Now we know why Giuliani was blabbing on Fox yesterday and today:
Federal investigators have wiretapped the phone lines of Michael Cohen, the longtime personal lawyer for President Donald Trump who is under investigation for a payment he made to an adult film star who alleged she had an affair with Trump, according to two people with knowledge of the legal proceedings involving Cohen.
It is not clear how long the wiretap has been authorized, but NBC News has learned it was in place in the weeks leading up to the raids on Cohen’s offices, hotel room, and home in early April, according to one person with direct knowledge.
At least one phone call between a phone line associated with Cohen and the White House was intercepted, the person said.
Previously, federal prosecutors in New York have said in court filings that they have conducted covert searches on multiple e-mail accounts maintained by Cohen.
They learned that the Feds intercepted a conversation between Cohen and the White House, probably proving they were lying about Stormy Daniels and that payment, so they are basically trying to reset the deck by saying of course Trump knoew. Not that any of it matters from a legal standpoint, but they aren’t focused on the legality, they are trying to innoculate their idiot followers.
The way this played out is that this was probably a wiretap unrelated to anything involving Trump, and instead about Cohen’s numerous other shady dealings, and this just popped up. But what Giuliani and company want is for the idiot Trump supporters to think that this is a witch hunt by the crooked FBI and Justice Department and proof they are just out to get Trump. In actuality, it’s just what happens when a bunch of degenerate liars and crooks with overlapping criminal fiefdoms get caught up tripping over each other’s dicks.
Giuliani, who, in another lifetime, put a bunch of people like that away, so he should know better and probably does but is just a lying piece of shit.
Gravenstone
At the disco?
Gravenstone
More on point to the reality of Cohen’s nightmares, I wonder how many of his lines they had taps on? ‘Burner’ phones might end up burning Cohen et. al.
rikyrah
BWA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA
Juju
If it didn’t hurt to laugh or move my head right now, I’d laugh myself silly. Migraines suck, but the thought of all involved in shear panic does make me feel a bit better.
The Moar You Know
If he’s not out tomorrow it will be next week at the latest. Because he absolutely does know what’s involved here and what the stakes are, and you don’t want to be within a thousand feet of that dumpster fire.
Corner Stone
As I was going to say downstairs, it’s going to become very clear to us all by the end of this weekend at the latest, that Rudy’s blabbing is much more of the clusterfuck variety and not any new strategy.
ShadeTail
The best part of this: they’re pretty much literally between a rock and a hard place. If Giuliani hadn’t done this, it wouldn’t make much difference materially in the investigation against the White House. The special counsel will still get the information one way or another, if he doesn’t have it already. They’re damned if they do, and damned if they don’t.
TenguPhule
They’re packing the federal courts with shitholes. Legality, like truth, is in serious danger of becoming optional.
TenguPhule
@Corner Stone:
Or its all a very demented strategy to disqualify every witness from testifying against each other by being known and proven liars.
It sounds crazy, but look at these guys!
rikyrah
AWE….they’ve been together, well, forever….
The Cars’ Ric Ocasek and Paulina Porizkova ‘peacefully separated’
By Lisa Respers France, CNN
Updated 9:45 AM ET, Thu May 3, 2018
The 28-year-old marriage between Cars’ frontman Ric Ocasek and former supermodel Paulina Porizkova has broken down.
Using lots of car imagery, Porizkova announced on social media Wednesday that she and her husband have been “peacefully separated for the past year.”
“Our family always has been — and still is — a well-built car,” Porizkova wrote in a photo posted on Instagram. “When the four of us are together, we can go wherever the road takes us. But as a bicycle, my husband and I no longer pedal in unison. So, we’re ditching the bicycle.”
chopper
so mueller’s guys had a “tapp” on cohen’s phone etc, investigating russia stuff, and then some calls came in to cohen regarding the use of campaign funds to pay off daniels and that that evidence needed to ‘go away’. since this fell outside of mueller’s investigation he forwarded it to the us attorney for SDNY, who immediately acted on it by having cohen’s offices and home raided and now they’ve got basically everything.
that sound about right?
TenguPhule
The only thing that could make things more bonkers at this point would be the discovery that actual clowns are somehow involved in this whole steaming Whitehouse mess..
SiubhanDuinne
@rikyrah:
Also:
TICK TOCK TICK TOCK TICK TOCK (don’t want to step on Yarrow’s line, so I’ll wait for him to show up and add “MOTHERFUCKERS.”)
Corner Stone
Rudy only has one job on Trump’s team – to throw as much shit into the air as possible. Spin the whirlygigs, lead the media around by their collective noses, and feed slop to the Trump base. Every utterance out of his piehole, while not all calculated, is just to stir the shit. The evil little fuck.
Now, WTS, Rudy may also accomplish a few other jobs in the meantime. Mainly self-aggrandizement and as much airtime for his ego as he can wrangle. Which has nothing to do with Trump, Trump’s just a vehicle or fat ugly horse that Rudy is riding into battle. If he can also pierce the veil of any ongoing investigations into business matters related to himself or cronies, all the better.
raven
I almost became Widespread’s road manager once upon a time.
Corner Stone
@rikyrah:
So you’re telling me there’s a chance…
Corner Stone
I have some kind of neuromuscular type twitch that I have no control over. Anytime I see or hear Hugh Hewitt on TV my muscles move of their own volition and switch the channel. Or failing that, the off button.
