Former election commissioner: Cohen and Trump didn't violate campaign finance law

[sealybobo]

Whoops! Another snowflake scheme to get Trump gets shot out of the saddle.

Former election commissioner: Cohen and Trump didn't violate campaign finance law

Trump-haters hoping the president’s former personal attorney, Michael Cohen, will provide the evidence needed to impeach the president and perhaps even “lock him up” are likely headed for a bitter disappointment. The Cohen guilty pleas are likely irrelevant to the fate of President Trump.

That’s because in my judgment – as someone who served for two years as a member of the Federal Election Commission – the campaign finance law violations Cohen pleaded guilty to committing, allegedly at Donald Trump’s direction, aren’t really violations.

If I’m right – that is, if Cohen didn’t really violate campaign finance law, despite his ill-advised guilty plea – then it would be impossible for Trump to have violated campaign finance law by directing Cohen to take a perfectly legal action.

Confused? That’s understandable, because the media lump all the charges Cohen pleaded guilty to together when explaining this complex case. But in reality, Cohen was sentenced Wednesday in U.S. District Court in New York City on several separate and unrelated charges.

Cohen was sentenced to three years in prison by a federal judge and was also ordered to pay almost $2 million in fines, restitution and forfeitures after earlier pleading guilty to multiple counts of business and tax fraud. Those crimes have absolutely nothing to do with Trump, but rather involve Cohen’s own business dealings.

In addition, Cohen was sentenced on his guilty pleas to violating campaign finance law on Trump’s behalf – an action that, as I will explain, I believe was not really a crime at all.​

I bet if Hillary did the exact same thing you wouldn't be saying that.

You know who's really good at calling you guys out for being liars? Kelly Ann's husband

George Conway Appears To Fact-Check Wife Kellyanne Conway After Bonkers CNN Interview | HuffPost

The pair sparred over multiple topics, with Conway denying that President Donald Trump had lied about what he knew regarding hush-money payments to women who allegedly had affairs with him.

However, a twist occurred after the conclusion of the show when Conway’s husband, George Conway posted this tweet:


George Conway@gtconway3d

Given that Trump has repeatedly lied about the Daniels and McDougal payments—and given that he lies about virtually everything else, to the point that his own former personal lawyer described him as a “f****ing liar”—why should we take his word over that of federal prosecutors?

Hilary did worse you dolt....she took 145 million dollars from Russia for our Uranium......as the sitting Secretary of State....she committed multiple felony violations of the records act and destroyed evidence that was under federal subpoena......

Then go after her too. Don’t cherry pick

Douchebags like you are defending her.

Pathetic classic deflection

 

[g5000]

The poor tards. Trump keeps lying to them, and they keep bleeving him.

Then they have to retrench and try to bleev him again.

And again.

And again...

Sad.

 

[Lesh]

The Trumpkins are panicking now.

Mueller has been bagging Individual 1's co-conspirators left and right, and he's gaining momentum.

He's not done yet.

I'd rather not see Trump impeached for paying off a porn star, though it would be poetic justice for the Republicans impeaching Clinton for a blowjob.

I'd rather wait for all the facts which Mueller uncovers, and if it turns out Trump has been laundering money for Russian mobsters, he should not only be impeached, he should be imprisoned at hard labor for the rest of his life.

Mueller is quickly going down in flames. It now appears the FBI lured Flynn into being interrogated with his lawyer present. He also wasn't informed that he was being interrogated. Flynn's conviction will be thrown out. Mueller and his crew are so crooked and sleazy they make the Nazis look like the Canadian Mounties. Corsi and Stone told Mueller to fuck off. Everything Mueller touches is turning to shit.

Hey dumbass...he was asked if he wanted an attorney present.

Go back to your roost in Trump's posterior

Do you ever stop lying? McCabe told him not to bring his attorney. McCabe, Comey and the rest of the sorry bunch are all going to prison.

I wonder why FLynn got fired by Trump?

Oh that's right...for lying to Pence about the same thing he lied to the FBI about.

