March 8, 2019

"Bad lawyer and fraudster Michael Cohen..."

54 comments:

Robert Cook said...

"Bad lawyer and fraudster"...who was the Donald's attorney for over ten years!

Lucien said...

Am I the only one who thinks it was unethical for Mr. Cohen to secretly tape his clients; and to be so seemingly eager to divulge the confidences of a client before a congressional committee? Or is it just covered by the general “Orange Man Bad” exception laws, rules, and norms.

Lucid-Ideas said...

So I guess that makes him a liar huh?

buwaya said...

"Bad lawyer and fraudster"...who was the Donald's attorney for over ten years!"

Sometimes you need a "bad lawyer" - point made in the review of "Bonfire of the Vanities".

Inga...Allie Oop said...

So why did Trump keep him on all those years? Trump must like fraudsters, birds of a feather...

Big Mike said...

@Cookie, you claim to live in New York. And you are unaware that it is, politically, a sewer? Sometimes you need a sewer rat for a lawyer, and that's when you have to work your way through a sewer.

The white shoes law firms have their place, and so do the sewer rats.

Nonapod said...

The problem with hiring a scumbag is that sooner or later they'll become a liability. At the very least Trump should have fired him long before starting his presidential run.

Inga...Allie Oop said...

Sometimes you need a sewer rat for a lawyer, and that's when you have to work your way through a sewer.”

And sometimes they rat on you.

stevew said...

Cohen should have pitched his services to Amazon for use in their pursuit of a new HQ in NYC.

As has been mentioned before, dirty work in a dirty place with dirty people requires someone that doesn't mind getting dirty.

Dirty deeds done dirt cheap.

stevew said...

"At the very least Trump should have fired him long before starting his presidential run."

Very good point.

Chuck said...

Michael Cohen is a "good man."

stevew said...

"Michael Cohen is a "good man."

Until he isn't... that's how that sort of thing works, right? ;-)

Tactical error on Trump's part not to fire him long ago - as Nonapod points out.

Drago said...

Chuck is a "LLR"

LOL

Chuck said...

I'd like to give the President an opportunity to explain his side of this in much more detail. In front of a federal grand jury in the District of Columbia. When did the President and Cohen discuss a pardon? Was it in person, or over the phone? Who else was present? Was a recording made? Were records kept? Were attorneys present? What else was discussed? How many times was a pardon discussed, and when? What else was discussed between the President and Cohen, after the execution of the Cohen search warrants through the Southern District of New York?

At the same time, there exists that completely curious statement by President Trump on Air Force One, where he was asked about the $130,000 payment to Stormy Daniels and the President said that he knew nothing about it. Yet there are checks made payable to Cohen, signed by Trump, totaling that amount. And recordings of Cohen and Trump discussing it. And now, meetings between National Enquirer publisher David Pecker and attorneys from SDNY and OSC, concerning the Pecker-directed payment to Karen McDougal for her story. Which the National Enquirer never published.

So many questions. Hearing from the President, under oath, would be so helpful.

steve uhr said...

Prosecutors don’t get to pick their witnesses. Why did trump hire a crook and liar to be his “fixer”?

Earnest Prole said...

Of all the lawyers in New York, you picked this one.

Wince said...

Cohen is perhaps a good example of "ethically challenged".

Probably a "good man" to his family and close friends, but an at-all-costs self-promoter.

Did Mueller threaten Cohen's family, specifically his wife, to get the testimony he wanted?

Even thought Mueller got Cohen to plead guilty to a non-crime in order ding Trump, I really don't see Trump as the reason Cohen got himself into the actual criminal jeopardy that he's in.

narciso said...

Probably considering his m.o. technofog noted some shenanigans re the Enron prosecution by weissman.

narciso said...

Or this example:

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1103892412575801344.html

narciso said...

This corroborates what bamford discovered, but Mueller doesn't get the starr treatment

narciso said...

Hmm that's interesting;
http://thefederalist.com/2019/03/08/35-key-people-involved-russia-hoax-need-investigated/

Drago said...

Dream on Schiff-ty boy Chuck.

Dream on.