No Drought No More
Giuliani was most likely not the first weasel to warn Trump his calls to Cohen might be wiretapped. Which puts me in mind of General Cholitz, Hitler’s general who surrendered Paris in 1944. Upon being interned with other high ranking officers, he immediately warned his fellow generals that they were quite likely being recorded by their British captors. He then proceeded to speak his mind freely up until the surrender.
raven
And the is a new book abut their great free show
In April 1998, legendary southern jam band Widespread Panic held a free open-air record release show in downtown Athens, Georgia, its homebase. No one involved could have known that the predicted crowd of twenty thousand would prove to be nearly five times that size. The ultimately successful show, now known as “Panic in the Streets,” went on to become a cult favorite of Panic fans and a decisive moment in Athens music history. This event still holds the record for the world’s largest record release party, but the full story of how the event came to be has not been told until now.
Roger Moore
@Gravenstone:
Wasn’t there a report that the FBI seized 16 phones as part of the search? I’ll admit to keeping an old phone or two around after they’ve been replaced with a newer model, but that sounds like somebody who was keeping burners.
oatler.
If you want to know how this turns out, rent Jean-Luc Goddard’s “Weekend”.
Haydnseek
@raven: Damn! You beat me to it. I was going to compliment Cole on his semi-obscure band reference…….
raven
@Haydnseek: I’m an Athens homeboy.
trollhattan
@Roger Moore:
Yup. I was comparing that to the probable number of dead pens in the kitchen junk drawer. How do you accumulate sixteen fucking phones unless you have one/client?
Just One More Canuck
@Gravenstone: no, in Detroit
Roger Moore
@chopper:
My impression from what I’ve read is that the Cohen investigation got handed off to SDNY a while back. This might have been because there wasn’t enough evidence that Cohen’s crimes were closely enough connected to Trump/Russia to qualify as part of Mueller’s investigation, or it might have been a dodge to avoid the implication that Mueller had been investigating Cohen with the goal of breaking attorney/client privilege. In either case, SDNY had been investigating Cohen for quite a while before the raids. It’s quite possible the raids were triggered by a communication telling him to destroy evidence, but it’s by no means certain.
Cacti
I’m going to Occam’s Razor on this one and say the more likely explanation is that Rudy just effed up.
His mind hasn’t seemed terribly sharp for a while now.
rikyrah
@Roger Moore:
YEP.
16 Phones.
Amir Khalid
Rudy’s behaviour as Trump’s lawyer doesn’t add up. He’s made nonsensical legal arguments that belie his career history as a high-ranking federal prosecutor. He’s said things on TV that seem to incriminate Trump. He has publicly undermined Trump’s position in a civil matter. Does falling into Trump’s orbit take your professional competence away like it does your dignity? Or is Rudy a guy with a rep bigger than his skill set?
Haydnseek
Hey, what the fuck? Why can’t I edit my comment to Raven’s post? Please fix this. Thank you.
jharp
So the feds were listening to Trump and Cohen conspiring to cover up their crimes?
And they have recordings.
That’s the best news I’ve heard in a long time.
LAO
Roger Moore
@trollhattan:
I can imagine it happening, especially in a family. If each parent has a personal phone and a work phone and the kids each have a phone, that gets you to 6-7 active phones without any kind of hanky-panky. Assume you keep a couple of generations of old phones in a junk drawer, and you can get to 16 without it looking crazy.
MattF
@Roger Moore: So, the lesson is… don’t arrange things so that one single ‘fixer’ does all yer fixin’. Single point of failure and all that.
Haydnseek
@raven: My original comment got eated, but there are plenty of Widespread Panic fans in Los Angeles. I know, because I’m one of ’em.
trollhattan
@Haydnseek:
All caps please, otherwise Management will never see it.
raven
@Haydnseek: Ever see Which One’s Pink? My brother is their manager.
JPL
@LAO: OMG We are going to have a your the baby moment aren’t we.
Do you think that the release of this information, will increase the likelihood that Cohen flips?
The Other Chuck
Cohen has three clients, two of which have “Trump” in their name. Of fucking course the wiretap was about Trump. There is an active investigation into Trump, and the FBI doesn’t just go around asking random people what they might happen to know..
Betty Cracker
@Corner Stone: I cannot abide that walking, grinning blob of Hellmann’s, though I do enjoy the contortions he goes through to fluff Trump. He’s definitely among the worst hires MSNBC has ever made, and they have some doozies.
MattF
@Betty Cracker: He also columnizes in the WaPo.
Roger Moore
@Amir Khalid:
¿Por que no los dos? It’s quite likely that Rudy’s job as a federal prosecutor was a political appointment rather than one based on his skill as a lawyer. It’s also entirely possible that having not practiced law actively in a few decades, and general age-related cognitive decline, have caused him to lose whatever legal acumen he once had. Remember, Trump likes to hire people according to personal loyalty and looking the part, not based on proven talent. There’s also the specific point that competent lawyers are likely to be staying as far away from Trump as possible, so he’s stuck choosing from a collection of incompetents.
Corner Stone
I love how Rudy is really trying to sell the, “If a wiretap had Trump on it then he deserved to be notified!” Yeah, because that is how wiretaps work. Unfortunately, Buffoon Crew will swallow it whole and never believe anything different. Like the truth.
Betty Cracker
@The Other Chuck: I’m still waiting to hear more on that ginormous payment to a pregnant playmate, ostensibly on behalf of RNC finance chair Broidy. Stormy’s lawyer implied that hush money was Trump-related too. Hmmm.
