Bill Of Impeachment: Article I, Obstruction Of Justice

[Lord Jim]

Meanwhile, back at the real, non-diversion investigation:

Robert Mueller just drew his most direct line to date between the Trump campaign and Russia

Special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation just drew what appears to be its most direct line to date between U.S. President Trump’s 2016 campaign and Russia.

That line is drawn in a new court filing related to the upcoming sentencing of London attorney Alex van der Zwaan. Van der Zwaan has pleaded guilty to lying about his contacts with deputy Trump campaign manager Rick Gates and a person identified in the document only as “Person A.” Person A appears to be a former Ukraine-based aide to Gates and former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort named Konstantin Kilimnik.

Here’s the paragraph:

“Fourth, the lies and withholding of documents were material to the Special Counsel’s Office’s investigation. That Gates and Person A were directly communicating in September and October 2016[Gates was the Deputy Campaign Manager of the Trump campaign at the time]was pertinent to the investigation. Federal Bureau of Investigation Special Agents assisting the Special Counsel’s Office assess that Person A has ties to Russian intelligence service and had such ties in 2016. During his first interview with the Special Counsel’s Office, van der Zwaan admitted that he knew of that connection, stating that Gates told him Person A was a former Russian Intelligence Officer with GRU.”

That Person A has had ties to Russian intelligence is not terribly surprising. Kilimnik’s personal history has been examined extensively by the media, including The Washington Post. He has denied being involved in Russian intelligence, but he served in the Russian military and attended a Russian military foreign language university that is seen as a breeding ground for intelligence agents.

What’s particularly significant in the Mueller filing, though, are six words: “and had such ties in 2016.” Prosecutors have said previously that a longtime Manafort and Gates associate had ties to Russian intelligence, but they have never said those ties remained during the 2016 campaign. In December, they said this associate was “a longtime Russian colleague . . . who is currently based in Russia and assessed to have ties to a Russian intelligence service.” Why those six words were added in this filing when they didn’t appear in the previous filing is the $64,000 question.

As the Post details here, this is hardly the first public indication of a link between the Trump campaign and Russia, but it is the closest connection Mueller has made in a filing to this point. Mueller hasn’t weighed in on the alleged Kremlin ties of the Russian lawyer Donald Trump Jr. met with, for instance, nor has he filed anything involving Roger Stone’s contacts with hackers who have been linked to Russia.

The other new piece here is that Mueller’s team says Gates described Person A (again, apparently Kilimnik) as “a former Russian Intelligence Officer with GRU.” (GRU is Russia’s military intelligence organization.) So according to van der Zwaan, Gates talked openly about Person A’s ties to Russian intelligence. Kilimnik told The Post in June that he has “no relation to the Russian or any other intelligence service.” Mueller is now apparently directly disputing that using Gates’s own words, via van der Zwaan.

https://www.thestar.com/news/world/anal ... ussia.html

[Scooter]

Trump Boasts That His Impeachment Will Get Higher TV Ratings Than All Other Impeachments

WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—In an interview with NBC’s Lester Holt, Donald Trump boasted that, if he is impeached, the television ratings will be higher than those of any other impeachment in history.

“Everywhere I go, people tell me that if I am impeached, they’re going to watch it,” he said. “The ratings are going to be through the roof.”

He said that he expected his impeachment ratings to be “many, many times” the size of the audience for Bill Clinton’s impeachment, in 1998.

“It’s not even going to be close,” Trump said. “The ratings for Bill Clinton’s impeachment were a joke.”

Asked about the recent impeachment of the former South Korean President Park Geun-hye, Trump said, “Did anyone even watch that one? That was Korea. Nobody cares.”

As for the impeachment of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, he said, “I didn’t hear about that one. I don’t follow Brazil. I like Argentina. I saw ‘Evita’ many, many times. Andrew Lloyd Webber did a great job. Millions and millions of people loved it. But that was a Broadway show, not an impeachment.”

Even though he anticipates “just terrific” ratings for his impeachment, Trump said that he did not expect the media to provide an honest accounting of his audience size.

“They’re going to lie and say that a lot of people who watched my impeachment didn’t watch, and that’s going to be very bad and unfair, but it’s not going to change the fact that my impeachment will be a great impeachment, a really beautiful impeachment,” he said.

