BREAKING: Michael Cohen, President Trump’s former personal attorney, will plead guilty to charges stemming from a federal investigation in New York. pic.twitter.com/qSe2LLJVIO
— MSNBC (@MSNBC) August 21, 2018
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.
Michael Cohen's plea deal with prosecutors does not include cooperation, two people familiar with the matter said https://t.co/QWBd5gUeUT
— The New York Times (@nytimes) August 21, 2018
The Manafort jury is still out in Virginia, apparently they’re having trouble reaching a verdict on one of the multiple counts.
The Manafort jury has submitted this question to the judge: What if we cannot come to a consensus for a single count? @MSNBC reports
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) August 21, 2018
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.
eemom
sweeeeeeeeet. #snoopyhappydance
Betty Cracker
Helluva day for the blog to be borked!
Mike in NC
Upcoming tweet from Trump: “I never even met this person called Micheal Cohann! Fake news!!!”
MattF
I do realize it’s pointless to ask what Hillary Clinton has to do with any of this… But it still irks me.
LAO
You know, it’s infrastructure week, again.
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.
LAO
@Betty Cracker: Amen! Must be a Russian bot attack.
TaMara (HFG)
Does this mean he’s awaiting a Trump pardon in exchange for not cooperating?
Yarrow
Tick tock, motherfuckers!
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.
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.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@MattF: Surely even the Trumpsters are getting bored with talking about her emails.
JPL
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Fox news will ask why Hillary is not in jail for her emails.
zhena gogolia
@Betty Cracker:
FRUSTRATING!!!!!
Roger Moore
@Betty Cracker:
It’s not borked; it’s under attack. Those of us who are naturally suspicious wonder if there’s a connection.
Frankensteinbeck
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.
schrodingers_cat
@Betty Cracker: Is the server is too close to the willow?
Gin & Tonic
@TaMara (HFG):
I’ve got a picture of Andrew Jackson in my pocket on “yes.”
TenguPhule
@LAO:
Russian weasels chasing the BJ hamsters powering the site through a failing intertubes of pipes while Orange Julius the First melts down.
The Midnight Lurker
HA-HA!
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.
Gemina13
Welp. And Trump’s going to a rally tonight? Pass the popcorn. The batshit will be at maximum strength tonight.
TenguPhule
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Hope springs eternal. And is doomed to be disappointed.
LAO
@LAO: I’m lost without an edit button — you can’t pick or choose what you tell the government!
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.
Gin & Tonic
@LAO:
Surely you mean “can’t”.
And look, I didn’t even go to law school.
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.
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.
Adam L Silverman
@burnspbesq: Yep.
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.
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?
Chyron HR
@Gemina13:
The batshit will be at maximum strength
tonightevery night.TenguPhule
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.
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.
Yutsano
@Mnemosyne: Are you saying our top 10,000 blog matters to the Russian troll machinery? LOOKS LIKE WE MADE IT BABY!
Adam L Silverman
@Roger Moore: No one has heard from Doug! or MisterMix in a while. I always knew there was something dodgy about those two…//
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!
smintheus
Meanwhile, Flynn’s sentencing hearing has been delayed again for at least another month.
And Donald Jr. is already being squeezed by Mueller, according to a source cited by Vanity Fair.
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.
TenguPhule
@Mnemosyne:
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?
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.
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.
Frankensteinbeck
@Hitlesswonder:
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.
JPL
@Mnemosyne: I can’t wait until he says Don Jr. I hardly know him, but he’s a nice boy.
Mnemosyne
@Alain the site fixer:
Might be worth asking Cole to tweet that the blog is having issues since people sometimes check there to see what’s up. Fight the bots! ?
satby
@Roger Moore: but why this blog and not say, TPM?
oldgold
Is there a daily hunting limit on witches?
Roger Moore
@jl:
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.
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.
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.
Leto
Author of Trump-Russia dossier wins libel case in US court
TLDR:
Chyron HR
@Frankensteinbeck:
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.)
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.
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?
A Ghost To Most
@TenguPhule:
Are other similar blogs being botted?
randy khan
@jl:
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.
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.
Just One More Canuck
@JPL: he was just a coffee boy
A Ghost To Most
@oldgold: Yes. Firewood is a finite resource.