The Other Chuck
@Corner Stone:
Here’s the problem: Rudy’s client is already doing that and has been for over a year. All Rudy is doing is undermining his own client.
Betty Cracker
@MattF: Yes he does, and that pisses me off too. And now they’ve added McArdle. Why, WaPo, whyyyyy?
raven
@JPL: Wait for the counterattack, it’ll be a doozie.
Gravenstone
@rikyrah: aka, they stayed together “for the kids”. With the kids grown and gone, so too goes the marriage.
bluehill
I go back and forth between being feeling kind of lucky that these guys are arrogant and stupid and feeling terrified that these guys are arrogant and stupid.
The Other Chuck
@Roger Moore: I’d also attribute Rudy’s cognitive decline to his shift from prosecution to 24/7 wingnut politics.
rumpole
Represented by the law firm of Dunning Kruger.
The Other Chuck
@Betty Cracker: Oh no doubt Cohen has many off the books clients, and perhaps an investigation into one of them drew him in. Still, I can’t see any of these hush cases on their own drawing in the FBI. I’m still betting Mueller got the wiretap.
LAO
@Corner Stone: Well, technically Rudy’s not wrong. Once a wiretap runs its course AND an investigation is over — individuals that were intercepted (BUT not charged) are in fact, notified of that fact. The problem with Rudy’s statement is that the investigation has not yet concluded — so no notice, yet,
No Drought No More
Americans should tip their cap to MSNBC for allowing Hugh Hewitt to weigh in on Tr ump’s dilemma alongside people who know what they’re talking about. The birdbrains in the network’s audience are Americans, too.
LAO
@JPL: I fucking hope so.
Haydnseek
@raven: I know. Great “local” band. But when you live among a bunch of music freaks in Los Angeles who delight in turning people on to bands that they know about that you’ve never heard of, you hear a lot of great bands. It’s a game where everybody wins. It’s like being a scout for an athletic team. Doesn’t matter where anybody is from. If you’re good, you’re good, and sooner or later you’ll be able to hear for yourself.
Corner Stone
@The Other Chuck:
It *should* be a problem for Trump, and I hope eventually the courts find that to be true. However, in the meantime this is just more of their efforts to convince there is no truth. What Trump said on AF1 was patently false and we all knew it. Now Rudy tells a much more likely version. And Trump’s twit feed seems to somewhat confirm Rudy’s version! But, IMO, the next stage will be Trump angrily denying that he had anything to do with any of this. My bet is by end of weekend.
All the normals are going to be exhausted while all the chud base voters will never feel the whiplash because, “Of course he had nothing to do with it! EEERRRPPP! Yeah, he paid her off but that’s because he’s a good family man! EEERRRPPP! Trump had no knowledge of this payout!”
And on and on and on.
LAO
Today’s press briefing is going to be lit!
raven
@Haydnseek: They’ve done OK, made a living. Most of the guys in my brother’s outfit have other LA gigs.
Roger Moore
@MattF:
I don’t think that’s the lesson at all. If your fixer is doing stuff that can get you sent away for a long time, dividing up the work doesn’t insulate you from legal danger; it multiplies it by increasing the number of people in position to betray you. The lesson is that you need to find a competent fixer, and you need to treat him well so he’s inclined to keep omerta if/when he’s caught.
Haydnseek
@raven: No, but thanks for the tip. Great inside baseball band name, too.
Bruce K
@Roger Moore: For a rich modern family, that does make some sense; the question is how many functioning phones they seized. (And how many SIM cards they found during the search.)
JPL
@LAO: Two scenarios, it’s not Sarah, or it is and she says she will not discuss any ongoing
investigation.
Under normal circumstance, I would think that Trump would not dare rid us of that pesky special counsel, because it would just look awful. It’s not normal circumstances though .
raven
@Haydnseek: And my brother is nothing if not a baseball and Dodger die hard! Here’s their website.
Corner Stone
@LAO: Thanks for clarifying, I should have added “not how *active* wiretap works. But that gives you an opening to do that “law talking guy” “You mean a lawyer?” “Riiggghhttt”.
GregB
Giuliani on Fox last night: Trump funneled payments to Cohen to make the story of the sex with a pornstar go away.
It is all mob talk.
JPL
@raven: Hillary will probably just pour herself a glass of wine, and watch the explosion.
trollhattan
O/T is Adam in the house?
An interesting, if ghoulish read.
Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady)
@Juju: I have a low level migraine today too. Maybe it’s the changing weather.
Spanky
@TenguPhule: Actual bumper sticker out in the parking lot:
Proving truer and truer every day.
bluehill
SHS press briefing coming up. Wonder how and when she’ll use WHCD as a shield/cudgel. Wonder whether the press will let her.
Corner Stone
@JPL:
And, my bet is that we’ll see SHS spit in the face of all the WH Press Corps that gave her all their pity party tickets after the dinner. She’s going to lie, filibuster, snarl and condescend. But as long as no one says anything to her, everything is just fine.
Roger Moore
@The Other Chuck:
Cohen is involved in plenty of shady business that has nothing to do with any legal practice. He’s more of a mobster who happens to have a law license, rather than a lawyer who is involved with the mob.
Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady)
@JPL: If she’s doing while watching Trump fuck up everything, she’s on the floor passed out.
