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But frankly mr. cole, I’ll be happier when you get back to telling us to go fuck ourselves.

Authoritarian republicans are opposed to freedom for the rest of us.

Jack Smith: “Why did you start campaigning in the middle of my investigation?!”

White supremacy is terrorism.

Marge, god is saying you’re stupid.

The republican caucus is covering themselves with something, and it is not glory.

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I swear, each month of 2025 will have its own history degree.

“Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot.”

The real work of an opposition party is to oppose.

He wakes up lying, and he lies all day.

Republicans are radicals, not conservatives.

Republicans don’t lie to be believed, they lie to be repeated.

Oppose, oppose, oppose. do not congratulate. this is not business as usual.

You’re just a puppy masquerading as an old coot.

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Fight for a just cause, love your fellow man, live a good life.

There are some who say that there are too many strawmen arguments on this blog.

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Well, whatever it is, it’s better than being a Republican.

One way or another, he’s a liar.

You are here: Home / Politics / America / Breaking News: Michael Cohen to Plead Guilty at 4:00 PM EDT Today

Breaking News: Michael Cohen to Plead Guilty at 4:00 PM EDT Today

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According to the reporting, which is changing and updating as new details emerge, Cohen will plead guilty this afternoon to bank fraud, tax fraud, and campaign finance violations. The New York Times is reporting that this will be a straight guilty plea – there is no cooperation agreement at this time.

The Manafort jury is still out in Virginia, apparently they’re having trouble reaching a verdict on one of the multiple counts.

Judge Ellis has instructed them to continue deliberating.

And there is always a tweet!

https://twitter.com/MichaelCohen212/status/678410436774141956?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

Open thread.

 

Reader Interactions

250Comments

  3. 3.

    Mike in NC

    Upcoming tweet from Trump: “I never even met this person called Micheal Cohann! Fake news!!!”

  4. 4.

    MattF

    I do realize it’s pointless to ask what Hillary Clinton has to do with any of this… But it still irks me.

  6. 6.

    burnspbesq

    I can’t wait to hear Cohen describe the sources of his unreported income.

    This could be when the dominoes really start to fall.

  10. 10.

    lollipopguild

    @MattF: Projection. All of these people know how guilty they are so they have to find someone that they can blame as a way of taking attention away from themselves. Also “everybody is guilty”. Yeah I am bad but Bill and Hillary are just as bad or even worse.

  11. 11.

    jl

    I’d like to hear from any of the BJ legal flying wedge what it means that Cohen was allowed to enter into a plea deal without cooperating. Why would the prosecutor accept it? Does it mean maybe that the guilty pleas themselves provide the evidence that the prosecution needs? Or a failure and the prosecutor got whatever it could? Did Cohen do is ‘cooperation’ through the plea deal, so the statement that he is not cooperating doesn’t mean much.

    Hard to tell with Cohen, who is so unreliable that he seems more like Trump every day. The two deserved each other.

  16. 16.

    Frankensteinbeck

    What if we cannot come to a consensus for a single count?

    It wouldn’t make very much sense for Manafort’s jury to find him innocent on all other counts but be undecided on one. Not from the descriptions I’ve heard of the trial. I’m taking this as a good sign.

  18. 18.

    Gin & Tonic

    @TaMara (HFG):

    Does this mean he’s awaiting a Trump pardon in exchange for not cooperating?

    I’ve got a picture of Andrew Jackson in my pocket on “yes.”

  19. 19.

    TenguPhule

    @LAO:

    You know, it’s infrastructure week, again.

    Russian weasels chasing the BJ hamsters powering the site through a failing intertubes of pipes while Orange Julius the First melts down.

  21. 21.

    LAO

    @jl: It’s not a matter of “Cohen was allowed to plead guilty without cooperating” — most defendants’ plead guilty to avoid trial without becoming cooperators — that is an incredibly common outcome. For all we know, (1) Cohen is actively seeking a cooperation agreement or (2) the government rejected him as a cooperator because of his credibility problems or (3) he doesn’t want to cooperate.

    When some one becomes a cooperator, he/she doesn’t control the cooperation — you can pick and choose what you tell the government; you have an obligation to disclose every ounce of criminal conduct you committed and with whom you committed the criminal conduct.

  22. 22.

    Gemina13

    Welp. And Trump’s going to a rally tonight? Pass the popcorn. The batshit will be at maximum strength tonight.

  25. 25.

    Yutsano

    @jl: It’s also possible Lanny Davis got the discovery from the prosecution and laid it out for Cohen. Basically that he can go up the river the easy way or the hard way. It’s not totally unusual for that to happen especially when the defence is so weak.

  26. 26.