Now I remember

 

[g5000]

Do you ever stop lying? McCabe told him not to bring his attorney. McCabe, Comey and the rest of the sorry bunch are all going to prison.

QFP

 

[bripat9643]

The Trumpkins are panicking now.

Mueller has been bagging Individual 1's co-conspirators left and right, and he's gaining momentum.

He's not done yet.

I'd rather not see Trump impeached for paying off a porn star, though it would be poetic justice for the Republicans impeaching Clinton for a blowjob.

I'd rather wait for all the facts which Mueller uncovers, and if it turns out Trump has been laundering money for Russian mobsters, he should not only be impeached, he should be imprisoned at hard labor for the rest of his life.

Mueller is quickly going down in flames.

Yeah, we've been hearing that for 19 months.

Any day now...any day now...any day now...

How long have we been hearing that Trump is going to prison?

 

[bripat9643]

The Trumpkins are panicking now.

Mueller has been bagging Individual 1's co-conspirators left and right, and he's gaining momentum.

He's not done yet.

I'd rather not see Trump impeached for paying off a porn star, though it would be poetic justice for the Republicans impeaching Clinton for a blowjob.

I'd rather wait for all the facts which Mueller uncovers, and if it turns out Trump has been laundering money for Russian mobsters, he should not only be impeached, he should be imprisoned at hard labor for the rest of his life.

Mueller is quickly going down in flames. It now appears the FBI lured Flynn into being interrogated with his lawyer present. He also wasn't informed that he was being interrogated. Flynn's conviction will be thrown out. Mueller and his crew are so crooked and sleazy they make the Nazis look like the Canadian Mounties. Corsi and Stone told Mueller to fuck off. Everything Mueller touches is turning to shit.

Hey dumbass...he was asked if he wanted an attorney present.

Go back to your roost in Trump's posterior

Do you ever stop lying? McCabe told him not to bring his attorney. McCabe, Comey and the rest of the sorry bunch are all going to prison.

I wonder why FLynn got fired by Trump?

Oh that's right...for lying to Pence about the same thing he lied to the FBI about.

Now I remember

Even if that were true, which it isn't, what does it have to do with the fact that McCabe told not bring his attorney and failed to disclose that he was being interrogated?

 

[g5000]

The Trumpkins are panicking now.

Mueller has been bagging Individual 1's co-conspirators left and right, and he's gaining momentum.

He's not done yet.

I'd rather not see Trump impeached for paying off a porn star, though it would be poetic justice for the Republicans impeaching Clinton for a blowjob.

I'd rather wait for all the facts which Mueller uncovers, and if it turns out Trump has been laundering money for Russian mobsters, he should not only be impeached, he should be imprisoned at hard labor for the rest of his life.

Mueller is quickly going down in flames. It now appears the FBI lured Flynn into being interrogated with his lawyer present. He also wasn't informed that he was being interrogated. Flynn's conviction will be thrown out. Mueller and his crew are so crooked and sleazy they make the Nazis look like the Canadian Mounties. Corsi and Stone told Mueller to fuck off. Everything Mueller touches is turning to shit.

Hey dumbass...he was asked if he wanted an attorney present.

Go back to your roost in Trump's posterior

Do you ever stop lying? McCabe told him not to bring his attorney. McCabe, Comey and the rest of the sorry bunch are all going to prison.

I wonder why FLynn got fired by Trump?

Oh that's right...for lying to Pence about the same thing he lied to the FBI about.

Now I remember

Even if that were true, which it isn't...

It's like you BEG to be pounded!

Trump Says He Fired Michael Flynn ‘Because He Lied’ to F.B.I.

The president has long asserted that he fired Mr. Flynn in February, less than a month after he took office, because Mr. Flynn had lied to Vice President Mike Pence over whether he talked with the Russian ambassador, Sergey I. Kislyak, about sanctions imposed on Russia by President Barack Obama.

