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When evaluating Trump lawyer Michael Cohen's https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2018/02/14/longtime-trump-attorney-says-he-made-130000-payment-to-stormy-daniels-with-his-money/?hpid=hp_rhp-top-table-main_cohen-daniels-1245am%3Ahomepage%2Fstory (new admission that he paid porn star Stormy Daniels $130,000) with his own money, it's worth focusing on what he doesn't deny: Namely, that President Trump had anything to do with it.
In a statement first reported by the New York Times and also shared with The Washington Post, Cohen says for the first time that he paid Daniels. The Wall Street Journal had first reported the payment as hush money to keep the adult-film actress from disclosing the alleged affair, but thus far nobody else had confirmed the payment existed. Cohen's hand was apparently forced by the watchdog group Common Cause, which last month announced https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2018/01/22/watchdog-group-files-complaint-against-trump-campaign-over-reported-payout-to-stormy-daniels/?utm_term=.0f6c6bff9cad (it was filing a complaint) arguing that Cohen's $130,000 payment could be construed as an illegal 2016 campaign contribution.
You might notice there is one main Trump-related entity which Cohen doesn't deny was “party to the transaction” or reimbursed Cohen, and that's Trump himself.
It's difficult to dismiss that as a coincidence, given Cohen is a lawyer and has carefully parsed his comments throughout this situation. Cohen has regularly offered what seemed to be denials but didn't totally deny the details of what the Journal had reported.
A BLART ON THE BACKGROUND
https://claytoonz.com/2018/02/14/a-blart-on-the-background/
During the presidential campaign, and repeated as a deflection from Trump corruption ever since, Republicans argued that Hillary Clinton wasn’t fit to be president because she potentially exposed classified information on her email server. This week, the what-about-her-emails crowd has more complaints about the Obama portraits than the lackadaisical attitude Donald Trump has toward classified information.
We knew for a while that Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and unqualified to do any job in the White House, has yet to be cleared for a security clearance. What was revealed from the Rob Porter scandal, other than Trump and John Kelly don’t take domestic violence seriously, is that there are many people working in the White House without a “permanent” security clearance.
First, there isn’t an actual permanent clearance. Every individual is subject to continuous evaluation and some clearances expire depending on the level. The FBI conducts the background checks. For secret and top-secret clearances, the White House has its own Office of Security that makes the decision on who gets clearance. For access to what is called Sensitive Compartmented Information (SCI), which is the highest level of classified information, that is done by one or more of the intelligence agencies, and usually, it’s the CIA with the White House. The White House Office of Security is run by career staff and not by political appointees. Jared has access to the highest level of classified info.
Sometimes, a clearance isn’t given because the FBI is having trouble finding information, and they believe there are holes, or they’re finding a lot of sketchy and questionable stuff, like wife-beating or in Jared’s case, lying on his forms.
How does a White House staffer keep his job with access to classified information without a clean report from the FBI? The Office of Security may grant temporary clearance, as they’re probably doing in the over 40 cases in the White House right now, or the president can use his Constitutional authority to order them to grant clearance (and we don’t know if that’s happened), or the White House may just ignore it altogether. That’s what’s happening in this case, and after it’s exposed, they lie and blame the FBI.
Tuesday, FBI director Christopher Wray told Congress that the FBI completed Rob Porter’s background investigation last July and closed it in January. As we know, Porter continued to work in the White House. Sarah Huckabee Sanders had claimed that they first learned of the accusations against Porter last week and that White House Counsel Don McGahn and Chief of Staff John Kelly were not informed previously. She also said that “the White House had not received any specific papers regarding the completion of that background check” by the time of Porter’s resignation. She said the White House Security Office felt the FBI’s report required more field investigation, though the FBI had closed its background check on Porter. Sanders was caught lying. I’m not sure she’s aware of that yet.
Trump promised us he’d hire the best people. He hasn’t even hired a Spokesgoon smart enough to know that you don’t lie about the FBI the day the FBI Director is testifying in front of Congress.
Trump also defended Porter and said he, and every man accused of beating a woman, deserves “due process.” I think a year-long background investigation by the FBI, who then reports that the guy is a wife beater, can be considered due process.
Trump campaigned arguing that we couldn’t trust our nation’s secrets with Hillary Clinton. After he won the election, the Obama administration was concerned about how much to tell Trump and his transition team because our intelligence sources knew there were Russian moles in the Trump campaign.
