Cohen To Spill The Beans

[Shabibilicious]

Trump, Cohen and the paradox of believing proven liars

David Knowles  Editor  Yahoo News•March 1, 2019

 

 

Yahoo News Video

 

 

Throughout Michael Cohen’s testimony this week before the House Oversight Committee, Republicans repeated what would seem to be a simple rule of human nature: Never trust a person who has been proven to be a liar.

“I want everyone in this room to think about this, the first announced witness for the 116th Congress is a guy who is going to prison in two months for lying to Congress,” Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, said in his opening remarks.

But as more Republicans on the committee followed Jordan’s lead, that strategy quickly hit a wall.

“You’re a pathological liar. You don’t know truth from falsehood,” Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Ariz, scolded Cohen, who then swiftly turned the tables on his interrogators.

“Sir, I’m sorry, are you referring to me or the president?” Cohen asked with a boyish grin.

Therein lies a paradox for the Republican Party. They distrust the fixer who lied to protect the president, but trust the president who himself has been shown to have difficulties telling the truth.

President Trump at a news conference after his summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, Feb. 28, 2019. 

By the Washington Post’s count, as of Feb. 17, Trump has made 8,718 “false or misleading claims” while in office. One of the more glaring untruths was revealed by the New York Times on Thursday, showing that Trump had apparently misled the paper when asked directly whether he had intervened in any way to secure a top-level security clearance for his son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner.

“I was never involved in the security,” Trump told the paper just weeks ago when asked about his involvement.

That claim was laid bare after the Times learned about two contemporaneous memos written last May. One written by Trump’s former chief of staff, retired Gen. John Kelly, and the other by former White House counsel Don McGahn, detailed how Trump had personally ordered that Kushner be granted the security clearance despite objections by the CIA and others in government.

Whether it be Trump’s changing explanation for a meeting between members of his presidential campaign — including Jared Kushner, Paul Manafort and his son, Don Jr.  — and a Russian lawyer, or his insistence to reporters on Air Force One that he never knew that Cohen had paid hush money to Daniels (checks presented this week by his former lawyer for the repayment of a debt undercut that notion), the president’s own claims would seem to merit more than a touch of skepticism.

But trust, it turns out, is a partisan sport. And the Democrats were caught in their own truth dilemma this week by choosing to believe that Cohen, who begins a three-year prison term in May, in part for lying to Congress, was finally coming clean when speaking ill of Trump.

“I believe he told the truth,” committee chairman Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., told reporters at the conclusion of Cohen’s marathon grilling.

Former FBI Director Robert Mueller. 

While asking liars to tell the truth carries self-evident risks, in the matter of Robert Mueller’s investigation of the Trump campaign’s ties to Russia, it would seem to be the only option. Mind you, for a skilled prosecutor, the truth is out there, and in this case it involves talking to a whole lot of liars to find it.

Manafort, for instance, was convicted of eight felonies, including multiple counts of tax and bank fraud. In addition, Robert Mueller laid out his case that Manafort breached his cooperation deal by lying about his interactions with Konstantin Kilimnik, a Ukrainian-Russian political consultant.

 

Michael Flynn, Trump’s former national security adviser, pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his contacts with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak.

George Papadopoulos, a former Trump campaign adviser, pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about searching in the 2016 presidential election for Russian “dirt” on Hillarious Clinton that could aid Trump.

Roger Stone, a longtime Trump adviser, has been indicted by Mueller’s office on one count of obstruction, one count of witness tampering and five counts of making false statements.

That Trump has surrounded himself with this cast of characters may help explain why the president spends so much time decrying “fake news.” If no one can be trusted to tell the truth, after all, then why bother worrying about the coverage of Cohen’s testimony, the Mueller investigation or whether Trump intervened on behalf of his son-in-law obtaining a security clearance?

Though this week’s events on Capitol Hill confirmed that we may never solve what philosophers call the liar paradox, we can at least be sure that if it applies to one liar, it should apply to all.

 

https://news.yahoo.com/trump-cohen-paradox-believing-proven-liars-210518118.html

 

GO RV, then BV

[Shabibilicious]

Trump blames North Korea summit failure on Cohen testimony

Chris Baynes  The Independent  March 4, 2019

 

 

Donald Trump has claimed his former lawyer Michael Cohen’s congressional testimony “may have contributed” to the collapse of last week’s US-North Koreatalks.