TenguPhule
@Mnemosyne: If that were the case I’d expect to see more widespread attacks. This one seems more directed. Almost personal.
Adam L Silverman
@Mnemosyne: I was never here…
TenguPhule
@A Ghost To Most:
We now have an overstock of coal. I hear it burns quite nicely.
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.
Yarrow
@Mnemosyne:
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.
TenguPhule
@Just One More Canuck:
Has anyone actually seen Trump drink actual coffee?
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.
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?
burnspbesq
What “MAGA” stands for today.
https://twitter.com/standup2p/status/1031967682336378881
Leto
@satby: That was a spicy meatball…
I’ll see myself out…
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Yutsano: Russian trolls regularly sign up for my author newsletter. That suggests they’re not fussy about how big the score is.
TenguPhule
@A Ghost To Most:
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.
TenguPhule
@Frankensteinbeck:
Welshing usually refers to betting, wagers and promises.
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.
TenguPhule
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Aren’t those the ones just interested in Russia’s traditional crimes of stealing money and identities?
Cheryl Rofer
@Gemina13: Rally will be in by god West Virginia. I am hoping that our Blogfather will attend and report, but realistically not expecting it.
Damon Runyon
@Chyron HR: Wow, I did not know that. Man, that Damon Runyon guy sure could predict the future:
Welch/Welsh: To go back on one’s word, or to break a promise.
https://guysanddollsbsu.weebly.com/useful-terms.html
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.
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.
Anne Laurie
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.
JPL
Southpaw is saying note from the jury.
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.
burnspbesq
NYT is reporting that the charges relate to payments of hush money to Clifford and McDougal.
TenguPhule
@Cheryl Rofer:
All evidence to the contrary aside, John Cole is not a habitual masochist.
Cheryl Rofer
@Mnemosyne: Cole and I both tweeted that there are problems. Things seem to be running pretty smoothly now, though, for me anyway.
JPL
LAO, Be on standby to help us through these times.
Corner Stone
@satby:
“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!!!!!”
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%.
JPL
Just in case anyone missed my previous comment, there is another note from the Manafort jury.
TenguPhule
@Anne Laurie: IOKIYAR.
Republicans would be calling on the national Democratic party to disband if the shoe were on the other foot.
Just One More Canuck
@burnspbesq: or Make Alcatraz Great Again
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
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.
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)
Mnemosyne
@Cheryl Rofer:
Twitter hasn’t been loading for me for the past couple of days. ?
MisterForkbeard
@Anne Laurie: Three of the four RNC Deputy Finance Chairs have either been arrested or left in disgrace. So that’s, uh. Novel.
randy khan
@JPL:
Well, apparently at least one of us missed it . . .
Gravenstone
@TaMara (HFG): If it can be shown Cohen or others have been promised pardons for specific behavior … bad juju for the Trumpster.
Cheryl Rofer
Here’s an ongoing live thread.
TenguPhule
@Calouste:
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.
TenguPhule
@Mike in NC:
And sometimes the lions win.
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.
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.
westyny
The best people . . .
Tim C.
@MisterForkbeard: From your keyboard the FSM’s noodly ears.
Corner Stone
8 of 18 counts?! WTF?!
Gravenstone
@Alain the site fixer: We understand and appreciate it. But complaining is sort of in the jackal DNA.
Yarrow
Maybe real news this time?
burnspbesq
Cohen is pleading to eight counts, per Andrew Denney of NYLJ.
jacy
@TenguPhule:
I thought Trump said coal was indestructible……
MSNBC saying this minute that Manafort Jury has reached a verdict on 8 of the 18 counts.
Yarrow
Ugh. Wonder what that means.
MattF
@Yarrow: I’d guess that indictments of any of those would lead directly to a pardon-in-advance.
Cheryl Rofer
In other news,
JPL
@Corner Stone: Crap..
Dorothy A. Winsor
Someone on Nicole Wallace is saying the Manafort jury has reached a verdict on 8 counts. That’s way lower than I hoped.
satby
@Corner Stone: wow, it’s like you were there!
