Russia Collusion Scandal (aka A Leftist fantasy)

[Julio3000]

Eh, ok. I'm jumping the gun a bit. Maybe I'm wrong. But I feel fairly confident with my position, as I did several months ago when the bloodhounds were going to the banks, etc.

If Cohen gets the same x-ray that Manafort did, I suspect he'll catch some charges both contemporary and historical.

But let's go on the record. You think that Paul Manafort is not guilty? Not in the context of presumption of innocence, but actually gonna walk out of court exonerated?

[Julio3000]

So Paul Manafort and Mike Flynn are 'mediocrities'?

If you are going to make this argument, at least make it cohesively.

Maybe that's a little hard on Flynn, who has obvious and acknowledged talents...just ran into the Peter Principle and then maybe got caught with his hand in the cookie jar after he was outside his area of expertise.

[Hawk]

getting a federal magistrate to approve search warrants on an attorney to the president of the United States suggests something...we dont know the details, but by now my presumption is things will end very badly for Cohen and Trump

I don't follow all of this as closely as you do, but I would posit that the issue of whether or not Cohen was actually Trump's attorney was unclear at the time of those warrants were executed. I think that's why you saw the President essentially do a Secret Service dive in front of Cohen on AF1. Now, as to whether that's because he has something to hide (logically, probable, but we'll see) or simply because he wanted to assert himself/prevent the investigation from spiraling down more sketchy paths will become more clear in due time.

[Hawk]

Eh, ok. I'm jumping the gun a bit. Maybe I'm wrong. But I feel fairly confident with my position, as I did several months ago when the bloodhounds were going to the banks, etc.

If Cohen gets the same x-ray that Manafort did, I suspect he'll catch some charges both contemporary and historical.

But let's go on the record. You think that Paul Manafort is not guilty? Not in the context of presumption of innocence, but actually gonna walk out of court exonerated?

You are more likely right than not, but I just feel a sort of obligation to inject a little nuance into the knee-jerk. Even if it's likely unfounded.

I don't know how I feel about Manafort. Guilty? Yes, from a certain standpoint. But he's war horse - and I can accept that Washington was a wild, wild west in the 1980s to early 1990s when he made a name for himself (and never quite accepted that those days dissipated into legislation).

I do think he'll escape with little more than a relative slap on the wrist, though. He's lawed up to the hilt and already hitting the technical angles. The catch-22 is that he'll be a pariah, both shamed and broke.

[nsacpi]

Two questions:

1) what "service" was Essential Consultants LLC providing in order to generate almost 5M in payments

2) is Michael Cohen capable of "producing" or in a position to produce 5M worth of value within about a one year period

[Julio3000]

Two questions:

1) what "service" was Essential Consultants LLC providing in order to generate almost 5M in payments

2) is Michael Cohen capable of "producing" or in a position to produce 5M worth of value within about a one year period

Depends on if you're using fWAR or bWAR.

[thethe]

Just trust the FBI...

[57Brave]

[57Brave]

[Julio3000]

The **** thing here is that I'm not sure that any of this is actually illegal. I guess it's going to depend on if there was any back-and-forth between Cohen and the WH.

I don't want to be too tempted by the catnip, but the timing of some of these deals (Novartis a couple of weeks after Trump started making noise about drug prices, AT&T with two huge items needing exec branch attention) seems pretty hinky. OTOH, there's a lot of legal gray area here.

[sturg33]

If all it takes is $200K to for a multi-billion dollar conglomerate to get special favors, then our government is even dumber than I thought.

[nsacpi]

If all it takes is $200K to for a multi-billion dollar conglomerate to get special favors, then our government is even dumber than I thought.

1.2M from Novartis

[Julio3000]

[nsacpi]

From what I can tell, Cohen solicited Novartis as a client. I wonder what made him settle on them as a target.

[thethe]

[http://thehill.com/opinion/judiciary...form=hootsuite

And the deep state marches on....

[mqt]

If all it takes is $200K to for a multi-billion dollar conglomerate to get special favors, then our government is even dumber than I thought.

That was my first thought, to be honest. $200,000 is clearly not enough to get net neutrality repealed.

[mqt]

[http://thehill.com/opinion/judiciary...form=hootsuite

And the deep state marches on....

I'm a big fan of the "how did they get this incriminating information" defense whenever it pops up in support of Trump.

[thethe]

When will you all see the truth?

[Runnin]

When will you all see the truth?

Does that surprise you? You are aware that it's their job to protect America from crooks, aren't you?

[goldfly]

When will you all see the truth?