    Gin & Tonic

    @LAO:

    you can pick and choose what you tell

    Surely you mean “can’t”.

    And look, I didn’t even go to law school.

  27. 27.

    Hitlesswonder

    That’s pretty dispiriting – no cooperation and a probable pardon waiting in the wings and the governing 40% of Americans will accept the pardon as a legitimate response to a rigged witch hunt.

  28. 28.

    Alain the site fixer

    And I see my comment was eaten.
    Folks, we’re working on things. Sorry for the issues, hopefully we’ll get through this soon.

  30. 30.

    Mnemosyne

    @Roger Moore:

    I am likewise suspicious that the blog would suddenly come under bot attack on the day that the Manafort verdict is expected and Cohen pleads guilty. Just a little too convenient.

  31. 31.

    jl

    @LAO: Thanks. Is the requirement for total cooperation a matter of law, or at the discretion of the prosecutor? It if always has to be total cooperation, then I can see a problem for Cohen, who seems to have a huge amount of the stuff to totally cooperate about, much of including hie immediate family, which would put them in jeopardy.

    How much of the material seized in the raid on Cohen’s residence and work can be used for other cases, apart from his plea deal and/or without his cooperation?

  33. 33.

    TenguPhule

    Britain’s foreign secretary calls on Europe to be more like Trump in dealing with Russia
    Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt praised Trump’s approach and pressed for more sanctions against Russia.

    Via Wapo. Getting praised by Hunt, the UK’s version of Scott Pruitt (just healthcare instead of EPA) is one of those sure signs you’re in very shitty company.

  34. 34.

    MCA1

    @LAO: Agreed. Rumor has it the Special Counsel’s office told SDNY they didn’t need his cooperation, which could very well be true, given the orgy of evidence in his files and electronic devices. It’s possible the prosecutors here said “Look, you’re dead to rights here, and we have no use of you flipping because we’ve got it all already, so best to avoid the public shame of a trial where all your laundry’s aired and you can’t control sentencing.”

    Either way, MICHAEL COHEN IS PLEADING GUILTY TO (apparently MULTIPLE) FEDERAL CRIMES. He will likely be going to prison unless Dotard pardons him, handing the Democrats another 5-10 seats in Congress in a couple months.

    It’s schadenfreudalicious.

    Oh, and Yarrow: I think you need to change the mantra today. It’s not tick tock, it’s BOOM.

  37. 37.

    Alain the site fixer

    @Mnemosyne: It’s pretty nasty stuff, too. Our hosts are hard at work and they will succeed, eventually. Sorry it’s so bumpy, but I can’t imagine if I was hosting this myself – I’m thankful we’ve got a good, skilled hosting team behind the site!

  38. 38.

    smintheus

    Meanwhile, Flynn’s sentencing hearing has been delayed again for at least another month.

    “Due to the status of its investigation, the Special Counsel’s Office does not believe that this matter is ready to be scheduled for a sentencing hearing at this time,” read a joint status report released Tuesday.

    Tuesday’s delay is the fourth time prosecutors have asked to delay Flynn’s sentencing.

    And Donald Jr. is already being squeezed by Mueller, according to a source cited by Vanity Fair.

    Another theory for what’s motivating Trump’s increasingly unhinged tweets is that Mueller may be closing in on his son Don Jr. “A lot of what Trump is doing is based on the fact [that] Mueller is going after Don Jr.,” a person close to the Trump family told me. “They’re squeezing Don Jr. right now.”

    Don Jr.’s lawyer said, “I’m not going to comment.” Another person briefed on the investigation disputed the term “squeeze,” but said the Mueller team continues to ask for documents.

    It’s hard keeping track of one’s own lies, but even harder keeping track of all the lies of every other crook you associate with.

  39. 39.

    TenguPhule

    @Mnemosyne:

    I am likewise suspicious that the blog would suddenly come under bot attack on the day that the Manafort verdict is expected and Cohen pleads guilty. Just a little too convenient.

    Though it does seem like an awful lot of trouble to go after a blog which only has minor fundraising and voter awareness activities in the political arena.

    Maybe its one of our old trolls deciding to just be a pain in the ass with some easily available tools?

  40. 40.

    Mnemosyne

    IANAL, especially not a prosecutor, but it would make sense to me that Mueller and his team would roll up all of the little fish before they even try to prosecute the Giant Cheeto.

    Manafort and Cohen are little fish, relatively speaking. The Large Adult Children go next, IMO.

  41. 41.

    MCA1

    @burnspbesq: And it’ll be interesting to see whether there’s a direct naming or unnamed co-conspirator mentioned in the plea on campaign finance violations. ‘Cause everyone knows who that person is likely to be.

