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You are here: Home / Politics / Trumpery / Dolt 45 / Pecker Grabs Prick By the Pussy

Pecker Grabs Prick By the Pussy

by | 163 Comments

This post is in: ,

True loyalty, like respect, is earned and no one should be forced to be loyal to a crime boss:

As Robert Mueller’s siege closes in on Donald Trump, the president has been left to wonder which of his staff and closest allies will, after all, stay loyal. On Tuesday, Michael Cohen completed his operatic turn against his former boss when he stood in federal court and pleaded guilty to eight felonies that included making hush-money payments at Trump’s direction to women Trump allegedly had sex with. The admission effectively made Trump an unindicted co-conspirator in a federal crime.

Cohen’s stunning admission came just days after The New York Times reported that White House counsel Don McGahn provided 30 hours of testimony to Mueller’s investigators. McGahn’s extensive cooperation with Mueller rattled the West Wing to the core at a time when aides were struggling to contain the fallout from former Apprentice star Omarosa Manigault Newman’s scathing White House memoir.

And now Trump’s most powerful media ally next to Fox News has broken with him. According to two sources briefed on the Cohen investigation, prosecutors granted immunity to David Pecker, chairman of The National Enquirer publisher American Media Inc., and A.M.I.’s chief content officer, Dylan Howard, so they would describe Trump’s involvement in Cohen’s payments to porn star Stormy Daniels and Playboy Playmate Karen McDougal during the 2016 campaign. The Wall Street Journal first reported Pecker’s cooperation on Wednesday night. (Pecker and Howard did not respond to multiple requests for comment. A spokesperson for the Southern District of New York declined to comment.)

Delicious. With a name like that Trump should have realized he was going to get fucked.

Reader Interactions

163Comments

  4. 4.

    Calouste

    I think the shitgibbon could have gotten away with issuing blanket pardons for everyone involved from the very beginning, for the minor players like Papadopoulos and van der Zwaan, and that people like Cohen and Pecker wouldn’t have turned.

    But as it is clear that you can’t expect anything from the shitgibbon, even to his henchmen who had their heads up their asses, everyone is going to look out for number one.

  5. 5.

    Martin

    I am taking particular joy from the prospect of Walt, Larry and Igner getting hauled in by the NY AG, with no prospect for daddy to pardon them. I have no expectation that Trump will go to prison, but Ivanka in an orange jumpsuit would break him, and I’ll settle for that.

  6. 6.

    MisterForkbeard

    Delicious. With a name like that Trump should have realized he was going to get fucked.

    Cole, was this supposed to be outside of the blockquotes?

    @Calouste: Agreed, I think Trump and the Republicans would have stood for that, especially in the beginning of his administration when the media was still refusing to call Trump a liar or admit Russian interference. It would have been a rough 3 days until the next Trump Scandal blew it off the radar, but worth it in the long run.

  7. 7.

    MisterForkbeard

    @Martin: Eh. Trump is no “Mom”, though. She’s ruthlessly and evilly competent. Also not convinced he actually cares that much about Ivanka except in the “She’s hot AND a great ornament!” sense.

  8. 8.

    Millard Filmore

    prosecutors granted immunity to David Pecker, chairman of The National Enquirer publisher American Media Inc., and A.M.I.’s chief content officer, Dylan Howard

    Don’t the prosecutors already have all the information related to Cohen? I don’t see the advantage of immunity for stale information … so what ELSE will they spill?

  9. 9.

    MisterForkbeard

    @Millard Filmore: There’s value in confirmation of Cohen’s testimony, is the thing. He’s (rightly) looked at as uncredible, and anything that isn’t directly backed up by recordings or other evidence (like Trump’s signature or a mail to Cohen) would benefit significantly from corroboration. Especially from outlets known to be very Trump-friendly.

  10. 10.

    jl

    @Calouste: Well, Trump could have been a successful president, and probably even get his approval ratings above 50 percent, if he had even thought of doing a lick of actual work, and keeping some of his more populist campaign promises. For example if he had paid attention to what GOP was doing with the tax heist bill, and forced them to throw a few large bread crumbs to middle and working class, the prospects of getting the current expansion though 2020 might have been pretty good. Then, I think your plan might have had a good chance. It would have been a sugar high, but that realization could have been postponed with careful policy.

    But, it’s Trump. I think even Trump had a dim sense that he had to change his behavior to boost his popularity after the election. Hence his repeated promises to be ‘more presidential’ and assurances that a lot of his schtick was just to get the GOP nomination. But that was a swindle too, either consciously or unconsciously. Trump bragged that he could (paraphrase) ‘be whatever he wanted to be very easily’, but, unlike some other presidents, that is completely beyond him.

  11. 11.

    pk

    Was Omarosa just last week? It seems a million years ago.
    I’m sure Trump has probably made deals with Sean Hannity as well. Some sort of payment (shady real estate deals?) for favorable coverage. Otherwise it makes no sense for Hannity to be involved with Cohen.

  12. 12.

    trollhattan

    In which I must now praise Steven Tyler.

    Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler has sent yet another cease-and-desist letter to President Donald Trump, this time for use of the band’s 1993 hit “Livin’ on the Edge” without the songwriter’s written consent.