BTW, did you hear? More of your "LLR" NeverTrump pals have come out for reparations, aren't bothered by the dems anti-semitism, and are four-square behind abortion on demand all the way through post-birth and remain solidly Open Borders.

So much "conservatism" being "conserved".

If any more "conservatism" were being "conserved" by the LLR's, we'd be at the Socialist Workers Party convention.

Ray - SoCal said...

Cohen turned when the full power of the state was used against him, and he was basically declared an enemy of the people.

Very Stalin like.

That will teach anyone to not dare have anything to do with Trump! Another victory for the resistance!

Manafort, Cohen, and Flynn are all object lessons on the potential cost of working with Trump

Reference:
In June 1934, Stalin signed a decree that held the family of a prisoner as guilty as he was and that the family (directed of course against the Old Guard) was guilty in its own right.
https://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/modern-world-history-1918-to-1980/russia-1900-to-1939/the-show-trials-in-the-ussr/

My 2 Cents:

This is terrifying, a horrible precedent, and very anti American. It’s not how the us justice system is supposed to work. Justice is supposed to be blind and equal, not dependent on your politics and/or how much money you have



JohnAnnArbor said...

It's so hard to hire good people.

I'm not being snarky. It's not easy.

Robert Cook said...

"Sometimes you need a sewer rat for a lawyer, and that's when you have to work your way through a sewer.

"The white shoes law firms have their place, and so do the sewer rats."


I disagree. One should always have as expert an attorney as one can afford, but one's attorney should observe all professional ethics and advise the client to do so, as well. Only sewer rats want to work with sewer rats. But that's not the point. Trump speaks of Cohen as a "bad lawyer and fraudster" as if he were not someone who was his personal attorney for 12 years, but as if he were some scumbag he's just hearing about lately from a distance.

Whatever kind of lawyer Cohen is, Trump knew it all along and retained him for whatever qualities he had that were of service to Trump.

narciso said...

Like web hubbell that Clinton made associate atty general, like the EPA official who was masquerading as a Company operative, not much was said about them

Robert Cook said...

"It's so hard to hire good people.

"I'm not being snarky. It's not easy."


After a dozen years, one knows whether one has made a good hire or not. One knows whether one is satisfied with the person one has hired or not, and with the personal and professional qualities he or she has.

Mike Sylwester said...

All these police-state investigations were set into motion by Rod Rosenstein, when he appointed Robert "The FBI Whitewasher" Mueller and gave Mueller the power to prosecute all of Donald Trump's relatives, friends and associates for anything at all.

Fortunately for our Democracy, Rosenstein will leave his position soon. Then Mueller will not have his enabler any more.

Then the DOJ/FBI can begin to restore its reputation as a professional, non-partisan institution.

narciso said...

Let's not forget Tim Geithner who avoided taxes for how many years but had to be treasury secretary John Deutsch who kept classified info on an unsecure server, wait a tick.

John henry said...

Yes, Buwaya, I had posted it and as soon as I saw Cook's comment knew I had to repost it again:

"“Dershkin, Bellavita, Fishbein & Schlossel,” said Freddy. “Three Jews and an Italian, and Tommy Killian is an Irishman. Let me tell you something, Sherman. The practice of law gets very specialized in New York. It’s as if there are a lot of little…clans…of trolls…I’ll give you an example. If I was being sued in an automobile negligence case, I wouldn’t want anybody at Dunning Sponget representing me. I’d go to one of these lawyers on lower Broadway who don’t do anything else. They’re the absolute bottom of the barrel of the legal profession. They’re all Bellavitas and Schlossels. They’re crude, coarse, sleazy, unappetizing—you can’t even imagine what they’re like. But that’s who I’d go to. They know all the judges, all the clerks, the other lawyers—they know how to make the deals. If somebody named Bradshaw or Farnsworth showed up from Dunning Sponget & Leach, they’d freeze him out. They’d sabotage him. It’s the same way with criminal law. The criminal lawyers aren’t exactly the bout en train, either, but in certain cases you’ve got to use them. Given that situation, Tommy Killian is a very good choice.”"


Freddy being the whiteshoe lawyer from Dunning Sponget.