Just One More Canuck
@LAO: Sarah will be channeling her inner Ron Ziegler
gvg
@Betty Cracker: Stormy’s lawyer almost flat out said, that the big payment wasn’t for the RNC donor, it was for Trump. Media was reporting whats his name was the other client but Michal Aventti (sp?) said that guys name was not one listed by Cohen to the judge in sworn testimony after the judge insisted on being told. I think that is also how Hannity’s name got out. Aventti thought the other client was a Trump corporation but I forget the reasoning.
Haydnseek
@raven: Thanks for letting me know about these guys. One of the greatest shows I’ve ever seen, and this 66 year old music freak has seen ’em all, was Pink Floyd at the LA Sports Arena on their Dark Side Of The Moon tour. The Sports Arena is gone, replaced by a very cool small soccer stadium, but the memories of that show will never die…….
JPL
@gvg: After the evangelicals sucked up to Trump today, that news would be awesome.
BroD
This is just too surreal! I’m sitting on the floor in a corner rocking and giggling. What did I eat or drink that induce this hilarious nightmare?
West of the Rockies
Do we know who leaked this revelation? Any idea yet what was talked about? I’d like a bit more info before getting too worked up over this.
And OT, but why does SHS always, always use the damn future conditional? “I would refer you to…” It’s more damn weasel wording out of that nest of rabid weasels.
patrick II
All praise to a blackmailing pornstar. Democrats and the mainstream have been stuck with their fair-minded unstated political norms (dasn’t call Sarah a liar), but Trump has found someone just as businessman hard-hearted as he is. She is going to make a fortune with her book and leave Trump in ruins. It’s just business, babe.
WereBear
Even the wiseguys in The Sopranos had a better sense of covering their tracks. Sophia on The Golden Girls was able to control more of her speech. Walter White on Breaking Bad had a better moral sense if you add up everything he did through the whole show. He at least has spasms of conscience before he entirely killed it.
These “people” are like badly built FX mock ups they didn’t have the budget to do right.
raven
@Haydnseek: It’s funny, I’m 68 and have see a ton of bands. Floyd was just never one that was in my wheelhouse. I don’t dislike them but I was so much more of an early brit blues and then SF music guy. I enjoy the show these guys put on when I’m out there but it doesn’t resonate the way the Dead, Quicksilver, the Airplane, Santana and Country Joe do.
germy
germy
That name keeps coming up again and again. Roger, Roger, Roger…
Litlebritdifrnt
6 cellphones? The last time I heard about anything like that was when my step daughter was arrested for stealing and cashing checks out of my checkbook. The police found six cellphones in her room and strangely all of the sim cards had been removed by her. Turns out she was claiming to be pregnant by at least six marines and each had purchased a cellphone for her and was paying for the cellphone service to contact her. You would not imagine the shit show that happened after six marines (and their devoted parents) discovered they were not going to be a parent (grandparent), I donated so many baby clothes to Goodwill after that episode it was embarassing. Oh what a tangled web we weave…
germy
I wonder how Jake Tapper feels hearing Rudy mention his name during the Fox interview? “Even Jake Tapper was tough with his questions!”
Maybe Jake will engage in some introspection?
jonas
I seriously doubt the phone tap had anything to do with listening in on conversations about the Stormy payment. Cohen’s up to his eyeballs — probably along with Trump — in a bunch of shady business dealings that connect the Trump Org to the world of shady Russian/Ukranian cash. That’s what the Feds are after with Cohen. The Stormy brouhaha is just gravy on top of some much more serious charges Cohen is probably looking at.
MattF
@Roger Moore: The problem is that a single wiretap gets all the information.
Haydnseek
@raven: I can relate. I still play all the early San Francisco bands as well as the Brit and American blues bands as well as the original blues players that they emulated much more than Floyd and the other great Brit prog bands, but they all have their place in my heart. Have you ever heard a Deadhead say “There’s nothing like a Grateful Dead concert.” Sure you have. Same with Floyd, if one is so inclined. I still enjoy what can charitably be called “spirited discussions” about my love for Live Dead and Quicksilver’s “Happy Trails.”
burnspbesq
It is becoming increasingly clear that the book that best explains the Trump Regime is “The Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight.”
If Jimmy Breslin (or Molly Ivins) were still around …
West of the Rockies
@Betty Cracker:
Was Hellman (spelling?) the weak tea supposed liberal opposite Halprin on that awful MSNBC show? What a limp noodle…
MomSense
I hope Ghouliani’s liability insurance is current.
Wowza.
Roger Moore
@MattF:
That’s the point of getting burner phones. The goal is to keep replacing your phone often enough the police don’t have time to learn about it and get a tap approved before you ditch it. Also why the truly paranoid discuss stuff in person rather than on the phone.
zhena gogolia
@gvg:
He said the three clients were Trump, the Trump Organization, and Hannity. Not Broidy, for whom the bigger payment was allegedly made.
germy
Former Fox News anchor Eric Bolling is returning to media after signing a deal with CRTV to host his own show titled “America.”
LAO
Well, this is credible:
Steve in the ATL
@LAO: unrelated: how are the Mets doing?
JPL
Sarah is up, and they are asking in general about his lies. She won’t go into questions about ongoing litigation.
HeleninEire
People over here are absolutely mortified by all of this. They keep asking me what’s gonna happen and I keep saying I dunno.