    Tyler’s legal team sent the request to Trump following the use of the song at a rally held at West Virginia’s Charleston Civic Center on Tuesday night. The president spoke about topics such as immigration, trade and Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation at the event.
    The letter, obtained by Variety, cited Section 43 of the Lanham Act in making the argument that “without our client’s permission, Mr. Trump is falsely implying that our client, once again, endorses his campaign and/or his presidency, as evidenced by actual confusion seen from the reactions of our client’s fans all over social media.”

  14. 14.

    Mike in NC

    Will probably finish up reading “Everything Trump Touches Dies” this afternoon. At the end of the day, Rick Wilson will still be a right-wing asshole, but I do enjoy the brutal treatment he gives to each and every slimy creature on Team Trump.

  15. 15.

    Calouste

    @pk: Don’t worry, Omarosa will be back. She’s probably negotiating with Mueller which tapes they want as evidence and which tapes she can use to get back on TV.

  16. 16.

    Bill Arnold

    Have to admit some surprise at this one. Thought Pecker was irrationally loyal. When were the first public hints that he had turned?

    Since The Onion is trying to keep up and surprisingly, often succeeding, here’s one of a few entries from today:
    Sen. Hatch Says Trump Allegations Not Serious Enough That Scales Should Fall From Eyes Revealing What Madness We Have Begotten

    WASHINGTON—In the wake of Paul Manafort’s conviction and Michael Cohen’s guilty plea, Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) told reporters Thursday that the mounting allegations against President Trump are not yet serious enough to make the scales fall from the eyes of Republicans and allow them to behold the sheer shrieking madness they have begotten. “Simply put, there is at present insufficient evidence against the Trump administration to justify the tearing of blindfolds from Republican eyes at this point, and therefore, we remain safe from gazing in horror at the maelstrom of sheer insanity that we ourselves have loosed upon the world,” said Hatch, claiming it would be woefully premature for Congress to commit themselves to any course of action in which they might glimpse the unveiled face of the ravening madness vomited into existence by them and them alone.

  17. 17.

    Millard Filmore

    @MisterForkbeard: Right, that I understand. My assumption is that Cohen’s records and recordings is better evidence than a backup witness. IANAL but if that is all they want from Pecker, they gave away immunity much too cheaply.

  20. 20.

    BlueDWarrior

    @Bill Arnold: As much as I love the snark, there is a lot of truth to that. A lot of Republican office-holders and voters have basically gone into full blown denial and are trying to pretend they aren’t living in the world we are actually living in.

    The problem for the office holders is that they have to constantly interact with reality, and eventually have to bend to it. The voters can sequester themselves in a bubble for the rest of their lucid days if they really wanted to.

  21. 21.

    Mary G

    I’m wondering if there aren’t multiple women going back years that got paid off through Cohen and Pecker, It’s not Russiagate, but he’d look bad.

  24. 24.

    sukabi

    @Calouste: she’s probably got quite the database set up… catalogued by date, media type, persons involved and subject. She’ll be back with an appropriately enticing clip, she’s not done with the spotlight by any means.

  25. 25.

    hilts

    Given the fact that the Rethuglican members of Congress won’t do a goddamn thing to hold Trump accountable for the crimes he’s committed, my only hope is that Trump will be plagued by extended bouts of diarrhea, constipation, and migraine headaches to make him feel as miserable as possible.

  26. 26.

    Jamey

    “…then they came for the actual Fake News
    And there was no one left to speak for me.”

  27. 27.

    JR

    @Millard Filmore: We’re talking about a major criminal investigation into the President of the United States. This isn’t some regional mafia don. You need every piece of evidence, every cooperating witness, everything you can get.

  28. 28.

    germy

    Maine’s Top Court Orders GOP Governor to Stop Ignoring Voters and Expand Medicaid

    Maine’s fiery right-wing governor has vowed to go to jail before allowing a Medicaid expansion. He may get his wish.

  29. 29.

    James E Powell

    Immunity might be to avoid the “Mueller is going after the press!” complaint and I am inferring that the possible crimes Pecker and Howard may have committed are trivial when compared with those on which Mueller is most focused.

  30. 30.

    germy

    But the more plausible scenario is that Trump, even if he has to be pushed kicking-and-screaming by Ivanka and the possible jailbirds Donald Jr. and Jared, gets out of Dodge. As with Nixon, his administration is most likely not to end with impeachment but with a self-pitying and self-justifying resignation in which Trump lashes out against both Republicans and Democrats, declares another ersatz “win,” and flees.

    Frank Rich

  31. 31.

    The Moar You Know

    My assumption is that Cohen’s records and recordings is better evidence than a backup witness.

    @Millard Filmore: In a strictly legal sense, yes.

    But Mueller is looking to take this to a jury.

    If I have one guy testifying, hey, that’s just one guy.
    Two guys, that’s harder to deny.
    Ten guys, you gotta be in serious, conscious denial to ignore ten folks all testifying to the same thing.

    Mueller knows he is coming at the king and best not miss. I do hope he is sharing all this, and all the non-public domain evidence with as many state AGs as he can, because I suspect Sessions is gone the day after the midterms and Rosenstein and Mueller will be fired the same day. I have no doubt he will do it if he can, and it looks like the Senate is going to take away Session’s lifeline. I HOPE I AM 100% WRONG ABOUT THIS.

