Indictment-O-Rama, Act 3: Cohen Up the River

[Koharu]

Donnie the Crook in full panic mode this morning:

"Trump launches Twitter offensive before Mueller filings on Russia inquiry"

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If by "offensive" you mean a V-2 barrage.

Psst, two pistons can't make a V. Besides, he's more like a lawn mower; noisy and single cylinder. Two cylinder tractors are way cool than he is.

[Koharu]

Lawfare's take on the filings and Trump's tweet.

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[Koharu]

Sullivan really let him have it. It sounds like he thinks that the prosecution could (and should?) have pressed for treason with Flynn? I'm not sure on that though, by missing the in-person body language and the like.

I do agree that of all involved, Flynn knew exactly what he was doing.

[Koharu]

Sullivan also walked back his comments.

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https://www.cnn.com/2018/12/18/politics/michael-flynn-sentencing-mueller-russia-probe/index.html

[Koharu]

Question on this front:

How would a general emergency declaration affect the Mueller investigation? Would Trump have more power to possibly end it? Could this, in addition to being a play to keep his base happy, be an attempt to alleviate the growing legal pressure he's under?

[Koharu]

Why everyone seems so sure that Mueller will drop something big by the end of the week?

Personally, I hadn't heard any thing like that. However, between the Supreme Court ruling and today's announcement Rod Rosenstein is likely stepping down soon,....

Yeah, I haven't heard anything along those lines, either. But with Rosenstein stepping down, I expect Mueller to perhaps wrap things up before someone else can try to stick their finger in the pudding.

[Koharu]

Could Trump get the death penalty?

It's pretty unlikely, IMO. I doubt that there will be actual treason charges, and that would be the charge that would come with that sentence.

[Koharu]

https://twitter.com/MarshallCohen/status/1085213762255228934

Sounds like Rosenstein might be at DOJ for a bit longer yet.

[Koharu]

I am a bit surprised that this leaked. However, if Trump is thinking about an emergency declaration, the news around this may push him towards it, and that overreach of power combined with this information would possibly make Congress more willing to proceed with impeachment. Otherwise it surprises me to see such an important piece of information leak, as we are apparently getting closer to the end of investigation.

Hmm. Perhaps we're not as close to the end as some are insinuating, especially considering the request for extension on sentencing that Mueller asked for, and this is a strategic leak to show that it is not a baseless investigation and there will be more to come.

[Koharu]

This is quietly the most pressing legal issue that Trump is facing but the NY state apellate court gave Summer Zervos (contestant from The Apprentice who says Trump kissed her without her consent) the go ahead to continue discovery on her defamation case. He’s likely going to have to sit for a sworn deposition by June

Well, at least that's something. I'm pretty dang upset at Pelosi for saying they're not going to do impeachment, so at least someone somewhere possibly holding Trump accountable for something is encouraging.

[Koharu]

It's basically over now. Trump played the democrats for over two years. This investigation backfired horribly for the democrats, they spent much of their political capitol on this, now they wont have any talking points about Russia in 2020. And the funny thing is, I and a whole bunch of other people already knew this way before, but we got called conspiracy theorists, trolls or Trump hacks.

Gosh, AG Barr, that's a rather partisan statement for someone from the DoJ. Unless you have some other way of knowing what's in the report, that is. :)

[Koharu]

A federal judge has ordered that Cohen must be released by tomorrow afternoon.

Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein, in a 36-minute tele-hearing Thursday, found that returning Cohen from home confinement to jail was "retaliatory," that it punished Cohen "because of his desire to exercise his first amendment rights to publish a book and to discuss anything about the book or anything else he wants on social media and with others."

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/michael-cohen-prison-release-judge-rules/#app