The requested article has expired, and is no longer available. Any related articles, and user comments are shown below.
© (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2018.Trump, White House deny wrongdoing after Cohen plea deal
By Jeff Mason and James Oliphant WASHINGTON©2024 GPlusMedia Inc.
52 Comments
smithinjapan
""As the president has said, we've stated many times, he did nothing wrong. There are no charges against him,"
And the desperation grows! Just because there are no charges against him -- YET -- certainly does not mean he did nothing wrong. In fact, when what he did wrong is pointed out he shifts the goal posts. After more than a year of screaming "NO COLLUSION" it is now, "Collusion is not a crime" (even though it actually is in some cases). After denying his numerous affairs, he and his fans now say, "It's private" despite harping about Clinton for YEARS. After more than seven investigations and YEARS spent on mere email breeches with Hillary Clinton there have been only TWO investigations, obstructed all the way, on literal TREASON committed by Trump, not to mention election interference, paying off people, lies, etc. When all the wrong is pointed out, all they have left to say is "Truth is not truth".
bass4funk
And even if charges are brought, it doesn’t necessarily mean a crime was committed or even an impeachable crime.
“Some cases” but none involving the President so far.
Difference is, Clinton was in office while it happened and the Dems said it was a private matter. Yes, if it didn’t involve the country, unlike the President who wasn’t even in politics 12 years ago.
Well, you have the Justice system look away for one party and in another way for a different one.
Ok and?
Jimizo
I think that’s what known as a redundant sentence.
“If anyone is looking for a good lawyer, I would strongly suggest that you don’t retain the services of Michael Cohen”
Strangely controlled and measured. Did Trump really write that? He usually launches into a tirade of nonsense and unhinged trash.
Suspiciously measured...
mukashiyokatta
GUILTY! GUILTY! GUILTY! GUILTY! GUILTY! GUILTY! GUILTY! GUILTY! Let's see, is that 8? -- yep, it's 8. Boy, that's a lot of guilt!!
commanteer
These first years of Trump's presidency have really been instructive to me, as I often wondered why and how people could possibly welcome fascism. With all caps, no less.
Laguna
Let's parse:
Note Sander's did not use the word "illegal." That points to their defense: that it was illegal but right. Good luck with that.
And there will not be, unless Congress takes up the issues - and until he's out of office. He'll probably want to resign in favor of Pence, who will pardon him in a minute, rather than take a chance on a Dem president being elected in 2020, who likely would not be so pliant.
Kaishu
Bass
You do realise that if he is charged, then a crime has been committed.... You don't just charge people for legal activity....
katsu78
The POUTUS who bragged that he would be "the law and order president" is praising citizens for not co-operating with a government investigation. Meanwhile, he demands to lock up political rivals who have not been shown to commit a crime, sabotages the careers of people who speak out against his regime, and demands private citizens be fired for expressing opinions in protest that he dislikes.
The law and order POUTUS, everyone.
Simon Foston
KaishuToday 01:10 pm JST
Bass
Well, actually no. If he's charged the prosecutors will just have very good reason to believe a crime has been committed. He may in fact still be innocent and found not guilty in court, if a case ever reaches court.
bass4funk
Yes, you are right, but the crime being an impeachable offense is far, far more difficult to prove and Mueller knows it. I give the guy credit, got a lot of tenacity.
Can the Dems be that patient? 2024 is a loooong way.
That won’t happen. ROFL. But let’s entertain that thought a moment, if Trump were the kind of man to throw in the towel if there were a valid reason and even then, highly unlikely and Pence were to take over, ever evangelical and rhinos would breach the flood gates and not only would you energize the red base with conservatives, but now you have a deeply devout Christian professional politician that knows Washington and that galvanize the base and who would continue the Trump agenda and who would essentially crush the Dems. Notice how Pelosi doesn’t talk about impeachment so much? She knows a President Pence would be the worst nightmare scenario for the Democrats. She may be old and senile a bit, but Pelosi is No fool. Bring it on Democrats! Lol
How? What policies?
takeda.shingen.1991@gmail.com
You keep mentioning "impeachable crime." What is an "impeachable crime," and where did you get this legal "concept" from?
HonestDictator
Bill Clinton got impeached for lying about Lewinsky. If the GOP can't follow through on Trump, they'll never be in majority power ever again because of the outright hypocrisy. This is so disgusting the state this country is in.
MrBum
You're right, it's fascinating how a not-quite-majority of Americans actually welcomed and voted for this pro-authoritarian anti-free-press wannabe-dictator con-artist. A learning moment indeed.
rainyday
Amen to that! Cohen is a graduate of the Thomas Cooley law school in Michigan, which literally was rated the worst law school in America last year. Only an idiot would hire him, and as luck would have it one did! Which is making the news oh so much more interesting than it otherwise would be these days.