The president suggested the House of Representatives Oversight Committee’s decision to interview his longtime fixer on the same day he met Kim Jong-un in Hanoi had been a factor in the two leaders’ failure to strike a deal.

He gave no explanation for how Mr Cohen’s testimony could have impacted on negotiations over Pyongyang’s nuclear programme.

Mr Trump tweeted on Sunday night: “For the Democrats to interview in open hearings a convicted liar & fraudster, at the same time as the very important Nuclear Summit with North Korea, is perhaps a new low in American politics and may have contributed to the ‘walk.’

He added: “Never done when a president is overseas. Shame!”

The president abruptly ended Thursday’s talks with Mr Kim, telling the media the North Korean leader had demanded “sanctions lifted in their entirety” in exchange for denuclearisation. He said in a subsequent press conference: "Sometimes you have to walk."

Hours earlier, Mr Cohen gave explosive public testimony in which he branded Mr Trump a “racist” and a “conman” who was involved in “criminal conspiracy”.

Asked about his former personal lawyer’s evidence at a press conference in Hanoi on Thursday, the president called the allegations “incorrect” and criticised the decision to hold the hearing while he was away.

“I tried to watch as much as I could,” Mr Trump said. “I wasn’t able to watch too much because I’ve been a little bit busy, but I think having a fake hearing like that and having it in the middle of this very important summit is really a terrible thing.”

Mr Cohen had originally been scheduled to testify to the committee on 7 February but cancelled his appearance, citing “threats against his family” he alleged had been made by Mr Trump and his lawyer Rudy Giuliani. The committee confirmed on 20 February that it had rescheduled the testimony for last week.

The president announced the date of his summit with Mr Kim on 5 February.

Republican senator Lindsey Graham last week accused Democrats of "undercutting an important foreign policy effort" by holding Mr Cohen's hearing on the same day as the North Korea talks.

North Korea has disputed Mr Trump's explanation for the breakdown of negotiations, saying it wanted only a partial lifting of sanctions in exchange for the dismantlement of its main nuclear facility.

Mr Cohen’s public testimony, in which he presented evidence Mr Trump was aware of illegal hush money payments to cover up affair allegations during the presidential campaign, was followed by behind-closed-doors grilling by two congressional panels investigating Russia’s interference in the 2016 election.

 

https://news.yahoo.com/trump-blames-north-korea-summit-094212268.html?.tsrc=jtc_news_index

 

GO RV, then BV

[coorslite21]

Yes....the timing of the hearing was telling as to the agenda of the left.

The testimony was a disaster for the left.....as Cohen illustrated he isn't an honest or credible witness. His testimony clearly ruled out the "Russian collusion" theme the left and MSM has been pushing.....

 

Over all....foolish and very stupid for the left to think Cohen could give them some traction.....they took about 10 steps backwards IMM....CL

[Shabibilicious]

8 minutes ago, coorslite21 said:

Yes....the timing of the hearing was telling as to the agenda of the left.

The testimony was a disaster for the left.....as Cohen illustrated he isn't an honest or credible witness. His testimony clearly ruled out the "Russian collusion" theme the left and MSM has been pushing.....

 

Over all....foolish and very stupid for the left to think Cohen could give them some traction.....they took about 10 steps backwards IMM....CL

 

If you can't trust a liars longtime paid liar to tell the truth who can you trust?    If the Cohen testimony disrupted the NK negotiations it simply proves what millions already know, that being, Trump cares more about himself and his fragile ego than anything else.  As always, just my opinion.

 

GO RV, then BV

[Fly]

On 3/2/2019 at 9:49 AM, ladyGrace'sDaddy said:

So now I'm "Satan". A man that has spent his ENTIRE LIFE seeking the Kingdom of Heaven

I point out the lies and hypocrisy of the left daily and for that you claim that I mistreat members here with my, "twisted narrative".

Prove it in my post from the last two months. And if you actually felt that way then why haven't you reported my post where 

you think I've been mistreating members? Fly you can Hate me for all you want. You can call me any name you feel the mods here 

will allow you to get away with, I've been called every name in the book,

 BUT THE ONE THING YOU WILL NEVER DO IS MAKE ME STOP LOVING YOU. 

You're a decent human being with strong faith, how can I not respect that? 

 

 

 

It was for me 

 

 

 

I know you will accept my apology; as the lying fool that I am I didn’t recognize the spirit of the world awakening as you have, don’t forget me when you arrive to your destination most of all enjoy the Journey. 

