Donald Trump Presidency discussion thread III

Blowfish

josip wrote: »

As commander-in-chief of the Syrian Army could Assad himself be a justifiable target for a missile strike?
Even if he was never targeted, would announcing him as a possible target be of any benefit?
eg. "This time it's an air base. The next time chemical weapons are used, they will target senior military individuals, all the way to the top."

The problem is, though Assad is really not great from a humanitarian point of view, his version of Syria is still a somewhat secular one and thus better than the 'rebels' who (excluding the SDF areas) are one step away from Jihadi's. Targeting Assad, or even threatening to, risks destabilising Syria again, which is really not what anyone wants.

Ludo

BREAKING: FBI raids Cohens offices.

Now this should really piss off Trump. Heads might roll over this.

Meuller getting closer?
Trump will need a distraction from this quickly also unfortunately.

frag420

Expect an assault on Syria to take the heat of...

Ludo

Update says that this is a referral by Meuller to the Southern District court in New York of "wrong doing" that he may have found. So technically there are now 2 federal criminal investigations into Trump and his campaign.
What was that he was saying about how Clinton should not be elected as it would be bad for the country to have a president under investigation.

Water John

Does this go to moving Cohen out of reach of a Presedential pardon?

Ludo

Still federal so pardonable...

Professor Moriarty

Ludo wrote: »

BREAKING: FBI raids Cohens offices.

Now this should really piss off Trump. Heads might roll over this.

Meuller getting closer?
Trump will need a distraction from this quickly also unfortunately.

The FBI raids the President's lawyer's office. Who'd have thunk it?

circadian

If he's pardoned then that's an assumption of guilt, no? I mean this is all hypothetical but if there is something awry here and he gets pardoned doesn't that mean he can't plead the 5th to anything in relation to it?

Inquitus

Professor Moriarty wrote: »

The FBI raids the President's lawyer's office. Who'd have thunk it?

Watching the news on this the DoJ would not have signed off on a raid such as this without very solid info behind it.

Ludo

Just thinking about this more and reading the Twitterati comments. This could actually be a huge deal. This is a massive step and a very unusual thing to do. This is as close as it gets to Trumps inner circle and Trump himself and it is almost definite that a crime was committed. This is certainly more promising than all the Stormy Daniels interview stuff a while back,

Itssoeasy

circadian wrote: »

If he's pardoned then that's an assumption of guilt, no? I mean this is all hypothetical but if there is something awry here and he gets pardoned doesn't that mean he can't plead the 5th to anything in relation to it?

Yes I think if you get pardoned you can't then plead the fifth. Well no it wouldn't be an assumption of guilt but it certainly optics wise would look bad.

Itssoeasy

Inquitus wrote: »

Watching the news on this the DoJ would not have signed off on a raid such as this without very solid info behind it.

A DOJ and FBI which is headed by trump people that he put in place.

Professor Moriarty

Ludo wrote: »

Just thinking about this more and reading the Twitterati comments. This could actually be a huge deal. This is a massive step and a very unusual thing to do. This is as close as it gets to Trumps inner circle and Trump himself and it is almost definite that a crime was committed. This is certainly more promising than all the Stormy Daniels interview stuff a while back,

Tweets in the past week:

What does the Department of Justice and FBI have to hide? Why aren’t they giving the strongly requested documents (unredacted) to the HOUSE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE? Stalling, but for what reason? Not looking good!

Lawmakers of the House Judiciary Committee are angrily accusing the Department of Justice of missing the Thursday Deadline for turning over UNREDACTED Documents relating to FISA abuse, FBI, Comey, Lynch, McCabe, Clinton Emails and much more. Slow walking - what is going on? BAD!

So sad that the Department of “Justice” and the FBI are slow walking, or even not giving, the unredacted documents requested by Congress. An embarrassment to our country!

pixelburp

I'm guessing this is pretty uncommon right? Presumably not many judges would sign off on a warrant to raid a practising lawyers office unless there was some pretty solid grounding to do so; doubly so given Mueller's supposed meticulous reputation. Not champing at the bit that this is some mythical smoking gun, but it certainly feels like a serious development and decision.

derb12

Delighted to hear that this low-life-Roy-Cohn-wannabe-but-not-as-smart attorney is getting his comeuppance. It has been too quiet on the Mueller front for a few weeks and all this salacious gossip about affairs is just a distraction which won't move the political needle. I do believe that the €130k being passed through the books of the trump campaign and the trump org will be significant but all the gossipy stuff was a total yawn!
I just wonder whether Trump's incessant chipping away at the DoJ and Mueller will have sufficiently undermined public confidence in the FBI.
Interesting times again (and definitely staying up late to watch Anderson Cooper tonight!).

