Yo, Donald…
This is what happens when you use as your fixer some thug/schmoe who went to the worst law school in the country:
President Trump’s personal attorney Michael D. Cohen sometimes taped conversations with associates, according to three people familiar with his practice, and allies of the president are worried that the recordings were seized by federal investigators in a raid of Cohen’s office and residences this week.
…
“We heard he had some proclivity to make tapes,” said one Trump adviser, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the ongoing investigation. “Now we are wondering, who did he tape? Did he store those someplace where they were actually seized? . . . Did they find his recordings?” [Via The Washington Post]
So. On one side you have an A-Team-led set of investigators. On the other you have Michael D. Cohen, Esq.
Damn straight I’d be worried if I were one of the Trumpenvolk.
As I’m not…
Moah popcorn, plz.
Thread for the threadbare!
Image: Lucas Cranach the Elder, Ill-Matched Lovers/The Old Fool, 1530s
different-church-lady
dmsilev
@different-church-lady: If there’s an 18.5 minute gap in one of the tapes, I’m just going to give up and go home.
? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?
Is there going to be a missing 18 minutes of tape this time too?
Jeffro
Not one but TWO Comey stories up right now on Fox Snooze dot com:
2) Comey still skeptical of Clinton email investigation’s handling
1) Comey lobs bombs at Trump, hints at classified info on [Loretta] Lynch
Followed by a number of Hannity ‘hot takes’ on Comey, Clinton, Lynch, more
No note of Trumpov concern about pee story, hookers, overall theme of Trumpov as lying, Mob-style scum
hellslittlestangel
Cohen: Hey, some of those audio files are missing. Too bad, pal. I was under no obligation to preserve them.
Mueller: That’s alright. We rebuilt the file allocation table and recovered them all.
Cohen: So you can just — what?
David Fud
I wonder if he was recording in Moscow in a certain hotel suite.
sdhays
@? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?: No, because this time they’ve been taken by surprise.
Schlemazel
@hellslittlestangel:
I have done computer forensics work in the past & people were amazed that files they had deleted could be recovered. Seriously folks, if you have something to hide spend 30 minutes googling information about secure file deletion. There is no excuse considering the money & mob guys this clown worked with.
SiubhanDuinne
That is a rather terrifying painting. Hope Omnes and Billin don’t see it; they’ll never sleep again.
hueyplong
Why would someone spill to outsiders his/her concern about tapes? I can’t think of a reason, unless it is that the person wants them found and has some inkling that they weren’t gathered up in the recent raid. But then, I’m attempting logic when talking about a Trump employee, which is a fool’s game.
Somewhere Mr Cohen is having one of those Manafort internal conversations about whether he fears prosecution more than Russian bearers of tea and/or umbrellas. Not sure Trump can trust Cohen to be as knowledgeable/smart in that contemplation as Manafort appears to be.
oatler.
You and your Cranach the Elder porn. When are we going to get the Arnolfini Shotgun Wedding money shot?
TenguPhule
@different-church-lady: It ends differently as farce.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@SiubhanDuinne: I don’t see no clowns.
laura
Thanks entire GOP any every fool that was fine with less vetting and experience than it takes to get hired by McDonald’s, and this crime-foof and his kids all thought it was the swellest idea ever. And journalists and courtiers and their owners thought it’d be A-OK to ignore the smoldering dumptster.
This one’s gonna leave a mark. A big, greasy, orangish skidder.
? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?
@David Fud:
As someone said downstairs I hope the pee tape doesn’t exist, if only for the sex workers in it that might be put in danger due to it’s reveal.
raven
Rachel said he pardoned someone just now.
? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?
@sdhays: I guess that’s a good thing this time
TenguPhule
@? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?:
They’re either assets in good standing with the former KGB or dead.
randy khan
@hellslittlestangel:
To reprise a comment I just made on LGM, I’d say there’s less than a five percent chance he was smart enough to throw away or destroy the drive with these files. I’d say it’s about 20 percent chance he just put them in the trash and did nothing else, and maybe 40 percent that he remembered to empty the trash.
tobie
deleted
NotMax
Popcorn doodle art.