Wakarimasen
Take a bullet fro Trump indeed..... No honour amongst thieves.
rainyday
Then why all the emotional outbursts? Literally his tweets against Cohen sound like they come from a 15 year old girl who has been betrayed by her best friend who is dating the guy that she used to like and knew that she used to like and now she is like, whatever cause she doesn't like him anymore, but really she is super mad about it because her friend doesn't know that she doesn't like him anymore and her friend has an ugly sweater.
I mean, read this tweet in the voice of an angry 15 year old girl and you'll see what I mean:
Like, totally!
Strangerland
While it's nice to think that, it's unlikely. Even after the debacle of the Bush administration, the Republicans were still able to win again. Between the gerrymandering and the broken electoral college, the deck is stacked heavily in the Republican favor.
Laguna
I have a whippet. My neighborhood has many stray cats. Observation has afforded me knowledge regarding the active and passive cases of "toy." Let's just say that Trump is the cat, and there are multiple whippets (kinda fun to imagine, isn't it?).
Strangerland
There is a good chance he never will see the inside of a jail for his crimes.
But even more important than putting him in jail is exposing his crimes and destroying his reputation forever. People will remember Trump as they remember Nixon - a total loser.
Toasted Heretic
And if anyone is looking for a good president, I would strongly suggest they don't vote for Trump in 2020.
After all the lies that he knew nothing, turns out he knew it all. And authorized illegal payments.
Fight the power.
sf2k
Trump will flee to Russia
smithinjapan
bass4funk: "And even if charges are brought, it doesn’t necessarily mean a crime was committed or even an impeachable crime."
You see? told you! This from a guy who joined in the "lock her up" chants for emails.
"Difference is, Clinton was in office while it happened and the Dems said it was a private matter."
Trump literally paid women off not to talk while running -- that is not only a crime, it is interference. It has far more, therefor, relevance in the public eye and in terms of grounds for impeachment than anything Clinton did. And since when did you guys start caring about what's done while in office? Well, okay, we sure know when you stopped (when Trump was elected).
"Yes, if it didn’t involve the country, unlike the President who wasn’t even in politics 12 years ago."
Doesn't suddenly not make him a racist and a bigot, or misogynist. And you know full well he is.
serendipitous1
If Trump hadn't paid to keep these ladies quiet just weeks before the election, he would have lost the election because he only won by about 80,000 votes. His presidency is illegitimate and he needs to be removed.
lincolnman
The sense of crisis, within the White House and with Trump supporters, is clear for everyone to see - you even have conservative pundits on Fox News saying he's an unindicted co-conspirator.
Manafort found guilty on 8 felonies - starts another trail in 3 weeks on more fraud and witness tampering charges
Cohen pleads guilty to multiple felonies - ties Trump to pay offs - says he's willing to cooperate with Mueller- NY Attorney General subpoenas Cohen and his records on Trump Foundation - looking for ties to campaign finance violations and organized crime
Omarosa releasing more tapes..- Bob Woodward's book, "Fear: Trump in the White House" due out in Sep...
As was mentioned in another post, we have to be very vigilant of Trump causing some type of "wag the dog" incident with Iran, Turkey, or China, just to deflect from all the doom.
MrBum
Please... You guys will be pretending you had nothing to do with him like you do with GWB in no time.
The left underestimated your numbers during the election, but I think you're overestimating them now. He's the least popular president in modern history.
Thunderbird2
On the BBC there's a tasty little morsel about the payments to the women...
Er... he made the payments... but didn't know about the payments? Eh? He tweeted about the payments, so how can he not know? If I pay for something I don't immediately forget what I was paying for, or even that I've paid for something all together...
The man needs to go. He's totally out of control.
lincolnman
Just what Trump and his Shadow Campaign Chairman (the one that's not going to jail) Vlad the Great planned. When will Trump supporters ever realize they've been manipulated by the Russians, so we can heal our country and be ready for the very real threats from Putin and Xi...
bass4funk
Some may think that and some may not. There are a few Presidents that I think go beyond the definition of loser.
When Trump starts hiding hard drives in the bathroom of restrooms and uses bleach bit to scrip hard drives and starts smashing them, I’ll be the first one to cry foul.
But he wasn’t in office. Stay with me, Smith!
ROFL! Now that was funny, creative, but so, so funny!
That’s not true! I was hoping Trump get rid of as many Obama holdovers as possible. Stil a few to go. Yes, I do care.
And let it slide further into the abyss???? Then if that’s the case and I hated my country THAT much then I would have voted for Hillary
But he’s not a racist, his closest adviser is Jewish, Omarosa is Black. Nice try. Real Racists would never do that
Jimizo
If he did, I think you’d do a screeching 180 on the idea of hiding hard drives being a serious offense, or start talking about the dems, or both.
It seems to be a pattern.
Ah_so
You seem to spend so much of your time rolling on the floor laughing about very plausible statements that I'm surprised that you ever manage to get round to writing anything at all.
He has made plenty of racist comments. You can still be racist and have friends of different ethnic backgrounds. And he has made plenty of misogynistic remarks too - you didn't claim otherwise, so I guess you agree that he is.
serendipitous1
Just imagine what else Cohen knows about Trump. He worked for him for 12 years. Even demented Giuliani says Cohen 'makes problems for Trump go away'. Again, this is just the beginning of Trump's downfall. Anyone who believes otherwise should stop watching the Fox & Friends Fantasy 'news'.