By saying on Twitter on Saturday that Mr. Flynn’s lies to the F.B.I. had also contributed to his firing, some took that to mean that Mr. Trump was acknowledging that he had known in February that Mr. Flynn was untruthful with the bureau’s agents.

 

[g5000]

The Trumpkins are panicking now.

Mueller has been bagging Individual 1's co-conspirators left and right, and he's gaining momentum.

He's not done yet.

I'd rather not see Trump impeached for paying off a porn star, though it would be poetic justice for the Republicans impeaching Clinton for a blowjob.

I'd rather wait for all the facts which Mueller uncovers, and if it turns out Trump has been laundering money for Russian mobsters, he should not only be impeached, he should be imprisoned at hard labor for the rest of his life.

Mueller is quickly going down in flames.

Yeah, we've been hearing that for 19 months.

Any day now...any day now...any day now...

How long have we been hearing that Trump is going to prison?

About three years less than we've been hearing that Hillary is going to prison.

And we are STILL hearing Hillary is going to prison any day now...any day now...any day now...

 

[bripat9643]

Mueller is quickly going down in flames. It now appears the FBI lured Flynn into being interrogated with his lawyer present. He also wasn't informed that he was being interrogated. Flynn's conviction will be thrown out. Mueller and his crew are so crooked and sleazy they make the Nazis look like the Canadian Mounties. Corsi and Stone told Mueller to fuck off. Everything Mueller touches is turning to shit.

Hey dumbass...he was asked if he wanted an attorney present.

Go back to your roost in Trump's posterior

Do you ever stop lying? McCabe told him not to bring his attorney. McCabe, Comey and the rest of the sorry bunch are all going to prison.

I wonder why FLynn got fired by Trump?

Oh that's right...for lying to Pence about the same thing he lied to the FBI about.

Now I remember

Even if that were true, which it isn't...

It's like you BEG to be pounded!

Trump Says He Fired Michael Flynn ‘Because He Lied’ to F.B.I.

The president has long asserted that he fired Mr. Flynn in February, less than a month after he took office, because Mr. Flynn had lied to Vice President Mike Pence over whether he talked with the Russian ambassador, Sergey I. Kislyak, about sanctions imposed on Russia by President Barack Obama.

By saying on Twitter on Saturday that Mr. Flynn’s lies to the F.B.I. had also contributed to his firing, some took that to mean that Mr. Trump was acknowledging that he had known in February that Mr. Flynn was untruthful with the bureau’s agents.

That isn't where you lied, douchebag.

It's almost like you BEG to be pounded!

 

[g5000]

Hey dumbass...he was asked if he wanted an attorney present.

Go back to your roost in Trump's posterior

Do you ever stop lying? McCabe told him not to bring his attorney. McCabe, Comey and the rest of the sorry bunch are all going to prison.

I wonder why FLynn got fired by Trump?

Oh that's right...for lying to Pence about the same thing he lied to the FBI about.

Now I remember

Even if that were true, which it isn't...

It's like you BEG to be pounded!

Trump Says He Fired Michael Flynn ‘Because He Lied’ to F.B.I.

The president has long asserted that he fired Mr. Flynn in February, less than a month after he took office, because Mr. Flynn had lied to Vice President Mike Pence over whether he talked with the Russian ambassador, Sergey I. Kislyak, about sanctions imposed on Russia by President Barack Obama.

By saying on Twitter on Saturday that Mr. Flynn’s lies to the F.B.I. had also contributed to his firing, some took that to mean that Mr. Trump was acknowledging that he had known in February that Mr. Flynn was untruthful with the bureau’s agents.

That isn't where you lied, douchebag.

It's almost like you BEG to be pounded!

It's right there for everyone to see, tard. Lesh said Flynn was fired for lying to Pence and the FBI.

You denied that was true, and got your ass handed to you AGAIN!

You poor thing. Trump has lied to you so often, you can't keep up with his latest version of lies to defend.

Retrench!

 

[Dragonlady]

Well the FEC doesn't agree with him. In fact the case won't be heard until 2020.

And yet Cohen pled guilty and is going to jail.