  32. 32.

    Wapiti

    @Millard Filmore: I’d offer that going after Pecker and his tabloid empire might be laudable, but there’s likely better targets for government prosecution. Why go after a target that can claim credible First Amendment protections for much of its actions? Better to use it to provide credibility to Cohen-related evidence, because that dude has less credibility than Gates.

  33. 33.

    James E Powell

    @BlueDWarrior:

    A lot of Republican office-holders and voters have basically gone into full blown denial and are trying to pretend they aren’t living in the world we are actually living in.

    I’m confident that when it all comes crashing down that the press/media will let both Republicans and their votes off the hook for the Trump disaster. After all, the press/media is complicit in bringing this about and making it worse. I’m base this prediction on the ease with which every single asshole who supported the Great Iraq Invasion & Occupation totally skated on any responsibility for anything, including murder & torture.

    Are the Democrats going to let them get away with it? Are we going to let the Democrats let the Republicans get away with it?

  34. 34.

    trollhattan

    While the Trump maladministration gathers its mockery harvest they continue doing actual harm.

    On July 1, the US Environmental Protection Agency issued a “significant new use rule,” which invites manufacturers to petition the EPA to seek approval of any new asbestos product on a case-by-case basis.

    The rule says that the EPA will evaluate new asbestos products as “new use” if they’ve determined they aren’t currently being manufactured. The categories the EPA says it will consider as new uses include “adhesives, sealants, and roof and non-roof coatings; arc chutes; beater-add gaskets; extruded sealant tape and other tape; filler for acetylene cylinders; high-grade electrical paper; millboard; missile liner; pipeline wrap; reinforced plastics; roofing felt; separators in fuel cells and batteries; vinyl-asbestos floor tile; and any other building material (other than cement).”

    Many of these are the same products that the EPA considers “legacy” uses. Earlier this year, in response to an Obama-era push to reevaluate harmful substances, the Trump administration weakened the way it evaluates chemicals for harm, declaring that asbestos used in floor tile, roofing, car brakes, batteries, and a range of other places would be considered “legacy” applications and beyond the scope of asbestos’s risk evaluation.

    So while new products in those categories might be reviewed for approval, they won’t be studied in deciding whether asbestos is truly harmful enough to ban, or whether to impose laws about asbestos already in homes, businesses and schools. (The government also decided not to consider asbestos disposal sites to be a source of health hazard.)

    Just ducky.

  35. 35.

    ET

    Like attracts like. tRump surrounds himself with people who are like him, think they are like him, and those who want to be like him. But in reality they are all there to be used by him – its just that some are more powerful than others. tRump is a transactional/situational sort of guy and so are the people who hang with him. Loyalty is built over time and while he may know people for years, it is hard to have true loyalty when both sides are that way. I know he thinks highly of himself (and his judgement) and that he has zero self awareness. That just means he may really think he surrounds himself with the very best people because the best attracts the best.

    Also, for tRump loyalty is a one way street that he just forgets doesn’t work the way he thinks it does all the time.

  38. 38.

    psycholinguist

    To clarify, this is still the southern NY district and not Muller’s investigation offering the immunity, correct? Muller was smart as hell to farm this out, it seems, because Trump can’t touch these guys can he?

  42. 42.

    cain

    @BlueDWarrior:

    The problem for the office holders is that they have to constantly interact with reality, and eventually have to bend to it. The voters can sequester themselves in a bubble for the rest of their lucid days if they really wanted to.

    They could ask Fox News to stop fucking their constituent’s mind? Sorry, wasn’t attempting to make people laugh.

  43. 43.

    HeleninEire

    Is LAO here? I ask because all of this immunity and reduced to 5 year sentences thing is kinda freaking me out. I get the whole pyramid thing where you work your way up to the king.

    But it seems to me that Cohen was way close. Way closer to Trump to make a good deal.

    I understand why it has to be done. But damn. Where do the snitching deals stop? Please tell me that his kids will NOT get a deal.

  44. 44.

    ??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)  ??

    @germy:
    Who the hell does he think he is ignoring the explicit wishes of the voters of his state? He’s the Governor of Maine not it’s dictator.

  46. 46.

    cain

    @A Ghost To Most:

    @germy: Shitler doesn’t strike me as the resigning type. More like “After me, the deluge”.

    I’m sure that he’ll attempt to use the secret service as his own personal army and fight everyone else. I can see him hold up in the white house surrounded at all sides. Meanwhile Republicans are yelling at everyone else to “Let Trump Live!” Forced to hole up in their own office with only their twitter feed for comfort, and amazon prime now for food.

  49. 49.

    Martin

    @Millard Filmore: That’s my sense too. This is not a 1-off from Pecker/AMI. They’ve done this for decades. If AMI is turning over records, they’re going to discover other felonies in the course of that review. Those may involve Trump, and they may involve others.

  51. 51.

    Mandalay

    @Martin:

    I have no expectation that Trump will go to prison, but Ivanka in an orange jumpsuit would break him…

    I could not disagree more. People should stop thinking of Trump as an incompetent doofus who sends out tweets and used to be a reality TV host. He is evil and ruthless, and an enemy of the United States, and he’d worry about Ivanka going to prison for about 3 minutes. Besides, she probably started losing her allure when she turned 16, and I think she would end up in some tragic accident if her testimony might send him to prison.

