Stormy Daniels is suing Trump because, she says, he never signed the hush agreement, so it’s invalid. More here.
Just when you think there isn’t any more loathsome bullshit to process, another wave washes in. Stormy will write her tell-all, and in the end we’ll all know every little detail of how Trump humps.
Corner Stone
She’s just looking for that phat cash. As all good and true Americans should.
PigDog
I’m so old, I can remember when…
…ugh.
Shana
I, for one, could do without that particular bit of knowledge.
JPL
I don’t want to see the pictures though.
Adam L Silverman
@JPL:
Ewww! Just EWWWWWW!!!!!!!
The Dangerman
I remember, not that long ago, we had the “no drama” President; damn, those were the days. How we got here will be dissertations for the rest of time.
RandomMonster
No mind bleach powerful enough to overcome that.
Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.)
Egh. Something to look forward to…
Quinerly
I WAS PROMISED INFRASTRUCTURE WEEK.
Barbara
She accepted payment. I don’t think lack of signature is going to disprove the existence of an enforceable agreement.
? ?? Goku (aka Baka Amerikahito) ? ?
And yet the likes of Franklin Graham will still shine Trump’s shoes.
Evangelical tears are the best tears.
Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady)
@Quinerly: Sucker
Steve Holmes
If Trump holds on for four years I am pretty sure we will have confirmation of the pee tape. It seems like every horrible story is true and just waiting for the right offer to be produced.
Ohio Mom
I’m guessing we all already have enough of an idea of “how Trump humps”: badly.
Any details would be gratuitous.
randy khan
Well, that’s interesting.
I really don’t want to read the book, though.
? ?? Goku (aka Baka Amerikahito) ? ?
@Quinerly:
Sorry, the WH aide responsible for coordinating that has left, citing “unsafe working conditions”.
Citizen Alan
Honestly, I agree with Adam. I don’t think there is a pee tape. I think there’s a tape of shitgibbon having some type of sexual relations with an underage prostitute who he refers to as Ivanka. In fact, if stormy Weathers puts out a tell-all book in which she claims that shitgibbon actually calls her Ivanka, I will buy a dozen copies and donate them to the local Library.
VincentN
If the agreement is invalid then does she have to give the money back?
? ?? Goku (aka Baka Amerikahito) ? ?
@Citizen Alan:
That would be even worse.
Adam L Silverman
@Citizen Alan:
This is always a wise decision!//
foucault swing voter mistermix
@Barbara: I’m not a lawyer but reading the complaint, it’s looks like a trap for Cohen. Cohen’s going around saying that he signed the agreement himself, not Trump, yet he also represented to Stormy that he was representing Trump. Cohen’s defense is either (a) he wasn’t representing Trump even though he told Stormy he was (huge ethical no-no), or (b) he didn’t disclose to his client (Trump) what he was doing on his behalf (another huge ethical no-no). Either way Cohen fucked himself by opening his big mouth and telling a lie a week or two ago.
zhena gogolia
@The Dangerman:
I’m afraid the rest of time isn’t going to be very long.
Quinerly
@Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady):?
Amir Khalid
@Adam L Silverman:
I presume Trump sent her pictures of Mister Happy ahead of their, um, encounter, so that she could recognise it if she found it.
efgoldman
@Steve Holmes:
Alright, enough already.
Who green lighted this project?
The plot has more holes than shotgun jeans
If you can’t find the asshole fire the whole department.
trollhattan
@foucault swing voter mistermix:
Is this not the MO of every member of this administration from the top down? Too bad it won’t fit easily on a ballcap.
David Anderson
@Quinerly: can we add this to the rotation of tags
Mike in NC
Trump has been humping the entire world for the last 14 months. Waiting for Mueller and company to say, “Enough already”.
raven
Bolton to the Whitehouse?
Barbara
@foucault swing voter mistermix: It’s not that I don’t appreciate the effort to seriously cause heartburn to one and all connected to Trump, but if she took $130K as provided in the agreement it doesn’t matter what Cohen said. If he spent his own money and didn’t get authorization to enter into the agreement from Trump, that’s Cohen’s problem to deal with. Normally, you can’t have an agreement that is binding on only one of the parties, but it’s not clear that Daniels can unilaterally repudiate an agreement in which she has already obtained the benefit of the bargain. No one is asking her for the money back or saying that the agreement was invalid. Trump can accept the agreement even if he might have been able to argue that it was invalid because it was unauthorized.
