Why does he have to have someone bankrolling him? His firm has won some of the largest class action suits in history in terms of money awarded, so it's not like he's struggling for funds. And he's going up against the sitting President of the United States in a case that (to this point) is very clearly in his client's favour. The name recognition he's now garnered in the public eye for future clients is worth more than any settlement he could possibly expect to come from the Daniels case.
I don't think its Mueller's team leaking stuff. His investigation has been airtight so far. Leaks usually come from the people being investigated or people being questioned. I mean the fact that Giuliani got let go from his actual law job tells you what Mueller is up against. The man shits into his own hands and smears it on his face in public. If he's the best Trump can get, they are fucked.
Why do you think this? You can subpoena banking records in civil cases... it doesn't have to be a Government entity. In the case of the Canadian Cohen, the transfer came from outside of North America (Malaysia) to an Ottawa account. Totally outside of any US jurisdiction, except as per any international money-laundering reporting agreements. It could be that someone at the TD Bank did a global search in their systems for Michael Cohen and this one got lumped in there with them, or it could be that Malaysia freely reported that transaction to anyone who asked. There are many ways in which that data could be obtained legally without going straight to "Mueller is leaking". The fact that you call it the SS Mueller speaks volumes.
So you think Cohen probably leaked his banking records that showed him taking seriously questionable payments from large firms, peddling influence? Seriously, stop and think about this. Who has Cohen's bank records? Cohen and the Government investigating him or someone else - through a civil matter that he would be aware of but apparently isn't, who also probably doesn't have the last name Avenatti. That's it. At some point all the people who think Mueller is infallible and in complete control are going to have to come back out of orbit here. My understanding is that Giuliani was let go for his statement about payoffs being commonplace at his firm. So, he was let go for telling the truth. Lawyers are scumbags (no disrespect to the lawyers here) - they are one of the least trusted and least respected professions. Paying people off - or acting as someone's agent in sensitive matters is part of what they do.
Bank transactions happen between two parties... and the ones that I've seen reported so far are from Public Companies who make public filings. So, if they have public records of making a payment to Cohen's LLC, then it's not his records they have, it's the public company's records. Regardless, the Treasury Dept has started an investigation into whether this disclosure is a violation of the Banking Secrets act, so we'll see soon enough. That being said, the NY Times has stated that they did an independent review of the financial records and validated them... so they had their own source to verify what he posted on Twitter was actually factual. This leads me to believe that there is a public avenue to get this information, and it's just a case of someone doing the proper data searching and aggregation, which would explain the inclusion of the Canadian Michael Cohen (if they included a generic name search). https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/08/us/politics/michael-cohen-shell-company-payments.html
I never said Cohen leaked his own records. I said that a lot of the leaks previously came from people in Trumps circle thinking they were helping but were actually hurting. All I said is that I don’t think Mueller did it. I also think the people in Mueller’s team understand the importance of what they are doing being that it is the only nonpartisan entity investigating this matter right now. The fact that the interviews that were held with all of these major corporations concerning possible bribe money happened back in November and that we are only finding out about them now, makes me think it wasn’t a Mueller leak. I don’t think he’s infallible, but I think he’s light years smarter than the people he is investigating.
Most likely scenario I've seen is from the following: https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/is-this-how-avenatti-found-out Basically that Cohen's activities tripped regulatory compliance within one or more financial institutions, and they compiled a report on the activity and submitted it to the appropriate regulatory bodies. The leaks to Avenatti could have come from either someone with access at a bank(s), from someone at the regulatory body itself, or from investigators that have accessed it in the course of their investigation. Chances are reasonable that such a leak would be illegal, but would only jeopardize the leaker, and not Avenatti (unless he did something illegal in soliciting it).
Well, there's the bank(s), with more than few computer-wise employees. Also, I strongly suggest any member of Mueller's team caught leaking would be summarily thrown off the team amd very likely "resigned" from the FBI. Remember the two clowns joking via e-mail. Both thrown off the team and one has resigned IIRC. But, hey, what do I know? Cheers. Just another scumbag
I don't hold Mueller with the same vaunted esteem that some here have, but in my mind there is no way this stuff was leaked by the Mueller investigation to a porn star's lawyer.