Leroy42

derb12 wrote: »

I do believe that the €130k being passed through the books of the trump campaign and the trump org will be significant but all the gossipy stuff was a total yawn!

Well, they do say it is the cover up that get you into more trouble than the original indiscretion.

Looking back, I highly doubt news of Stormy would have impacted the vote that much anyway.

Although it doesn't necessarily mean it has anything to do with Trump. Cohen probably had other clients. Mueller could have found out something outside of the Russia Probe and that's why he handed it over to NY DA office.

Edit: The latest sources seem to be suggesting that it does relate to Stormy

aloyisious

Leroy42 wrote: »

Well, they do say it is the cover up that get you into more trouble than the original indiscretion.

Looking back, I highly doubt news of Stormy would have impacted the vote that much anyway.

Although it doesn't necessarily mean it has anything to do with Trump. Cohen probably had other clients. Mueller could have found out something outside of the Russia Probe and that's why he handed it over to NY DA office.

If the NY DA's office handles the case and decides there is a case for Mr Cohn to answer, does the fact it's the NY DA mean that the charges will NOT be brought federally, thus making them outside the scope of presidential pardon and clemency? EDIT: Ta Ludo.....

Is this another way of skinning the cat, getting the DA to do the legwork, and then bringing in other Federal charges related to something the DA found and had Mr Cohn tried and convicted on?

Ludo

But it is the Justice Department's Southern District of New York ...i.e federal.

Leroy42

But whatever comes out of this, the personal lawyer of the current POTUS has just had his offices and home raided by the FBI.

That is massive.

Ludo

Leroy42 wrote: »

But whatever comes out of this, the personal lawyer of the current POTUS has just had his offices and home raided by the FBI.

That is massive.

This in itself would bring down any other leader in a proper normal democracy. Let alone all the other crap. The Teflon Taoiseach had nothing on Trump.

Water John

Something that Mueller found may have been, outside his remit. that would mean handing over that particular, line of inquiry, to the relevant agency.

DT, says they, broke into his friends/attorney's office.
DT, mouthing off at press briefing, see on CNN.

Leroy42

Trump is now calling the investigation a disgrace, and attack on America and what we stand for. That the Mueller team is conflicted as its all democrats.

He called out Sessions as failing America by recusing himself.

He is now calling out HC are a liar, lying under oath.

Jebus, the man is seriously rattled.

Water John

Assad has picked a bad day.

Think he just accused Comey of lying.

Wildlife Actor

So Trump said 4 days ago that he didn't know about the stormy payoff ergo Cohen was not his lawyer.

But now there were "privileged communications" taken even though the raid was confined to the stormy payoff. So he was his lawyer.

He's quite the shapeshifter is Cohen.

Leroy42

I have never seen a senior politician, or even a senior businessman, be so out of control as Trump just was.

His inability to stay in control is deeply worrying.

To go off on such a rant, not only on Mueller, but the FBI, Sessions, HC etc, at a meeting that was called to discuss Syria and the US response. HE had the top Generals sitting around the table having to watch the CiC totally lose the run of himself.

derb12

I missed the rant but it is not at all surprising. They were just saying that the trump-nominated replacement for preet bharara (who trump fired) signed off on the warrant!

aloyisious

Umm, with some much info floating around about Don and his attorney, it's CNN reporting that a White House source said Don knew in advance of the raid and was watching it on TV, and CNN posing a question as to whether he bothered to tip off his attorney in advance. CNN mentioning that the people who signed off on the raid are republicans.

Re the Syrian thing, it seem's to be, from what he said during the meet-the-media event, that Don is reliant on his generals for advice on what can be done. He said something like "isn't that right, generals?" during the meeting when some reporter asked about Syria following on from Don sprouting on about the reported gassing incident. With kelly as his civil-side COS, I hope he and the generals can keep Don away from doing something stupid in respect of Iran, whatever about Syria itself. The generals might have to let Don blow off steam some way without great casualty figures or giving another counntry causus belli.

derb12

I think that we will see a fbi warrant for a search of trump org financial records very soon.
I don't think trump could have had prior knowledge of today's raid. He was too calm earlier.

20Cent

Also Cohen's law firm represents Cambridge Analytica. Might be some intetesting findings.

enfant terrible

Think Mueller has veered too far off Russia now and Trump is gonna fire him.

Looks like he's more interested in getting dirt on Trump than finding collusion.