  42. 42.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Hitlesswonder:

    a probable pardon waiting in the wings

    I doubt it. Trump went from ‘my good friend’ to ‘that liar I barely know’ when Cohen got in trouble. Trump is a disloyal asshole famous for welshing on deals, and he hasn’t pardoned a single one of the people who know his secrets and whose fat he could have pulled out of the fire to protect himself. By pleading guilty without cooperation, Cohen has just removed any value he might have had to Trump, who is only interested in what you’re going to do for him tomorrow.

  47. 47.

    Roger Moore

    @jl:

    I’d like to hear from any of the BJ legal flying wedge what it means that Cohen was allowed to enter into a plea deal without cooperating.

    Prosecutors cut plea deals all the time without expecting the defendant to cooperate on something else. IIRC, more prosecutions result in guilty pleas than trials, and by a wide margin. As long as the prosecutor thinks the defendant will get an acceptable sentence, it’s considered a good outcome because it spares the effort and expense of a trial. IANAL, but my reading of them accepting a plea without an agreement to testify is that they think they’ve already gotten everything of value from Cohen they’re going to get. My guess is that his recordings of Trump are at least as good as any testimony would be.

  48. 48.

    LAO

    @Gin & Tonic: I did, indeed mean “can’t”

    @jl: It is always up to the prosecution — which is why proffering in the hopes of getting a cooperation agreement is risky. (Proffer = meeting with the government) Also, anything seized from Cohen can be used in other prosecutions.

  49. 49.

    Mnemosyne

    @TenguPhule:

    I don’t think it’s that hard to sic some bots onto a blog, or a series of blogs. The Russians were helping Republicans at the House level in 2016, so they seem willing to work pretty small.

  50. 50.

    Leto

    Author of Trump-Russia dossier wins libel case in US court

    TLDR:

    The former MI6 officer Christopher Steele has won a legal battle in the United States against three Russian oligarchs who sued him over allegations made in his famous dossier about the Trump campaign and its links with Moscow.

    “The ruling is a piece of good news for Steele, who has maintained silence in the face of a mountain of abuse from the president and his enraged supporters. Earlier this month, Trump called Steele a”lowlife” on Twitter and described the dossier as “phony”, discredited” and paid for by “Crooked Hillary”.

    He wrote: “The Steele dossier generated so much interest and attention in the US precisely because its contents relate to active public debates here.”

  51. 51.

    Chyron HR

    @Frankensteinbeck:

    Trump is a disloyal asshole famous for welshing on deals

    Well, actually, the phrase is “welching on deals”, a reference to Fleetwood Mac cheating Bob Welch out of his royalties.

    (P.S. This is a lie.)

  52. 52.

    Doug R

    @TaMara (HFG): Yeah, that’s my take.
    He’s taking a deal to get a shorter sentence, hoping trump pardons him in the next year or two. He can always flip for real if trump forgets about him.

  53. 53.

    smintheus

    Melania strikes me as a hard-boiled, film noir type “dame”. I wonder if it has ever occurred to her – assuming she thinks her sugar daddy has a fortune worth inheriting – that there could be a bigger share of the estate left for Barron if some or all of his half-siblings ended up having to cut deals with Mueller to testify against her husband?

  55. 55.

    randy khan

    @jl:

    I’d like to hear from any of the BJ legal flying wedge what it means that Cohen was allowed to enter into a plea deal without cooperating. Why would the prosecutor accept it?

    I think this is clear from other comments, but in case it’s not, the prosecution has no say in how a defendant pleads. If you want to admit you’re guilty, you can admit you’re guilty. The judge generally will ask a defendant some questions to make sure the plea is voluntary, and generally the defendant is required to say specifically what he or she did, but the prosecution can’t object. It’s actually more or less what you used to see occasionally on Law and Order.

  56. 56.

    satby

    @Mnemosyne: higher profile blogs that have also been on the Russian interference chorus aren’t having any apparent problems.
    That said, I don’t doubt that people are working hard. The server guys in my company worked like dogs the day someone applied unscheduled patches to one server and basically took the entire country of Italy offline on one of our accounts.

  62. 62.

    smintheus

    @Chyron HR: Is that a tongue-in-cheek derivation? The term of abuse is the English (UK) equivalent of ‘gyp’. Southern residents of England enjoy mocking the Welsh for various qualities that none of the Welsh I’ve known have ever exhibited – generally, the stereotype that they’re nasty, mean, and unreliable.

  63. 63.

    Yarrow

    @Mnemosyne:

    IANAL, especially not a prosecutor, but it would make sense to me that Mueller and his team would roll up all of the little fish before they even try to prosecute the Giant Cheeto.