Tommy Killian winds up representing Sherman. And what is his background? Yale:

“It was okay. Nobody there knew what the fuck I was talking about.” Tawkin. “You might as well be from Afghanistan as Sunnyside, Queens. But I liked it. It’s a nice place. It’s easy, as law schools go. They don’t try to bury you in details. They give you the scholarly view, the overview. You get the grand design. They’re very good at giving you that. Yale is terrific for anything you wanna do, so long as it don’t involve people with sneakers, guns, dope, lust, or sloth.”"

Emph added.

I can fully understand why, developing real estate in the swamps of NYC, Donal Trump would need a Michael Cohen.

John Henry

Chuck said...

"That will teach anyone to not dare have anything to do with Trump! Another victory for the resistance!"

Actually, I thought that there were plenty of object lessons out there, that if you get mixed up with Trump, an ugly mess is the most likely outcome for you. Here are the names of some of those object lessons:

Ivana Trump
Marla Maples
Timothy O'Brien
The USFL
The students and faculty of Trump University
The thousands of creditors of Trump Shuttle and Trump Entertainment Resorts, Inc.
Sen. Jeff Sessions
Gen. John Kelly
Gen. H.R. McMaster
Gen. James Mattis
Rex Tillerson
Gary Cohn
Reince Priebus
R. Admiral Dr. Ronny Jackson
A couple-dozen low-wage workers at Trump National-Bedminster
Michael Cohen
Stephanie Clifford
Karen McDougal

jaydub said...

"I'd like to give the President an opportunity to explain his side of this in much more detail."

The most grating thing about you (although there are many, many grating things in competition) is your self regard which causes you to believe your wishes and likes and opinions mean diddly shit to anyone else.

Mike Sylwester said...

A good place to start in understanding the persecution of Donald Trump's associates is George Papadopoulos, a young man who decided to become a consultant in Trump's election campaign staff.

Soon after Papadopoulos made that decision but before he actually joined the campaign staff, Papadopoulos was directed to travel to Rome to become acquainted with Joseph Mifsud. During their meeting, Mifsud said he had heard that the Russians had some dirt on Hillary Clinton.

Soon Papadopoulos was directed to a meeting with Alexander Downer, who asked him whether he had heard anything about the Russians having any dirt on Clinton.

That's how it began for Papadopoulos, who had committed the sin of agreeing to become a consultant on Trump's campaign staff.

Eventually, Robert "The FBI Whitewasher" Mueller put Papadopoulos in jail on concocted charges.

Michael Cohen is just one of many victims of these police-state tactics.

Soon, however, Rob Rosenstein will be gone, and then Mueller will lose his enabler.

Christy said...

The 40 hour testimony prep with the Democrats's staff interests me, especially in light of not allowing the Rs to depose him.

Drago said...

Poor LLR Chuck.

It aint easy to keep up his morale after the performance of his Team Dem members over the last 2 weeks.

Still, he can always fall back on the long view knowing he and his Open Borders pals just might still deliver that permanent democrat electoral lock that they so desperately seek.

It will be difficult for actual conservatives to alter that lefty/LLR immigration trajectory.

Drago said...

Jaydub to "Adam Schiff republican" Chuck: ,The most grating thing about you (although there are many, many grating things in competition) is your self regard which causes you to believe your wishes
and likes and opinions mean diddly shit to anyone else."

Actually, every leftist on this board enthusiastically supports LLR Chuck's opinions.

Every single one of them.

Bay Area Guy said...

Yes, Michael Cohen is a sewer rat.

Yes, Trump hired Cohen as an attorney for 10+ years.

Yes, Trump paid, directly or indirectly, $130K for Stormy Daniels' NDA.

Now, let's return back to the issue: whether the 2016 Presidential election was stolen by Trump and the Russians.

1. The famous Steele Dossier stated that Michael Cohen went to Prague. I quote from our friends at Vox:

The dossier says that after Paul Manafort was fired, Cohen traveled to a European Union country (later reports claim it was the Czech Republic) in late August or early September to meet with Russian officials, and that the meeting took place under the cover of a Russian NGO, Rossotrudnichestvo.

