Octopus Overlords

Jag wrote: Mon Apr 09, 2018 4:28 pm

pr0ner wrote: Mon Apr 09, 2018 4:05 pm The FBI raided the offices of Michael Cohen, Trump's personal lawyer, today, after a referral by Mueller.

Kyle Griffin wrote:Mueller brought info involving Michael Cohen to Deputy A.G. Rod Rosenstein, who decided that the matter should be handled by the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York rather than by Mueller’s team, a person familiar tells Bloomberg.

malchior wrote: Mon Apr 09, 2018 5:29 pm https://twitter.com/kylegriffin1/status ... 5984409600

Kyle Griffin wrote:Mueller brought info involving Michael Cohen to Deputy A.G. Rod Rosenstein, who decided that the matter should be handled by the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York rather than by Mueller’s team, a person familiar tells Bloomberg.

My scant information super budget guess is a financial crime.

Enough wrote:So if you're Trump, does this spur you to action on Mueller? Blow up Syria more than initially planned to divert attention? I sort of fear what an unhinged trumpster might do now after today. This strikes me as a major moment on the timeline.

Jag wrote: Mon Apr 09, 2018 5:44 pm Like campaign finance fraud?

malchior wrote: Mon Apr 09, 2018 6:26 pm That may be part of why they went outside Mueller. Partly because NY AUSA would be better suited to pursue financial crimes and also to spread the charges out over multiple jurisdictions.

Enough wrote: Mon Apr 09, 2018 5:59 pm So if you're Trump, does this spur you to action on Mueller? Blow up Syria more than initially planned to divert attention? I sort of fear what an unhinged trumpster might do now after today. This strikes me as a major moment on the timeline.

Michael Cohen
Michael Cohen
@MichaelCohen212
@HillaryClinton when you go to prison for defrauding America and perjury, your room and board will be free!

Skinypupy wrote: Mon Apr 09, 2018 6:45 pm

malchior wrote: Mon Apr 09, 2018 6:26 pm That may be part of why they went outside Mueller. Partly because NY AUSA would be better suited to pursue financial crimes and also to spread the charges out over multiple jurisdictions.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but state charges are exempt from Presidential pardon powers as well.

Jon Favreau wrote:Well, fuck. Get ready, everyone.

Q Are you concerned about what the FBI might find, Mr. President? Do you have any concern?

THE PRESIDENT: No, I’m not.

Q Why don’t you just fire Mueller?

THE PRESIDENT: Why don’t I just fire Mueller?

Q Yeah, just fire the guy.

THE PRESIDENT: Well, I think it’s a disgrace what’s going on. We’ll see what happens. But I think it’s really a sad situation when you look at what happened. And many people have said, “You should fire him.” Again, they found nothing. And in finding nothing, that’s a big statement. If you know the person who’s in charge of the investigation, you know about that. Deputy Rosenstein — Rod Rosenstein — he wrote the letter, very critical, of Comey.

One of the things they said: “I fired Comey.” Well, I turned out to do the right thing, because if you look at all of the things that he’s done and the lies, and you look at what’s gone on at the FBI with the insurance policy and all of the things that happened — turned out I did the right thing.

But he signed — as you know, he also signed the FISA warrant. So Rod Rosenstein, who’s in charge of this, signed a FISA warrant, and he also signed a letter that was essentially saying to fire James Comey. And he was right about that. He was absolutely right.

So we’ll see what happens. I think it’s disgraceful, and so does a lot of other people. This is a pure and simple witch hunt.

Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank all very much.

Holman wrote: Mon Apr 09, 2018 8:11 pm What does it mean that Mueller took this step without first getting Trump in for an interview, which seems to have been his aim?

He has to know that this puts him at great risk for Trump lashing out every way he can think of.

I know we have no tea leaves to read here, but I'm going to go with the assumption that Mueller knows what he's doing, and that somehow he knows Trump can't stop it now.

Pyperkub wrote: Mon Apr 09, 2018 8:46 pm

Holman wrote: Mon Apr 09, 2018 8:11 pm What does it mean that Mueller took this step without first getting Trump in for an interview, which seems to have been his aim?

He has to know that this puts him at great risk for Trump lashing out every way he can think of.

I know we have no tea leaves to read here, but I'm going to go with the assumption that Mueller knows what he's doing, and that somehow he knows Trump can't stop it now.

It's not Mueller - it's a separate investigation by the NY USAG, with some info from Mueller.

Additionally, if the seized Attorney-Client communications are shown to include evidence of intent to commit a crime/fraud which makes them unprotected communications (as the warrant apparently states in order to get approval), then Mueller can use those for when he does interview Trump.

However, even Cohen’s attorney Stephen Ryan admits the New York action is, in part, a referral by the Office of Special Counsel, Robert Mueller. (Emphasis ours).

This looks to be part of an ongoing probe in the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Southern District— meaning the investigation was likely already ongoing, or had been based on another tip. It also appears to go much further than allegations surrounding Cohen’s payment to Stormy Daniels.

“This kind of coordination in multiple searches, in conjunction with news reports that investigators had been looking into Cohen’s business dealings, leads me to believe there is more here than campaign finance violations, but that is impossible to know without seeing the search warrant affidavit, which remains sealed,” explained Daniel Goldman, a former federal prosecutor with the Southern District.

For those already claiming that Mueller has gone “rogue” by searching Cohen’s office, it is worth noting that the interim U.S. Attorney for the Southern District, Geoff Berman, a Trump appointee, would have signed off on this warrant.

“Search warrant for lawyer’s materials requires heightened probable cause and additional layers of review on both the front end and the back end,” Goldman explained.

Not only that as federal defense attorney Page Pate pointed out, Main Justice (i.e. Jeff Sessions’ office) would have also had to be consulted according to DOJ policies about federal searches of attorneys.

Holman wrote: Mon Apr 09, 2018 9:08 pm
Trump doesn't care about legal niceties. He just wants the bad press and inquiries to end so that he can ride the gravy train he thought he'd won. Law is law, and it's getting in the way. Mueller knows that.

Ralph-Wiggum wrote: Mon Apr 09, 2018 10:03 pm New report is that Mueller is looking into $150,000 the Trump Organization was paid for a 20 minute video speech by a Ukrainian billionaire. I suppose the question is whether Trump or his campaign promised anything in return.

Skinypupy wrote: Mon Apr 09, 2018 10:14 pm

Ralph-Wiggum wrote: Mon Apr 09, 2018 10:03 pm New report is that Mueller is looking into $150,000 the Trump Organization was paid for a 20 minute video speech by a Ukrainian billionaire. I suppose the question is whether Trump or his campaign promised anything in return.

We'll know for sure if we start hearing the rhetoric about Bill and/or Hillary's speeches ramping up.

milo wrote: Tue Apr 10, 2018 1:56 am

Rip wrote: Tue Apr 10, 2018 1:23 am

Skinypupy wrote: Mon Apr 09, 2018 10:14 pm

Ralph-Wiggum wrote: Mon Apr 09, 2018 10:03 pm New report is that Mueller is looking into $150,000 the Trump Organization was paid for a 20 minute video speech by a Ukrainian billionaire. I suppose the question is whether Trump or his campaign promised anything in return.

We'll know for sure if we start hearing the rhetoric about Bill and/or Hillary's speeches ramping up.

Apparently Trump comes cheap. Victor Pinchuk gave $13M to the Clinton Foundation.

The Greatest At Legals wrote:Attorney–client privilege is dead!

A Saintly Victim of Hysteria wrote:A TOTAL WITCH HUNT!!!