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flockofseagulls104 wrote:

silverscreenselect wrote:

Bob78164 wrote:I'm certain of it. There's a large penalty for scandals (14 points, as I recall), and a federal indictment of this nature fits comfortably within Nate's deposition. That district is now in play. --Bob

Cook's political forecast has already moved this race from Solid Republican to Lean Republican.

MPM

silverscreenselect wrote:

flockofseagulls104 wrote:

silverscreenselect wrote:
Cook's political forecast has already moved this race from Solid Republican to Lean Republican.

MPM

The Cook Political Report is one of the most acclaimed and respected political trackers out there. It's non-partisan and has an excellent reputation. It does not have an agenda, other than to be as up-to-date and accurate as possible.

You, on the other hand, consistently display an agenda of ignoring and trying to disparage anything and anyone that doesn't comport with your preconceived view of events. I'm waiting for you to lecture us on how the "fake news" mainstream media was wrong about Michael Cohen all these months.

flockofseagulls104 wrote: trump's payments to the playboy bunny and the porn actress had nothing to do with the campaign. He has the ability to keep his personal business totally separate from his job performance, just like Peter Strzok and Lisa Page.

silverscreenselect wrote:

flockofseagulls104 wrote: trump's payments to the playboy bunny and the porn actress had nothing to do with the campaign. He has the ability to keep his personal business totally separate from his job performance, just like Peter Strzok and Lisa Page.

. Some politicians can keep their personal business totally separate from the job. Others cannot. Just ask Duncan Hunter. Using campaign funds to pay off former lovers is against federal law. That's what Cohen pled guilty to. And to say they had nothing to do with the campaign is also ridiculous. Anything that calls into question the character of one of the candidates can become an issue

If this is the only evidence against Trump, I don't think the Democrats should or will go forward with impeachment. But I'm sure there's a whole lot more that Mueller simply hasn't put on the table yet.

Trump's greatest asset is the fact that he surrounded himself with sleazeballs, so that when they turn against him, their character is already deeply in question.

silverscreenselect wrote:Using campaign funds to pay off former lovers is against federal law. That's what Cohen pled guilty to.

Bob78164 wrote:

silverscreenselect wrote:Using campaign funds to pay off former lovers is against federal law. That's what Cohen pled guilty to.

Actually, you have this exactly backwards. If they'd used campaign funds, it would have been legal. (Of course, then they'd have had to report the expenditure.) What made it a crime is that the payoff was a disguised campaign contribution that was larger than the legal limit, and one that came from a corporation (corporations aren't allowed to contribute to candidates).

The Hunters have been charged with the much more pedestrian offense of using campaign funds to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in personal lifestyle expenses. --Bob

CNBC wrote:At the direction of a "federal candidate," Cohen said, he facilitated payments on two occasions to two women in order to keep information from the public for the purposes of winning an election.

In a press release, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York said Cohen had pleaded guilty for facilitating payments to prevent two women from discussing their "alleged affairs with a presidential candidate, thereby intending to influence the 2016 presidential election."

Bob Juch wrote:

Bob78164 wrote:

silverscreenselect wrote:Using campaign funds to pay off former lovers is against federal law. That's what Cohen pled guilty to.

Actually, you have this exactly backwards. If they'd used campaign funds, it would have been legal. (Of course, then they'd have had to report the expenditure.) What made it a crime is that the payoff was a disguised campaign contribution that was larger than the legal limit, and one that came from a corporation (corporations aren't allowed to contribute to candidates).

The Hunters have been charged with the much more pedestrian offense of using campaign funds to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in personal lifestyle expenses. --Bob

I have not seen the text of the charge. However...

CNBC wrote:At the direction of a "federal candidate," Cohen said, he facilitated payments on two occasions to two women in order to keep information from the public for the purposes of winning an election.

In a press release, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York said Cohen had pleaded guilty for facilitating payments to prevent two women from discussing their "alleged affairs with a presidential candidate, thereby intending to influence the 2016 presidential election."

Bob Juch wrote:

Bob78164 wrote:

silverscreenselect wrote:Using campaign funds to pay off former lovers is against federal law. That's what Cohen pled guilty to.

Actually, you have this exactly backwards. If they'd used campaign funds, it would have been legal. (Of course, then they'd have had to report the expenditure.) What made it a crime is that the payoff was a disguised campaign contribution that was larger than the legal limit, and one that came from a corporation (corporations aren't allowed to contribute to candidates).

The Hunters have been charged with the much more pedestrian offense of using campaign funds to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in personal lifestyle expenses. --Bob

I have not seen the text of the charge. However...

CNBC wrote:At the direction of a "federal candidate," Cohen said, he facilitated payments on two occasions to two women in order to keep information from the public for the purposes of winning an election.