One topic of this meeting was “coverup and damage limitation” around Manafort’s Ukrainian work and efforts to “prevent the full details of Trump’s relationship with Russia being exposed.” According to the dossier, after August, Cohen continued to manage Trump’s relations with Russia, but after this point, contacts were made to Russia’s “trusted agents of influence” instead of officials.


These are all lies. Cohen never visited Russians in Prague or any other Eastern European city or country. Steele simply superimposed Cohen into the innerworkings of some shady Russian operatives, not unlike how Forest Gump was superimposed onto old White House footage getting his medals JFK, LBJ and Nixon.

So, what does an honest reasonable person conclude from this?

1. The Steele Dossier was filled with lies -- certainly about Cohen's role.
2. The Steele Dossier was used to do 2 things: (1) con the FISA judge to grant a sweeping warrant against Carter Page and (2) provide some bad PR against Trump (piss tapes) that would sink his campaign.
3. The sweeping warrant allowed gov't intelligence officials to spy on, eavesdrop, record, "unmask" anyone connected with Carter Page, including, surprise, surprise, the intended target of this ploy -- candidate, now President, Trump.
4. The "Crossfire Hurricane" play, now morphed into the Mueller Special Counsel team, after 2.5 years has not found evidence of Russian collusion, coordination or conspiracy.

I quote Judge Ellis that Manafort was “not before the court for anything having to do with colluding with the Russian government.”

If Hillary had won, all of this woulda been buried.

Mike Sylwester said...

Papadopoulos was set up so that the FBI could claim to a FISA judge that he was a Russian spy, which would enable the FBI to wiretap all of Papadopoulos's conversations while working on Trump's campaign staff.

Until Papadopoulos was directed to go to meet Mifsud in Rome, Papadopoulos had no significant relationships with Russians. Papadopoulos specialized in issues of the petroleum industry in the eastern Mediterranean.

Papadopoulos became "knowledgeable" and suspected about Russian activities only because Mifsud told him that Russia had dirt on Hillary Clinton.

Mifsud does not work for Russia. Mifsud works for the UK's MI-6, which provided Mifsud for this operation to trap Papadopoulos.

The argument that Robert "The FBI Whitewasher" Mueller used to put Papadopoulos into jail was that Papadopolous misinformed the FBI about Mifsud's whereabouts, thus preventing the FBI from detaining Mifsud while Mifsud was visiting the USA. All of this is a lie.

The FBI and Mueller can go get Mifsud any time they want to, simply by asking MI-6 to provide Mifsud. However, the FBI and Mueller want to enable Mifsud to remain hidden.

Using that lie, Mueller put Papadopoulos into jail.

------

Who told Papadopoulos to travel to Rome to meet Mifsud? He was told to do so by Arvinder Sambei, the FBI's legal counsel in the UK, who was working as a Director of the London Center for International Law Practice, which was employing Papadopoulos when he decided to go work on Trump's campaign staff. A short time before Papadopoulos traveled to the USA for that job, Sambei told him to go to Rome to meet Mifsud.

-----

Michael Cohen is just one of many victims of such police-state tactics that are being used to entrap and persecute any and all relatives, associates and supporters of Donald Trump.

Fortunately, however, Rod Rosenstein soon will be gone from his position. The Resistance in the DOJ/FBI will be effectively scattered. Mueller will lose his enablers.

FullMoon said...

Cohen turned when the full power of the state was used against him, and he was basically declared an enemy of the people.

They threatened to charge his wife with fraud for signing a loan agreement that was not accurate.

Kinda like when you do your taxes (or take out a loan) and pass the paperwork to your spouse and say "Sign on the X's."

FullMoon said...

As far as the pardon, Cohen said he would not accept one if offered.

Sure thing. Prison time instead of being free to support your family. Okey Dokey.

FullMoon said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
FullMoon said...

Speaking of liars:

Parts of Bruce Ohr’s testimony have already been leaked to the press. In the hearing, Bruce Ohr undercut several claims made by Glenn Simpson, the founder of Fusion GPS, and California Rep. Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee.

Bruce Ohr testified that he met with Simpson on Aug. 22, 2016 to discuss information from the dossier. That contradicted Simpson’s testimony to House Intelligence on Nov. 14, 2017 that he did not meet with Bruce Ohr until after the election.