Your Friend 

Fly

[coorslite21]

1 hour ago, Shabibilicious said:

 

If you can't trust a liars longtime paid liar to tell the truth who can you trust?    If the Cohen testimony disrupted the NK negotiations it simply proves what millions already know, that being, Trump cares more about himself and his fragile ego than anything else.  As always, just my opinion.

 

GO RV, then BV

My point wasn't about what Trump is.....or isn't......rather to illustrate that if the left really hope they win in 2020 they need to pull their heads out of their butts and run on something other than anti Trump platforms......I just want to hear the plan...

how will things be better......and with the current 72% in the US... seemingly anti socialism...the left is floundering......like you.....JMO

 

CL

 

 

 

 

.

[Shabibilicious]

26 minutes ago, coorslite21 said:

My point wasn't about what Trump is.....or isn't......rather to illustrate that if the left really hope they win in 2020 they need to pull their heads out of their butts and run on something other than anti Trump platforms......I just want to hear the plan...

how will things be better......and with the current 72% in the US... seemingly anti socialism...the left is floundering......like you.....JMO

 

CL

 

You say that like AOC is running the left....she is merely a sideshow of fringe Democratic policy, a gift for Republicans, if you will.  Most people left and right are moderates who make decisions from issue to issue, not across the board because their party tells them to.  The Right will keep harping on socialism as being what the Left is about, but it's a farce.....same as the saying the Freedom Caucus is running the Right, which isn't even close to the truth.  You might think I'm floundering, but it turns out you and I aren't that different....we choose what we believe to be right and go with it, not what we're told by a party.  That's why you're the professor and not some simpleton sheep.  

 

GO RV, then BV

[Karsten]

So what are the dems trying to conjure up this time behind closed door and most likely without any Republicans present.

 

The hearing was held Thursday in a Sensitive Complemented Information Facility [SCIF], where classified information can be securely discussed. But Nunes said Cohen does not know any classified information, nor could they share with him any classified information, since he does not have a security clearance.

 

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2019/03/01/nunes-dems-wanted-secret-michael-cohen-hearing-to-frame-media-narrative/

 

Karsten

[coorslite21]

22 hours ago, Shabibilicious said:

 

You say that like AOC is running the left....she is merely a sideshow of fringe Democratic policy, a gift for Republicans, if you will.  Most people left and right are moderates who make decisions from issue to issue, not across the board because their party tells them to.  The Right will keep harping on socialism as being what the Left is about, but it's a farce.....same as the saying the Freedom Caucus is running the Right, which isn't even close to the truth.  You might think I'm floundering, but it turns out you and I aren't that different....we choose what we believe to be right and go with it, not what we're told by a party.  That's why you're the professor and not some simpleton sheep.  

 

GO RV, then BV

 

Shabs you and I are very much alike in we want what's best for the country.  We just have different visions of that.......and that is what has always kept America Great in the past...

 

I'm in agreement on this AOC craze...........kind of a sideshow........but I just don't get why so many of the so called "front runners" for the 2020 Dem Presidency have jumped onto the "new green deal" train.......( kind of like Pelosi when they had to hurry up and sign the Health Care Bill so they could open it up to see what it says)

 

Life experiences and geography often help us shape our views.........the people I know that live in SE Michigan share many of your views.......

 

So I encourage you to keep posting what you think.........Kind of the concept of what made America Great to begin with......a free exchange of ideas.......

 

CL

[MyLadiesDaddy]

Told you this story wouldn't last one week. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez has stolen the Limelight once again. She even has three separate threads on Dinar Vets.

[coorslite21]

1 hour ago, ladyGrace'sDaddy said:

Told you this story wouldn't last one week. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez has stolen the Limelight once again. She even has three separate threads on Dinar Vets.

Perhaps with the news coming out......she will be "toast" soon...we'll see.....laws are laws....!    CL

.

 

 

 

[umbertino]

 

Please ( if you feel like it) listen to the lyrics of this one...Thanks in advance

 

 

 

 

[umbertino]

 

Quote

So I encourage you to keep posting what you think.........Kind of the concept of what made America Great to begin with......a free exchange of ideas.......

End Quote

 

Awesome CL....That was one of the aspects which made me fall crazily in love w America many years ago......I was obsessed with the thought of going...