Serrano
sf2k: "Trump will flee to Russia"
Bwahahahahahahahahahahah! Oh, man, that's funny, thanks for the knee slapper!
Mueller-Ocasio-Cortez 2020
u_s__reamer
The old orange fraud has one chance only of avoiding jail time because Americans are suckers for the "President's New Clothes" and are loath in the extreme to contemplate the naked corruption of their elected POTUS and thereby be compelled to question the less than ideal state of their democracy ("America has never been that great!?", to quote Cuomo) with its unfulfilled promise of equality before the law. Consequently, the POTUS is too big to jail, and so even moral midgets like Trump carry a get-out-of- jail free card in their back pocket. When scandals arise or "high crimes and misdemeanors" are committed, the wagons are circled around him and like the Queen ant he is surrounded and protected as the sacrosanct symbol of American democracy. The sleazy shyster, Trump, will, like "I am not a crook" Nixon, probably be "pardoned" and, unlike ordinary mortals, never have to face the consequences of his criminal activities in an an American court of law.
Sneezy
Tucker Carlson isn’t Jewish.
He called Omarosa a dog. Because he’s racist.
Obama hired dozens of people of all races, religions and genders and you called him a racist for eight years. Now that you claim that hiring one person of another race means you cannot be racist, will you apologise to this board for your misguided comments?
Laguna
That "tree of liberty must be being watered by the blood of patriots" shtick grows quite obsolete when it's the blood of the guy you support, clearly.
sf2k
They can put Turnip in a straight jacket in a room with all his lies printed out on the walls and gold sharpies on the floor
Serrano
@sf2k That's some wild imagination ya got there, hehe
bass4funk
No, when you read what libs write, there’s more than enough time to write and have a cold stout. Lol
He did? But the left view anything as racist. If you say, I have a lot of Black friends that’s racist. Apparently, if you’re the WH spokeswoman and you announce a tougher border stance and zero tolerance policy and then you decide to eat dinner with your family at a Mexican restaurant you have to be a racist, that’s obvious.
Then that applies to law enforcement as well, you can be for the rule of law, but you can use the power of your office to undermine a sitting President, makes sense to me.
I agree that he’s not a perfect man, but then again, who is? No one.
SuperLib
Trump made sexist comments? Everyone does that. Trump broke campaign finance laws? Every politician does that. Trump University is a scam? Oh, well all universities are a scam.
Tump did something good? That’s because he’s strong and different from everyone.
bass4funk
To one point or another as a man, either intentionally or inadvertently.
So now what? He should be impeached? For that? It’s not going to happen, either you guys quit with this nonsense or buy stock in TUMS.
I think so. Especially the money that you have to cough up these days, outrageous!
Exacly.
bass4funk
What?
mukashiyokatta
Nixon denied doing what he did, Clinton denied doing what he did ... we've seen this movie.
Sneezy
Trump’s policies are racist, but you’ve argued that doesn’t matter as he once hired a black person, and therefore policy is unimportant. It’s weird, it’s like you’re giving a pass to one president while not giving it to another. What could the difference between them be? Ah, it must be a pigment of my imagination.
Blacklabel
Trump says if he were impeached the stock market would crash! In an effort to prove him wrong like they do with everything, media says this:
“The American economy is strong. Corporate profits are booming, thanks in large part to Trump's corporate tax cuts.”
thanks CNN! In large part to.....the truth comes out whenever they take the bait.
Strangerland
That's akin to Trump saying 'If I get impeached, the sun will rise tomorrow'.
IE - it's going to happen either way.
Simon Foston
What's to be inferred from these continual alcohol references?
SuperLib
The truth? Everyone expected that to happen. They literally got a massive amount of free money. To add to their existing pile. Which was already the biggest pile in history before the tax cuts.
The problem is with middle America. The average refund was $30 a pay period. About the price of having a large pizza delivered to your house. Wells Fargo is expected to save $3 to $4 billion alone in tax savings over the next few years, by comparison.
I’ll keep saying this to really make it sink in to conservatives firmly in the bubble: the problem is with wage growth. It’s been flat for decades while corporations and the top richest have exploded. The result is a massive amount of wealth consolidation at the top. The same guys who you just gave a free tax cut to, while placating your base with a free pizza.
A neat trick the GOP pulled was pointing to the stock market and tricking a working class factory worker that it’s good news for him. He only cares about wages and benefits and he’s stuck going nowhere, not getting a piece of the growth like he would have in the past. A lot of people are starting to think that the GOP distracts with social issues while they enrich themselves and the top.
So no, dumping Trump isn’t going to do a damn thing to that situation. Corporations and the rich will continue to get all of the gains, and working class people will slip further into an unlivable wage. The bubble will sell it as a win.
Blacklabel
Sorry, the Dems are the “social issues” party through the non stop “identity” politics.