Obama warned Trump not to hire Michael Flynn. Trump hired Michael Flynn. Obama’s National Security Adviser, Susan Rice, had to find a way to work around providing information to her successor while knowing he was corrupted by the Russians.
After he became president, Trump invited the Russian ambassador, foreign minister, and their camera team into the Oval Office because Putin told him to. During that visit, Trump revealed classified information to them that was provided by an ally.
Then, Trump released the Nunes FISA memo over the objections of the Justice Department and the FBI.
Finally, Trump has unverified people working with classified information in the White House. Some of these people are susceptible to blackmail.
Congress needs a hearing to find out why so many people are working in the White House without clearances, who they are, and what level of classified information they have been granted access to. The Bush and Obama administrations didn’t suffer from these scandals, but then again, they didn’t staff their administrations with a bunch of wife-beaters and loan sharks.
The problem starts at the top. Donald Trump doesn’t hire the best people. In fact, he hires the worst people. The fact is we elected a guy who couldn’t pass the FBI background check.
The real problem is we elected the worst person.
https://claytoonz.com/2018/02/14/a-blart-on-the-background/
During the presidential campaign, and repeated as a deflection from Trump corruption ever since, Republicans argued that Hillary Clinton wasn’t fit to be president because she potentially exposed classified information on her email server. This week, the what-about-her-emails crowd has more complaints about the Obama portraits than the lackadaisical attitude Donald Trump has toward classified information.
We knew for a while that Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and unqualified to do any job in the White House, has yet to be cleared for a security clearance. What was revealed from the Rob Porter scandal, other than Trump and John Kelly don’t take domestic violence seriously, is that there are many people working in the White House without a “permanent” security clearance.
First, there isn’t an actual permanent clearance. Every individual is subject to continuous evaluation and some clearances expire depending on the level. The FBI conducts the background checks. For secret and top-secret clearances, the White House has its own Office of Security that makes the decision on who gets clearance. For access to what is called Sensitive Compartmented Information (SCI), which is the highest level of classified information, that is done by one or more of the intelligence agencies, and usually, it’s the CIA with the White House. The White House Office of Security is run by career staff and not by political appointees. Jared has access to the highest level of classified info.
Sometimes, a clearance isn’t given because the FBI is having trouble finding information, and they believe there are holes, or they’re finding a lot of sketchy and questionable stuff, like wife-beating or in Jared’s case, lying on his forms.
How does a White House staffer keep his job with access to classified information without a clean report from the FBI? The Office of Security may grant temporary clearance, as they’re probably doing in the over 40 cases in the White House right now, or the president can use his Constitutional authority to order them to grant clearance (and we don’t know if that’s happened), or the White House may just ignore it altogether. That’s what’s happening in this case, and after it’s exposed, they lie and blame the FBI.
Tuesday, FBI director Christopher Wray told Congress that the FBI completed Rob Porter’s background investigation last July and closed it in January. As we know, Porter continued to work in the White House. Sarah Huckabee Sanders had claimed that they first learned of the accusations against Porter last week and that White House Counsel Don McGahn and Chief of Staff John Kelly were not informed previously. She also said that “the White House had not received any specific papers regarding the completion of that background check” by the time of Porter’s resignation. She said the White House Security Office felt the FBI’s report required more field investigation, though the FBI had closed its background check on Porter. Sanders was caught lying. I’m not sure she’s aware of that yet.
Trump promised us he’d hire the best people. He hasn’t even hired a Spokesgoon smart enough to know that you don’t lie about the FBI the day the FBI Director is testifying in front of Congress.
Trump also defended Porter and said he, and every man accused of beating a woman, deserves “due process.” I think a year-long background investigation by the FBI, who then reports that the guy is a wife beater, can be considered due process.
Trump campaigned arguing that we couldn’t trust our nation’s secrets with Hillary Clinton. After he won the election, the Obama administration was concerned about how much to tell Trump and his transition team because our intelligence sources knew there were Russian moles in the Trump campaign.
Obama warned Trump not to hire Michael Flynn. Trump hired Michael Flynn. Obama’s National Security Adviser, Susan Rice, had to find a way to work around providing information to her successor while knowing he was corrupted by the Russians.
After he became president, Trump invited the Russian ambassador, foreign minister, and their camera team into the Oval Office because Putin told him to. During that visit, Trump revealed classified information to them that was provided by an ally.
