So, Rudy Giuliani went on Sean Hannity’s show last night and exploded the story Trump spun a while back about the payoff to Stormy Daniels. Trump had earlier claimed — on camera to the traveling press pool — that he knew nothing about the payoff. We were asked to believe the entire payoff scheme was the brainchild of wannabe mafia lawyer Michael Cohen, who paid Stormy off out of the goodness of his heart with no expectation of reimbursement.
Yeah, Rudy blew that tall tale right outta the water last night. Via The Post:
Rudolph W. Giuliani, the former New York mayor and a recent addition to President Trump’s legal team, said Wednesday night that Trump made a series of payments reimbursing his attorney, Michael Cohen, for a $130,000 settlement with an adult-film actress — despite Trump’s assertion last month that he was unaware of the payment.
“The president repaid it,’’ Giuliani told Fox News Channel’s Sean Hannity.
Trump “didn’t know about the specifics of it, as far as I know. But he did know the general arrangement, that Michael would take care of things like this, like I take care of things like this with my clients,” Giuliani said. “I don’t burden them with every single thing that comes along. These are busy people.’’
Giuliani’s fantasy about running his own porn actress payoff practice for busy clients is an especially nice touch. Jesus Christ, it’s like these liars think we all wake up every morning with a blank slate for a mind. That may be true of Trump’s base, but the rest of us have memories and internet access.
This story broke last night, and Lawrence O’Donnell had clips from the Hannity interview with Giuliani. Hannity seemed genuinely surprised when Giuliani blabbed about Trump’s knowledge of the payoff and reimbursement to Cohen, which suggests Giuliani fucked up by disclosing it.
Trump officials’ Hannity Show appearances are typically tightly orchestrated PR campaign rollouts. But then again Hannity has the intellectual capacity of a turnip, so maybe he greets each sunrise with genuine surprise? Who the hell knows? It’s helpful to keep in mind that these people are shitlords, not masterminds. More from The Post on that issue:
The disclosure by Giuliani was viewed by some White House advisers as a misstep.
“Everyone in Trump world will see this as a total unforced error and further affirmation that hiring Rudy wasn’t the best idea,” said one presidential adviser, who requested anonymity to speak candidly about the internal dynamics.
However, Giuliani told The Post that he and Trump discussed the fact that he planned to disclose that Trump reimbursed Cohen.
“Oh, yeah, yeah,” he said. “Sure, sure. He was well aware that at some point when I saw the opportunity, I was going to get this over with.”
Interesting characterization, “get this over with.” Giuliani at least understood fessing up about the payoff was necessary. He also laid the groundwork for undermining the Mueller probe and prosecution of Cohen by calling the FBI agents who conducted the raid “storm troopers.” And! Giuliani put forth a new explanation of why Trump fired Comey:
“He fired Comey because Comey would not, among other things, say that he wasn’t a target of the investigation. He’s entitled to that. Hillary Clinton got that, and he couldn’t get that. So he fired him, and he said, ‘I’m free of this guy.’ ”
LOL! These douchetankards really do think America is the woman from “50 First Dates.” We’re supposed to forget the on-camera confession to Lester Holt and Trump blurting out his reason for firing Comey to the Russians in the Oval Office.
Though the bit about “Hillary Clinton got that, and he couldn’t get that” does sound rather like Trump, who spent 70 years floating through life screwing people literally and metaphorically without consequence and railing at the unfairness of it all. THIS, however, does NOT sound like Trump:
Mr. Cohen, an attorney, received a monthly retainer, not from the campaign and having nothing to do with the campaign, from which he entered into, through reimbursement, a private contract between two parties, known as a non-disclosure agreement, or NDA. These agreements are…..
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 3, 2018
…very common among celebrities and people of wealth. In this case it is in full force and effect and will be used in Arbitration for damages against Ms. Clifford (Daniels). The agreement was used to stop the false and extortionist accusations made by her about an affair,……
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 3, 2018
…despite already having signed a detailed letter admitting that there was no affair. Prior to its violation by Ms. Clifford and her attorney, this was a private agreement. Money from the campaign, or campaign contributions, played no roll in this transaction.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 3, 2018
Honest to Christ, I think the attorney who wrote that inserted the grammatical error “roll” just to make it sound Trumpian. The MAGA shitheads will lap this “celebrities” and “people of wealth” shit up with a spoon while continuing to cheer Trump on for sticking it to the “elites” on their behalf. Because they’re stupid motherfuckers. But for the rest of us, what a fucking national embarrassment this sordid bullshit is, or, as we call it these days: Thursday.
japa21
My wife and I think both Trump and Rudy are suffering from dementia. You could tell Rudy had this “Did I really say that?” moment.