Odd huh?

You are NOT funny. You are disturbingly sad

Yeah for tax problems.

Odd huh??

You are NOT funny in fact you are a jackass.

He pled guilty to two counts of campaign finance breaches

jackass

And lying to Congress.

 

[Dragonlady]

The Trumpkins are panicking now.

Mueller has been bagging Individual 1's co-conspirators left and right, and he's gaining momentum.

He's not done yet.

I'd rather not see Trump impeached for paying off a porn star, though it would be poetic justice for the Republicans impeaching Clinton for a blowjob.

I'd rather wait for all the facts which Mueller uncovers, and if it turns out Trump has been laundering money for Russian mobsters, he should not only be impeached, he should be imprisoned at hard labor for the rest of his life.

Mueller is quickly going down in flames.

Yeah, we've been hearing that for 19 months.

Any day now...any day now...any day now...

How long have we been hearing that Trump is going to prison?

And he is. All of his closest advisors and employees are either in jail or co-operating, including his life-long accountant, the guy who was originally hired by Fred Trump. That guy cut the cheques for every dirty deal Dumb Donald ever did, and he has immunity.

Here's one big difference between the Clintons and the Trumps. Nobody has ever flipped on the Clintons. They've been given immunity and everything you can think of, including being jailed for contempt for over a year, and not one person has flipped.

Everybody has flipped on Trump, one way or another. And when they've flipped, they've given the prosecutor hard evidence of Trumps crimes.

Even if President Pence pardons Trump on the way out the door on all his federal charges, the Southern District of New York has a WHOLE range of fraud and other state crimes they can try him on. On the day Trump leaves office, the Southern District of New York still has everything they found in raiding Cohen's office to go after him for.

Trump's recent claim that he wasn't really his lawyer, more of a PR guy, is shooting himself in the foot. If Cohen isn't his lawyer, then there's no attorney/client privilege to hide behind when he says he relied on Cohen's legal advice in making these payments to these women.

The first thing a lawyer tells a client who the cops think committed a crime is "Don't say anything to anyone about this." Trump can't shut up about his crimes.

 

[Dragonlady]

Well Trump paid for silence that's not a campaign contribution either.

MORON........First, I'm glad that you....at least....admit that Trump "paid for silence".....The law is then BROKEN when you do not report it as a campaign contribution.

Paint yourself in a corner with your cereal box knowledge of the law?....LOL

The money the DNC and Hitlery paid Steele should be considered a campaign donation by your reckoning.

You sure are stupid.[/QUOTE]

It was a campaign contribution, and it is listed in the payouts in the campaign's expenses under Opposition Research. The Clinton Campaign made this payment through the campaign's legal counsel to maintain the arm's length aspect of the research. No member of the campaign had contact with the research firm, Christopher Steele, or his contacts. Steele was not aware who hired him.

That's the legal proper way of doing these things.

 

[Claudette]

Well Trump paid for silence that's not a campaign contribution either.

MORON........First, I'm glad that you....at least....admit that Trump "paid for silence".....The law is then BROKEN when you do not report it as a campaign contribution.

Paint yourself in a corner with your cereal box knowledge of the law?....LOL

The money the DNC and Hitlery paid Steele should be considered a campaign donation by your reckoning.

You sure are stupid.

It was a campaign contribution, and it is listed in the payouts in the campaign's expenses under Opposition Research. The Clinton Campaign made this payment through the campaign's legal counsel to maintain the arm's length aspect of the research. No member of the campaign had contact with the research firm, Christopher Steele, or his contacts. Steele was not aware who hired him.

That's the legal proper way of doing these things.[/QUOTE]

Some campaign expense. Paying someone to dig up dirt on your opponent.

An opponent you don't think has a snow balls chance in hell of beating you.

Oh and the money used to pay the women was Trumps money. Not campaign money. Big difference.

I'm sure Hitlery and the DNC did use campaign money to pay Steele. Trump did not. He used his own money.

Hell I wouldn't have reported it either.