Jeffro
@Quinerly: LOLOLOL to the LOL
Quinerly
@raven: @raven: Just heard that. “We are all going to die.”
Amir Khalid
@trollhattan:
I give you the theme song of the Trump White House.
efgoldman
@Adam L Silverman: Hey Adam – apropos of absolutely nothing. The woman (actress) who finds the body at the beginning of the (season four) L&O on now, is one of Rick’s regular customers on Pawn Stars.
She doesn’t look a year older (or younger)
I don’t do this on purpose – things just grab my attention
Jeffro
@randy khan:
You won’t have to read…this is Trumpov we’re talking about…it’ll be a picture bo…urk…gag…BLARGHHHGH!
um, my bad
? ?? Goku (aka Baka Amerikahito) ? ?
@trollhattan:
I don’t know. I think “Asshole Scumbag Traitors” with that TP logo from the campaign would work just fine.
Amir Khalid
@raven:
Wasn’t John Bolton so toxic that a Republican-majority Senate wouldn’t confirm him as US ambassador to the UN?
Adam L Silverman
@foucault swing voter mistermix: If I was running strategy for discovery on this, I’d want all the other ones of these that Cohen has done. If this is his default way of handling it, then there’s a lot of NDAs covering up affairs and who knows what that Cohen has facilitated that may have the same flaws.
afanasia
@Citizen Alan: For God’s sake,no! Get everyone you can to check it out or put it on hold. If they don’t have a copy, request it as an interlibrary loan, and get all your friends to do the same. Then donate the $ you were going to spend to the library. Please trust me on this.
Duane
@Barbara: You’re right, but I love the court drama and headlines. No chaos, HA! Go Stormy!
Adam L Silverman
@efgoldman: Okay. Good to know. I don’t watch Pawn Stars.
Quinerly
@David Anderson: Have at it! I’ll change footwear.?
? ?? Goku (aka Baka Amerikahito) ? ?
@Amir Khalid:
Wasn’t that a less batshit crazy Republican majority?
raven
@Amir Khalid: That’s the one, perfect fit.
Corner Stone
@Adam L Silverman: Why not? I hear from friends that Stormy Daniels puts on a perfectly good…oh. You said “Pawn” Star.
Quinerly
@Amir Khalid: This is Flynn’s old position…Now McMaster’s position. NSA…no confirmation needed.
PhoenixRising
@VincentN: That’s a good question, and differences of opinion make for horse races and lawsuits.
@foucault swing voter mistermix: The complaint & exhibits are a trap but not necessarily for Cohen. Cohen indeed screwed this up–he could have formed the LLC in a state that doesn’t divulge who the buyer is, like New Mexico, and it would have been her word against his. Cohen violated bar rules in NY 5 ways at least, and that is assuming he didn’t break the ones referred to in the complaint which come down to, advise your client of the relevant options and let him choose or you’re not really acting in his interests as much as acting FOR the client, which is a no-no.
@Barbara: The transfer of consideration, from a lawyer representing an LLC formed for the sole purpose of transmitting this payment, is relevant to whether the party Cohen signed for (the LLC) has rights under the agreement, and perhaps that entity could make a claim for refund of the fee. However, the agreement bound *Trump* as well as Stormy to do and not do certain things; the key here is that the consideration (the fee) was not his only obligation or responsibility under the agreement.
The failure to execute is a distinct attempt to avoid being bound by the contract’s terms, but the party failing to execute didn’t make the payment–that was a third party, whose representative (Cohen) DID sign it, and he’s the one who breached.
So this is actually pretty interesting, above and aside from the nitty gritty of the agreement being attached as an exhibit.
Omnes Omnibus
@Barbara: Yeah, the signature is a formality. But it does raise the question of who the contracting parties actually are. Is Trump a third party beneficiary? Does he have any power to enforce it? What are Cohen’s injuries if she doesn’t stay silent? And so on…
Emma
@Citizen Alan: Have you lost your mind? Donate that money to your local library’s summer reading program or something.
