NYM: "The Michael Cohen Bribery Scandal Is Now a Trump Bribery Scandal"

[enhanced_deficit]

Not clear if timing has anything to do with recent massacre in holyland while POTUS advisors were on the ground or just coincidence but heat seems to be turned up sharply suddenly today on the anti-swamp leader from multiple fronts.
These are some of the reports making top headlines today:



May 16, 2018The Michael Cohen Bribery Scandal Is Now a Trump Bribery Scandal

By Jonathan Chait@jonathanchait
https://pixel.nymag.com/imgs/daily/intelligencer/2018/05/16/16-donald-trump-tower.w710.h473.jpg


Last night, the Daily Mail (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5732429/Michael-Cohen-asked-millions-dollars-pass-Trump-family-members.html) reported a development in the Michael Cohen saga of seismic scale. In a December 2016 meeting in Trump Tower, the British tabloid reports, Cohen asked Ahmed Al-Rumaihi, who runs a $100 billion Qatari investment fund, to send him “millions” which, the story claims, would go “through him to Trump family members.”

We have already learned of multiple cases of Cohen using his access to Trump to jack up multiple corporations for outrageous sums. The Daily Mail report deepens the trouble in two crucial ways. First, it extends Cohen’s scheme from domestic corporations (or, in one case, domestic corporations controlled (https://www.propublica.org/article/columbus-nova-russian-oligarch-michael-cohen-trump-lawyer-marc-kasowitz) by foreign entities) to direct overseas fundraising. Second, and more ominously, it alleges that Cohen funneled the money to Trump’s family. It was bad enough that Trump’s lawyer was enriching himself by cashing in on access. Now the story suggests he was enriching them, transforming the Cohen bribery story into a Trump bribery story.

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2018/05/michael-cohen-bribery-scandal-is-now-a-trump-bribery-scandal.html




Trump's unwritten rules for cashing in




President Donald Trump has a number of unwritten rules for his associates who are looking to profit from their association with him, according to people who know him well.
Associates must be successful, never create a bad story and never say they influence Trump.


Eamon Javers | @EamonJavers

Published 2 Hours Ago Updated 1 Hour Ago CNBC.com

Trump financial disclosure forms released 1 Hour Ago | 02:48
(https://www.cnbc.com/video/2018/05/16/trump-financial-disclosure-forms-released.html)
Amid all the scrutiny this week of Trump (https://www.cnbc.com/donald-trump/) confidantes cashing in on their relationships with President Trump, just about everyone in Washington has weighed in: Yes, it's corruption! No, it's just Washington being Washington! Yes, Trump is drowning in the swamp!
White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders argues that payments by AT&T (https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/?symbol=T) to President Trump's personal attorney Michael Cohen (https://www.cnbc.com/id/105143549) really represent "the definition of draining the swamp" because the Trump Administration didn't let the payments stop the Department of Justice from taking steps against the AT&T/Time Warner merger.
But one aspect of all this remains relatively unexplored: How does President Trump himself feels about his former employees cashing in under his name?

Never create a bad story

But all that success comes with a caveat: If the work draws any negative attention – a "bad story" in Trump parlance – the president could cut off access, publicly distance himself, or spread the word that you are out of favor.
This is something of a gray area, because it's never entirely clear to former aides and staffers what the president will have a problem with. In one recent case, a prominent Trump supporter was barred from a presidential fundraiser because Trump's aides decided he had become a political liability.
There's one giant exception that proves this rule: Michael Cohen himself. Disclosures about the president's former lawyer's payouts from companies including AT&T and Novartis have been front and center for a week, creating a quintessential "bad story" for Trump.
The president seems to have little respect for Cohen, routinely mocking him in private. That's why White House aides are flummoxed by the president's ongoing relationship with his New York fixer, who has broken this key rule and yet the president will not break with him.
One way to keep from embarrassing the president is to stay well within the norms of Washington DC's already pliable consulting and lobbying regulations. Cohen didn't do that, even with his big-name corporate clients. "If Novartis entered into a contract for $1.2 million sight unseen, that is unbelievable to me. I have never heard of anything like that," says one long-time Republican operative.