One of the most interesting things about moving here is how much the Irish know about American politics. Two examples:
1) A Professor was talking about how hard it was to get his PhD. All his fault. He was editing it to the nth degree and finally his mentor said “Turn it in, Goddamn it” So I told him about the “Kissinger rule” at Columbia. Apparently Kissinger’s dissertation was so long that CU put a page limit on dissertations. The Prof’s answer was “I thought the Kissinger rule was ‘When all else fails, bomb Cambodia.'”
2. Somehow the Vietnam war came up. A Professor said to me. “I watched a documentary where that guy, an Irish named guy admitted to it all, Mc something. And I said “MacNamara.” Now I gotta say kudos to me, cuz how many Americans would know who MacNamara was? But really how many Irish would know that?
LAO
@Steve in the ATL: It’s May buddy. Plenty of baseball left.
trollhattan
@JPL:
Where’s that nice “alternative facts” lady? We need her.
debit
I don’t usually watch the press briefings, so I don’t know. Does SHS always look like a sad pudding? And her eyebrows aren’t moving around today at all.
catclub
@jonas:
This is the type of thing that would make sensible people want to avoid the publicity of the presidency. Why couldn’t Manafort and Cohen have sabotaged the Trump campaign just a little bit better?
LAO
@Steve in the ATL: Actually, I have a question for you — Goku keeps saying that Mueller is protected by the civil service act, do you know anything about this? I want to read up on it, because frankly that seems crazy to me.
Mary G
WaPo:
So apparently Rudy the Wonder Boy didn’t tell anyone else in the WH what he was going to do. He thought it was a brilliant strategy. I thought nothing these guys could do would surprise me, but was I wrong.
Barbara
@HeleninEire:
Had a good friend who couldn’t complete her undergraduate thesis and was working on it every minute, including in between customers at the cash register she worked at the faculty dining club. As he was leaving the club, her adviser paid his bill and then picked up the in progress thesis and informed her that it was done. Boy was she relieved.
Jeffro
@catclub:
Because a) they thought they’d be able to make 100x more money with their dumbass client in the WH, and b) they thought they wouldn’t get caught. Oops.
trollhattan
O/T that’s gonna leave a mark.
The missus released a three-pager calling what happened to hubby a “tragedy…not just for Bill Cosby but for the country.” Now, you speak up? Decades too fucking late, lady.
Signed, The Country
Roger Moore
@LAO:
Which pretty much destroys the value of the NDA. As numerous people have pointed out, the agreement spells out things Trump would do as part of agreeing to it. If he didn’t even know about it, he couldn’t agree to those things, so there was no meeting of the minds and no contract. He can’t have it both ways.
trollhattan
@debit:
“a sad pudding.” Goddamn it am I ever having a larf here.
LAO
@Roger Moore: they are the legal team that can’t shoot straight.
JPL
@trollhattan: I refer that to outside counsel is the new line. The old me would feel a tad bad for her at this point, but the new me says she agreed to lie for him.
This is good news for Michelle Wolf.
HeleninEire
@LAO: Spoken like a true Mets fan!!
Doug R
@chopper:
I’m thinking they had a FISA warrant from a call or two to the Russians, but I think you’ve got it.
Corner Stone
@Jeffro:
c) they know how mafia/kleptocracies work and felt they would never be held to account for any of it.
LAO
@Doug R: I disagree. If the government obtained a warrant for Cohen’s phone(s), it was an old fashioned Title III warrant.
HeleninEire
@Barbara: Great story.
raven
@Haydnseek: Who Do You Love vs Darkstar!
MattF
Learned something reading Noah Feldman’s new essay in the NYRB. If Trump pardons Cohen, then prosecutors would be able to force Cohen to testify because he could not then use the Fifth Amendment– there would no longer be a danger of self-incrimination. Interesting.
Steve in the ATL
@LAO: haven’t studied it lately, but as I recall from having represented a few federal employees way back when, those who are protected by the Act can be terminated only for cause, which is well defined through statute and case law. i have read that Mueller is covered by it and therefore can’t be fired easily, but can’t confirm.
Also, OZZIE ALBIES!!!
Also, maybe it’s time for Matt Harvey to hang up the cleats….
Joyce H
@Corner Stone:
I find their reactions to this interesting. A wiretap doesn’t just scoop up the incriminating calls to and from the targeted individual – it’s gets ALL the calls. If they’ve wiretapped a hit man, they’ll record the call when his mother calls to say Happy Birthday, and the calls he makes for pizza delivery. But when the news comes out about the wire tap, the pizza joint doesn’t go all hysterical about how their rights have been violated. They’re not worried; they know their conversations with the target were all about size, crust and toppings.
The fact that the WH and their surrogates have lit their hair on fire about the wire tap tells me that they know the tap got something incriminating against Trump.
celticdragonchick
@Barbara:
I had that feeling with my undergrad thesis. I stayed awake for nights trying to come up with something that wasn’t a rehash of other work, and then editing, re-editing ad infinitum.
West of the Rockies
@debit:
SHS is not homely… But she sometimes dresses like a 7 year old girl in 1963.
One eye appears slightly smaller that the other. The larger does not track quite perfectly. Her eyebrows seem to operate independently from each other. She frequently wears an angry, hangdog expression.
Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady)
@LAO: But…but…Giuliani says he paid Cohen back. He did that without knowing Cohen made the payment? How does that work?
Cacti
@trollhattan:
Nice of the Academy to finally decide that Roman Polanski raping a teenager wasn’t okay…
Five decades later.