:)
raven
SCOOTER LIBBY!!!!
MJS
Trump is pardoning Scooter Libby. ETC is that about?
Edit – WTF, not etc.
? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?
@raven:
It’s Scooter Libby
Aleta
jesus scooter libby
bemused senior
Scooter Libby is the one being pardoned.
SiubhanDuinne
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Scary as clowns, though.
ETAPS: Did you see that early morning picture — from NotMax? Can’t remember — of the Hat-O-Mat? Now THAT’S fuckin’ terrifying.
David Fud
@? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?: Audio tapes would be a bit less invasive, but… 1) once one sees/hears it, such a thing cannot be unseen/unheard; and, 2) I would hope that the lack of video would help with the safety problem you note; and, 3) Putin likes for the U.S. to have chaos, so he is almost certainly hoping for the maximum damage to us via damaging Trump at this point, undercutting him as much as possible. I doubt he would destroy witnesses if it came to light.
Of course, I am not a spook, so my thoughts on Putin could be totally wrong.
Sm*t Cl*de
@SiubhanDuinne: You like that painting? Try this one.
Mnemosyne
@raven:
WTF?
HRA
Scooter Libby? ABC News I have no words.
raven
?BillinGlendaleCA
@raven:
@MJS:
@? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?: Trump must have had a visit from Darth Cheney.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@SiubhanDuinne: No, clowns are in a category all by themselves.
raven
@Mnemosyne: Nicole Wallace is on with Rachel and she says he’s laying the groundwork to pardon all them other punks.
Omnes Omnibus
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Nor do I.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@raven: Is the Post Office even part of the executive branch? They were somewhat privatized in 1974.
Aleta
@TenguPhule: sex workers are always disposable to people like that
Omnes Omnibus
@?BillinGlendaleCA: It is known.
NotMax
@raven
Report is Dolt 45 “poised to pardon” so it is not yet a done deal.
Ploy to distract the media and temporarily make something besides the Russia story a top headline, plus gauge how a pardon is reported (and by whom). Ooh, shiny!
SFAW
@tobie:
There was talk of him pardoning Scooter Libby.
JPL
@Mnemosyne: On Rachel just now, they think it is a way of showing others under indictment that they too will get pardoned.
Scooter had his law license restored and can vote, so it does seem strange. It’s nothing more than a signal.
GregB
This week in Republican governance.
Republican Congressman Blake Farenthold abruptly resigns in shadow of sexual harassment allegations.
Former Republican Congressman Steve Stockman found guilty on 23 felony charges.
Missouri Governor Eric Greitens accused of sexual assault charges by female acquaintance.
10 Louisiana Republicans fail to vote against human/animal sex.
President Trump accused of fathering child with house keeper.
President Trump pardons felon Scooter Libby.
raven
@NotMax: I report, you decide.
SiubhanDuinne
@MJS:
WAIT WHUT?
SiubhanDuinne
@raven:
WAIT WHUT?
SFAW
@raven:
Another example of Fuckhead using his office to go after political enemies.
Thank FSM we have adults in Congress who will rein him in, just the way all the “serious” people in 2016 said they would.
SiubhanDuinne
@? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?:
WAIT WHUT?
sdhays
@GregB:
Uh…what?
MJS
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Or he’s stupid enough to think that if he establishes a pattern of ridiculous pardons, by the time he gets to Manafort, et al, the media may just shrug their shoulders and say, “Hey, it’s what he does. What are you gonna do?”
Felony Govt (Formerly Old Broad in California)
Scooter Libby? That’s a blast from the past. What’s that all about? Is he just stretching his pardoning muscles?
Corner Stone
@GregB:
Who amongst us has not engaged in a little “Death Roll” sex fantasies?
Mnemosyne
@JPL:
I wonder if it’s also meant to curry favor with Dick Cheney and his cronies, since Dick was always pissed that W only commuted Libby’s sentence and didn’t pardon him.
JPL
@sdhays: but why?
edit.. nevermind. Some things are best unknown.
khead
Fuck Scooter Libby. Old news.
I want to know why Conor McGregor hasn’t been deported yet.
