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

[Silent Hunter]

Can we change this to Impeachment-O-Rama now?

[GeorgiaModerate]

Can we change this to Impeachment-O-Rama now?

There should certainly be a stickied impeachment megathread, whether it's this one or a merge of the existing Ukraine/impeachment threads.

[Person Man]

Can we change this to Impeachment-O-Rama now?

There should certainly be a stickied impeachment megathread, whether it's this one or a merge of the existing Ukraine/impeachment threads.

Yeah. The Cohen stuff is old.

[Frodo]

President Trump may have lied to Mueller, House Democrats say

Lawyers for the House of Representatives revealed on Monday that they have reason to believe that the grand-jury redactions in special counsel Robert Mueller’s report show that President Donald Trump lied about his knowledge of his campaign’s contacts with WikiLeaks.

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

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

[GeorgiaModerate]

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

Question for our resident lawyers: can they do that?

[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.

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

Email Leak Exposes Trump Tower Russian’s Dirty Lobbying Operations

The Russian lawyer who took part in the infamous Trump Tower meeting with senior Trump campaign officials was part of a secretive campaign on American soil that—according to the emails—may also have involved contempt of court and the violation of lobbying laws. She already has been indicted by the Southern District of New York on obstruction of justice charges.

A cache of emails obtained by the Dossier Center, which is a Russian opposition organization based in London, exposes the depth of foreign asset entanglement in Trump’s America at the precise moment that the president’s dealings with Ukrainian officials threaten to pull the Department of Justice and State Department into an unseemly impeachment fight. 

There's a lot to unpack here, and none of it seems quite Elmo-worthy, although my standards for that may be getting jaded. But the leaked emails do include this gem:


In 2017 Sessions told Congress, under oath, that he'd never discussed the Maginsky Act. I suppose its always possible the emailer is lying to Veselnitskaya.

[Chancellor Tanterterg]

Email Leak Exposes Trump Tower Russian’s Dirty Lobbying Operations

The Russian lawyer who took part in the infamous Trump Tower meeting with senior Trump campaign officials was part of a secretive campaign on American soil that—according to the emails—may also have involved contempt of court and the violation of lobbying laws. She already has been indicted by the Southern District of New York on obstruction of justice charges.

A cache of emails obtained by the Dossier Center, which is a Russian opposition organization based in London, exposes the depth of foreign asset entanglement in Trump’s America at the precise moment that the president’s dealings with Ukrainian officials threaten to pull the Department of Justice and State Department into an unseemly impeachment fight.  

There's a lot to unpack here, and none of it seems quite Elmo-worthy, although my standards for that may be getting jaded. But the leaked emails do include this gem:


In 2017 Sessions told Congress, under oath, that he'd never discussed the Maginsky Act. I suppose its always possible the emailer is lying to Veselnitskaya.

Big if true, but I'll wait for confirmation from another source.

[Badger]

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.

Agreed. That said, though, I'm not aware of any statute setting a deadline on such a pending motion for this Monday, nor any other legal mechanism that allows a party to unilaterally set a deadline for a court like that.

I'm likewise unaware of any prohibition on the Court responding with "I'M the judge here, so you'll get a ruling by (insert at least semi-reasonable date anytime after Monday), and if you unilaterally take action on this in the meantime you'll be hit with legal repercussions including but not limited to Contempt of Court".

[GeorgiaModerate]

https://twitter.com/kylegriffin1/status/1181192656476659714

[Person Man]

https://twitter.com/kylegriffin1/status/1181192656476659714

He still can appeal, right?

[emailking]

He still can appeal, right?

Yes, and a stay was approved already.

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

He still can appeal, right?

Yes, and a stay was approved already.

Amazing how quick Mr. Trump and his muppeteers are to make sure that those taxes he would just love to release if he could don't actually get released.

[Person Man]

He still can appeal, right?

Yes, and a stay was approved already.

Thank goodness its the Second Circuit.

[Gass3268]

Considering this thread is more about Ruissiagate:

https://twitter.com/hsu_spencer/status/1181602530826035200?s=20

[GeorgiaModerate]

https://twitter.com/dnvolz/status/1182287448447041536

[QAnonKelly]

Pete Sessions needs to get a lawyer ASAP

[Silent Hunter]

I see the latest indictment involves retail marijuana dispensaries.

Cannabis Elmo?

[riceowl]

He still can appeal, right?

Yes, and a stay was approved already.

Appeal has lost. Or is this a different case? https://twitter.com/MSNBC/status/1182665863029297155

[emailking]

I believe different? One is to give records to New York State and one is to give records to the House.

[Skye]

https://twitter.com/mkraju/status/1182767393937993730

Literally "Rudy who" lmao.

[Pouring Rain and Blairing Music]

https://twitter.com/mkraju/status/1182767393937993730

Literally "Rudy who" lmao.

Rudy Wholiani

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

Deutsche Bank Might Have Destroyed Physical Copies of Trump's Tax Returns, Cleansed Servers, Claims Former Executive

Congress is investigating Trump's finances and attempting to get hold of his tax returns from Deutsche. But the bank told the 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals that it did not hold them.

David Enrich, finance editor at The New York Times, posted to Twitter a screenshot of his conversation with the unnamed executive in which they expressed surprise that Deutsche told a federal appeals court it did not have the president's tax returns anymore.

"Holy f**k," the executive wrote, per the screenshot. "The circumstance could be that they returned any physical copies or destroyed any physical copies under an agreement with a client and cleansed their servers. Not normal though."

And, while not new, let us remember: https://twitter.com/PGourevitch/status/1012529698319032322

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

Prosecutors flag that DOJ is not in sync with Trump on tax returns claim

Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. highlighted the disagreement Tuesday in a brief filed with a federal appeals court considering a suit Trump filed to block a grand jury subpoena issued to one of his accounting firms, Mazars USA.

“Given the DOJ’s own recent investigations, prosecutions, and convictions involving Appellant and his affiliates, including the prosecution of Michael Cohen, in which Appellant was referenced as an unindicted co-conspirator, the DOJ cannot (and does not) join in Appellant’s claim to an absolute immunity,” Vance and his colleagues wrote in a submission to the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. “Appellant’s aggressive immunity claim here is particularly hollow in view of his failure to raise it in these recent investigations and prosecutions.”