LAO
@Steve in the ATL: Thanks (and I can’t stand Harvey myself).
raven
@Steve in the ATL: Jesus it’s bombs away isn’t it?
celticdragonchick
@trollhattan:
it took this long finally make Roman Polanski persona non grata in Hollywood.
celticdragonchick
@Cacti:
This.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/giuliani-says-trump-expected-him-to-break-the-news-about-stormy-daniels
The Rudy Death Watch timer has started! I give him two weeks.
LAO
You know, I think Trump should hold a press conference. I bet he could clear this whole thing up all by himself.
MattF
@LAO: HAHAHA. I bet.
Haydnseek
@raven I’ll see your Darkstar and raise you a St. Stephen! Both the Dead and Quicksilver on original vinyl……they make for a great late night double feature.
The Moar You Know
@trollhattan: She compared Cosby’s trial and conviction to what happened to Emmett Till. Which is about as monstrous as you can get.
Roger Moore
@LAO:
As I understand it, Mueller was appointed to his role as an ordinary public servant rather than a political appointee. That means he has legal protection against being fired arbitrarily. I’m not sure how much practical difference that makes, though. I don’t think those civil service protections guarantee he will stay in the same position, so it might be perfectly legal to reassign him to a different job and put a Trump crony in charge of the investigation.
raven
@Haydnseek: Except that all those seeds and stems fall out of the cover!
SiubhanDuinne
@Steve in the ATL:
Hey, I saw your question last night much too late to respond, but yes.
chopper
this is starting to come off like it was written by shonda rhimes.
lgerard
@Steve in the ATL:
Please refrain from rubbing it in so vigorously
Steve in the ATL
@raven: it’s been a while since we could enjoy baseball…this is nice!
@LAO: it’s only a sweep because Noah couldn’t pitch a complete game yesterday. I don’t think the Braves would have scored on him if he pitched both games of a doubleheader.
trollhattan
Holy fucking batshit, Batman! Can crazy set to 11 become even crazier?
The Moar You Know
@Cacti: Five decades after conviction and sentencing.
So who’s got a more vile membership? Trump Org or the Motion Pictures Academy? I truly can’t say.
raven
@HeleninEire: I had a committee member who would say “that’s nice but write this down. ‘THAT IS NOT MY DISSERTATION”!!!
Steve in the ATL
@SiubhanDuinne: i’ll be in the vicinity this evening. Your usual hours are approximately 6-7:30 pm?
raven
@chopper: Who’s he play for?
LAO
@lgerard: It’s May, we’ll see who celebrating come fall.
LAO
@Roger Moore: Thanks for the explanation. It makes more sense to me now.
Lapassionara
@JPL: Yes! This is good news for Michelle Wolf on so many levels. Jaw-dropping.
SiubhanDuinne
@Steve in the ATL:
Yes. It will be nice (ALLEGEDLY!!) to meet you.
Roger Moore
@Jeffro:
My pet theory is they believed Trump would have complete control over DOJ and thus would be able to shut down any investigation. That would be the road to easy street for them, because they’d be able to do whatever they wanted without repercussions.
West of the Rockies
@West of the Rockies:
I say that as someone whose own eyes don’t track (due to an injury when I was four: glass from a slingshot). Sadly, we still make lazy eye jokes in this society.
Anyway, perhaps if Sarah were kinder, one might find her appearance endearing, but she’s a mean girl all grown up.
rikyrah
@gvg:
Yep. He was on Morning Murderer. And, the MSM hasn’t been willing to pick it up.
Steve in the ATL
@lgerard: @LAO: I have no illusions about the quality of this Braves team, but it’s a pleasant change from the unwatchable garbage they were putting on the field the last couple of seasons.
Also, the Mets are by far my favorite NY baseball team!
terraformer
@bluehill:
Indeed. All along – and assuming that we’ll come out the other side of all this with a relatively intact country – the general buffoonery and ineptitude exhibited to date makes one wonder, what if these guys were marginally (or even supremely) competent?
Are we lucky that they’re like this? Is this giving us a chance to fix the holes and such, and make what had historically been “norms” into explicit rules, regulations, and/or laws? Before someone comes along who is both competent and evil?
raven
@West of the Rockies:
Sheeeetttttt.
rikyrah
@germy:
Man…if Roger Stone winds up in an orange jumpsuit……
Uncle Omar
@burnspbesq: “If Jimmy Breslin or Molly Ivins were still around…” Or Doghouse Riley or Hunter Thompson.
TenguPhule
@Roger Moore:
Trump is serving as the perfect teaching example by negation to the next American tyrant overlord crime boss.
Corner Stone
@SiubhanDuinne: Put on your (Mob Enforcer) hoodie before you leave the house.
lgerard
@Steve in the ATL:
I think the Barves look pretty good. They don’t have many holes, except 3rd base. I thought the pitcher making his first start on Friday was very impressive.
If they would only get rid of that stupid chop.
? Martin
@Roger Moore:
Exactly. He was a mobster long before he went to law school and saw the law degree as a way to be a better mobster. Credit to him for that as it’s correct.
@HeleninEire: We don’t know what’s going to happen either. Short term nothing good, long term probably quite a bit of good. I have a philosophy that has served me pretty well – if you’re struggling to solve a problem, you probably need to make it bigger in order to get people to prioritize a solution. Trump is the bigger problem about US governance. Looks like at least some (likely non-voters) are waking up to things.