    Trump never attacks his wife or Ivanka, but that is not because he cares about them – it’s because of all the dirt they have on him that would destroy him far more effectively than anything Mueller can offer.

  53. 53.

    MomSense

    I’m glad all of this corruption and criminality is finally coming out but I’m also furious that it had to get to this.

    It’s clear that prosecutors must be wearing blinders to have let all of this money laundering, bank fraud, and tax fraud go on all these years.

    And I’m especially furious that the media did not pursue any of this. It was barely concealed, if at all.

    So much suffering and madness. We the people were failed by so many institutions before the election. And now, every damned day the Republican Congress fails to act on their obligation to protect our constitution. It’s appalling that journalists are not following them 24/7. I’m so mad that this disaster has been inflicted on us so needlessly.

  54. 54.

    Brachiator

    @jl: @jl:

    Well, Trump could have been a successful president, and probably even get his approval ratings above 50 percent, if he had even thought of doing a lick of actual work, and keeping some of his more populist campaign promises.

    The Trump we got was always the Trump we were going to get. Resentment and an unrealistic faith in his own magnificence drove him to run for president and defines him. His populism was nothing more than a grifter’s sham. For example, he promised to repeal and replace Obamacare, but never had a hint of an idea of what to actually do about it.

    Trump heartily approved the tax cuts because he could see how it could help him. And that’s where he stopped.

    And Trump always was and always will be a racist. So if you are suggesting that he could have been a successful Klansman of a president if he threw middle class white people a few bones, I’m not seeing an alternate reality to be happy about.

    Also, I think today a new round of China tariffs go into effect, leading to the inevitable response by China. His belief that he can strong arm his way to prosperity is another simple-minded fantasy that is going to lead to all kinds of nasty, unexpected outcomes.

  55. 55.

    ??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)  ??

    @Mandalay:

    Trump never attacks his wife or Ivanka, but that is not because he cares about them – it’s because of all the dirt they have on him that would destroy him far more effectively than anything Mueller can offer.

    lt’s always pissed me off that Trump is apparantly not stupid/addled enough to go Leeroy Jenkins and basically blow himself up by having a true, psychotic meltdown by attacking someone like Melania in a tweet or speech. He always seems to be able weasel out of all the consequences of his actions too.

  56. 56.

    Yarrow

    Loyalty only goes one way for Trump. Seems like a few of his gang have figured that out.

    prosecutors granted immunity to David Pecker, chairman of The National Enquirer publisher American Media Inc., and A.M.I.’s chief content officer, Dylan Howard, so they would describe Trump’s involvement in Cohen’s payments to porn star Stormy Daniels and Playboy Playmate Karen McDougal during the 2016 campaign.

    Rick Wilson says that his limited research in 2016 turned up twelve women that had been paid by Trump to keep them quiet. Can’t wait for that news to drop.

    @feebog: Indeed.

  57. 57.

    J R in WV

    @Millard Filmore:

    …if that is all they want from Pecker, they gave away immunity much too cheaply.

    Ah, but we don’t know what Pecker has told them, nor what potential punishment Pecker has agreed to accept. What is he immure from, and what is he not immune from? All we have is gossip, so far.

  61. 61.

    Mary Green

    @trollhattan: And asbestos is mostly made in Russia, where one company has already put Twitler’s face on their packaging. True, not even the Onion thought of it.

    @cain: I imagine his Secret Service agents are thoroughly sick of him by now, and would gladly hand him over if Mueller came calling with a warrant, but he won’t. Unfortunately. What I’m afraid of is a resignation orchestrated by the Koch Brothers in a deal where he goes quietly in exchange for a compound on an island somewhere and a ton of cash and Pence pardons everyone. Then we’re fucked.

  62. 62.

    Brachiator

    @germy:

    Maine’s fiery right-wing governor has vowed to go to jail before allowing a Medicaid expansion

    What is the deal with this guy?

    Also, I recently listened to a BBC news story about Maine fisher folk who were being hit hard by Trump’s tariffs. A good chunk of the lobster catch used to go to China, and the 25% tariff is killing them. Some of the lobster fisher folk wised up, but a few who were interviewed still refused to hold Trump accountable in any way.

    It will be interesting to see how many true believers peel away as more court cases and other actions mount.

  63. 63.

    Thom Rogers

    We’ve come full circle from the debate moment with Trump and Marco Rubio. We’re once again talking about Trump’s Pecker.

  65. 65.

    JMG

    @HeleninEire: The federal guideline for Cohen’s sentence calls for between 50-65 months. That’s a long time in jail, especially if you’re not young, which he isn’t.

  66. 66.

    Wakeshift

    Really interesting skirmish playing out in, of all places, ads on YouTube.
    Last couple days I started seeing “Do you support the President?” Ads/surveys on various videos, all labeled as paid for by his campaign and the RNC. One was yes/no, and the other was basically good/better/best. Lol at that…

    Today, there was a full length high-quality ad from “Republicans for the Rule of Law” urging support for the Independent Counsel and trashing (in true TDS style) the idea that this is a Witch Hunt.

    Anyone else seen this? Know anything about this group?
    I jumped instantly into wild speculation mode; but mostly I think it signals major turning point in the fracturing of the Rs.
    Rooting for injuries indeed!