Then, Trump released the Nunes FISA memo over the objections of the Justice Department and the FBI.
Finally, Trump has unverified people working with classified information in the White House. Some of these people are susceptible to blackmail.
Congress needs a hearing to find out why so many people are working in the White House without clearances, who they are, and what level of classified information they have been granted access to. The Bush and Obama administrations didn’t suffer from these scandals, but then again, they didn’t staff their administrations with a bunch of wife-beaters and loan sharks.
The problem starts at the top. Donald Trump doesn’t hire the best people. In fact, he hires the worst people. The fact is we elected a guy who couldn’t pass the FBI background check.
The real problem is we elected the worst person.
President Donald Trump stood in the well of the House chamber on the penultimate night of January and spoke about http://www.rollcall.com/news/politics/reality-check-trumps-sotu-vision-blurred-congress (undocumented immigrants with his familiar rhetoric).
During his first State of the Union address, the “America first” president lambasted the country’s immigration laws, saying they have for too long “allowed drugs and gangs to pour into our most vulnerable communities,” cost poor Americans jobs, and “caused the loss of many innocent lives.”
Trump — along with his chief of staff and top domestic policy adviser — often http://www.rollcall.com/news/politics/trump-declares-love-shutdown-immigration (draws a direct line between undocumented immigrants and crime), drugs and even terrorism. But there is one alleged case of illegal immigration the president and his senior staff rarely discuss — though it hangs over his brash rhetoric and policy proposals.
Slovenian-born Melania Trump watched as her husband spoke those words from her spot in the House gallery. Her own immigration history has never been fully explained by the Trump camp, even after reports during the homestretch of the 2016 campaign that raised the possibility she was, for a time, in the United States illegally.
Washington (CNN) The House Oversight Committee is investigating the White House's handling of Rob Porter's employment, chairman Trey Gowdy told CNN Wednesday.
"We are directing inquiries to people that we think have access to information we don't have. You can call it official. You can call it unofficial. Those words don't mean anything to me. What means something to me is I'm going to direct questions to the FBI that I expect them to answer," Gowdy, R-South Carolina, told CNN "New Day" co-anchor Alisyn Camerota.
He added that he was "troubled by almost every aspect" of Porter's employment at the White House.
"How do you have any job if you have credible allegations of domestic abuse? Again, I am biased toward the victim," Gowdy said.
The press is widely reporting, apparently based on this statement, that Cohen said he paid the $130,000 to Daniels out of his own pocket. The phrase "out of his own pocket" seems to be used by pretty much every story. "Trump's Longtime Lawyer Says He Paid Stormy Daniels Out of His Own Pocket," the New York Times headline says. And the Fox News headline is similar: "Michael Cohen, Trump's lawyer, says he paid Stormy Daniels $130,000 out of own pocket."
Now, clearly the most important part of the story is verification from the President's own personal lawyer that, in 2016, he was himself involved in paying $130,000 to a porn star who had claimed to have had an affair with the President. I'm old enough to remember when something like that would have been a major Presidential scandal.That seems like a long time ago.
But, with my apologies, let me focus on one really small part of the story: Does Cohen actually say he paid the $130,000 out of his own pocket? If Cohen's statement above is the only statement he has made, which as far as I can tell is the case, he never actually says that. All Cohen says is that he used his personal funds to "facilitate a payment of $130,000."
To "facilitate", the dictionary tells us, means to assist with or to make something easier. Given that, I would think that the most literal reading of Cohen's statement is just that he used his own funds to arrange the payment. He's not making any statement about whose $130,000 was paid. For example, if it took Cohen a few hundred dollars to set up an entity to pay Daniels, and to wire someone else's $130,000 to her, then he would have been using his own personal funds to faciltate that payment. Sending on the money would be a transaction between two parties, Daniels and the entity Cohen set up, and there would have been no need to reimburse Cohen $130,000 because it wasn't Cohen's money that was sent.
Of course, there are other ways to read Cohen's statement. There are enough ambiguities in it to drive a truck through. Maybe Trump just wrote a personal check to Cohen. Cohen was reimbursed, but not from Trump's "organization" or "campaign." At this point, we don't know. And of course we also don't know if what Cohen is now saying is literally true. Cohen's "reputation for having a character for truthfulness," to use an evidence law phrase, is lousy. But I just thought it worth pointing out that Cohen doesn't even claim that he paid the $130,000 out of his own pocket, which is what the press seems to be reporting.
