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

[brucejoel99]

But the investigation is still ongoing; Mueller is getting convictions and flip witness. Trump could do a lot more if he was so inclined. Like have the Special Counsel's Office mysteriously catch ablaze.

We have no idea what Whitaker is doing behind the scenes, though, do we?

Whitaker is getting briefed on major developments, but that's it (he has no authority or input). Rosenstein is still supervising.

Yeah, despite becoming Acting AG several weeks ago & technically taking over supervision of Mueller's probe, Whitaker has actually yet to still be briefed on the details of the investigation & has left supervision of Mueller's day-to-day operations to Rosenstein. And per federal regulations, Rosenstein must inform Whitaker of major developments in the Mueller probe, meaning he'll soon be briefed on more of what Mueller has uncovered.

[brucejoel99]

I was watching the news the other day, and one of the hosts mentioned that if Roger Stone were to be convicted of all counts, the sentencing guideline will be 1 year. That has to be way too low, isn't obstruction and lying to congress very serious offenses in their own right? There is also the other 5 indictments. I was figuring Stone could be looking at a Paul Manafort type sentence if convicted.

Stone would probably be looking at a minimum 3 1/2 - 4 years under the sentencing guidelines, especially in light of the witness tampering charge. 

Yeah, pretty much this. Stone is looking at 24-30 months for lying to Congress if convicted, w/ the kicker being the witness tampering charge, which could up the range to 41-51 months. Roger's definitely looking at a long stretch behind bars.

[brucejoel99]

Does Flynn's felony conviction mean that he'd lose his military rank?

There's no obligation for Flynn to surrender such a service-related privilege despite his status as an admitted criminal, so no.

[brucejoel99]

Uhhh a judge just released over fifty pages of texts between Manafort and Hannity after Manafort's conviction.

Elmo?

Can you explain the significance of this, please.

https://www.politico.com/f/?id=0000016b-7bc0-dc80-a3ff-fbfc6d6f0000

Here’s the pdf. Idk if this is actually bad in a legal sense but it’s highly unethical at least.

What's surprising to me is that these texts seem to indicate that Hannity actually believes the BS he spews, rather than it all just being an act that he puts on because he knows it's easy money.

[brucejoel99]

https://twitter.com/KlasfeldReports/status/1180216434124820485

Question for our resident lawyers: can they do that?

Yeah, because there are certain aspects of law (such as the expiration of a stay) where, if a judge doesn't rule, then the request for relief in question will be deemed to have been denied. Now, whether their plan works, or whether it's a wise idea to piss off their judge to the maximum extent possible, is another matter.

[brucejoel99]

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

You know our country is f**ked when we're forced to root for a complete asshole like Michael Cohen.