Never say you influence Trump

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/05/16/trumps-rules-for-cashing-in.html




Trump's financial disclosure gives conflicting accounts of Cohen payment



President Trump released his financial disclosure filing on Wednesday which says that Trump "fully reimbursed" his lawyer Michael Cohen.
Cohen is known for paying porn star Stormy Daniels $130,000 in hush money to silence her about an alleged affair with President Trump.
The filing gives conflicting accounts about the reason for the payment: Was it a liability or an expense?
The answer could have serious legal ramifications.


John W. Schoen | @John (http://www.ronpaulforums.com/member.php?u=205)wschoen
Published 1 Hour Ago Updated 36 Mins Ago

Following initial denials from Trump that he knew of the payment, Trump's recently hired attorney, former New York city mayor Rudy Giuliani, told Fox News host Sean Hannity earlier this month that Trump had reimbursed Cohen and that the payment was "perfectly legal" and did not violate campaign finance law.
"It's not campaign money. No campaign finance violation. They funneled through a law firm and the president repaid it," Giuliani said.
In a separate interview the next day on Fox & Friends, Giuliani insisted the hush money was paid "for personal reasons."
"The president had been hurt personally, not politically, personally so much — and the first lady — by some of the false allegations," he said. "That one more false allegation six years old, I think [Cohen] was trying to help the family."
But later in the same interview, Giuliani conceded that the payment clearly had a political component.
"Imagine if that came out of October 15, 2016, in the middle of the last debate with Hillary Clinton?" he said. "Cohen made it go away. He did his job."
Trump's annual financial filing, released Wednesday includes conflicting characterizations of the Cohen payments.

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/05/16/trump-financial-filing-gives-conflicting-accounts-of-cohen-payment.html


Rex Tillerson just majorly trolled Donald Trump

Analysis by Chris Cillizza, CNN Editor-at-large
Wed May 16, 2018

Speaking to soon-to-be graduates of the Virginia Military Institute on Wednesday, Tillerson dropped this truth bomb (https://www.cnn.com/2018/05/16/politics/tillerson-leaders-conceal-truth-risk-freedom/index.html):
"If our leaders seek to conceal the truth, or we as people become accepting of alternative realities that are no longer grounded in facts, then we as American citizens are on a pathway to relinquishing our freedom."
Woof.
Double woof.
https://www.cnn.com/2018/05/16/politics/tillerson-trump-truth/index.html


Trump lawyer blasts Giuliani, asks if Cohen was a “mob" fixer
https://www.msnbc.com/the-beat-with-ari-melber/watch/trump-lawyer-blasts-giuliani-asks-if-cohen-was-a-mob-fixer-1234639939704


The Senate’s new Russia report just undercut Trump in two big ways
May 16 at 2:02 PM
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2018/05/16/the-russia-report-trump-likes-best-just-took-a-big-credibility-hit/

[Raginfridus]

Why would an attorney surround himself with criminals?

[Zippyjuan]

Why would an attorney surround himself with criminals?

https://www.360nobs.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Aplicor1-740x431.png

[PierzStyx]

Why would an attorney surround himself with criminals?

Criminals with YUGE stacks of cash make for good customers. I ask you, would you do two years for $1 million dollars? How about $10 mil?

[TheCount]

Why would an attorney surround himself with criminals?

Because he graduated from the worst law school in the country (https://lawschooli.com/should-i-attend-cooley-law-school/) and paying off mistresses is all he's good for.

[Raginfridus]

Guys, I was being facetious. Where else are you going to find criminals?

[enhanced_deficit]

Drudge too:


https://s.yimg.com/ny/api/res/1.2/H36xmnpdXaxY8VIHmDZoFg--/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjtzbT0xO3c9ODAw/http://media.zenfs.com/en/homerun/feed_manager_auto_publish_494/e353f20fe27ce9b8fd1c6b8bc1c6fd1e
REPORTS: COHEN KOREAN CONNECTION (https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/fbi-agents-said-to-be-probing-michael-cohens-deal-with-korean-firm/2018/05/16/080cb6b4-5933-11e8-b656-a5f8c2a9295d_story.html)
SOLICITED $1M FROM QATAR (https://theintercept.com/2018/05/16/michael-cohen-qatari-investor-ahmed-al-rumaihi-michael-cohen-solicited-a-million-dollars-from-me/)


http://www.drudgereport.com/i/logo9.gif

[enhanced_deficit]

Novartis sacrifices its top attorney in an attempt to quell clamor over $1.2M in Cohen payments — while ex-CEO Jimenez struggles to explain

by John Carroll
May 16, 2018 11:24 AM
(https://endpts.com/subscribe)
https://endpts.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/GettyImages-632647636.jpg