Washburn
Goddamned, this is the kind of day that makes me happy to be alive.
Did y’all see the blurb on TPM:https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/this-seems-quite-noteworthy
RepubAnon
@Ohio Mom: We already know how Trump humps – look what his administration has done to the country already.
PhoenixRising
@Barbara:
Did you read the complaint & exhibits though?
She stood to gain intangible benefits from the bargain, in the form of being free from this absolute goat rodeo caused by Cohen’s breach. And he filed arbitration based on a false claim that she breached, when in fact she did not…interesting problem.
Washburn
@Barbara:
That is a perfectly valid legal analysis.
But this will be a political battle, not a legal one. There aren’t any rules.
Jeffro
@Washburn: Probably important to note here that Bannon seems to be talking with Mueller & Co…and that Nader’s account will not reflect well on Kushner or Erik Prince.
Indictment Day is going to be world-stopping.
MomSense
@Quinerly:
Ha!!
Steve in the SFO
@Amir Khalid: yes, but the bigger problem is his mustache
cokane
lol this makes perfect sense actually, outdone by his own mental laziness
Schlemazel
@The Dangerman:
You mean the Muslim Atheist commie wimpy strongman dictator? Thank gawd he is gone so we can have this gem of a human being
efgoldman
@Corner Stone:
Here in the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, the pronunciation of the two words is often indistinguishable.
Aleta
@Quinerly: Maybe in the end the real infrastructure was the friends we pissed off while we were waiting.
SiubhanDuinne
@Citizen Alan:
Creepily, Cole Porter’s lyrics to the song “Bianca” (from Kiss Me, Kate) fit rather too well with just a change of name:
(Here’s the “Bianca” song from the musical, in case anyone cares to sing along. Very far from Porter’s best work, IMO.)
? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?
Decided on a slight variation on the nym.
ET
God I wish I still ate popcorn…..
zhena gogolia
@SiubhanDuinne:
Brilliant! (I hate that song, although I love all the rest of KMK.)
Thoughtful David
@PhoenixRising:
So, I wonder how enforceable an NDA with the president is. Let’s say she just ignores it and starts talking and selling books. What’s he gonna do, sue her and prove it’s true? And even if he does it’s not gonna hurt her–hell, I’ll start the Go Fund Me to pay her lawyer’s expenses and any judgment against her.
I think she should let it all hang out there, and say, “bring it on.”
Washburn
@Jeffro:
I have idly wondered whether it is a better strategy to gut the little fish, then the middle fish and then the big fish to build support for gutting the king of all Needlenose Gars —- or should he just have Indictment Day when he drops it on everyone?
I think the people so far are, really, little fish (not bc they were unimportant to Trump’s campaign but because they were peripheral to the most easily proven case – that Trump and his family have engaged in massive international financial crimes.
Corner Stone
@Washburn: Like a staircase. Keep climbing until you reach the top. Make him piss himself everytime he turns on the TV or hears a knock on the door.
Quinerly
DOW futures down over 400 pts!
Gotta love the GOP war on the economy!
HANG.IT.AROUND.THEIR.NECKS.
SiubhanDuinne
@Amir Khalid:
I love when you talk Malaysian to us ?
Corner Stone
Stephanie Ruhle is doing yoeman’s work on this whole Gary Cohn shenannies.
PhoenixRising
@Thoughtful David: That would have been my advice to him: Shut up. No, don’t tell me your story and definitely don’t test your NY lawyer’s knowledge of CA contract law by filing an arbitration request in CA 21 days after *he* breached in a public statement calling her a liar, which he was trapped into making by his own sloppy registration of the purposed entity to leave a trail to his (and his client’s) door.
Too bad Trump didn’t hire one of us, huh?
Washburn
@Corner Stone:
Yeah, but that gives him even more chances to just have Mueller fired and I don’t think congress would do a damn thing.
I don’t have an argument here — I just kick these possibilities around and always find something to worry about.
SiubhanDuinne
@zhena gogolia:
I’m the same! Never understood how it managed to get in there with “Brush Up Your Shakespeare,” “Wunderbar,” “I Hate Men,” and so many other great songs. But it works here, so….
raven
@efgoldman: When I got my “certificate” from the Governor I had to look that stuff up!