Cheryl Rofer
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.
burnspbesq
@Corner Stone:
Not surprising. He goes down on the tax and FBAR charges and jury deadlocks on loan fraud.
Yarrow
@Cheryl Rofer: Who is that person and how do they know?
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.
JPL
Does anyone know how many charges of tax fraud compared to bank fraud?
zhena gogolia
@burnspbesq:
Because of the judge saying that thing about talk about a loan he did get?
Cheryl Rofer
For Cohen
Mnemosyne
@Yarrow:
Hmm. “Couldn’t reach a consensus” is not the same as “not guilty,” so that seems like a small plus.
Radiumgirl
REport I saw was jury decided 8 counts, deadlocked on 10 — didn’t say whether they found him guilty or not.
Cheryl Rofer
@Yarrow: I agree that is doubtful. I haven’t seen it confirmed.
TenguPhule
@Yarrow:
Trump supporter on the jury, most likely.
Frankensteinbeck
@Tim C.:
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.
JPL
Trump might have his rally cry. The feds are holding a possible illegal immigrant in the murder of Mollie Tibbetts.
JPL
@TenguPhule: Or anti tax person.
James E Powell
@Cheryl Rofer:
Is there a source for who says the 8 verdicts are guilty?
Frankensteinbeck
@Cheryl Rofer:
Aaaaand justice takes a bow.
TenguPhule
@JPL:
They convicted him on the tax charges.
cain
@JPL:
“We’ve always had a distant relationship. We’ve hardly even interacted all that much over the years.”
TenguPhule
@Frankensteinbeck:
did you mean blow?
Cheryl Rofer
@James E Powell: I am not seeing that confirmed. Would delete if the control panel were still there.
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.
oldgold
guilty
JPL
Guilty of tax fraud
TenguPhule
@JPL:
Possible suspect. Not that Trump will care about the niceities.
Central Park V: Part II.
Yarrow
Manafort guilty on eight counts!
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.
JPL
Not an anti-tax person.. . five charges of tax fraud
JPL
guilty on 8 counts .. Not sure why not the rest.
Cheryl Rofer
And a little more news…
randy khan
@Yarrow:
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.
raven
Xin Loi motherfucker!
zhena gogolia
@burnspbesq:
So you didn’t think the judge was inappropriate?
Cheryl Rofer
This seems to be real.
eric
Online Poll: Worse day:
(1) Manafort
(2) Cohen
(3) Trump
Corner Stone
…I’m sorry. Motherfucker says what?!
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.
JPL
@Corner Stone: I wondered what happened to her, and now we know. She likes attention also.
Cheryl Rofer
zhena gogolia
@Corner Stone:
“If golden showers / Should come your way . . .” (don’t know how to do musical-note emoji)
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.
Quinerly
@Cheryl Rofer: TPM has the details up.
dmsilev
Man, I love Infrastructure Week.
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.
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?
zhena gogolia
@zhena gogolia:
Should be “Though golden showers”
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.
zhena gogolia
@Chyron HR:
I thought they didn’t convict him on bank fraud, but on not revealing foreign bank account. But what do I know.
Yarrow
Tick tock, motherfucker!
Cheryl Rofer
womp womp
LAO
Just remember fellow jackals, acquitted conduct can be used to enhance a sentence.
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.
Cheryl Rofer
Catching up to Yarrow. (No edit function)
LAO
@LAO: or conduct that results in a mistrial
Yarrow
@Cheryl Rofer: Great minds!
zhena gogolia
@Yarrow:
ooooh, blya!
trollhattan
Holy fvcking shyte, it’s Mueller Time!
James E Powell
@Cheryl Rofer:
Now it’s official. слава богу за это!
Cheryl Rofer
Bracing for incoming tweets
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?
MattF
@Mike in NC: Maybe checking to see what small countries Roger Stone has been visiting lately.
lamh36
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.
Yarrow
AT THE DIRECTION OF THE FEDERAL CANDIDATE!!!!
Tick fucking tock!
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.
trollhattan
@Mike in NC:
Do we have any medical schools on small Caribbean islands these days? I understand the students frequently need a hand.
burnspbesq
@zhena gogolia:
Judge Ellis was a dick. It’s impossible to know whether his antics had an effect on the verdict.
lamh36
randy khan
@Cheryl Rofer:
Interesting that he was convicted of the two bank fraud counts, but that the jury hung on the two related conspiracy counts.