    *btw- avid lurker here; 3rd post ever and first of any substance

  68. 68.

    catclub

    @Yarrow:

    Rick Wilson says that his limited research in 2016 turned up twelve women that had been paid by Trump to keep them quiet

    Broidy’ taking the fall and givinga $1M+ bribe is another.

  69. 69.

    LAO

    @HeleninEire: Waves Hello — the immunity will never end!!!!! (I’m tired, my brains not working.)

    @JMG: I thought they stipulated (as is the norm) to a sentencing range of 46-57 months or maybe it was 51-63 months? I’m finding it hard to keep up with the federal criminal news.

  70. 70.

    Ian G.

    @Wakeshift: neocons like to form “independent” groups like that, often for Likud advocacy. They to a person despise Trump. Wouldn’t be surprised if Bill Kristol or John Podhoretz had something to do with it.

  71. 71.

    catclub

    @JMG: T

    hat’s a long time in jail, especially if you’re not young, which he isn’t.

    Hold your horses there, he is younger than I am, so he must be young.

  72. 72.

    Rommie

    Is Tiffany going to be the only Trump to get out of this with clean cuff-links? It seems that way.

  73. 73.

    p.a.

    If we were on another planet viewing this the internal dynamics would be fascinating and not sickening. You know now that the tax giveaway is law no one in the Rethug non-candidate establishment cares if trump strokes out; they’re wishing for it. Pence and Jeff can carry out the Xtianist/racist agenda better with the incompetent fart cloud gone gone gone. Congressional rethugs, IDK. Their only hope may be donnie sticking around to energize the racist electoral rump and enough stupid people to, with the help of suppression, caging etc, eeke out a majority.

  74. 74.

    Brachiator

    According to two sources briefed on the Cohen investigation, prosecutors granted immunity to David Pecker, chairman of The National Enquirer publisher American Media Inc., and A.M.I.’s chief content officer, Dylan Howard, so they would describe Trump’s involvement in Cohen’s payments to porn star Stormy Daniels and Playboy Playmate Karen McDougal during the 2016 campaign.

    This is a bit surprising. The National Enquirer has been a strong Trump supporter. And I think that he was also part of the NDA Two Step, where the Enquirer would promise an exclusive book deal to a Trump mistress, while the NDA prevented them from going anywhere else or even talking about the bad deal that they had been stuck with.

  75. 75.

    LAO

    @JMG: Although — it’s up to the Judge. There are very little guarantees in the feds as to the sentence you can receive as a defendant. Judge could go lower or higher. Pauley is not a pushover.

  76. 76.

    HeleninEire

    @JMG: Yeah. 50 months is a little more than 4 years. 65 is 5 and a half years. I do not care hold old he is. He will either rot in prison or not. His age should not determine that.

  78. 78.

    blackcatsrule+2

    @germy: He’s not fiery. (I realize this is not your wording). He’s a semi-literate, rude buffoon (and I’m being exceedingly polite and restrained here) who thinks he can play with the big boys who are actually laughing at this backwater rube from a half-assed state. The only good thing this asshole ever did was give me the push I needed to move back to civilization.

  80. 80.

    Mandalay

    @MomSense:

    It’s clear that prosecutors must be wearing blinders to have let all of this money laundering, bank fraud, and tax fraud go on all these years.

    Indeed. Adam Davidson, who is one of the few reporters who truly digs into the minutiae of Trump’s corrupt business dealings, alleges that a high level decision was made to largely ignore money laundering in New York because clamping down on it “would devastate the New York economy”!

    Listen to this excellent podcast discussion “Taking Trump’s corruption seriously” with Ezra Klein at around 23:55 for more.

  81. 81.

    HeleninEire

    @LAO: Hi hun. Rest your brain. Its after 10 here. I’m going to sleep soon. I’ll be here for one more drink. But don’t feel obligated.

  82. 82.

    trollhattan

    Heh.

    The Onion
    ‏
    Trump Boys Frantically Burning Stacks Of Printed-Out Emails To Eliminate Paper Trail https://trib.al/W0gyDnd

    @DonaldJTrumpJr: “We gotta type up copies of our texts so we can print them out and burn those, too—you can’t be too careful with the witch hunt.”

  83. 83.

    LAO

    @HeleninEire: I got some work done today — nobody was more shocked that I was. Have a great night. Look forward to a meet up next time you’re in NYC.

  84. 84.

    Wakeshift

    @Ian G.:
    Yeah, that’s what it looks like. Just wondering how widespread this is and how much traction it will get.
    Feels like a PR firm’s damage-control campaign to salvage or rehab the R “brand”.

    Basically what’s been predicted here since (seemingly) forever: “those criminals over there were never really Repubs; we never liked or supported them; we’re still the responsible grownups…”

    No f’n way we let that happen

  86. 86.

    Mary Green

    @Mary Green: Meant to type that those headlines are part of the reason Pecker needs immunity – “Hillary Gains 103 Pounds” is so whacko that it might pass the Times/Sullivan test.

  87. 87.

    Bill Arnold

    @MattF:

    Pleased to read that the Manafort jury was thwarted from unanimity by a single juror.