ETA: I really hope Comey goes after him for defamation after the “pathological liar” and “very perverted man” comments. As someone said on Larry O last night, you can argue with things Comey did and how he did them, but one thing he most definitely is not is a liar.
schrodingers_cat
From Lincoln to the Orange One.
From the Gettysburg address to tweets with typos
How far the Republican party and the American Presidency have fallen.
*slow sad head shake.
Jeffro
Once again, we have the president* admitting to crimes on
live TVTwitter…at this point, I have zero expectations that any Republican anywhere is going to stand up for the rule of law in our country, but WHERE. IS. OUR. NATIONAL. MEDIA. ?Emma
I got the heads-up on this cluster… well, mess… last night but couldn’t force myself to look at it until this morning. What’s the over/under on Rudy being just pissed that Trump didn’t pick him for a cabinet position and trying to get revenge?
japa21
@Emma: That thought did occur to me, but I don’t think so. He also attacked Sessions. I think he is pushing for Trump to fie the elf and put him in that spot.
aimai
I’m enjoying the fact that John Cole bigfooted Betty Cracker because: what the hell its so beautiful I could read version after version all day and never feel full.
MattF
@Emma: Too complicated. And it’s unlikely that Rudy wants to run a Federal agency. And, fwiw, just look at the people Trump does choose for his cabinet.
randy khan
Last night I thought Rudy might have been running off on his own with this, which was stupid enough. But it’s now apparent that it was planned. Amazing.
JPL
@aimai: That is exactly how I feel. They need to let Trump play a few rounds of golf today, just in order to give us a few hours of peace.
JPL
@randy khan: Then it didn’t go as planned.. just sayin
Formerly disgruntled in Oregon
Assumes brains not in evidence.
marv
Good get on “roll”
MomSense
@Emma:
My wild speculations that Ghouliani only joined trump’s legal team to find out what dirt the investigation of the NY FBI office has on himself. Ghouliani is a lot like trump. He has no loyalty. Ghouliani will sink trump so fast if he has to.
Emma
@MomSense: Now that makes sense.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
Dear FSM, as long as You are sending us miracles, can we have one more interview where Rudy torpedoes Pence and Hannity too?
“Sure, Sean. It’s like that deal we did with you and Pence where we laundered the money from that child-trafficking thing you run out of that pizza parlor through my account in Grand Cayman. You remember how we worked that, right?”
MomSense
@Emma:
I don’t know anymore. This is exhausting, infuriating, and stressful. We’ve got Iran certification coming up in a little over a week and then the NK negotiations. These are two incredibly high stakes matters with yuuge consequences and the already addled monster who is under increasing pressure is supposed to handle them. It is clear that trump’s motivation is always trump and he may decide that blowing these things up is good for his self preservation. He won’t give a thought to the millions of people who would be harmed.
Drunkenhausfrau
Remember when we wondered how the Canadians could cope with Rob Ford?
Gelfling 545
I knew tha Guiliani would be a worthy addition to the Trump team. Worthy of Trump, that is.
mad citizen
I like his “people of wealth” phrase. If only his base could read, they might finally realize they fell for a con man.
NDAs may be common, but using fake names? David Dennison.
Zach
Notice in Trump’s mini tweet storm he still doesn’t deny the affair happened. He quotes Daniels’ letter instead. AFAIK he’s never denied that it happened because, if he did, the defamation suit would suddenly have teeth.
Also, extortion is a crime. If you’re a victim, you report it to the police. If the Daniels thing is about extortion, Trump would surely have evidence of increasing demands after the initial 130k… like every extortion scheme. Where is it?
bystander
Well, they do have special rules for celebrities and people of wealth, even if their celebrity is a result of tedious tv show and their wealth a chimera of leverage and unpaid debts.
Coming out of law school, I interviewed with Guiliani’s firm. Yuck. Did the interview since a friend had made the connection for me, but I would rather have starved. Luckily I never had to do either one.
No Drought No More
A person need only level a completely unsubstantiated accusation at a celebrity and/or a person of wealth to collect? That’s how easy it is to extort $135 grand? Why wasn’t I informed of this years ago? I could have avoided a lot of unnecessary stress had I known.
Ramalama
@bystander: Can you give any specifics about the interview or the firm?
waspuppet
@japa21: Imagine how weak and stupid you have to be to look at those two and see smart, strong guys.
PS:
Given that those events happened last May, I just assumed Trump had signed an executive order designating May as National Confess to Obstruction of Justice Month.
GrueBleen
“…it’s like these liars think we all wake up every morning with a blank slate for a mind.”
Exactly ! Remember the Platinum Rule: if you have no memory, then you have no shame. So, they all develop the fine art of a life composed of ‘tabula rasa’ days. I think Trump is especially accomplished at that … apart from all the things he wants to remember because they prove how badly people behave towards him.
rikyrah
@MomSense:
I hear you.