    Manafort and Cohen are little fish, relatively speaking. The Large Adult Children go next, IMO.

    You are exactly right. It’s how the mob is rolled up and the Trump crime family is mob. It’s going to be one of the kids next or possibly Jared.

  65. 65.

    MattF

    @smintheus: I think Melania intends to survive the next few years. And I think she will, which is more than you can say for most people who are within Trump’s sphere of influence.

  66. 66.

    PaulWartenberg

    serious question:

    so many of the people who helped trump’s 2016 campaign lie and cheat his way into the White House are going to jail right now.

    WHO is going to be left to run his 2020 campaign? WHO would WANT to, when the career result is a JAIL CELL?

  70. 70.

    TenguPhule

    @A Ghost To Most:

    Are other similar blogs being botted?

    Not that I can see. Site performance for the linked blogrolls seem to be normal. Nobody making any announcements either. Seems to be just us that are unfortunate today. And Baud knows we have attracted our fair share of nuts and dolts over the years who have had anger management issues against POC and people of insufficient philisophical purity.

  72. 72.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @smintheus:
    And ‘gyp’ of course is an ethnic slur of the Romani. I was hoping that the Welsh at least are long past being the victims of systemic racism, and I wouldn’t have to worry about it. And of course the only other term I can think of with just that shade of meaning is ‘Jew’, which is even worse. ‘Renege!’ I’ll make a note to use ‘renege.’ That covers it.

  76. 76.

    eemom

    Even if the orange shitsack were to pardon Cohen, all that evidence that’s been gathered in the case would still be available to Mueller, right? IAAL though not a criminal one, but that does seem right to me.

  77. 77.

    Yarrow

    @PaulWartenberg: Brad Parscale is his already-appointed campaign manager for 2020. Of course Parscale’s guilty from the 2016 campaign so he may not be available long.

  78. 78.

    Anne Laurie

  79. 79.

    randy khan

    Josh Marshall is saying that he’s got sources who believe that the plea is something like a prelude to cooperation – he’s going to talk and that will affect the sentencing recommendations. That makes more sense to me than a straight guilty-plea-send-me-to-jail scenario.

  81. 81.

    Doug R

    On the topic of bots, maybe #BeBest is a misspelling of beep boop beep boop which we all know is our robot overlords “secret” way of talking to each other.
    I don’t care. Do U? Sounds like a decision tree dead end. Gotta release the program sometime, just gotta wait on the patch.

  82. 82.

    burnspbesq

    NYT is reporting that the charges relate to payments of hush money to Clifford and McDougal.

  83. 83.

    TenguPhule

    @Cheryl Rofer:

    I am hoping that our Blogfather will attend and report, but realistically not expecting it.

    All evidence to the contrary aside, John Cole is not a habitual masochist.

  86. 86.

    Corner Stone

    @satby:

    The server guys in my company worked like dogs the day someone applied unscheduled patches to one server and basically took the entire country of Italy offline on one of our accounts.

    “I don’t feel like waiting until the security team signs off on this. It’s just a printer driver patch.”
    *Millions of voices screaming out in unison*
    “NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!”

  87. 87.

    Calouste

    @TenguPhule: Keep in mind that Jeremy Hunt was the second choice for May after Boris fucking Johnson. There’s not even a barrel left to scrape for the Tories. They’re so lucky that the Wilmer clone is leading Labour, otherwise they would be polling below 30%.

  88. 88.

    JPL

    Just in case anyone missed my previous comment, there is another note from the Manafort jury.

  91. 91.

    Mike in NC

    @Yarrow: By Friday we can expect to read that Donnie the Lesser and brother Eric are flying to central Africa for an indefinite period of time. They will be there to indulge in their favorite activity: slaughtering endangered mammal species

  92. 92.

    randy khan

    There’s another note to the judge in the Manafort trial. No word on what it says yet.

    In the movie, the cross-cuts for today’s events will be amazing.

  93. 93.

    Tim C.

    Some possible Cohen scenarios, going from what I believe are the less-desired outcomes to the most.

    1) He’s pleading guilty to all the crimes associated with his actions in the belief he will get a pardon.

    2) Hes pleading guilty to all the crimes associated with his actions and expecting a maximum sentence but has decided to stay loyal (for now) and not testify to other people’s guilt.

    2a) Same as 2, but he’s staying quiet to avoid being killed by others (rhymes with Butin)

    3) This is prelude to a deal, they just haven’t announced all the details and/or he doesn’t get any consideration until after his provided information is found to be useful and relevant to other investigations (most likely to me)

  99. 99.

    TenguPhule

    @Calouste:

    They’re so lucky that the Wilmer clone is leading Labour, otherwise they would be polling below 30%.