In a press release, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York said Cohen had pleaded guilty for facilitating payments to prevent two women from discussing their "alleged affairs with a presidential candidate, thereby intending to influence the 2016 presidential election."

flockofseagulls104 wrote:trump's payments to the playboy bunny and the porn actress had nothing to do with the campaign. He has the ability to keep his personal business totally separate from his job performance, just like Peter Strzok and Lisa Page.

CNBC wrote:Buried in the legal documents released Tuesday as part of Cohen's guilty plea on eight felony counts, there was a new, previously unreported payment Cohen made in 2016 to help Trump: $50,000 for work that prosecutors say Cohen "solicited from a technology company during and in connection with the campaign."

The documents do not identify which tech company Cohen paid the money to, or what, exactly, the company did for him. But the mere existence of the previously unknown payment suggests that Cohen may have been doing more for Trump, and for the Trump campaign, than simply paying off women.

Furthermore, the way that Cohen reported the $50,000 expense to the Trump Organization in January 2017 suggests the money may not have been paid out through traditional financial channels.

According to prosecutors, Cohen presented Trump executives with bank records for several of the expenses he incurred on Trump's behalf. But for his $50,000 payment to a tech company, Cohen provided no paperwork, just a handwritten sum at the top of one of the other bank documents.

The Trump Organization would later say that the $50,000 was a "payment for tech services." However, prosecutors say the $50,000 "was in fact related to work Cohen had solicited from a technology company during and in connection with the campaign."

A spokesman for the Trump Organization did not respond to questions from CNBC Wednesday about the payment. Trump's campaign, likewise, did not answer questions about whether it knew Cohen had paid a tech company $50,000 to aid in Trump's election bid.

silverscreenselect wrote:And the hits keep coming.

Congressman Duncan Hunter and his wife have just been indicted on campaign finance violations.

https://www.cnn.com/2018/08/21/politics ... l?adkey=bn

silverscreenselect wrote:

silverscreenselect wrote:And the hits keep coming.

Congressman Duncan Hunter and his wife have just been indicted on campaign finance violations.

https://www.cnn.com/2018/08/21/politics ... l?adkey=bn

I've seen the 47-page indictment. The Hunters make Manafort look like a mere amateur. They've been indicted on 60 different counts, but according to Hunter, it's all part of the Deep State conspiracy to get at him as a supporter of Trump.

flockofseagulls104 wrote:

silverscreenselect wrote:

Bob78164 wrote:I'm certain of it. There's a large penalty for scandals (14 points, as I recall), and a federal indictment of this nature fits comfortably within Nate's deposition. That district is now in play. --Bob

Cook's political forecast has already moved this race from Solid Republican to Lean Republican.

MPM

Ritterskoop wrote:My sense is that Democratic party leadership is saying to its candidates not to pay attention to impeachment talk right now. Concentrate on the midterm elections.

I agree that's where their energy is best spent, for the goals they have.

I think if John McCain were not sick, we would be having different conversations in the Senate about a lot of issues right now, but no one is really filling that role. Most folks are simply waiting.

flockofseagulls104 wrote:

Ritterskoop wrote:My sense is that Democratic party leadership is saying to its candidates not to pay attention to impeachment talk right now. Concentrate on the midterm elections.

I agree that's where their energy is best spent, for the goals they have.

I think if John McCain were not sick, we would be having different conversations in the Senate about a lot of issues right now, but no one is really filling that role. Most folks are simply waiting.

Just wait if the democrats get control of the House. ALL they will do is investigate, charge, impugn, have hearings and drum up outrage on any subject they can think of. You think it's a circus now? Get ready. This is what bob-tel is dreaming of.

silverscreenselect wrote:And the hits keep coming.

Congressman Duncan Hunter and his wife have just been indicted on campaign finance violations.

https://www.cnn.com/2018/08/21/politics ... l?adkey=bn

[Hunter blamed] the alleged misuse of his campaign funds on his wife, who was also his campaign manager, as he claimed during a Fox News interview that he is innocent, but “whatever she did” will “be looked at” by prosecutors. “She handled my finances throughout my entire military career, and that continued on when I got into Congress,” Duncan told Martha MacCallum last night. “She was also the campaign manager, so whatever she did, that’ll be looked at too, I’m sure,” he said. “But I didn’t do it. I didn’t spend any money illegally.”

silverscreenselect wrote:Thirty-six months in jail (the prosecutors wanted five years).

As an aside, has anyone else ever looked as guilty as Michael Cohen does in every single picture?

silverscreenselect wrote:Maria Butina pleads guilty in Federal Court today to conspiracy against the U.S. Both she and the National Enquirer will be cooperating with prosecutors.

I am eager to hear Tump's and Flock's denials: "No smocking gun."