SiubhanDuinne
@? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?:
I like it. It’s tidier.
How goes the new job?
randy khan
@Jeffro:
Yeah, that’s not any better.
Barbara
@PhoenixRising: I admit to not reading the pleadings. If there were other covenants that were breached then she might have the right to vitiate any remaining duties she has under the NDA but that’s different from arguing that the agreement was void for lack of signature. It would be extremely amusing to find out that Cohen gave her $130K “by mistake,” and that there was never an enforceable NDA. The problem with trying to make everything complicated so you can hide things or deny what actually happened is that it is extremely easy to screw things up.
Quinerly
@Corner Stone: I’m a big fan of hers. Just weary of her “Gary” this, “Gary” that. She’s a huge fan of his. I’d have a bit more respect for her if she just call him by his full name or by his last name, title. Her familiarity with him is bugging me. And, yes, I know her background.
Gelfling 545
@PhoenixRising:
“Too bad, etc “
Well, except that you’d probably not get paid.
Amir Khalid
@Quinerly:
I hate to break this to you but the Dow Jones Industrial Average is at 24,884.12 as I type this. A 400-point drop now doesn’t mean what it did when the index was around 1,000.
Calouste
@Barbara: Didn’t the shitgibbon, by the words of the Possum Queen, deny that any affair ever took place?
Not many people, at least not many non-evangelics, are going to belief that someone paid $130,000 to enforce an NDA over an affair that never happened.
Corner Stone
@Quinerly: She’s been saying for quite some time that Mnuchin is a chump compared to Cohn. And the Street knew it. If Dow futures hold at 400 down or so when it opens tomorrow I guess we’ll see what they think about this.
I personally thought it was outrageous he did not resign after Charlottesville. He should have. And the wait to get a budget busting tax scam passed should be his epitaph forever.
YellowDog
I don’t care about Stormy humping 45*. That’s old news, and won’t matter to the christianists. Where are the pee hookers?
Gin & Tonic
@Steve in the SFO: As a mustache-American myself, I refuse to see Bolton’s mustache as a problem. The fact that he is batshit insane, though, that’s another story.
Corner Stone
@Amir Khalid: The futures do not reflect a point for point drop. If it stays at 400 down the DJIA may open significantly lower than 400 points down.
p.a.
What? You don’t want to know if his fingers are a tell? ?
Corner Stone
@Gin & Tonic: Mustache or pr0n stache?
Omnes Omnibus
@Corner Stone: Is there really a difference?
? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?
@SiubhanDuinne:
Pretty good actually. Yesterday and today were training days. Yesterday was mostly practice and today the training wheels were taken off moreso. I did 4.5 hours of ringing up groceries. There were hiccups of course. Mostly just stuff like having trouble finding an item I was looking up (produce), coupons, forgetting to exit a pop-up window before scanning a loyalty card. That kind of thing. Making change is easier than I thought. I was told by my trainer that I was doing very well and that 11 or so items a scanned a minute was normal for new hires.
15 minute breaks are short but at least they’re paid. All in all I like my new job so far.
Corner Stone
@Omnes Omnibus: Yes? Maybe?
I am taking his silence as an affirmative.
Gin & Tonic
@Amir Khalid:
Yeah, in 12 hours it won’t be.
Quinerly
@Corner Stone: No, I understand not a point for point drop. Unnecessary volatility, though. Markets sending a message. Erratic. More to come.?
SiubhanDuinne
@? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?:
I’m glad to hear it!
Gin & Tonic
@Corner Stone: My silence is more like a “no comment.”
Quinerly
@Corner Stone: No argument from me. But Ruhl’s style tonight with “Gary” this, “Gary” that was way too familiar for my liking tonight. It was an over the top love fest.
different-church-lady
It’s remarkable to think that of all the reasons to find Trump odious, his purchase of porn stars while his wife was with child is actually the least of them all.
Jay
@Corner Stone:
Cohn had the same deal as Tillerson for sheltering his severance package from taxes, so he had to stay in one calendar year plus a day, or take a $35 million dollar tax hit.