    The other Jeremy is no Sanders. Remember, he’s beaten all of the other nominees who ran against him because when it came time to fish or cut bait, he brought out the pole and cast the reel in defiance of the Labour Whip.

    He’s got a shitty media environment and his party’s infighting makes ours look positively civil. He’s not a saint, but don’t label him as a crook.

  100. 100.

    TenguPhule

    @Mike in NC:

    By Friday we can expect to read that Donnie the Lesser and brother Eric are flying to central Africa for an indefinite period of time. They will be there to indulge in their favorite activity: slaughtering endangered mammal species

    And sometimes the lions win.

  101. 101.

    MisterForkbeard

    @Tim C.: Josh Marshall/TPM is saying his most likely scenario after hearing from lawyers is that Cohen doesn’t get a deal because there’s no reason to give him on. The case on him is so slam-dunk that there’s not much point in going to trial, and his sentencing will be bad enough that he has every incentive to co-operate to get a better sentence… but that the prosecution doesn’t need to guarantee anything. Therefore, no “cooperation” deal, but Cohen is definitely cooperating in the technical sense because that’s the only thing he can do to help himself.

  102. 102.

    Wapiti

    @Yarrow: Broidy, and perhaps Wynn, may be before the kids. I’ve no idea what they might have on Wynn, but if 2 of 3 of the RNC deputy finance chairment are crooked, I’d bet the third might be.

  117. 117.

    trnc

    @Roger Moore: I’m sure that any of the several possible reasons for a non-cooperation deal already bandied about are plausible, but I can’t help but wonder if there is ever a cooperation deal where the prosecutor agrees to hide the cooperation due to a defendant having a giant bullseye on his back.

  120. 120.

    smintheus

    @Frankensteinbeck: My experience with English attitudes dates back to the late ’80s, when it was mostly middle aged and older voters who would sneer at the Welsh … and ‘Pakis’. The English (mostly wealthier) undergrads I knew at the time at Oxford didn’t seem to be racist in that way, so I’d hope the anti-Welsh bias is less pronounced now. The leader of the Labour Party at the time was from Wales, but even he was stereotyped by Tories.

  123. 123.

    Cheryl Rofer

    For Cohen

  124. 124.

    Mnemosyne

    @Yarrow:

    Hmm. “Couldn’t reach a consensus” is not the same as “not guilty,” so that seems like a small plus.

  128. 128.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Tim C.:

    1) He’s pleading guilty to all the crimes associated with his actions in the belief he will get a pardon.

    While I frequently argue the unlikelihood of Trump pardoning anyone outside his immediate family – and maybe not them – I can’t deny his lackies are dumb enough they might expect one.

  129. 129.

    JPL

    Trump might have his rally cry. The feds are holding a possible illegal immigrant in the murder of Mollie Tibbetts.

  134. 134.

    cain

    @JPL:

    @Mnemosyne: I can’t wait until he says Don Jr. I hardly know him, but he’s a nice boy.

    “We’ve always had a distant relationship. We’ve hardly even interacted all that much over the years.”

  137. 137.

    burnspbesq

    @zhena gogolia:

    Hard to say. Overall, I didn’t think the evidence on the bank fraud charges was all that great. It’s better on tax evasion and overwhelming on willful failure to file FBARs.

  140. 140.

    TenguPhule

    @JPL:

    The feds are holding a possible illegal immigrant in the murder of Mollie Tibbetts.

    Possible suspect. Not that Trump will care about the niceities.

    Central Park V: Part II.

  142. 142.

    Mnemosyne

    Interesting — I just got an email from Joann.com (yes, the craft store) asking me to sign their petition against the Trump tariffs without ever using his name.

    If Republicans think they can fuck with knitters, they’ve got another think coming up real fast.

  145. 145.

    Cheryl Rofer

    And a little more news…

  146. 146.

    randy khan

    @Yarrow:

    Manafort guilty on eight counts!

    You’re faster than CNN online, which was only up to one guilty verdict a few moments ago.

    The tax charges were the easiest ones in a lot of respects, so I guess I don’t find it surprising that they convicted him on them.

  149. 149.

    Cheryl Rofer

    This seems to be real.

  151. 151.

    Corner Stone

    Chris Matthews
    ‏Verified account @HardballChris

    Omarosa says she has video tapes. She’s going to bring one to #Hardball tonight at 7.

    …I’m sorry. Motherfucker says what?!

  152. 152.

    Yarrow

    @randy khan: Saw it on TV!

    Goddamn motherfucking traitor! He’s going down. I don’t care if it’s for tax fraud or whatever else the charge is. This is just the first trial. Another one is happening soon. He’s going to die in prison. Tick tock, Trump crime family. Your time is coming.