 

I was able to realize that dream finally for the 1st time in 1977 ( I was 20)...Then through the years  visited again a lot  more times...I think I made about 10 trips over there ( one lasted  a year)

[umbertino]

On 3/4/2019 at 5:09 PM, coorslite21 said:

My point wasn't about what Trump is.....or isn't......rather to illustrate that if the left really hope they win in 2020 they need to pull their heads out of their butts and run on something other than anti Trump platforms......I just want to hear the plan...

how will things be better......and with the current 72% in the US... seemingly anti socialism...the left is floundering......like you.....JMO

 

CL

 

 

 

 

.

 

Dear CL...As a foreign observer / spectator...I admit I'm extremely curious to see what is going to develop politically ......

 

Also cos America is  many times the workshop of what 's going to occur in other parts of the world......

[bostonangler]

On ‎3‎/‎4‎/‎2019 at 11:42 AM, Shabibilicious said:

The Right will keep harping on socialism as being what the Left is about, but it's a farce.....same as the saying the Freedom Caucus is running the Right, which isn't even close to the truth. 

 

Politicians left or right need a boogieman... How else will they motivate their base? With truth and real governing? I don't think those things exist in today's world. Today's world isn't about solutions and compromise, it's about power and control. Greed rules. Honesty, dignity and integrity are things of the past.

 

B/A

[umbertino]

10 minutes ago, bostonangler said:

 

Politicians left or right need a boogieman... How else will they motivate their base? With truth and real governing? I don't think those things exist in today's world. Today's world isn't about solutions and compromise, it's about power and control. Greed rules. Honesty, dignity and integrity are things of the past.

 

B/A

 

Agreed B / A

 

 

Sorry...Out of pluses ( just for a change)...Will get back at you

[nstoolman1]

5 hours ago, bostonangler said:

 

Politicians left or right need a boogieman... How else will they motivate their base? With truth and real governing? I don't think those things exist in today's world. Today's world isn't about solutions and compromise, it's about power and control. Greed rules. Honesty, dignity and integrity are things of the past.

 

B/A

When you have seen your border under a silent attack, paid for that attack and seen the results of that attack it is not a boogie man, as you put it, needed to get stirred up.  

 

[umbertino]

19 hours ago, ladyGrace'sDaddy said:

Told you this story wouldn't last one week. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez has stolen the Limelight once again. She even has three separate threads on Dinar Vets.

 

 

Which makes her a potential presidential candidate in 2024......Who knows......

[Shabibilicious]

On 2/27/2019 at 6:28 PM, ladyGrace'sDaddy said:

 

You do realize that in less than five days no one is going to be talking about Cohen right?

 

 

22 hours ago, ladyGrace'sDaddy said:

Told you this story wouldn't last one week. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez has stolen the Limelight once again. She even has three separate threads on Dinar Vets.

 

Actually you said "less than five days".....but who's keeping track?  

 

GO RV, then BV

[nstoolman1]

1 hour ago, Shabibilicious said:

 

 

Actually you said "less than five days".....but who's keeping track?  

 

GO RV, then BV

 

Well, apparently you are. 

[Shabibilicious]

23 minutes ago, nstoolman1 said:

 

Well, apparently you are. 

 

Why yes....yes I am.  

 

GO RV, then BV

[Shabibilicious]

 

Americans Trust President Trump Less Than Admitted Liar Michael Cohen, Survey Says

 Kevin Kelleher 14 hours ago 

 

American voters rate President Trump less trustworthy than his former attorney Michael Cohen, according to a Quinnipiac University poll that was conducted in the days following Cohen’s high-profile testimony before Congress.

Cohen, a disgraced and disbarred attorney who pleaded guilty to lying before Congress in 2017, returned to a House panel last Wednesday to admit to his own misdeeds, while calling Trump a “racist,” a “con man,” and a “cheat.” Trump in turn blasted Cohen on Twitter for what he called his head-spinning “lies.”

In the court of public opinion, most Americans are siding with Cohen, according to the poll of 1,120 voters surveyed between last Friday and Monday. By a margin of 50% to 35%, respondents thought Cohen was more trustworthy. The survey showed that 44% of voters believe Cohen told the truth last week, while 36% believe he did not tell the truth.

“Michael Cohen, a known liar headed to the big house, has more credibility than the leader of the free world,” Tim Malloy, assistant director of the Quinnipiac poll, said in a statement.

Predictably, more members of Trump’s own Republican party sided with Trump, with 79% of Republicans believing Trump over Cohen. Meanwhile, 86% of Democrats and 51% of Independents believed Cohen more. Just 31% of Independents believed Trump over Cohen.