Jay
@Washburn:
Hair Twitler can’t fire Meuller.
Meuller can only be fired “for cause”, and by Rosenstien.
PhoenixRising
@Barbara:
Thing is, Cohen did sign as the agent of the party that transferred the cash. He then breached by divulging the existence of the agreement and its putative purpose, when he got caught because he cheaped out registering the entity in Delaware*. Without Trump signing it, I’m not sure he’s a party to it/bound by it.
A contract that one of 3 parties didn’t sign, breached and thereby arguably voided by a party that exists only to make a payment under it, to the detriment of the party receiving the payment…void is what I would have opened with but anything that put the agreement itself into a public record was good.
*this is the sloppiness I can’t let go of–literally you have one job here, to create distance between your client and the porn star he’s been cheating with by forming an entity to pay her off and an agreement to suction up all the copies of the dick pics, yet you don’t think to have a clearinghouse register the entity in New Mexico so that state records don’t tie you and your client to the LLC making the payment? Trump should complain to the bar & ask for fee arbitration to get whatever he spent back.
Washburn
@Jay:
Yes, but he can fire Rosenstein and whoever else doesn’t fire Mueller after “finding” good cause.
hellslittlestangel
I’m pretty sure he just tries to jerk off while the temporary employee tells him how awesome he is.
Corner Stone
@Jay: Do you have a definitive link for this? I have seen all kinds of back and forth on this.
? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?
@SiubhanDuinne:
Thanks!
Jay
@Washburn:
You have to go down the DAG seniority list to #37 before you find an DAG who “might” try to fire Meuller. And then you have that “for cause” clause, which pretty much mean’s Meuller could double tap Donnie Jr. in the middle of Times Square infront of 3 busloads of Tourists, and that wouldn’t meet the “for cause”, clause.
Jay
@Corner Stone:
https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/28/600.7
Jay
@PhoenixRising:
Trump’s deal with the National Enquirer seems to have been “more ept” than this Storm.
Ken
@Jay: That would be ironic, considering Trump’s remark during the campaign that he could shoot someone in the street and not lose any support.
danielx
O dear god, no, please, no!
Jerzy Russian
@PhoenixRising:
Knowing how Trump stiffs everyone all of the time, that amount of money referenced above could be zero.
Jay
@Ken:
Meuller’s also a “cop”, he could just say he thought Donnie had a gun.
Corner Stone
@Jay: I’m not sure that link speaks to anything you think it does.
Jay
@Corner Stone:
https://www.google.ca/amp/s/www.washingtonpost.com/amphtml/news/politics/wp/2017/12/19/why-trump-cant-fire-mueller-at-least-not-directly/
Corner Stone
@Jerzy Russian: He was pissed off when one of his [email protected] gave $1K to a local charity. Can you imagine how mad he would be having to pay $130K to someone he’s never going to hump again?
Corner Stone
@Jay: I think you may have lost the plot on this thread.
Jerzy Russian
@Corner Stone: (Nearly) anything that makes him mad I would approve of. Since he is probably up to his flabby man boobs in debt, $130,000 might be a lot of money to him at this point.
randy khan
@Jay:
Don’t use amateurs when there are pros available.
Jeffro
@Washburn: You almost have to wonder if there is a Deep State Director back there in the dark, realizing that the Nov 2016 election was not supposed to turn out like this…but also realizing that it was going to take quite some time to prove all the endless shenanigans and criminal activities that led to this, enough so that the majority of Americans would be fine with this crooked president* turned out of office.
We’re almost there. It’s all that’s in the news at this point, barely over a year in. Keep banging!
Jay
@Corner Stone:
Trump’s nuts?
Infrastructure Week?
The Midnight Lurker
What do you suppose the title of Daniels’ tell-all will be? Attack of the Whitey-Tighties? Trump Tales? How I Got Boned by a Billionaire and All I Got Was This Lousy Book Deal. Come on, Juicers! Play along! I know for a fact that a writer on Cobert’s show reads this blog.
Shell
You HAD to say that, right before a lot of us are going to bed. Mr. Sandman, please dont send me a dream.
Jay
@Shell:
Don’t worry, if there is vids, it probably won’t even meet PornHubs standards, so you’ll have to search for it.