  156. 156.

    janesays

    @JPL: He wasn’t acquitted on any charge, but there was a hung jury on 10 counts. If Mueller wants to retry on the remaining charges, he is free to do so.

  159. 159.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    It’s 4:44 pm. Did Cohen enter his plea of “Incredibly Guilty” yet? Do we have any news? The endless speculation about Cohen and Manafort is tiring me out a little.

  160. 160.

    Chyron HR

    @Cheryl Rofer:

    The jury unanimously found him guilty of bank fraud, but they’re not sure he conspired to commit said fraud? Could he have been sleeping walking? Or was he on Ambien at the time?

  162. 162.

    Adam L Silverman

    @TenguPhule: How about an overt, long term anti-Semite? Because that’s what the reporting seems to be indicating. He’s royally pissed of the Jewish community in Britain.

    ETA: And I don’t mean he has issues with Israel, the Israeli government, the behavior of the Israeli government, Israeli attitudes towards the Palestinians. Those aren’t, in and of themselves, indicators of anti-Semitism. I have issues with all of those and I’m definitely sure I’m not a self hating Jew/self directed anti-Semite. What I mean is he seems to have a long history of making insensitive comments regarding Judaism and Jews and being unable to recognize that there is a difference between opposing what Israel is doing as a country and separating that from both Jews and Judaism, which, despite Netanyahu’s attempts to conflate them, are not all the same thing.

  164. 164.

    Yarrow

    The day keeps getting better for the president.*COHEN SAYS HE VIOLATED CAMPAIGN LAW AT DIRECTION OF CANDIDATE— Alex Wayne (@aawayne) August 21, 2018

    Alex Wayne

    @aawayne
    *COHEN SAYS HE ACTED FOR PURPOSE OF INFLUENCING ELECTION

    Tick tock, motherfucker!

  167. 167.

    Mike in NC

    Trump will be on the phone tonight, asking SecDef Mattis about the disposition of our Carrier Strike Groups. Needs to find a small helpless country to bomb in order to change the news cycle.

  174. 174.

    Cheryl Rofer

    Bracing for incoming tweets

  175. 175.

    dmsilev

    @Mike in NC: I thought ‘withdraw security clearance from random ex-CIA person who criticized him’ was Trump’s current distraction technique. Or is that so last week now?

  178. 178.

    MCA1

    Holy Motherforking Forkballs, Cohen just admitted he was repaid by Dotard, and acted to influence the election and violated campaign law at the direction of Drumpf. Boom goes the dynamite.

  180. 180.

    Fair Economist

    @Chyron HR: Offhand I’d guess there’s a juror who is a stickler about “proof”. Probably watches too much TV law – I’ve heard complaints about jurors expecting more compelling and concrete evidence than is usually necessary or available because CSI: Peoria or whatever always comes up with it.

  185. 185.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Breaking Fake News: Melania running around the residence putting all the TeeVees on MSNBC and giggling maniacally

    Rampant Irresponsible Speculation: That missing $20-odd million of inauguration money that went to a friend of her (an interior designer?) was the pay-off for her to not file already drafted divorce papers, and Cohen helped with that laundry.

  186. 186.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Yarrow: It means it was a very technical, data/evidence driven case that broke into three separate, but somewhat overlapping areas over 18 charges. It means that on 8 out of 18 of these charges the jury was able to come to agreement, but on 10 others there are one or more holdouts. Most likely because someone doesn’t understand a technical details and when the jury asked the judge for access to the evidence, the judge told them to use their memories.

  190. 190.

    Anonymous At Work

    @Mnemosyne: Manafort holds the keys to the kingdom. He knows all the players and probably helped to coordinate them. He was also the driving force behind the sole Trump-requested change to GOP platform: weakening support for Russia’s annexation of Crimea. He was behind the change, in some way, and knows why that was the only change Trump requested.

  196. 196.

    Caring and sensitive

    I usually lurk, but wanted to jump in to say how delighted I am with today’s developments

  199. 199.

    TenguPhule

    @Adam L Silverman:

    Because that’s what the reporting seems to be indicating. He’s royally pissed of the Jewish community in Britain.

    Really biased media environment. I’m talking beyond FTNYT Hillary EMAILZ! bad. Take any accusations of his alleged anti-semitism with a HUGE grain of salt. The current “scandal” in Labour boils down to an argument over how strongly Labour condemns anti-semitism due to some members of the party disagreeing on the parts related to Israel. Meanwhile, the Conservatives get a free pass on every dogwhistle and fuckup that’s exploded on their watch.

    Sound familiar?

  204. 204.