Faced with a growing crisis over its $1.2 million in payments to President Donald Trump’s personal attorney Michael Cohen, Novartis announced early Wednesday that the company’s top lawyer has abruptly resigned in hopes of bringing the whole tawdry affair to an end.
“Although the contract (with Cohen) was legally in order, it was an error,” said Felix Ehrat, group general counsel of Novartis, in a statement (https://www.novartis.com/news/media-releases/novartis-announces-changes-executive-committee). “As a co-signatory with our former CEO, I take personal responsibility to bring the public debate on this matter to an end.”
The chances of that happening, though, are zero. If anything, this move will only heighten pressure on Novartis to fully explain why it agreed to pay $1.2 million to an attorney whose only relevant attraction to the pharma giant was his close personal tie to the president. That remains the bottom line after ex-CEO Joe Jimenez gave an interview to Forbes’ Matthew Herper, where he struggled to explain why the company hired Cohen.
“If we were the experts on policy, he was the expert on the way that they think, together as a team it could be a way for us to better navigate what was going to be a pretty sticky Affordable Care Act Repeal-and-Replace,” Jimenez told Herper in the interview. (https://www.forbes.com/sites/matthewherper/2018/05/16/former-novartis-ceo-explains-why-his-company-paid-trump-lawyer-michael-cohen-1-2-million/#101a29ee26a3)
Jimenez also took “full responsibility,” saying that his replacement, Vas Narasimhan, was not involved. And he repeatedly emphasized the uncertainty around Trump’s election for the move to gain some clarity.

https://endpts.com/novartis-ceo-vas-narasimhan-faces-a-heap-of-burning-questions-but-so-far-offers-no-public-answers/

[enhanced_deficit]

This flip-flop if confirmed as non-fakenews could be a problem:


Trump helps sanctioned Chinese phone maker after China delivers a big loan to a Trump project

Trump stands to gain from an Indonesian project that got a $500 million loan right before he flip-flopped on ZTE.

May 15, 2018, 3:00pm EDT

https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/9shBfV23QPAVFoQBAtbfg8LLmXI=/0x0:3000x2000/1200x800/filters:focal%281006x284:1486x764%29/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/59742767/871925570.jpg.0.jpg Thomas Peter-Pool/Getty Images Is the president of the United States revising American trade policy — and possibly jeopardizing national security — because his family received a large cash bribe from the Chinese government?
Under normal political circumstances, it would be an outrageous accusation to level. But under the political circumstances of 2018, there is suggestive evidence that it possibly happened —but the 24/7 din of controversy and scandal meansthat very little attention is being paid to the possibility. The constant tumult of the Trump Show — who’s leaking, who’s being mean to John McCain’s family, why is the president always lying about golfing, etc. — manages to crowd out not just big-picture policy coverage but also genuine malfeasance that has real, negative impacts on people’s lives.
“The controversies,” David Frum warned a week after Election Day 2016 (https://twitter.com/davidfrum/status/799979962224742400?lang=en), “will divert you from the scandals.”
And that’s what seems to be going on this week, when two below-the-radar stories — one about hotel financing in Indonesia and one about low-end smartphone sales in the United States — have a striking and potentially quite disturbing intersection. Here’s what we know so far.
ZTE and Lido City: a chronology

ZTE is a Chinese telecommunications equipment manufacturer that, among other things, manufactures Android smartphones, primarily on the cheaper, lower end of the market. Like most big Chinese companies, ZTE has various ties to the Chinese government, and there have long been questions about the security implications of relying on foreign firms with government links for sensitive communications roles. But separate from that longstanding controversy, ZTE had been in intense trouble lately for a largely unrelated issue pertaining to US sanctions policy.