SiubhanDuinne
@Aleta:
WAIT WHUT?
SiubhanDuinne
@HRA:
WAIT WHUT?
?BillinGlendaleCA
@SiubhanDuinne: You’re saying that quite a bit tonight.
GregB
@sdhays:
Link.
Mike in NC
Trump has always bragged (hard to believe, I know) about only hiring the best people. The reality, of course, is that he goes to the lowest bidders, quality be damned.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Mike in NC:
…and then fails to pay them.
NotMax
@SiubhanDuinne
Heh. Guilty as charged.
hueyplong
@Mike in NC: Don’t forget the part where he stiffs those low bidders, thereby encouraging lower and lower quality in each subsequent hiring.
Amir Khalid
@Mnemosyne:
As it is, I’m surprised that Scooter got his law licence back.
Touch-typing fail?
Omnes Omnibus
@raven: Scooter still won’t get his law license back.
danielx
@raven:
Right. Maybe they’ll comment on how USPS is required to fund pensions for 75 years, which has some small effect on finances?
NotMax
@Omnes Omnibus
He already did have it reinstated.
sdhays
@GregB: That’s certainly a…bold position to take in an election year. It makes you wonder how many will vote against it in the state House.
danielx
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Which may have some small effect on the willingness of reputable attorneys to work for him, among other factors.
Omnes Omnibus
@NotMax: WAIT WHUT?
Corner Stone
Mmmaaaannnn!!!!
“Stormy Daniels’ ‘Make America Horny Again’ shows postponed, canceled”
TriassicSands
Fake news! A-Team? C’mon, Tom, they’re all “hardened Democrats” whose only purpose in life is to persecute and ultimately “get” the beleaguered president of the United States. Given that Trump is the state, anything that is bad for Trump is by definition a disaster for the country. This poor man gave up a lucrative career cheating other people out of their money and suing anyone who crossed him to serve as president in an effort to use that office to further enrich himself and his family. What could be more American than that? His integrity is unquestioned* and what Mueller and his so-called A-Team are doing would horrify the framers who set up a country of, by, and for propertied, white men. Give Donald “L’etat c’est moi” the First a break. He’s not hurting anyone.**
* He has none.
** Apart from about 7-1/2 billion people who aren’t rich or members of his family or autocratic thugs leading repressive regimes.
Mnemosyne
@Amir Khalid:
I was trying to eat and type at the same time. But I was able to fix it within the edit window.
NotMax
@Omnes Omnibus
Is there an echo inhere?
:)
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Mnemosyne: You were able to get an edit window? You must have special powers.
Omnes Omnibus
@NotMax: August 3! Represent!
Mandalay
@GregB:
Nobody could have predicted that Stockman is the real victim here…
SiubhanDuinne
@Omnes Omnibus:
PREACH IT, August 3rd boy!!
NotMax
@Omnes Omnibus
No capiche.
(August 3, though, is Grab Some Nuts Day.)
Omnes Omnibus
@NotMax: Despite being directed at you, it wasn’t for you.
MomSense
@Aleta:
Wasn’t he the guy who wrote bear pron and worked for Cheney?
MisterForkbeard
@Jeffro: What does 2 even mean? Comey is skeptical of… what? How his office bungled the investigation and was prejudiced against Hillary in its public statements?
efgoldman
@khead:
Stupid question.
Nice white guy with a brogue, AND he can afford the best lawyes
donnah
Avenatti on Lawrence O’Donnell’s show tonight is hilarious. The breaking news about recordings that Cohen kept and were confiscated by the FBI has Avenatti joking that he’s smarter than Cohen, adding that he’s not bragging; that most people in the world are smarter than Cohen.
The noose around Cohen’s neck is tightening and pretty soon he’s gonna drop.
Corner Stone
@donnah: He’s like, “I can’t even understand this.”
PeakVT
Soon to be heard in FBI headquarters….
“Says who? Play that last bit again, would you?”
J R in WV
@GregB:
And it isn’t even Friday yet!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1
Aleta
@MomSense: liars, insiders and bear pron? oh my.
Mnemosyne
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
I do. It’s called “iOS.” ?