Current Events > The details of Trump's 'hush money' payments are being made public

(+) Yeah! (+)

https://news.vice.com/en_us/article/j5w7jb/the-details-of-trump-orgs-hush-money-payments-are-about-to-go-public

A federal judge ordered the release of documents related to the investigation into hush money payments to women claiming they slept with President Trump.

The documents must be posted by 11:00 am eastern on Thursday, July 18, Judge William H. Pauley of the Southern District of New York wrote in a decision released Wednesday.

The campaign finance violations discussed in the Materials are a matter of national importance. Now that the Government's investigation into those violations has concluded, it is time that every American has an opportunity to scrutinize the Materials, Judge Pauley wrote.

Pauley ordered prosecutors release the Justice Departments July status report and search warrant materials related to raids on President Trumps jailed former attorney, Michael Cohen, be posted online.

In his ruling Wednesday, Pauley rejected the governments request to redact portions of the documents, citing the weighty public ramifications of the conduct described.

Federal officials told the judge they have completed their investigation into the matter.

Federal prosecutors wrote in December that President Trump coordinated and directed payments that bought the silence of two women who claimed theyd had affairs with him, although they referred to him as Individual-1.

Cohen himself has now admitted, with respect to both payments, he acted in coordination with and at the direction of Individual-1, SDNY prosecutors wrote in a sentencing memo for Cohen.

Cohen later confirmed, during sworn Congressional testimony, that Individual-1 is President Donald J. Trump.

Cohen pleaded guilty to his role in the campaign finance violations, among other financial crimes, and began serving a three-year sentence in May.

In rejecting the governments request to redact the documents to protect third-party privacy interests, Judge Pauley wrote that the involvement of most of the relevant third-party actors is now public knowledge, undercutting the need for continued secrecy.

The names of some of Cohens business partners in the New York taxi industry, law enforcement officials and one uncharged-third party referred to in a footnote could be redacted, the judge wrote. But the rest has to be released to the public.

Judge Pauleys order comes a week before special counsel Robert Mueller is due to testify for several hours before two Democrat-controlled committees in the House of Representatives.

Cohen was an early focus of Muellers probe into Trumps connections to Russia and potential obstruction of justice. Documents already released in Cohens case showed that Mueller was interested in money flowing to Cohens bank accounts for consulting gigs Cohen landed after Trump took office.

Pauleys order on Wednesday didnt mention Trump but made clear that hes ordering the materials released because he believes the American public has a right to know what their elected officials have been up to.

Indeed, the common law right of access a right so enshrined in our identity that it predate[s] even the Constitution itself derives from the publics right to learn of, monitor, and respond to the actions of their representatives and representative institutions, he wrote.

Prepare the popcorn!
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This will only make him stronger
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Popcorn gets stuck in my teeth
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Irony posted...

Popcorn gets stuck in my teeth

Yeah that's why I don't actually like eating it
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SSJKirby posted...

This will only make him stronger

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Party of family values
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tremain07 posted...

SSJKirby posted...

This will only make him stronger

Only to the despicable....
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*sigh*

he just said that minority americans should go back to their ancestor's countries and nobody gave a shit, heck, his congressmen voted to reject a measure condemning those comments, except for 4 brave men.

Nothing will come out of this. I am so dissapointed.

what about Crooked Hillary tho
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Trump can do anything and its ok. I think thats the start of a dictator imo.
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https://imgur.com/dTZ5PA4
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Shuto-uke posted...

*sigh*

he just said that minority americans should go back to their ancestor's countries and nobody gave a shit, heck, his congressmen voted to reject a measure condemning those comments, except for 4 brave men.

Nothing will come out of this. I am so dissapointed.

This. Just expect four more years of this trash at this point. I highly doubt Trump will truly be punished for any of the crap that he has done.
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Shuto-uke posted...

he just said that minority americans should go back to their ancestor's countries and nobody gave a shit,

A lot of people gave a shit, actually
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Antifar posted...