    Cermet

    This IS a big deal as per the Post:

    The Post is reporting that Cohen will plead guilty not just to the obviously troubling charges of bank and tax fraud, but also to a campaign finance violation stemming from hush money payments. That means that, for the first time, a Trump aide has been found guilty of an offense directly related to the campaign.

    So by saying he is guilty of campaign finance law, he has directly involved the orange fart cloud.

  206. 206.

    JPL

    There’s just too much news today. Can’t we save some for Friday, or is it possible they are.

  207. 207.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    I’m trying to catch up and lost the edit button: “Mistrial” means “hung jury” in this case?

  208. 208.

    TenguPhule

    @MCA1:

    Cohen just admitted he was repaid by Dotard, and acted to influence the election and violated campaign law at the direction of Drumpf.

    And how many divisions does the court command?

    /DOJ is not going to prosecute while Sessions rules there and Congress is neutered until a regime change takes place.

  209. 209.

    burnspbesq

    @LAO:

    And convictions or guilty pleas on tax evasion and willful failure to file FBARs have collateral estoppel effect in subsequent civil proceedings, where the big monetary penalties get imposed.

  211. 211.

    Barbara

    @Cheryl Rofer: Looking at that run down I would say that the jury had issues on those counts where Rick Gates acted directly but the evidence that he was doing so on behalf of Manafort was not strong enough; as well as, potentially, those counts where he was (in my view) conspiring with the head cheese of the bank — one might say that while Manafort knew he was supplying false information, he had no duty to the bank, and the bank employee’s conduct essentially made Manafort’s lies immaterial to whether or not he got a loan.

    So the defense strategy was not totally lacking, it just didn’t apply to every transaction.

  212. 212.

    TenguPhule

    @Mike in NC:

    Needs to find a small helpless country to bomb in order to change the news cycle.

    Failing that, he’ll attack Iran and North Korea at the same time.

  213. 213.

    zhena gogolia

    @Corner Stone:

    Avenatti: The developments of today will permit us to have the stay lifted in the civil case & should also permit us to proceed with an expedited deposition of Trump under oath about what he knew, when he knew it, and what he did about it. We will disclose it all to the public.

  214. 214.

    James E Powell

    @burnspbesq:

    Well, someone could ask the jurors. It’s not like they’re sworn to secrecy. I always tried to speak with jurors, win or lose, to get a sense of what they thought was important.

  218. 218.

    Jeffro

    @PaulWartenberg:

    serious question:

    so many of the people who helped trump’s 2016 campaign lie and cheat his way into the White House are going to jail right now.

    WHO is going to be left to run his 2020 campaign? WHO would WANT to, when the career result is a JAIL CELL?

    Serious answer: there will not be a Trumpov 2020 campaign. I’d (almost) bet my life on it.

  219. 219.

    smintheus

    @Adam L Silverman: All the more reason to retry Manafort on the remaining 10 charges…particularly since they should get a less obnoxious judge the second time around.

  220. 220.

    sdhays

    @Adam L Silverman:

    when the jury asked the judge for access to the evidence, the judge told them to use their memories.

    I missed that. Why on earth would that be the case? What’s the point of evidence if it just gets flashed in front of the jury instead of being something they can examine?

  221. 221.

    Anonymous At Work

    @Corner Stone: Best client-advocate model I can point to. Has developed more real estate inside Trump’s mind than Trump ever developed in the real world.

  222. 222.

    TenguPhule

    @Adam L Silverman:

    What I mean is he seems to have a long history of making insensitive comments regarding Judaism and Jews and being unable to recognize that there is a difference between opposing what Israel is doing as a country and separating that from both Jews and Judaism,

    You’d need to point me at direct quotes because like I said, the media coverage of him is beyond awful. I mean he was literally accused of not caring about the UK’s Rememberance Day despite attending the ceremony and staying to talk to the actual veterans there afterwards. There was a media scandal about his *TIE*, I shit you not.

  223. 223.

    HRA

    I am very glad for the verdict and the addition of the Cohen plea. {insert Yarrow famous words]
    A message to Alain: I need to change my old email address to my new email address. I tried and it would not take. Any advice will be very appreciated. Thank you in advance. PS Please respond to me on BJ,

  224. 224.

    Anonymous At Work

    @James E Powell: Suspicion is that the hung jurors on the bank fraud charges had an issue with the banks both knowing the applications were fraudulent AND granted Manafort the loans in hopes of political kickbacks. That’s not the worst reason to disagree and was the defense’s primary theory on those charges.

  225. 225.

    MCA1

    @TenguPhule: I’m not saying we live in a timeline in which this directly leads to the sort of actions that would immediately occur in a normal world. It’s nonetheless shocking to see happening in real time. A convicted felon just fingered the sitting POTUS as his co-conspirator in committing federal crimes.