But when it came to the question of whether to begin impeachment proceedings against Trump, 59% of respondents said no and 35% said yes. Yet 58% want Congress to investigate Cohen’s claims about Trump’s unethical and illegal behavior.

In general, a plurality of voters surveyed have a dim view of Trump. 58% said he lacks good leadership skills, the same percentage that believes he cares about average Americans. 65% believe Trump is not honest, while 64% believe he committed crimes before becoming President (and 45% believe he’s committed crimes in the White House).

“When two-thirds of voters think you have committed a crime in your past life, and almost half of voters say it’s a tossup over whether you committed a crime while in the Oval Office, confidence in your overall integrity is very shaky,” Malloy said.

Overall, Trump received a 38% job approval rating, while 55% disapproved. That’s similar to the 38%-to-57% breakdown in Quinnipiac’s survey three months ago and also to the 38%-to-56% breakdown in March 2018.

Trump received his strongest marks for his handling of the U.S. economy, with 49% of voters approving. Overall, Trump’s strongest approval rating came from White men, at 55%, while 12% of blacks, 20% of Hispanics, and 22% of people between 18 and 34 years of age approved of his performance in office.

 

https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/americans-trust-president-trump-less-001601347.html

 

GO RV, then BV

[coorslite21]

Polls are Polls.....and just like any statistics.......you can shape any of them to suit your own purpose.....

 

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1. NEWS

Trump's approval rating tops Obama's midterm numbers, poll shows

Posted Oct 22, 2018

In this Aug. 31, 2018 photo, President Donald Trump gestures while speaking at the Harris Conference Center in Charlotte, N.C. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

 

By Leada Gore | lgore@al.com

President Trump's approval ratings are higher than those of former-president Barack Obama during the first mid-term elections of his presidency, according to a new poll.

The NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll showed Trump's approval rating at 47 percent, the highest figures the president has posted in that poll. Obama's 2010 approval rating for about the same time period was 45 percent.

 

Trump's approval rating was highest among Republicans (87 percent); white voters without college degrees (65 percent); and men (56 percent.) The president only garnered 10 percent approval from Democrats; 14 percent from black voters; and 27 percent among Latino voters.

Forty-nine percent of registered voters participating in the poll said they disapprove of the job Trump is doing.

The same poll showed 72 percent of Democrats said they have a high interest in the upcoming election versus 68 percent of Republicans.

A country divided

The NBC/WSJ poll showed 80 percent of registered voters - including 85 percent of Democrats and 73 percent of Republicans - believing the U.S. is divided. Eighteen percent said the country is united.

When asked what the cause of the division was, Republicans responded "Barack Obama," "liberals," "Democrats," and "the media," according to NBC. Democrats responded, "President Trump," "Republicans," and "the media."

The NBC/WSJ poll was conducted Oct. 14-17 among 900 registered voters. It has a margin of error of 3.3 percentage points.

 

 

 

 

 

[Shabibilicious]

 

Lawyers claiming ties to Rudy Giuliani approached Michael Cohen after FBI raids; investigators looking at contacts

 ELIANA LARRAMENDIA, JAMES HILL and LAUREN PEARLE,ABC News 6 hours ago 

 

 

 

 

 

In the weeks following the federal raids on former Michael Cohen’s law office and residences last April, President Donald Trump's former lawyer and confidant was contacted by two New York attorneys who claimed to be in close contact with Rudy Giuliani, the current personal attorney to Trump, according to sources with direct knowledge of the discussions.

The outreach came just as Cohen, who spent more than a decade advocating for Trump, was wrangling with the most consequential decision of his life; whether to remain in a joint defense agreement with the president and others, or to flip on the man to whom he had pledged immutable loyalty. The sources described the lawyers’ contact with Cohen as an effort to keep him in the tent.

 

Cohen generated a bounty of bold-faced headlines during his public testimony before Congress last week. He called the occupant of the Oval Office a racist, a con-man and a cheat and accused the president of committing at least one crime while in office.

Yet for all the attention paid to what Cohen was willing to say about the president, his reluctance to answer a question about the last communications he had with Trump or someone acting on his behalf made news on its own. Cohen clammed up and claimed that federal prosecutors were actively probing that very issue.

“Unfortunately, this topic is something that’s being investigated right now by the Southern District of New York, and I’ve been asked by them not to discuss and not to talk about these issues,” Cohen said.

