Trump Spells “Infidelity” with Two Ds

Hilarious, but not like anyone in GOP will care.

Well sure. From the get-go I think everyone who paid attention to this story was “Of course he had an affair with a porn star”. Also water is wet.

The real meat is the campaign finance violation and whether Stormy Daniels can write a book making fun of his Cheeto.

I think the best part is these were the payments to McDougal and not Daniels.

I’d like to get back to what matters: impeaching Clinton about that blowjob he lied about. He’s not fit for office!

He lied to take the heat off Hilary about her emails. Oh, and as a distraction from Benghazi!

Good find.
And for the rest, here’s why this is an important story, beyond the “Let’s toss another log into the no one cares fireplace”:

This establishes that on at least one occasion in very close proximity to the time Stormy Daniels was paid off, that Donald Trump directed Michael Cohen to pay off another model with whom he’d been having an affair. The Trump assertion all along has been that Cohen acted independently when Daniels was paid off. If Trump had directed Cohen to pay off Daniels, that’s an election fraud law-breaking event that can be prosecuted through criminal, not civil proceedings, and depending on the jurisdiction and amount of payment may rise to the class of being a felony. This shows that Trump did direct Cohen in similar fashion just a month earlier. And so if you’re an investigator digging on Cohen for something super tangible to flip him on, this could be that.

So yeah. Keep watching this.

I thought a president couldn’t be prosecuted for a criminal action, only a civil one.

TBD.

And Cohen isn’t a president, which makes him every bit as part to a felony for knowingly executing the order, regardless.

Well, I think Cohen probably already knows he is in deep shit. Now if only he would sing like a bird about Trump I think maybe we would have something.

That’s DoJ policy, not an actual law. In the unlikely event that Rosenstein or Mueller contravene that policy, it’d have to go to SCOTUS - and we already know how they would decide (5-4, Republican presidents can’t be indicted.)

https://www.cnn.com/2018/07/20/politics/michael-cohen-donald-trump-playboy-model-recording/index.html

There are other tapes of Cohen and other “powerful” individuals that the FBI seized beyond the President that could be embarrassing for the people on the tape and for Cohen, according to a source familiar with the tapes. The source said the people are of “significance and consequence.”

Edit: Isn’t it illegal to record someone without their knowledge?

http://www.dmlp.org/legal-guide/recording-phone-calls-and-conversations
“Federal law permits recording telephone calls and in-person conversations with the consent of at least one of the parties. See 18 U.S.C. 2511(2)(d). This is called a “one-party consent” law. Under a one-party consent law, you can record a phone call or conversation so long as you are a party to the conversation. Furthermore, if you are not a party to the conversation, a “one-party consent” law will allow you to record the conversation or phone call so long as your source consents and has full knowledge that the communication will be recorded.”

For NY State

“New York’s wiretapping law is a “one-party consent” law. New York makes it a crime to record to record or eavesdrop on an in-person or telephone conversation unless one party to the conversation consents. N.Y. Penal Law §§ 250.00, 250.05. Thus, if you operate in New York, you may record a conversation or phone call if you are a party to the conversation or you get permission from one party to the conversation in advance.”

As @sillhouette said, it varies from state to state. D.C. is also one-party consent. I remember looking that up in a manuscript I was editing because I figured it wasn’t legal.

Please be Hannity…Please be Hannity…

…damn.

:)

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It does vary state-to-state. My journalism prof wrote the textbook used my most j-schools, and he told us to always get consent as a courtesy, as well as to CYA depending on the state the parties are in.

CNN obtained a Trump-Cohen audio recording!

Cohen’s lawyer gave it to them, and is talking with Cuomo on CNN right now.

Here’s the CNN piece. The Cuomo thing is there, too. (Can’t be embedded.)

https://www.cnn.com/2018/07/24/politics/michael-cohen-donald-trump-tape/index.html

(CNN) - Presidential candidate Donald Trump is heard on tape discussing with his attorney Michael Cohen how they would buy the rights to a Playboy model’s story about an alleged affair Trump had with her years earlier, according to the audio recording of the conversation aired exclusively on CNN’s “Cuomo Prime Time.”

The recording offers the public a glimpse at the confidential discussions between Trump and Cohen, and it confirms the man who now occupies the Oval Office had contemporaneous knowledge of a proposal to buy the rights to the story of Karen McDougal, a woman who has alleged she had an extramarital affair with Trump about a decade ago.

Cohen told Trump about his plans to set up a company and finance the purchase of the rights from American Media, which publishes the National Enquirer.

“I need to open up a company for the transfer of all of that info regarding our friend David,” Cohen said in the recording, likely a reference to American Media head David Pecker.

Trump interrupts Cohen asking, “What financing?” according to the recording. When Cohen tells Trump, “We’ll have to pay.” Trump is heard saying “pay with cash” but the audio is muddled and it’s unclear whether he suggests paying with cash or not paying. Cohen says, “no, no” but it is not clear what is said next.

No payment was ever made from Trump, Rudy Giuliani, the President’s attorney, has said. Giuliani has previously acknowledged that the recorded discussion related to the buying the story rights.

The recording, which was provided to CNN by Cohen’s attorney Lanny Davis, was made in September 2016.