Back in March 2017, ZTE was hit with a record $1.19 billion fine (https://www.pcmag.com/news/352232/zte-will-pay-record-fine-for-sales-to-iran-north-korea) for violating US law by selling technology products containing US components in North Korea and Iran. The fine set a record both because of the volume of ZTE’s illicit business and because ZTE was found to have tried to deceive US government officials and even its own accounting firm.
About a year later — on March 12, 2018 — the Trump administration prevented a Singaporean company called Broadcom from buying a US company called Qualcomm (https://www.cnbc.com/2018/03/13/trump-blocks-broadcoms-qualcomm-takeover-concerns-about-china-5g.html). Qualcomm makes chips that are used in many smartphones, and the US government said Broadcom’s links to the Chinese government made it too risky to allow the company to purchase a key player in a strategic industry.
Then on April 15, the Commerce Department hit ZTE again (https://www.commerce.gov/sites/commerce.gov/files/zte_denial_order.pdf), saying that despite the earlier fine and settlement, ZTE had continued to violate US sanctions law and lie to the US government. The new order simply barred American companies from selling anything to ZTE.
On May 8, the Trump administration pulled out of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action with Iran (https://www.vox.com/world/2018/5/8/17328520/iran-nuclear-deal-trump-withdraw) and began the process of trying to make US sanctions on Iran even more stringent in hopes of crippling the Iranian economy.
On May 9, ZTE announced that it was going to have to shut down its entire smartphone business (https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2018/05/the-trump-administration-just-forced-smartphone-maker-zte-to-shut-down/) since it had no viable way to continue operating without Qualcomm chips.
On May 11, a state-owned Chinese construction company called the Metallurgical Corporation of China announced it would float a $500 million loan to Indonesian developers (http://www.scmp.com/news/asia/southeast-asia/article/2145808/trump-indonesia-project-latest-stop-chinas-belt-and-road) to facilitate the construction of a vast “integrated lifestyle resort” called MNC Lido City that includes Trump-branded hotels, residences, and a golf course.
On May 13, Trump tweeted (https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/995680316458262533): “President Xi of China, and I, are working together to give massive Chinese phone company, ZTE, a way to get back into business, fast. Too many jobs in China lost. Commerce Department has been instructed to get it done!”
On May 14, Trump tweeted about ZTE again (https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/996119678551552000): “ZTE, the large Chinese phone company, buys a big percentage of individual parts from U.S. companies. This is also reflective of the larger trade deal we are negotiating with China and my personal relationship with President Xi.”

Why did Trump change course on ZTE?

It’s of course possible to interpret Trump’s rapid turnabout on the ZTE issue as reflecting what Ana Swanson, Mark Landler, and Keith Bradsher of the New York Times (https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/14/business/china-trump-zte.html) term “another twist in the pitched battle inside the White House between the economic nationalists, who channel Mr. Trump’s protectionist instincts, and more mainstream advisers, who worry about the effects of hard-line policies on the stock market and long-term economic growth.”

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/5/15/17355202/trump-zte-indonesia-lido-city




The Cybersecurity 202: Trump's ZTE reversal flouts warnings from top national security officials

By Derek Hawkins May 14

President Trump’s surprising promise Sunday to help bring Chinese telecom giant ZTE back from the brink of collapse (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2018/05/13/trump-pledges-to-help-chinese-phone-maker-zte-get-back-into-business/?utm_term=.c270ea765508) undercuts top law enforcement and intelligence officials, who have warned for years that the company’s products could be used for cyberespionage in the United States.
ZTE has close ties with China’s government, and U.S. officials have raised concerns that its phones and other devices could be used as surveillance tools against Americans.
Lawmakers immediately pointed out the contradiction. “Our intelligence agencies have warned that ZTE technology and phones pose a major cyber security threat,” Rep. Adam B. Schiff (Calif.), the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, tweeted at Trump (https://twitter.com/RepAdamSchiff/status/995700537168400384) yesterday. “You should care more about our national security than Chinese jobs.”
As Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) put it in a tweet this morning, the "problem with ZTE isn't jobs & trade, it's national security & espionage":

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/paloma/the-cybersecurity-202/2018/05/14/the-cybersecurity-202-trump-s-zte-reversal-flouts-warnings-from-top-national-security-officials/5af87ab030fb0425887994ca/

[Schifference]

Wish we had an honest respectable POTUS like Clinton.

[enhanced_deficit]

Hope you're joking because she was part of the swamp.
Just cuz she had v-word, doesn't mean she was qualified. Puppet of same ol same lobbies.

[Raginfridus]

Earth should be renamed China.

[TheCount]

Where else are you going to find criminals?
Trump's campaign and staff, evidently.

[Raginfridus]

Trump's campaign and staff, evidently.moths to a flame.

[TheCount]

moths to a flame.
They can smell the kleptocracy in the air.

[Raginfridus]

Why do FBI hang out with so many criminals though?