  228. 228.

    Mary G

    Wow, what a day! The tweets tomorrow will be off the charts. I feel massively relieved about the election. The corruption of Jack Abramoff and crew helped get Nancy SMASH the gavel in 2006 and I am beyond excited imagining her snatching it out of Paul Ryan’s grasp.

  229. 229.

    burnspbesq

    @Cermet:

    It’s even better. In his allocation, Cohen said he acted AT THE DIRECTION OF a candidate for Federal office.

    Give that a minute to fully sink in.

  230. 230.

    Adam L Silverman

    @TenguPhule: Actually the problem is laying a wreath at the memorial to several Fatah terrorists combined with a long history of making either overtly anti-Semitic statements or statements that are insensitive regarding Jews. This can’t be handwaved away. It can’t be sugar coated. And it can’t be blamed on the British press.

  232. 232.

    HeleninEire

    It was so funny. My Dad texted me and said “Happy Birthday to me, [his birthday is tomorrow] go look at the news” So I text back “OMG Cohen is pleading guilty” and he texts back “WHAT? I was talking about Manafort” So they both happened at almost the same time. So double Happy Birthday 84th birthday to Dad!! ?

  234. 234.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Adam L Silverman: His statement that he was surprised by the attention the trial generated, that was too cute by half, and a couple more halves. If you want to strike a pose of supercilious aloofness to a world you pretend to be detached from, go to Starbucks and say in a loud voice to whomever you’re with, “Well, I wouldn’t know, I don’t own a television” after pretending you’re confused by the menu, don’t fuck up an important trial with massive political and national security implications.

  236. 236.

    Mary G

    Just saw the front page of the Fridge Report on Twitter:

    TRUMP HELL DAY

    In big red letters.

  237. 237.

    TenguPhule

    @Adam L Silverman:

    Actually the problem is laying a wreath at the memorial to several Fatah terrorists combined with a long history of making either overtly anti-Semitic statements or statements that are insensitive regarding Jews.

    There were two wreath laying ceremonies at the site. One of them was not for the terrorists. Benjamin Netanyahu made the initial accusation against Corbyn. Make of that what you will.

    with a long history of making either overtly anti-Semitic statements or statements that are insensitive regarding Jews.

    Again, you have to point we to the quotes were he’s making them. Everything else I’ve read shows he’s consistently been a pacifist and made a point of condemning the violence, “both siding it” a bit too much for my taste but he’s been true to his values, which I can respect.

    Sorry, Adam, I think this is one of your few blind spots. You’ve implied a lot about Corbyn but I don’t think reasoned analysis supports your view of him.

  239. 239.

    smintheus

    Republicans impeached Bill Clinton for lying under oath to conceal an affair. Will they impeach Donald Trump for ordering his lawyer to break the law repeatedly to conceal multiple affairs?

  240. 240.

    TenguPhule

    @smintheus:

    Republicans impeached Bill Clinton for lying under oath to conceal an affair. Will they impeach Donald Trump for ordering his lawyer to break the law repeatedly to conceal multiple affairs?

    No.

  242. 242.

    Robert Sneddon

    @Adam L Silverman: The wreath Jeremy Corbyn laid was at the memorial to the victims of a 1985 bombing attack on a PLO office in Tunisia carried out by the Israeli government which killed a bunch of people, Tunisians as well as Palestinians and which was widely condemned at the time by various governments including the US and the US (Security Council resolution 573). The memorial happens to be in a cemetery near the tombs of other Palestinians, including some Fatah operatives. Right-wingers and the Israeli government have used the photo of Corbyn laying that wreath to make out he was memorialising the Fatah operatives but like a lot of the Israeli government’s propaganda it’s an out and out lie. A lot of people have fallen for it though.

  244. 244.

    cain

    @JPL:

    Just in case anyone missed my previous comment, there is another note from the Manafort jury.

    What is this? The Tale of Genji? They pass more notes that the medieval Japanese aristocracy.

  247. 247.

    TenguPhule

    @eemom:

    What do you mean by “blind spot”?

    Adam doesn’t usually get it wrong, but when he does, its a doozy.

  249. 249.

    Robert Sneddon

    @Adam L Silverman:You might want to read that URL, you might notice the word “not” in there. You’ve been lied to by the Israeli government (which carried out the bombing in Tunisia, killing several of their citizens and got condemned by the UN Security Council for their actions).

  250. 250.

    SWMBO

    @Mnemosyne: I got the same email. It’s interesting that they are signaling that the tariffs will make it more expensive to craft and there is nothing else they can do. The fact they are calling for help and are organizing opposition to the tariffs says a lot.

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