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.
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.
Yarrow
This day is fucking nuts. Love it. Guilty, guilty, guilty!
LAO
@Yarrow: holy shit!
p.a.
Couple more blocks removed from the Jenga Adminitration.
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.
Corner Stone
Avenatti is living his best life.
Cheryl Rofer
Mike E
How do you like Mueller now, Newt?
https://twitter.com/newtgingrich/status/864998445244743684
zhena gogolia
Chtob vse eti podonki popali v tiurmiu!!!!
Corner Stone
@Yarrow: You’re missing 13 more “Guilty’s”
Caring and sensitive
I usually lurk, but wanted to jump in to say how delighted I am with today’s developments
Anonymous At Work
@Corner Stone: It’s a close contest between Cohen and Omorosa for “Recording Artist of the Year”
rikyrah
they can retry on the mistrial counts, correct?
TenguPhule
@Adam L Silverman:
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?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
And Manafort is facing another upcoming trial on VA state charges, no ?
zhena gogolia
@rikyrah:
Yes.
randy khan
@Cheryl Rofer:
What are a couple of felonies between friends?
zhena gogolia
@zhena gogolia:
I mean tiurmu
Cermet
This IS a big deal as per the Post:
So by saying he is guilty of campaign finance law, he has directly involved the orange fart cloud.
Adam L Silverman
@Dorothy A. Winsor: I just did the post on that. Paulie is going to die in prison! And they haven’t even gotten to the second trial yet.
JPL
There’s just too much news today. Can’t we save some for Friday, or is it possible they are.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I’m trying to catch up and lost the edit button: “Mistrial” means “hung jury” in this case?
TenguPhule
@MCA1:
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.
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.
trollhattan
@Cheryl Rofer:
Perfect!
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.
TenguPhule
@Mike in NC:
Failing that, he’ll attack Iran and North Korea at the same time.
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.
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.
waysel
Hooray!!!!!
randy khan
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
I don’t know about Virginia, but he’s facing a different set of federal charges in D.C., which, as they say, is a less favorable venue for him.
patroclus
They’re all a bunch of treasonous Republican liars. Lock them up! Lock them up!
Jeffro
@PaulWartenberg:
Serious answer: there will not be a Trumpov 2020 campaign. I’d (almost) bet my life on it.
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.
sdhays
@Adam L Silverman:
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?
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.
TenguPhule
@Adam L Silverman:
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.
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,
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.
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.
Adam L Silverman
@Cheryl Rofer: David Pecker is going to be arrested in short order.
JeffH
I can’t believe no one has done this yet.
Sez Who?!?
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.
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.
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.
Adam L Silverman
@Cermet: See the next post.
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!! ?
Adam L Silverman
@sdhays: I think Judge Ellis was having some issues over the past several weeks.
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.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: okay, “don’t risk fucking up an important trial” etc
Mary G
Just saw the front page of the Fridge Report on Twitter:
In big red letters.
TenguPhule
@Adam L Silverman:
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.
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.
Mary G
@Mary G: Ugh, no edit. Drudge report stupid Autocorrect.
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?
TenguPhule
@smintheus:
No.
J R in WV
@Yarrow:
Tick, tock, tick tock, BONG! BONG! BONG! BONG! BONG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!……
tick, tock,
Ka-BOOM !
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.
eemom
@Adam L Silverman: @TenguPhule:
Wow, what a role reversal.
cain
@JPL:
What is this? The Tale of Genji? They pass more notes that the medieval Japanese aristocracy.
eemom
@TenguPhule:
What do you mean by “blind spot”?
Adam L Silverman
@Robert Sneddon: @TenguPhule: Here. Look at the damn picture at the link – he’s holding the fucking wreath for the Black September terrorists!
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2018/aug/13/jeremy-corbyn-not-involved-munich-olympics-massacre-wreath-laying
TenguPhule
@eemom:
Adam doesn’t usually get it wrong, but when he does, its a doozy.
EM
He can’t be pardoned. The SDNY is charging him. It’s not federal.
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).
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.