I was kind of wondering how long it would take for the whole "Avenatti did a bad thing that one time, so Cohen/Trump/etcs Mount Everest sized pile of crime doesn't matter" Answer - Not very long.
The point of all of this to me is that everyone who we look at as leaders are morally bankrupt shit bags. Every single person in politics, the people they interact with, the people who are accusing them of wrong-doing are trash. The vast majority of the people in this country are law abiding citizens that get up and go to work to do an honest days work. Yet the people making the rules do none of that and nobody is concerned by this or interested in changing any of it. They only care about their team and making the other team look bad; forgetting that everyone in this country is actually on the same team and that team loses every time you do this. It may appear that I defend Trump but in fact, there is no need for me to shit on him further, you guys have that covered. I just like to try to level it out a little bit and in the process point to all of the other nefarious shit going on that is being ignored. The media doesn't want to talk about how the Government is abusing it's domestic spying program (FISA Courts), it doesn't want to talk about partisan slanting of Government institutions to the point of weaponization that are supposed to be impartial, it doesn't want to talk about who if funding efforts to perform character assassinations unless it matches their pre-formed narrative. At some point, people are going to wake up and question why they are listening to these people, hell, someday they may question why they comply as well. That would be very bad for this country, so it is incumbent on the Government and it's leadership to set a better example.
Honestly, this is the main reason I was really hoping that Bernie would have won. I may not agree with some of his policies, but I'll be damned if he isn't morally and ethically sound... he would have been breath of fresh air that I think would have brought about some change. Maybe not a lot of change, but he at least would have fought to point shit in a better direction.
Agree with Oden. People talk about how much Trump is going to profit off his position- have you seen the hundreds of millions of dollars Pelosi has made while in office? Until politicians are forced to play by the same rules as their constituents and lobbyists are found unconstitutional, DC will corrupt anyone. Those that aren’t playing by their rules will be framed and ousted. Trumpies love to think he’s playing the system and is trolling the media by looking like an idiot- however that’s supposed to work. How do you win by coming off retarded?
I'm genuinely curious...if Avenatti is Daniel's attorney, why is he releasing Cohen's banking records? Is this relevant somehow? Also, if it is indeed relevant, shouldn't information like that be used in a courtroom and not just released to the media willy nilly?
It's hard to say because this is a completely unique case, and Avenatti hasn't published his strategy or anything, but it looks like he's baiting Cohen and Trump into doing or saying things that will strengthen Avenatti's case for having a judge force Trump to sit for a deposition.
We live in a world where you can go fishing for a president with a porn star. I feel like I need a shower.
He's also very clearly trying to prove California has jurisdiction over some of these matters. Whether that's just because he's a California Lawyer and feels he has home court advantage in CA, or that Xavier Becerra will be another state-level impediment to Trump's pardoning power I'm not sure, but he's definitely actively petitioning on that front.
There was an NDA between her and Trump around the payment that was made to Daniels. Trump then threatened to sue her over breach of that NDA. Trump then said that he knew nothing about the payment made to her... so then why the payment? Either he knew about the payment, or the NDA is invalid. Trump then broke the NDA himself, so Daniels went on TV and told all. Cohen said he made the payment without the knowledge of Trump. Trump then said that Cohen hardly does anything for him, which was then immediately quoted in the legal case around client privileges between Trump and Cohen and admissibility of information. The amount of the payment made by Cohen to Daniels is within $10 of structured payments made from Trump's campaign to Cohen. Structuring payments like that is illegal, and there could also be some illegal use of campaign finances. Gulliani then went on national TV and said that Trump knew about it and this happens all the time. Gulliani then got "retired". Now more and more payments to Cohen are coming out that look like they are bribes to get access to Trump, including from overseas interests. Avenatti is releasing Cohen's bank records to show the connection between his payment to his client and Trump and all the other back door shit that is going on. At this point, I'm sure he's enjoying the hell out of baiting and toying with Trump and his legal team, and is releasing info in the hopes of getting him on the record only to be shown how he's lied based on the next piece of information that he'll release. At least Clinton was smart with that shit... she never went on the record about anything... she neither confirmed nor denied anything. As soon as you go on the record with a statement one way or the other, you've narrowed your future options.