Bruce Ohr also told lawmakers that he told the FBI about his contacts with Steele in early August 2016, days after he and Nellie Ohr met the former British spy in Washington, D.C.

Schiff claimed in a memo released on Feb. 24, 2018 that Bruce Ohr did not tell the FBI about his contacts with Steele until after the election.Georgia Rep. Doug Collins unilaterally released a 268-page transcript Friday of a deposition that Justice Department official Bruce Ohr gave to Congress in August. Collins, the top Republican on the House Judiciary Committee, took the unusual step by reading a statement on the House floor and providing a link to the Ohr transcript in the public record. The representative said his patience with the Justice Department “has grown thin.

Michael K said...

"Adam Schiff republican" Chuck

I like that. Has a nice ring to it.

Francisco D said...

Here are the names of some of those object lessons:

You forgot one mane:

Chuckles the internet clown and LLR.

BUMBLE BEE said...

This blog provides massive volumes of leads and cross references in this Trump story. I thank you all for contributing! I'd personallt like to hear Nellie Ohr's story, like how's that Ham Radio license you got workin out?

narciso said...

cnn should be called the wile e coyote network


https://dailycaller.com/2019/03/08/lynne-patton-cnn-fake-news/

Drago said...

MK re: Adam Schiff republican" Chuck: "I like that. Has a nice ring to it."

The one caveat I need to mention is that LLR Chuck is often to the left of Schiff.

narciso said...

what is striking with actual documents, and sources that challenge the narrative, almost every outlet only follows said narrative,

Drago said...

If you want the know why LLR Chuck is doubling and tripling and quadrupling down on his over the top and ludicrous defense of Adam Schiff its because Rep Collins of GA released an unredacted copy of Bruce Ohr's testimony which demonstrates conclusively the extent to which LLR Chuck's hero Adam Schiff has been lying thru his teeth about Fusion GPS, Christopher Steele, the FBI payments to Steele, and so many many other things.

Its clear that LLR Chuck and Team Left are trying to get out in front of this avalanche of testimony which completely exposes Schiff and which makes LLR Chuck go into Super-Dem-Spin-Overdrive.

Unexpectedly.

mccullough said...

In fairness to Cohen, he went to the same shitty law school as Chuck. A mind is a terrible thing to waste.

Inga...Allie Oop said...

“Its clear that LLR Chuck and Team Left are trying to get out in front of this avalanche of testimony which completely exposes Schiff and which makes LLR Chuck go into Super-Dem-Spin-Overdrive.”

Clear, huh? The conspiracy theories are going to save Trump, for sure.

LOL

Drago said...

Inga: "Clear, huh? The conspiracy theories are going to save Trump, for sure."

LOL

Bruce Ohr's unredacted testimony, released just today, clearly illustrates the many lies Schiff-ty told.

Nellie Ohr was working for FusionGPS while the DOJ-NSD gave her acvess to the FISA 702 databases.

Christopher Steele was being paid by the FBI while being paid by Fusion.

Bruce Ohr did funnel oppo research directly to the FBI AND the Mueller team, and for much longer tham anyone knew.

Lots more now fully exposed...in under oath testimony, by the people who did it.

LOL

But its all just a conspiracy....

Rusty said...

Robert Cook said...
"Sometimes you need a sewer rat for a lawyer, and that's when you have to work your way through a sewer.

"The white shoes law firms have their place, and so do the sewer rats."

"I disagree. One should always have as expert an attorney as one can afford, but one's attorney should observe all professional ethics and advise the client to do so, as well. Only sewer rats want to work with sewer rats. But that's not the point. Trump speaks of Cohen as a "bad lawyer and fraudster" as if he were not someone who was his personal attorney for 12 years, but as if he were some scumbag he's just hearing about lately from a distance.

Whatever kind of lawyer Cohen is, Trump knew it all along and retained him for whatever qualities he had that were of service to Trump."

You ever hear the saying; "Set a thief to catch a thief.". You want the lawyer who can go against the the people set against you. IOWs . If the corrupt bureucracy of the state is set against you, you want someone familiar with the corrupt bureaucracy of the state.

GDI said...

What is "LLR"?