The sources familiar with the contacts said the two lawyers first reached out to Cohen late in April of last year and that the discussions continued for about two months. The attorneys, who have no known formal ties to the White House, urged Cohen not to leave the joint defense agreement, the sources told ABC News, and also offered a Plan B. In the event Cohen opted to exit the agreement, they could join his legal team and act as a conduit between Cohen and the president’s lawyers.

 

At one point in the discussions, one of the attorneys sent Cohen a phone screenshot to prove they were in touch with Giuliani, the sources said.

During the time of the conversations, Cohen and attorneys for the president and the Trump Organization were engaged in a cooperative, court-supervised effort to examine millions of files seized from the Cohen raids looking for items potentially covered by attorney-client privilege.

With that process ongoing, the New York attorneys talked up to Cohen the value of working with them because of their good relationship with Giuliani.

Reached Wednesday by ABC News, Giuliani declined to comment, citing attorney-client privilege.

“I can’t say anything about it. If I had any conversations with any of his lawyers it would be privileged because it was all under the joint defense agreement,” Giuliani said.

The nature and the propriety of the contacts were a subject of interest when Cohen spoke last year to prosecutors in the office of special counsel Robert Mueller and, more recently, in the Southern District of New York, according to people familiar with the events.

 

Investigators have been looking into whether these communications were intended to influence Cohen, a potential witness against the president, or to implicitly dangle a potential pardon in front of Cohen, the sources said. It’s unclear if prosecutors regard the contacts as illegal or improper.

A spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Southern District of New York declined to comment.

Neither Cohen nor his attorneys responded to requests for comment.

The sources tell ABC News that during the multiple conversations between Cohen and the attorneys, there was no explicit discussion or offer of a presidential pardon for Cohen. But the sources said there was an implicit message that if Cohen hired these lawyers, it could preserve or increase his chances of a pardon down the road, the sources said.

While emphasizing that he was speaking generally, and not in response to any specific allegation, Giuliani told ABC News that any lawyer that has raised to him the issue of a possible pardon has been told the same thing.

“It has always been squelched immediately,” Giuliani said.

“We have unequivocally always said only one thing, and anything else would be entirely false. We have said the president is not going to issue any pardons and is not considering any pardons at this time,” he added.

 

Cohen eventually left the joint defense agreement and hired Guy Petrillo, a white-collar defense lawyer in New York, to represent him as he sought to cooperate with Mueller’s probe and other federal and state investigations. The news of Petrillo’s hiring was first reported last June, but it had been rumored for weeks before that.

According to the sources, the attorneys cautioned Cohen that hiring Petrillo, the former head of the criminal division of the Southern District of New York, could effectively end all contact between Cohen and Trump’s legal team. They noted that Petrillo had previously worked with prominent Trump critics, including former FBI Director James Comey and Preet Bharara, the former U.S. Attorney in Manhattan, who had been fired by the president.

As it became clear that Cohen would commit to Petrillo, the attorneys asked Cohen to consider bringing them on board as well, because their purported relationship with Giuliani could serve to keep lines of communication open with President Trump’s legal team. Petrillo apparently opposed the idea of working in tandem, and Cohen ultimately rejected it, the sources said. The two attorneys never formally joined Cohen’s legal team but sent Cohen a bill for legal services, which he did not pay, the sources said.

The charges include fees for at least a half a dozen phone calls between the attorneys and Giuliani, according to two sources who have seen the invoice. One of the final entries is for a late June in-person meeting in New York between at least one of the attorneys and Giuliani. ABC News has not independently reviewed the bill.

The Southern District of New York prosecutors are now in possession of the legal bill along with logs of numerous calls and copies of emails between the attorneys and Cohen, the sources said. During a meeting with Cohen earlier this year, federal prosecutors in New York expressed interest in learning who paid the bill. Cohen said he did not know who, if anyone, did.

Late Wednesday, ABC News spoke with Robert J. Costello, who was identified by the sources as one of the New York attorneys who had reached out to Cohen last year.

Costello said the story is “not accurate,” but declined to be more specific “until I am convinced the attorney-client privilege has been waived. Unless Michael Cohen has waived attorney client privilege, I am prohibited from making any comment about this.”

Costello said that he and Jeffrey Citron, another attorney in the same firm, had an attorney-client relationship with Cohen. Costello said he is unaware of any investigation of these matters.

