Trump Timeline ... Trumpocalypse

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[xy5jn0]

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/su...mueller-probe-implications-kavanaugh-vote-key

 

[Michael Scally MD]

 

[Michael Scally MD]

After Michael Cohen pleaded guilty on Nov. 29 to lying to Congress about the details of his negotiations to build a Trump Tower in Moscow, Trump reacted with his https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2018/10/03/trumps-scornful-impression-of-christine-blasey-ford-is-a-familiar-routine-entertain-and-demean/ (usual mix of scorn and lies). Trump suggested first, and falsely, that everyone had known about the project during the campaign, and second, that it was perfectly fine for him to pursue the project while simultaneously running for president. In fact, Trump’s pursuit of the project during the campaign was highly problematic and may very well have been part of a bribery scheme involving the president of the United States.

For starters, Trump’s repeated lies about negotiations to build his dream tower could have left him susceptible to Russian blackmail attempts. Every single time Trump lied publicly about those negotiations, people in the know in Russia could have exerted leverage over Trump by threatening to expose his lies. That possibility — that Trump was vulnerable to blackmail by a hostile power —constitutes an intelligence and national security nightmare that should alarm Americans of any political stripe. Just as importantly, however, Trump’s concealment of his efforts to build the Trump Tower may suggest a criminal conspiracy that hasn’t gotten widespread attention yet.

Cohen’s guilty plea indicates that Trump and his representatives were actively negotiating with the Kremlin over the planned Trump Tower in Moscow throughout the campaign, including “as late as June 2016” — in other words after Trump became the presumptive Republican Party nominee in May of 2016. Thus, Trump’s business entanglements with Russia coincided with Russia’s efforts to interfere in the presidential election and to undermine Hilary Clinton. And, of course, at the same time, Trump the candidate was talking about easing economic sanctions on Russia and generally taking a more favorable foreign policy stance toward Russia.

Rachel Maddow has advanced a thoughtful theory linking Trump’s commercial ambitions and the Russian attack on the 2016 election: Trump apparently could get financing for his Xanadu only from a Russian bank that was under sanctions set by President Barack Obama in 2014; the scheme thus depended on the lifting of the sanctions. This suggests a quid pro quo: Putin’s government, which keenly desired the sanctions to be retired would undertake efforts (including https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/politics/wp/2018/07/13/timeline-how-russian-agents-allegedly-hacked-the-dnc-and-clintons-campaign/?utm_term=.dd5ac62ef269 (dirty tricks against Hillary Clinton)) to help Trump become president. Once elected, Trump would lift the sanctions and also get his tower.

If those facts bear out, they could give rise to federal bribery charges involving the president and a number of other co-conspirators.

The federal bribery statute, 18 U.S.C. Section 201 makes it a crime for a public official – including a “person who has been selected to be a public official” — to directly or indirectly corruptly seek or receive anything of value in return for being influenced in the performance (or omission) of any official act.

 

[xy5jn0]

 

[xy5jn0]

 

[xy5jn0]

 

[xy5jn0]

 

[xy5jn0]

 

[xy5jn0]

 

[xy5jn0]

 

[xy5jn0]

 

[xy5jn0]

California: More than 7-in-10 Noncitizen Households Are on Welfare

 

[xy5jn0]

 

[xy5jn0]