 

[Faun]

MORON........First, I'm glad that you....at least....admit that Trump "paid for silence".....The law is then BROKEN when you do not report it as a campaign contribution.

Paint yourself in a corner with your cereal box knowledge of the law?....LOL

The money the DNC and Hitlery paid Steele should be considered a campaign donation by your reckoning.

You sure are stupid.

Look moron, if the Clinton campaign listed the money it aid the opposition research firm, all is legal.

It would be like your fat assed orange buddy if Clinton paid for it out of her own money & not listed it as a campaign donation.

You people are just plain retarded.

Well according to this neither nor Cohen broke any laws.


A candidate is free to contribute to his or her own campaign. It also is not criminal for a candidate to pay hush money to women whose disclosures might endanger his campaign. So if candidate Trump paid hush money to his two accusers, there would be no violation of any campaign or other laws. To be sure, if he did so for the purpose of helping his campaign, as distinguished from helping his marriage, his campaign would have to disclose any such contribution, and failure to do so might be a violation of a campaign law, but the payments themselves would be entirely lawful.


Did President Trump violate campaign finance laws?

If, on the other hand, Cohen made the payments by himself, without direction from the president, that would constitute an impermissible campaign contribution from a third party. But if Cohen was merely acting as a lawyer for Trump and advancing the payments, with an expectation of repayment, then it would be hard to find a campaign finance crime other than failure to report by the campaign.

Failure to report all campaign contributions is fairly common in political circles.

Obama did the same. Didn't see anyone trying to say he committed a felony.

Dumbfuck, while a candidate is free to contribute as much as he or she wants, by law, they must report it if it’s over a certain dollar amount.

It wasn't a campaign contribution, so no such requirement applies.

You said it was a campaign contribution...

It's a contribution, asshole. That makes it actually illegal

 

[Faun]

Dumbfuck, while a candidate is free to contribute as much as he or she wants, by law, they must report it if it’s over a certain dollar amount.

Trump ass kissers simply CANNOT understand that simple requirement......Let them remain ignorant idiots.

We understand that it wasn't campaign donation. Those suffering from brain damage continue to insist, despite all evidence to the contrary, that it was.

Fucking moron, the court has said it would s a campaign contribution.

 

[Faun]

Well Trump paid for silence that's not a campaign contribution either.

Yea...it is if it's done to aid his election chances...and it was. We know this because of what witnesses and tapes tell us

How far you fuckers have sunk though.

You have gone from "It never happened...these women are lying"....

To "yea it happened and yea he paid them to cover it up but it was no big deal"

How many times do you dumbasses have to be told that it can't have any other private purpose, and it obviously does?

Nope, there was no other reason than to influence the election. It certainly wasn’t to hide the affairs from Melanie since had it been, he would have paid Stormy to keep her mouth shut in 2011 when she first sought to go public with her story.

Your attempt at "logic" fails. It's not a campaign contribution.

Tell Cohen he’s being falsely imprisoned for making illegal campaign contributions.

 

[Faun]

MORON........First, I'm glad that you....at least....admit that Trump "paid for silence".....The law is then BROKEN when you do not report it as a campaign contribution.

Paint yourself in a corner with your cereal box knowledge of the law?....LOL

The money the DNC and Hitlery paid Steele should be considered a campaign donation by your reckoning.

You sure are stupid.

You seem to have it backwards. Had Steele done it for free it would have been a campaign contribution.

The DNC paid Steele's employer...for a service. I have heard no one claim it wasn't a reported EXPENSE...

YOU are stupid

It's illegal to pay foreigners to work on your campaign, moron. Clinton knows that, and her law firm knows that, so it's an open and shut case.

Clinton didn’t pay a foreigner. She paid Fusion GPS, an American research firm.

Who paid a foreigner. Still illegal. What you're describing is money laundering - another crime.

Nope, not illegal. There’s no law staying an American firm can’t pay a foreigner.

 

[Faun]

Whoops! Another snowflake scheme to get Trump gets shot out of the saddle.