Haydnseek
@raven: Ya know, that actually happened when I bought a very nice used copy of “The Live Adventures of Mike Bloomfield and Al Kooper” double gatefold two LP set to replace my party trashed one. I already had enough of those tiny popping seed burnholes on my T-shirts, so I disposed of that not-so-cosmic debris posthaste.
eclare
@debit: Sad pudding, I’m stealing that.
Mary G
@The Moar You Know: @Cacti: I saw a graph on Twitter that explains the delay with Roman Polanski. The percentage of the Academy that is female went from 5% to 40%.
Roger Moore
@Joyce H:
But we all know those are just codewords relating to child sex trafficking./pizzagate
rikyrah
@trollhattan:
DA PHUQ???
Lendowski?
raven
@Haydnseek: I got rid of all my vinyl a few years back,. I can’t fucking hear anyway so all that special sound is just something I read about. My ex worked at a record co-op back int he day so we had a pretty big collection. I was worried I would have had something really valuable so I had this local dude who knew his shit go through them. He made a three stacks, some, a little and nothing and most were the latter. I gave them to the local women’s crisis thrift store and I’d see the people who worked there and they said people LOVED gong through my stuff and there were a couple of double album incidents!
catclub
@Roger Moore:
well.. there was obviously no contract between Trump and Daniels, it is not as clear if there is a contract between a different person who is the
second pseudonym in the agreement and Daniels. Maybe Cohen can claim that was himself and hold her to that? I know it is non-sensical, but if I was a lawyer I would give it a shot.
raven
@Haydnseek: Oh you’ll love this. A week back I was shooting the shit with a guy at my neighborhood eatery and somehow he mentioned that Al “the Blind Owl” Wilson was his uncle ! He was really surprised I was such a Owl and Canned Heat fan!
Roger Moore
@terraformer:
Then we’d get a reprise of W. As far as I can tell, the biggest difference between the Bush II and Trump administrations is that Bush understood the norms of American government and was thus able to keep the corruption and undermining of democracy well enough hidden for the media to ignore. W was destroying our government slowly rather than going for the big bust-out, but he did enormous damage nonetheless.
catclub
@Roger Moore:
well, that would certainly match up with the ‘trump does not hire anyone smarter than himself’ model.
TenguPhule
@Joyce H:
Republican pizza joints calling to their congressman are dealing in child sex slaves, not pizza.
bluehill
@terraformer: Yep. Once this is over and there’s still a USA, I hope there’s enough consensus to shore up the institutions and rules to make it harder the next time. I don’t know what that would be, but seems like separation of powers and checks and balances maybe implicitly assumed that elected leaders were acting in good faith out of love of country. Now that that’s been proven false, seems like those need to be strengthened.
? Martin
BTW, Chris Hayes had a very revealing observation that Trump with the right possesses some kind of political antinomianism. Basically, he’s the savior of Christian Identity, someone who is sufficiently blessed by white Jesus that he need not abide by laws and morals. I hadn’t put that together in quite that way but I think he’s spot on. Don’t expect him to lose his base over any of this. Instead, we’re going to have to count on previous non-voters to jump in and fix this shit.
TenguPhule
@Roger Moore: They managed to get torture accepted and normalized.
I am totally willing to look the other way if Iraq ever does a snatch and grab of their wizened evil asses.
Haydnseek
@raven: Yeah, I can see why people were drooling over your collection. You obviously have excellent taste. Damn, I don’t indulge in substances anymore, but I wish we could get together, play some music, and just bullshit about what it was like back in the day. I try to stay in the moment, but there’s so much past that sometimes this is difficult. Oh well, don’t mind me. I’m going to feed the cats, make some lunch, and perhaps spin a few discs. Please be well. And with that, I’m out.
TenguPhule
@Roger Moore:
To be fair, Sessions has done a stellar job of turning the DOJ into the Ministry of Truth.
TenguPhule
Breaking at Wapo.
/Is that it? Did we get him?
Nicole
@raven: Yeah, it says Michelle Wolf is both smart and funny. Neither of which are terms anyone would ever associate with Sarah HS.
raven
@Haydnseek: I’ve been straight for 25 fucking years! I ran hard while I ran but it’s allover now. . . The most striking thing for me was my first sore concert, I was all “damn, this shit is good”! The only “recovery thing I ever did was at a Wharf Rats meeting a a Dead show.
Roger Moore
@catclub:
I don’t think that does any good. It means she can’t spill the beans about her torrid affair with Cohen, but she’s free to talk about Trump. That’s not what they want at all.
celticdragonchick
@? Martin:
That has been my read of what is happening in America, and also why we should realize that even when we get him out of office, Trump will still own the GOP. Period. Any Republican who runs for POTUS from now on will be a Trump acolyte.
My bet is that by 2020, at least one national level GOP candidate calls for the US to be a one party state and for the Democratic Party to be declared a threat to national security and its’ leaders investigated and jailed.
Roger Moore
@TenguPhule:
No, no. The role of MiniTru is played by Fox “News”. DOJ is playing MiniLuv.
TenguPhule
‘My whole life has been a lie’: Sweden admits meatballs are Turkish
The world has gone completely mad.
rikyrah
@celticdragonchick:
I don’t disagree with you, and so, it will make the sides all that more clear.
Mnemosyne
@oatler.:
Weekend remains the one movie I saw in film school that I walked out on. It was just so friggin’ tedious in its outrages.