Shuto-uke posted...

he just said that minority americans should go back to their ancestor's countries and nobody gave a shit,

A lot of people gave a shit, actually

The people who could actually do something about it don't.
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https://www.thedailybeast.com/cohen-documents-unsealed-on-trump-ami-stormy-daniels-karen-mcdougal/?via=twitter_page

Michael Cohen bought the silence of Stormy Daniels after a flurry of phone calls between Donald Trump, Hope Hicks and executives at AMI in the heat of the 2016 election, according to newly unsealed FBI documents.

Federal prosecutors on Thursday released hundreds of pages of documents detailing how the presidents former fixer illegally paid hush money to Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal, who both were prepared to say before Election Day that Trump had cheated on his wife with them. Instead, they were silenced through six-figure sums paid out of Cohens pockets.

A federal judge ordered the documents to be released after Manhattan federal prosecutors told a court it closed its investigation into the Trump Organization over the hush-money payouts. (Cohen was an executive at the company.) Cohen plead guilty in 2018 to campaign-finance violations in connection with payoffs.

The Daniels scheme began in October 2016 when her attorney, Keith Davidson, contacted Cohen and AMI about her allegations of an affair with Trump.

On Oct. 7, the Access Hollywood tape was released and nearly destroyed Trumps presidential campaign by exposing vile remarks he made about women a decade earlier.

The next day, Trumps close personal assistant Hicks called Cohen. Seconds later, Trump joined the call and the trio spoke for approximately four minutes. As FBI agents noted, it was the first time Cohen had spoken to Hicks in weeks and the first time he and Trump had spoken in monthsa possible sign of how explosive the campaign viewed a possible Daniels story. (Hicks did not immediately respond to a request for comment.)

After a short call between Cohen and Hicks, Cohen phoned AMI chairman David Pecker, a long-time friend of Trump and owner of the National Enquirer. Cohen then called Dylan Howard, AMIs chief content officer and Peckers lieutenant.

Then Cohen, Pecker and Trump spoke together for nearly eight minutes.

After another call with Cohen, Howard sent him a text message: Keith will do it. Lets convene tomorrow.

The following day Cohen inked a non-disclosure agreement with Davidson and Daniels, using pseudonyms in the agreement for them and for Trump. It subject all parties to silence. By the end of the monthafter threats by Davidson that Cohen was taking too long to pay upCohen wired $130,000 to Davidson and sealed the deal.

Trump subsequently recovered from the Access Hollywood damage and won the presidency without the public having heard from Daniels or McDougal, who Davidson also represented.

Cohen had previously arranged for AMI to buy the life rights of McDougal, who pitched the Enquirer on a story about her alleged affair with Trump. AMI bought McDougals story for $150,000 at Cohens urging, according to prosecutors.

Instead of publishing her story though, AMI sat on ita practice known as catch and kill, that kept the story from voters before Election Day.

The closure of the Cohen case puts to rest what had been one of the most serious legal threats hanging over President Trump: potential campaign-finance charges after he left office.

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Court papers filed in the Cohen case showed Trump, referred to as Individual-1, directing the hush money scheme to Daniels. Cohen said in his guilty plea he had made the hush money payouts "in coordination and at the direction of Trump. In subsequent testimony before the House Oversight Committee, Cohen produced checks from the Trump Organization signed by Trump in August 2017while he was in the White Houseto reimburse Cohen for the payments.

The investigation into Cohen prompted prosecutors in New York prompted to take a deeper look at the Trump Organization and whether any of its employees had broken the law in connection with the payments.

In December 2018, the New York Times reported that Cohen had told federal prosecutors Trump Organization chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg had helped out in the hush-money scheme. The story reportedly prompted prosecutors to take a deeper look Weisselberg, who had received limited immunity to testify before a grand jury. (Weisselberg was not charged with a crime or accused of wrongdoing. )

Cohen told a similar story when he testified before the House Oversight Committee. He told lawmakers that Trump directed him and Weisselberg to figure out how to pay her the $130,000 in hush money when Daniels attorney first threatened to tell the press of their alleged 2006 affair. Cohen claimed Weisselberg had said he couldnt use any of his own money to pay Daniels and, with a payment deadline getting down to the wire, Cohen said the two agreed that Cohen would pay out of his own personal funds.