Former election commissioner: Cohen and Trump didn't violate campaign finance law

Trump-haters hoping the president’s former personal attorney, Michael Cohen, will provide the evidence needed to impeach the president and perhaps even “lock him up” are likely headed for a bitter disappointment. The Cohen guilty pleas are likely irrelevant to the fate of President Trump.

That’s because in my judgment – as someone who served for two years as a member of the Federal Election Commission – the campaign finance law violations Cohen pleaded guilty to committing, allegedly at Donald Trump’s direction, aren’t really violations.

If I’m right – that is, if Cohen didn’t really violate campaign finance law, despite his ill-advised guilty plea – then it would be impossible for Trump to have violated campaign finance law by directing Cohen to take a perfectly legal action.

Confused? That’s understandable, because the media lump all the charges Cohen pleaded guilty to together when explaining this complex case. But in reality, Cohen was sentenced Wednesday in U.S. District Court in New York City on several separate and unrelated charges.

Cohen was sentenced to three years in prison by a federal judge and was also ordered to pay almost $2 million in fines, restitution and forfeitures after earlier pleading guilty to multiple counts of business and tax fraud. Those crimes have absolutely nothing to do with Trump, but rather involve Cohen’s own business dealings.

In addition, Cohen was sentenced on his guilty pleas to violating campaign finance law on Trump’s behalf – an action that, as I will explain, I believe was not really a crime at all.​

I bet if Hillary did the exact same thing you wouldn't be saying that.

You know who's really good at calling you guys out for being liars? Kelly Ann's husband

George Conway Appears To Fact-Check Wife Kellyanne Conway After Bonkers CNN Interview | HuffPost

The pair sparred over multiple topics, with Conway denying that President Donald Trump had lied about what he knew regarding hush-money payments to women who allegedly had affairs with him.

However, a twist occurred after the conclusion of the show when Conway’s husband, George Conway posted this tweet:


George Conway@gtconway3d

Given that Trump has repeatedly lied about the Daniels and McDougal payments—and given that he lies about virtually everything else, to the point that his own former personal lawyer described him as a “f****ing liar”—why should we take his word over that of federal prosecutors?

Hilary did worse you dolt....she took 145 million dollars from Russia for our Uranium......as the sitting Secretary of State....she committed multiple felony violations of the records act and destroyed evidence that was under federal subpoena......

Hillary took no such money for any such thing. Imbecile, she was a Senator with zero influence over the Uranium One deal when that money was donated to the Clinton Foundation.

 

[Faun]

Well according to this neither nor Cohen broke any laws.


A candidate is free to contribute to his or her own campaign. It also is not criminal for a candidate to pay hush money to women whose disclosures might endanger his campaign. So if candidate Trump paid hush money to his two accusers, there would be no violation of any campaign or other laws. To be sure, if he did so for the purpose of helping his campaign, as distinguished from helping his marriage, his campaign would have to disclose any such contribution, and failure to do so might be a violation of a campaign law, but the payments themselves would be entirely lawful.


Did President Trump violate campaign finance laws?

If, on the other hand, Cohen made the payments by himself, without direction from the president, that would constitute an impermissible campaign contribution from a third party. But if Cohen was merely acting as a lawyer for Trump and advancing the payments, with an expectation of repayment, then it would be hard to find a campaign finance crime other than failure to report by the campaign.

Failure to report all campaign contributions is fairly common in political circles.

Obama did the same. Didn't see anyone trying to say he committed a felony.

Dumbfuck, while a candidate is free to contribute as much as he or she wants, by law, they must report it if it’s over a certain dollar amount.

It wasn't a campaign contribution, so no such requirement applies.

On top of that...even if he did use campaign funds and failed to report it.... he would just pay a fine...like obama did for the 2 million dollars he didn't report.......

Obama did not direct his attorney to break the law.

Trump did.

His attorney didn't break the law, you doofus.

LOLOL

Imbecile, his attorney just got sentenced to three years in prison for breaking the law. You cultists live in an alternate universe.