just to hear the noises your fingers make?
What a dull boy.
Wadaya expect, doc? The kid has no life.
Can you imagine being ritmo on earth day?
A committed progressive with a basement full of latex girlfriends?
Can you imagine the guilt?
I bet he uses a condom.
Despite what you have read here, today, in scores of law school classrooms professors, will assure their students that the USA has the world's finest legal system.
Yeah.
Right.
Tell me about it.
William Chadwick: Angel-Dyne, it never occurred to me that ARM might be a foreigner, but you may be right. He has that un-American servility and devotion to the State I've noticed a lot in Canadians, for example.
Oh, I don't think he's a foreigner. I just think he sounds like foreigners often sound, commenting on another country's politics. They use an interpretive lens that that's based on an inaccurate "frame". Lots of Americans who, for example, accept NPR's framing of events, are going to sound just like clueless Canadians talking about American politics.
No Republican wants "open borders."
So this lying sack never heard of JEB!
Or Linda Gramnesty?
I've got a nice city view from up where I live. Rusty's probably got a ground floor ranch or double-wide out where no one can visit him.
Poor Rusty. :-(
Sure you do ritmo.
Bonespurs has a great view of the city from the top of Snowy Mount Crumpit.
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