"I have not spoken to the SDNY or Mueller or Congress or anyone about any issue involving Cohen. I am unaware of any inquiry by anybody other than reporters about this,” he added.

 

Cohen was back in Washington, D.C., again on Wednesday for another private session with the House Intelligence Committee, after spending a full-day with the committee last week. In addition to his marathon public testimony, Cohen spent in total more than a dozen hours behind closed doors last week with the intelligence committees of both chambers of Congress.

In August, Cohen pleaded guilty to eight felonies, including tax and bank fraud unrelated to his work for Trump and to two campaign finance violations for his role in hush money deals with two women who had claimed past affairs with Trump. He told a federal judge that he had arranged the deals with the women in coordination with and at the direction of then-candidate Trump.

Trump has denied the allegations of the affairs and has insisted that he never asked or directed Cohen to do anything illegal.

Cohen entered a separate guilty plea in November with the special counsel’s office for false statements to Congress in 2017 about the timing and details of a proposed Trump Tower project in Moscow.

He was sentenced to three years in prison and must begin serving his time no later than May 6.

The president has repeatedly criticized his former ally, often in starkly personal terms. In a Sunday tweet, Trump dismissed Cohen’s congressional appearance as “hostile..testimony given by a liar to reduce his prison time.”

 

https://www.yahoo.com/gma/lawyers-claiming-ties-rudy-giuliani-approached-michael-cohen-215504898--abc-news-topstories.html

 

GO RV, then BV

[coorslite21]

17 minutes ago, Shabibilicious said:

 

Lawyers claiming ties to Rudy Giuliani approached Michael Cohen after FBI raids; investigators looking at contacts

 ELIANA LARRAMENDIA, JAMES HILL and LAUREN PEARLE,ABC News 6 hours ago 

 

 

 

 

 

In the weeks following the federal raids on former Michael Cohen’s law office and residences last April, President Donald Trump's former lawyer and confidant was contacted by two New York attorneys who claimed to be in close contact with Rudy Giuliani, the current personal attorney to Trump, according to sources with direct knowledge of the discussions.

The outreach came just as Cohen, who spent more than a decade advocating for Trump, was wrangling with the most consequential decision of his life; whether to remain in a joint defense agreement with the president and others, or to flip on the man to whom he had pledged immutable loyalty. The sources described the lawyers’ contact with Cohen as an effort to keep him in the tent.

 

Cohen generated a bounty of bold-faced headlines during his public testimony before Congress last week. He called the occupant of the Oval Office a racist, a con-man and a cheat and accused the president of committing at least one crime while in office.

Yet for all the attention paid to what Cohen was willing to say about the president, his reluctance to answer a question about the last communications he had with Trump or someone acting on his behalf made news on its own. Cohen clammed up and claimed that federal prosecutors were actively probing that very issue.

“Unfortunately, this topic is something that’s being investigated right now by the Southern District of New York, and I’ve been asked by them not to discuss and not to talk about these issues,” Cohen said.

The sources familiar with the contacts said the two lawyers first reached out to Cohen late in April of last year and that the discussions continued for about two months. The attorneys, who have no known formal ties to the White House, urged Cohen not to leave the joint defense agreement, the sources told ABC News, and also offered a Plan B. In the event Cohen opted to exit the agreement, they could join his legal team and act as a conduit between Cohen and the president’s lawyers.

 

At one point in the discussions, one of the attorneys sent Cohen a phone screenshot to prove they were in touch with Giuliani, the sources said.

During the time of the conversations, Cohen and attorneys for the president and the Trump Organization were engaged in a cooperative, court-supervised effort to examine millions of files seized from the Cohen raids looking for items potentially covered by attorney-client privilege.

With that process ongoing, the New York attorneys talked up to Cohen the value of working with them because of their good relationship with Giuliani.

Reached Wednesday by ABC News, Giuliani declined to comment, citing attorney-client privilege.

“I can’t say anything about it. If I had any conversations with any of his lawyers it would be privileged because it was all under the joint defense agreement,” Giuliani said.

The nature and the propriety of the contacts were a subject of interest when Cohen spoke last year to prosecutors in the office of special counsel Robert Mueller and, more recently, in the Southern District of New York, according to people familiar with the events.

 

Investigators have been looking into whether these communications were intended to influence Cohen, a potential witness against the president, or to implicitly dangle a potential pardon in front of Cohen, the sources said. It’s unclear if prosecutors regard the contacts as illegal or improper.

A spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Southern District of New York declined to comment.

Neither Cohen nor his attorneys responded to requests for comment.

The sources tell ABC News that during the multiple conversations between Cohen and the attorneys, there was no explicit discussion or offer of a presidential pardon for Cohen. But the sources said there was an implicit message that if Cohen hired these lawyers, it could preserve or increase his chances of a pardon down the road, the sources said.

While emphasizing that he was speaking generally, and not in response to any specific allegation, Giuliani told ABC News that any lawyer that has raised to him the issue of a possible pardon has been told the same thing.

“It has always been squelched immediately,” Giuliani said.

“We have unequivocally always said only one thing, and anything else would be entirely false. We have said the president is not going to issue any pardons and is not considering any pardons at this time,” he added.

 

Cohen eventually left the joint defense agreement and hired Guy Petrillo, a white-collar defense lawyer in New York, to represent him as he sought to cooperate with Mueller’s probe and other federal and state investigations. The news of Petrillo’s hiring was first reported last June, but it had been rumored for weeks before that.

According to the sources, the attorneys cautioned Cohen that hiring Petrillo, the former head of the criminal division of the Southern District of New York, could effectively end all contact between Cohen and Trump’s legal team. They noted that Petrillo had previously worked with prominent Trump critics, including former FBI Director James Comey and Preet Bharara, the former U.S. Attorney in Manhattan, who had been fired by the president.

As it became clear that Cohen would commit to Petrillo, the attorneys asked Cohen to consider bringing them on board as well, because their purported relationship with Giuliani could serve to keep lines of communication open with President Trump’s legal team. Petrillo apparently opposed the idea of working in tandem, and Cohen ultimately rejected it, the sources said. The two attorneys never formally joined Cohen’s legal team but sent Cohen a bill for legal services, which he did not pay, the sources said.

The charges include fees for at least a half a dozen phone calls between the attorneys and Giuliani, according to two sources who have seen the invoice. One of the final entries is for a late June in-person meeting in New York between at least one of the attorneys and Giuliani. ABC News has not independently reviewed the bill.

The Southern District of New York prosecutors are now in possession of the legal bill along with logs of numerous calls and copies of emails between the attorneys and Cohen, the sources said. During a meeting with Cohen earlier this year, federal prosecutors in New York expressed interest in learning who paid the bill. Cohen said he did not know who, if anyone, did.

Late Wednesday, ABC News spoke with Robert J. Costello, who was identified by the sources as one of the New York attorneys who had reached out to Cohen last year.

Costello said the story is “not accurate,” but declined to be more specific “until I am convinced the attorney-client privilege has been waived. Unless Michael Cohen has waived attorney client privilege, I am prohibited from making any comment about this.”

Costello said that he and Jeffrey Citron, another attorney in the same firm, had an attorney-client relationship with Cohen. Costello said he is unaware of any investigation of these matters.

"I have not spoken to the SDNY or Mueller or Congress or anyone about any issue involving Cohen. I am unaware of any inquiry by anybody other than reporters about this,” he added.

 

Cohen was back in Washington, D.C., again on Wednesday for another private session with the House Intelligence Committee, after spending a full-day with the committee last week. In addition to his marathon public testimony, Cohen spent in total more than a dozen hours behind closed doors last week with the intelligence committees of both chambers of Congress.

In August, Cohen pleaded guilty to eight felonies, including tax and bank fraud unrelated to his work for Trump and to two campaign finance violations for his role in hush money deals with two women who had claimed past affairs with Trump. He told a federal judge that he had arranged the deals with the women in coordination with and at the direction of then-candidate Trump.

Trump has denied the allegations of the affairs and has insisted that he never asked or directed Cohen to do anything illegal.

Cohen entered a separate guilty plea in November with the special counsel’s office for false statements to Congress in 2017 about the timing and details of a proposed Trump Tower project in Moscow.

He was sentenced to three years in prison and must begin serving his time no later than May 6.

The president has repeatedly criticized his former ally, often in starkly personal terms. In a Sunday tweet, Trump dismissed Cohen’s congressional appearance as “hostile..testimony given by a liar to reduce his prison time.”

 

https://www.yahoo.com/gma/lawyers-claiming-ties-rudy-giuliani-approached-michael-cohen-215504898--abc-news-topstories.html

 

GO RV, then BV

Throw enough spaghetti at the wall....sooner or later some sticks.....CL