    Manafort Juror: One ‘Holdout’ Kept Him From Being Convicted on All Counts
    The juror who leaked, Paula Duncan, a MAGA-hat wearing Trump supporter, was one of the ones convinced he was guilty on all counts:

    Late on Wednesday night, Fox News aired a lengthy interview with Paula Duncan, the first juror in Paul Manafort’s trial to go public. Duncan, 52, identified herself as a strong supporter of President Trump, saying she kept a Make America Great Again hat in the backseat of her car as she drove to the trial, and plans to vote for Trump again in 2020. However, Duncan said she became convinced that Manafort was guilty on all 18 counts of bank and tax fraud, and almost the entire jury agreed; she revealed that the jury deadlocked on ten of the counts due to a single juror.

  90. 90.

    catclub

    @Wakeshift:

    Feels like a PR firm’s damage-control campaign to salvage or rehab the R “brand”.

    It is a VERY robust brand if they will still hold the senate at the end of this year. Does it really need salvaging in that case? Trump could easily get
    two more SC nominations through that senate…. if Thomas retires and RBG dies.

    Just a little happy thought.

  91. 91.

    Mike in NC

    @catclub: Wilson added that Cohen had an office in Trump Tower specifically dedicated to payment of hush money and arranging for abortions. Hope to see more on that.

  97. 97.

    cmorenc

    @pk:

    Was Omarosa just last week? It seems a million years ago.

    Oh, Omarosa isn’t nearly done dripping toxic waste on Trump’s head – she’ll time her releases to spoil any gaps in the toxic news cycles where Trump might otherwise have a chance to change the narrative to more favorable territory. Omarosa is a jilted woman eager to wreak vengeance on the cad Trump for discarding her from the White House staff, who has positioned herself well to do so because she’s just as coldly ruthless a sociopath as Trump is, but perhaps better at cold calculation and preparation as her former mentor.

  98. 98.

    catclub

    so: Who thinks Michael Cohen DID go to Prague in 2016 and Mueller wants to ask him about it? It is one of the few items in the Steele Dossier not yet completely confirmed.

    Also, what else does Cohen know about Trump’s efforts to build in Moscow in 2012-13?

  99. 99.

    MisterForkbeard

    @??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)  ??:

    He always seems to be able weasel out of all the consequences of his actions too.

    This is what happens when you have Giuliani (then Trump’s state AG) working to keep Trump safe, and then now an entire political party devoted to his protection. Because letting him face consequences would be admitting they made a mistake, and they can’t have that.

  100. 100.

    MisterForkbeard

    @JMG: Only 65 months? There’s a max of 65 years or so, right? The recommendation is… 8% of that? Surprising.

  101. 101.

    catclub

    @cmorenc:

    because she’s just as coldly ruthless a sociopath as Trump is,

    Wilbur Ross has so far dodged the spotlight, but is a thief in the Trump mold, and also, like Trump, was desperate to get listed in Forbes list of Billionaires

  104. 104.

    MisterForkbeard

    @Mary Green: The real lesson from that article is less about “Enquirer tried to hose Hillary” it’s that “Enquirer was consistently behind Trump”. They spend a lot of time on Hillary, but they also show how all the Trump coverage was universally positive and ridiculous – and that it attacked all of Trump’s political rivals during the Primary.

    They put their thumbs on the scale as much as they should, and they had an existing financial relationship with Trump. I’d say it’s shameful, but… it’s the National Enquirer.

  106. 106.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @cain: I am predicting Trump will do something like this even if his term ends normally. The man is a narcissistic, amoral a-hole. One key difference between Trump and Nixon was Nixon did give a shit about the country were Trump sold the country out for a hand full of electoral votes. There is going to be no Nixon resignation deal were Trump gets to go in to hiding just to let the country mellow out and no graceful last fight on the presidential helicopter at Trump’s successor’s inauguration. Trump will do anything to hang on to power and if he can’t have it, Trump will take a crap over the presidency just to pretend to himself he didn’t want it. Think Hitler ordering the Germans to destroy Germany at the end of WWII because they let Hitler down.

  109. 109.

    Yarrow

    @Mary G: Wow. That is something. You know she’s such a lazy reporter and Trump toady but seeing it all lined up is something else.

  112. 112.

    ??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)  ??

    @catclub:
    You’re just a ray of sunshine aren’t you? You know as well as I do that more D seats than R seats are up this year.

  116. 116.

    MattF

    @Mary G: So, Trump’s… like… isolated? What she means is– no more Cohen, no more Hicks, no more Lewandowski, no more Ailes. Only a crowd of lickspittle journalists. Poor Donnie!

  118. 118.

    J R in WV

    Over and over again,

    Increasingly Isolated…

    Trump is more alone. Wow, what a series of stupid on Haberman’s part. For months, the same phrase, increasingly isolated…

    She should have never gone for this high level of play if she wasn’t capable of playing at this level, which she obviously is not. She has ruined her chances for a career past Trump, just as Judith Miller ruined her career past Bush the Shrub.

  119. 119.

    MisterForkbeard

    @trollhattan: This is the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle all over again. It’s inherently impossible to state with confidence both Maggie’s position AND movement.

    Oh wait, it IS possible. She’s shilling for Trump for access and uncreative enough to say the same thing over and over again.