Which makes the comparison to this administration spot-on.
rikyrah
@TenguPhule:
So, the Swedes did the Cultural Appropriation thing…
TenguPhule
@rikyrah: Yeah. Its always the quiet ones you least suspect.
dww44
@West of the Rockies: Great description. Hey eyebrows do work independently of each other and she does sport a permanent hangdog expression. I’ve noticed when she cracks a smile one side of her mouth is engaged more than the other. She actually seemed to smile more today than during other of her daily press briefings!
Mnemosyne
@debit:
She must be freshly Botoxed. That’s the only thing that causes a sudden forehead paralysis.
aimai
@The Other Chuck: Its “throw shit against the wall.” Throwing shit into the air is a doomed activity, since it falls down on the person throwing it more than it does on anyone else. Oh. Wait a minute. you are talking about Trump and Giuliani? You are right: he is throwing stuff in the air.
ruemara
@Mnemosyne: She’s in her mid 30s! Why are you botoxing so young? And yet she looks so old!
The Lodger
@lgerard: Barves? Is that the plural of Barf?
raven
@Mnemosyne: It’s her fucking swollen brain trying to get out!
Mnemosyne
@ruemara:
Not joking, actors and actresses start Botoxing around age 25, and it’s spread to other media figures. Why do you think they whine about Nancy Pelosi’s and Hillary Clinton’s (alleged) Botoxing?
It’s.
Always.
Projection.
Kilgore Trout
@LAO:
That was the most transparent lie he ever told – I laugh every time it gets replayed.
ruemara
@Mnemosyne: But I’m older than her! Just drink some water and take care of your skin. Her face looks frozen at the slackjawed gawker stage.
Bishop Bag
@raven: Oh my God!!! Scarlet Begonias/Fire On The Mountain at Barton Hall 5 8 77 and The Music Never Stopped Boston Garden 5 7 77 are just amazing moments for the Dead…. yeah, I know, Probably a dead thread…
raven
@Bishop Bag: Every thread is a Dead thread!
J R in WV
@Roger Moore:
Maybe I’m all confused, but I thought the whole point of a “burner phone” was that you made and received a couple of calls regarding illegal shenanigans,, and then destroy or otherwise eliminate any chance of that burner phone ever being linked to you or your co-conspirators???
Not the case??
Am I confused, or is Cohen? Not important if I’m confused, long prison sentence if Cohen is confused.
Barbara
@ruemara: It could be just that she has heavy jowls, but mostly I would guess that we associate a heavier or sagging face with age because that’s what happens to most people as they age. It has to do with collagen breaking down and no longer giving a firm underlayment to the face. In her case, it’s probably due to her weight. Also, based on the pictures of her at the state dinner, she looks younger and much better with her hair up. Long hair makes the face look heavier.
WaterGirl
@ruemara: It’s the ugliness that comes from inside her.
schrodingers_cat
@Barbara: Her state dinner hair and make up was good. Also those pearls that she wears make her look dowdy.
J R in WV
@LAO:
No, in this instance Goku is correct. as Roger explained, Mueller was hired as a regular civil service employee, so they can’t fire him without a specific cause. He has to break a rule, the law, or do something improper before they can fire him.
And prosecuting Trump isn’t at all improper in these circumstances.
Nikolita
Now taking bets on how many people tied to Trump will end up in jail by the time he’s impeached.
John Fremont
@Haydnseek: There are plenty in Denver as well. They hold the record of the most sold out shows at Red Rocks
Jeffro
@Roger Moore:
It’s a good theory. As with so many other aspects of the job, in so many other instances, he thought once he ‘won’, he was basically emperor and could proceed as he pleased. The law’s never really applied to him before, why should it now? (he thinks)
ruemara
@Barbara: Just looking her in the eyes makes her look older. Not the jowls.
Bill Arnold
@J R in WV:
This step is strictly necessary only if you’re under surveillance or expect that there is a significantly > 0 possibility of being searched. (Still a good idea though.) The more important thing is the abstraction – just use it once, or at most a few times close together and to the same party, then it is considered burned. Same with locations where it is turned on (battery installed first). Another twist is end to end voice-encrypting apps.
The guides out there are insufficiently paranoid IMO. This one is funny though:
Don’t Fuck It Up 6: OPSEC with Phones
(Family blog.)
Also https://www.fastcompany.com/3044637/secret-phone-network (has a few mistakes I think. Not one of those people but like to think about this stuff.)
Captain C
Perhaps not the exact right website for this, but here’s Widespread Panic singing Lawyers, Guns, and Money.
SRW1
@trollhattan:
Bringing in Lewandowski means White House going Defcon 2.
Darrin Ziliak (formerly glocksman)
@J R in WV:
If the phones were GSM and Cohen was using burner SIM cards in the same phones because he wanted to save a few bucks, he’s shit out of luck.
Swapping cards gets you a new number and IMSI, but the phone’s IMEI can still be targeted for lawful interception, making SIM swapping pointless.
These guys really aren’t that bright.
Jim Vandewalker
@GregB: I donut get this; the Trumpistas’ OWN STORY is that a porn star showed up with this story about hanky AND panky which was NOT TRUE, seriously, NO TRUTH AT ALL, but so Misha 10 Units gave her $130,000 because, uhh, reasons?
Corner Stone
@Jim Vandewalker: Mmmmm…donuts…porn…hanky panky…
Tenar Arha
@ John Cole
NBC issued a correction to this story.
ETA formatting & corrected @
Conehead
@Haydnseek:
Conehead
Impeccable taste you have !!!!
And let’s not leave out “The Fool”