Obama wanted Russian Collusion and all he got were 13 trolls telling Mueller to pound sand and die. If he hadn't been a Cunt in Chief, and let the Deep Dish do their job, Trump might have been sunk.

[enhanced_deficit]

Earth should be renamed China.

For any visting alien ship in space, first things visible will be great Wall of China.. so it could work.

[timosman]

For any visting alien ship in space, first things visible will be great Wall of China.. so it could work.

That's after they pick up the first TV transmission - Hitler opening the Olympics in 1936 - https://www.realclearscience.com/blog/2013/09/will-hitler-be-the-first-person-that-aliens-see.html

[enhanced_deficit]

Here they go again as Dems move in to steal the "Drain the swamp" slogan ahead of midterms:

Trump lawyer 'paid by Ukraine' to arrange White House talks

By Paul Wood BBC News, Kiev


8 hours ago


Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Ukrainian leader Petro Poroshenko (left) meets US President Donald Trump at the White House in June 2017 Donald Trump's personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, received a secret payment of at least $400,000 (£300,000) to fix talks between the Ukrainian president and President Trump, according to sources in Kiev close to those involved.
The payment was arranged by intermediaries acting for Ukraine's leader, Petro Poroshenko, the sources said, though Mr Cohen was not registered as a representative of Ukraine as required by US law.
Mr Cohen denies the allegation.
The meeting at the White House was last June. Shortly after the Ukrainian president returned home, his country's anti-corruption agency stopped its investigation into Trump's former campaign manager, Paul Manafort.
A high-ranking Ukrainian intelligence officer in Mr Poroshenko's administration described what happened before the visit to the White House.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-44215656

[enhanced_deficit]

Multiple troubling news in past coupe of days. GOP-Adelson wing's chapter about to close?
Breaking on Drudge:




WSJ: FEDS INVESTIGATE TRUMP INAUGURATION (https://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-inauguration-spending-under-criminal-investigation-by-federal-prosecutors-11544736455) https://www.drudgereport.com/i/logo9.gif (https://www.drudgereport.com)







Trump Inauguration Spending Under Criminal Investigation by Federal Prosecutors

Probe looking into whether committee misspent funds and top donors gave money in exchange for access to the administration

President Trump delivered his inaugural address at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 20, 2017. Photo: Alex Wong/Getty Images

1185 Comments (https://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-inauguration-spending-under-criminal-investigation-by-federal-prosecutors-11544736455#comments_sector)
Dec. 13, 2018 4:27 p.m. ET

Federal prosecutors in Manhattan are investigating whether President Trump’s 2017 inaugural committee misspent some of the record $107 million it raised from donations (https://www.wsj.com/articles/trumps-inaugural-committee-spent-nearly-107-million-on-events-1518722022?mod=article_inline), people familiar with the matter said.
The criminal probe by the Manhattan U.S. attorney’s office, which is in its early stages, also is examining whether some of the committee’s top donors gave money in exchange for access to the incoming Trump administration, policy concessions or to influence official administration positions, some of the people said.
Giving money in exchange for political favors could run afoul of federal corruption laws. Diverting funds from the organization, which was registered as a nonprofit, could also violate federal law.
The investigation represents another potential legal threat to people who are or were in Mr. Trump’s orbit. Their business dealings and activities during and since the campaign have led to a number of indictments and guilty pleas. Many of the president’s biggest campaign backers were involved in the inaugural fund.
The investigation partly arises out of materials seized in the federal probe of former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen’s business dealings, according to people familiar with the matter.
In April raids of Mr. Cohen’s home, office and hotel room, Federal Bureau of Investigation agents obtained a recorded conversation between Mr. Cohen and Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, a former adviser to Melania Trump, who worked on the inaugural events. In the recording, Ms. Wolkoff expressed concern about how the inaugural committee was spending money, according to a person familiar with the Cohen investigation.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-inauguration-spending-under-criminal-investigation-by-federal-prosecutors-11544736455




Potentially Related

Kushner, Ivanka Trump made at least $82 million in outside income while serving in White House (http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthread.php?527606-Kushner-Ivanka-Trump-made-at-least-82-million-in-outside-income-while-serving-in-White-House&)

[r3volution 3.0]

Yes, obviously.

He's a sleezy trust-fund son of a NYC real estate guy, who's buddies with machine democrats, pedophiles, Clintons, guys with crooked noses, etc.

Scum, Al Sharpton in whiteface and a toupee