  120. 120.

    trollhattan

    @J R in WV:
    What I wouldn’t give to reanimate H.S Thompson and put him on the White House beat.

    “So mister president, can we talk a little about all that tail you were getting?”

  121. 121.

    Duncan Dougnut

    @catclub: A reminder to all: It doesn’t have to be Prague, nor even the Czech Republic. The dossier was intelligence data.

    Likelihood that a meeting occurred overseas for the stated topic: High.
    Likelihood that all details of meeting were correctly spelled out in the dossier: Low(er).

    Don’t play the rethuglicans game. Don’t get hung up on the details. Cohen attended a meeting with a hostile power to get that power’s help for his client’s presidential campaign. Completely illegal and possibly treasonous. I don’t care if it was Russia (likely) or NK or China. I don’t care if the meeting was in Berlin or Prague or Peoria. The meeting, and similar actions, make this an illegitimate presidency, with all decisions/nominations/etc. therefore questionable. Certainly no further executive actions should be allowed until after the many issues arising from this are resolved.

  122. 122.

    Mary G

    We’re looking at months of this stuff, apparently:

    “Mr. Pecker does not appreciate all the childish jokes about his name.” – AMI spokesperson Fanny Goblincock— Michael McKean (@MJMcKean) August 23, 2018

  125. 125.

    Gelfling 545

    By the way that headline should be enshrined in a manuscript with illuminated initials and gold margins.

  126. 126.

    Jeffro

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques: I can see that, but I think the GOP is going to get shellacked in the midterms, and the charges are going to continue to rain down for the rest of trumpov’s term.

    Once out of office, he can be prosecuted just like any other racketeer. And while he can try to pardon himself and all of his associates before he leaves office, nothing will save them from state charges, and nothing will change them from future charges, including a RICO prosecution.

    And assuming that the Republican Party even exists in 2024, much less wins the presidency, they would know that the key to a sure defeat in the next election would be a ford style pardon

  127. 127.

    dww44

    I know this is O/T but an AJC news bulletin just informed me that Reality Winner has just been sentenced to 5 plus years in prison, to be reduced by the 1 year time already served. She apologized for her actions in releasing info about Russian interference in 2016 election.

    Then, the Randolph County Georgia Attorney just announced the firing of the elections consultant they had hired in April who had the brilliant idea of reducing the voting precincts from 9 by 7 to 2. The vote on that matter happens tomorrow. but the whole article is worth a read.

    Guess who recommended the hiring of that consultant to the county commissioners, none other than the current SOS and GOP candidate for governor, Brian Kemp. The consultant has/had made a $250.00 contribution to Kemp’s campaign. There are petitions circulating which demand that Kemp step down as SOS ahead of the election. Which he has thus far refused to do, unlike any recent predecessors in the job who decided to run for higher office..

  128. 128.

    zhena gogolia

    @catclub:

    I’m as sure he went to Prague as that there were Warsaw Pact tanks on Vaclavské namestí twenty years ago this week.

  129. 129.

    jl

    @The Moar You Know: Unbelievable behavior from Senate GOP. If Democrats can effectively use that, I think could help with getting back Senate.

    I think, though, that Sessions will put up a fight and not go quietly, though he won’t be able to stop being fired if Trump really wants to go there. But I expect Sessions to do everything he can to prevent it. Sessions isn’t a good guy, and his motives are just as bad as Trump’s .

    But, much more than other early Trump supporters, Sessions calculated that he could get some important, though horrible, work done under a Trump administration, and that was more important than a crumb bum like Trump. That is why Sessions can;t be shamed or insulted or humiliated into resigning quietly: he has a mission to accomplish and doesn’t give one tiny rat’ turd about what Trump says. If Trump goes but Sessions could stay under Pence, that would suite Sessions just fine, as long as Pence let’s him continue his dirty work.

  130. 130.

    dww44

    @dww44: Edit function not available, so need to also note that Kemp not only recommended the consultant but recommended the reduction/consolidation of voting precincts.

  133. 133.

    Martin

    @trollhattan:

    What I wouldn’t give to reanimate H.S Thompson and put him on the White House beat.

    Be prepared to do it twice. As soon as you tell him Donald Trump is president, he’ll instantly die again.

  135. 135.

    Mary G

    @dww44: Turns out this is the latest voter suppression scheme, and is being implemented under the radar all over the country:

    3. An election consultant in Randolph County, GA is claiming the polls are not compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act. He is using the ADA (one civil rights law) as a pretext to violate the VRA (another civil rights law) https://t.co/5Lxd3jdL50— Kira Lerner (@kira_lerner) August 22, 2018

    4. The consultant is not the first to come up with this deceptive tactic. Under Trump, the Justice Department has ramped up its ADA-enforcement actions against counties it claims have non-compliant polling locations https://t.co/5Lxd3jdL50— Kira Lerner (@kira_lerner) August 22, 2018

    5. And guess what? Most of the jurisdictions the DOJ is targeting have significant minority populations https://t.co/5Lxd3jdL50 pic.twitter.com/DNz12ixo0d— Kira Lerner (@kira_lerner) August 22, 2018

    This makes me furious – fix the buildings to be ADA compliant – the law has been in effect for 28 years!

  138. 138.