Weisselberg also allegedly played a role in helping to reimburse Cohen for the payments.

Charges filed against Cohen in the Southern District of New York last year recounted how an Executive-1widely reported to be Weisselbergfirst received Cohens request that the Trump Organization reimburse him for a hush money payment to Daniels. Weisselberg then forwarded the request to another Trump Organization executive with instructions to pay the invoice as a retainer for legal services.

But according to prosecutors, "there was no such retainer agreement" between Cohen and the Trump Organization and Cohen never performed legal work for the company during that time.

In February, months after Cohen had plead guilty to the campaign finance charges, CNN also reported that New York prosecutors had sought interviews with Trump Organization executives.

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https://www.courthousenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/cohen-warrants.pdf

Actual document

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/muckraker/house-judiciary-hope-hicks-testimony-transcript

Hope Hicks lied to Congress
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So how many points is he going to go up in popularity with republicans now?
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Solar_Crimson posted...

Antifar posted...

Shuto-uke posted...

he just said that minority americans should go back to their ancestor's countries and nobody gave a shit,

A lot of people gave a shit, actually

The people who could actually do something about it don't.

Yup, literal nothingburger. Trump won.

Shuto-uke posted...

*sigh*

he just said that minority americans should go back to their ancestor's countries and nobody gave a shit, heck, his congressmen voted to reject a measure condemning those comments, except for 4 brave men.

Nothing will come out of this. I am so dissapointed.

Literally not what he said.
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Shuto-uke posted...

except for 4 brave men.

Three men and one woman (who is retiring at the end of her term).
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The shitstorm is only going to get vastly shitstormier when Trump is driven out of office and Pence somehow squeaks through 2020.

So

Will anything come of this
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littlebro07 posted...

So

Will anything come of this

No.
It'll just get lost in the noise of daily "shit Trump did today" screeching.

Dude could brain someone to death with a bust of Lincoln, and the news will still get lost in the dogpile.

Just a side note that I've bene thinking of lately:

Trump's rhetoric and actions are dividing the people, but in a such way that he gets an increasingly smaller and smaller portion. In the coming election, there'll ultimately be him and a Dem running for the White House. That race will be decided not by who has the most supporters, but by who has the least opposers. See, Trump isn't amassing more supporters, but more opposers; people, who'll accept anyone who is not Trump. The longer he stays on this course, the more assured it is that only his faithful followers will vote for him, whereas everyone else will vote for his opponent.
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Thompson posted...

The longer he stays on this course, the more assured it is that only his faithful followers will vote for him, whereas everyone else will vote for his opponent.

Republicans are only growing in support of him, and even then many will just vote R because it's R and that's what they and their family have always done
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This time
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Funkydog posted...

Thompson posted...

The longer he stays on this course, the more assured it is that only his faithful followers will vote for him, whereas everyone else will vote for his opponent.

Republicans are only growing in support of him, and even then many will just vote R because it's R and that's what they and their family have always done

This

A guy I went to high school with went to a Trump rally back in 2016 and people commented on his post about it asking why he was voting for Trump. He didn't say anything about Trump's policies. Just "because I'm a republican"

Fucking ridiculous
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darkjedilink posted...

Shuto-uke posted...

*sigh*

he just said that minority americans should go back to their ancestor's countries and nobody gave a shit, heck, his congressmen voted to reject a measure condemning those comments, except for 4 brave men.

Nothing will come out of this. I am so dissapointed.

Literally not what he said.

Nice djl is back just in time to tie himself in knots trying to justify trump being racist
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NinjaBreakfast posted...

Nice djl is back just in time to tie himself in knots trying to justify trump being racist

Give it about 3-5 days, he will be banned again.
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