    Martin

    @Mary G: You know, I’m pretty sure at this point it’s faster and easier for Texas young people to sql inject their votes into the Registrar database than to jump through the hoops of getting the appropriate ID and finding transportation to the polls.

  139. 139.

    debbie

    @Mary G:

    That top tweet isn’t wrong. For years and years, The Donald was an amusing, naughty boy. He was the Id of the Upper Crust, the Juicy Bit on Page Six.

  140. 140.

    Mary G

    @Mary G: Per Tech Crunch article, apparently firm that left millions of Texas voter data on an unsecured server without even a password appears to be affiliated with Republicans. Here’s most of the article:

    TechCrunch obtained a copy of the file, which was first found by a New Zealand-based data breach hunter who goes by the pseudonym Flash Gordon. It’s not clear who owned the server where the exposed file was found, but an analysis of the data reveals that it was likely originally compiled by Data Trust, a Republican-focused data analytics firm created by the GOP to provide campaigns with voter data.

    Chris Vickery, director of cyber risk research at security firm UpGuard, analyzed a portion of the data. (It was Vickery who found a larger trove of 198 million voter records last year exposed by a similar data firm Deep Root Analytics, which sourced much of its data from Data Trust.)

    A spokesperson for Data Trust declined to comment on the record.

    The file — close to 16 gigabytes in size — contained dozens of fields, including personal information like a voter’s name, address, gender and several years’ worth of voting history, including primaries and presidential elections.

    Granted, much of that data is public. According to The Texas Tribune, that kind of voter data in Texas is already obtainable for a fee, but information relating to individuals’ political affiliations and party memberships is not. Sam Taylor, communications director for the Texas secretary of state, told TechCrunch in an email that certain data points — like Social Security numbers — are also excluded, and the voter data cannot be used for commercial purposes, like advertising.

    But data-driven political firms like Data Trust use the data for political purposes, specializing in supplementing those voter profiles with information that might help a campaign to flip a person who might not vote for a Republican candidate at the ballot box.

    That’s where this file fills in the gaps with dozens of other fields, which can be used by campaigns to position their political messaging.

    For example, the data includes fields that might score an individual’s believed views on immigration, hunting, abortion rights, government spending and views on the Second Amendment.

    Other fields were more relevant to the recent 2016 presidential election, in which the data predictively scored individuals on if they “trust” or have “no trust” for then-Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton.

    The data also includes additional personal information, such as a person’s phone numbers and their ethnicity and race.

  143. 143.

    jl

    Not sure if this bit has been posted. I didn’t see it in the link at top of the post. Also in the story is a bit of Cohen/Trump phone conversation about fact that a corporation would have stashed the dirt in a safe (from which I conclude that Trump is really really dumb and has zero self-discipline, but we knew that already).

    National Enquirer’s Safe Held Damaging Trump Stories
    The National Enquirer kept a safe containing documents on hush money payments and other damaging stories it killed as part of its cozy relationship with Donald Trump leading up to the 2016 presidential election, people familiar with the arrangement told The Associated Press.
    https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/ap-national-enquirers-safe-held-damaging-trump-stories

  145. 145.

    TS (the original)

    @pk:

    Otherwise it makes no sense for Hannity to be involved with Cohen.

    Seeing this one go down with the president* will involve much more popcorn. They really didn’t want him to win.

  149. 149.

    jl

    @TS (the original): Probably so. Corporations and hyper wealthy play a very long game and could have waited another four years to hit the jackpot. And the long con media gravy train would have been fun and very profitable for a little while longer under an HRC administration.

  150. 150.

    chopper

    @Brachiator:

    it’s not too surprising once you remembers that this involves an illegal campaign contribution and pecker was part of it. if i were him and i knew mueller was on the case i’d be waving the white flag too.

  151. 151.

    hitchhiker

    I was encouraged by that juror. She’s whack, because she loves Trump. She wanted Manafort to be innocent, but she was persuaded by the evidence that he absolutely committed those crimes.

    I can’t understand a person who can comprehend evidence but still doesn’t see what a vicious conman Trump is — but I have to think it means in the end she’ll be just as able to evaluate the evidence against him as she was to evaluate it against Manafort.

    And we know that Mueller will bring all the receipts.

  152. 152.

    Calouste

    @jl: A lot of the hyper wealthy (Koch, Adelson, Murdoch, etc) are so old that their mortality rates over 4 years are visible with the naked eye. Even without glasses.

    Can’t play the long game if you’re running out of time in this mortal realm.

  154. 154.

    Duane

    Is David Pecker now or ever a member of the RNC because he would fit right in with that bunch. You know, a goood person.

  157. 157.

    Citizen Alan

    @jl:

    No. You forget that if Hillary had been allowed to a point scalia’s replacement, or hell if the GOP had responded to her winning by just letting Merrick Garland through, it would have ushered in a golden age of liberal jurisprudence that would have lasted for at least a generation. There was no price too high to pay to keep the US Judiciary in conservative hands.

  159. 159.

    WaterGirl

    @Amir Khalid: I went to high school with a guy named Joe Kotek. He was constantly ribbed about his name. Senior year, when he turned 18 and could legally change his name, the running joke was that he was going to change it to Tampon.

  161. 161.

    WaterGirl

    My laptop battery is at 27%. Wondering if I should take that as a sign that it’s time to close up for the night.

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