[Big RR]

I'd say this would have to be a joke, but then it is Trump.

Let's hope his removal from office gets an even bigger audience, or a smaller one, or the same. Hell, let's just hope for his removal from office.

[Scooter]

I'd say this would have to be a joke

(The Borowitz Report)

[Lord Jim]

my impeachment will be a great impeachment, a really beautiful impeachment,”

The mark of really good satire is when it is completely plausible...

I have no problem believing that Trump could actually say that stuff...

[Big RR]

that's the point; and Scooter, I did notice the reference to Borowitz, but perhaps he's like Lenny Bruce (reading the court transcripts in his standup act) and doesn't have to satirize anything anymore--just report what Trump says. Face it, it's almost impossible to make him seem a bigger jerk than he actually is.

[Scooter]

F.B.I. Raids Office of Trump’s Longtime Lawyer Michael Cohen

The F.B.I. on Monday raided the office of President Trump’s longtime personal lawyer, Michael D. Cohen, seizing records related to several topics including payments to a pornographic-film actress.

Federal prosecutors in Manhattan obtained the search warrant after receiving a referral from the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, according to Mr. Cohen’s lawyer, who called the search “completely inappropriate and unnecessary.” The search does not appear to be directly related to Mr. Mueller’s investigation, but likely resulted from information he had uncovered and gave to prosecutors in New York.

“Today the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York executed a series of search warrants and seized the privileged communications between my client, Michael Cohen, and his clients,” said Stephen Ryan, his lawyer. “I have been advised by federal prosecutors that the New York action is, in part, a referral by the Office of Special Counsel, Robert Mueller.”

Mr. Cohen plays a role in aspects of the special counsel’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. He also recently said he paid $130,000 to a pornographic-film actress, Stephanie Clifford, who said she had an affair with Mr. Trump. Ms. Clifford is known as Stormy Daniels.

Mr. Ryan said Mr. Cohen has cooperated with authorities and turned over thousands of documents to congressional investigators looking into Russian election meddling.

The payments to Ms. Clifford are only one of many topics being investigated, according to a person briefed on the search. The F.B.I. also seized emails, tax documents and business records, the person said.

The seized records include communications between Mr. Trump and Mr. Cohen, which would likely require a special team of agents to review because conversations between lawyers and clients are protected from scrutiny in most instances.

[Lord Jim]

Looks like "the fixer" is in quite a fix...

[Big RR]

Interesting aside; last night in the into sequence to The Simpsons, Bart was writing on the Blackboard "April Showers did not date the president". Got hand it to those guys to make a funny comment in more ways than one.

[Lord Jim]

I flipped over to FOX to see how, (or even if) they were covering this, and I saw an interesting interview Neil Cavuto had with FOX commentator and usually reliable Trump apologist, former NJ superior court judge Andrew Napolitano...

He said that in order for a judge to sign off on a warrant for a raid like this on an attorney's office, that they would have to have been convinced by the evidence brought to them by the DOJ lawyers that it was more likely than not that the documents being seized would show evidence of a crime committed either by the attorney, or by the attorney in conjunction with a client...

Michael Cohen only has one client...(sort of like Tom Hagen)

guess who...

The Donald must be shittin' bricks right now...I'm sure he would really like to change the subject...

I have a feeling that the US military retaliation against Syria for their latest chemical attack just got bigger...

[BoSoxGal]

Tick tock!

[BoSoxGal]

Netflix has a documentary series called ‘Dirty Money’; the last episode of the initial season available is called ‘Confidence Man’ - a profile of our President. It’s well worth watching and recommending to any friends or family still on the fence about Trump.

[Lord Jim]

Oh my...

Looks like this involves a lot more than just the hush money payment to Daniels:

Trump attorney Cohen is being investigated for possible bank fraud, campaign finance violations, according to a person familiar with the case

BREAKING: Trump attorney Cohen is being investigated for possible bank fraud, campaign finance violations, according to a person familiar with the case.

This story will be updated.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics ... 239f1f05de

Stay tuned...

[Lord Jim]

The F.B.I. raided the office and hotel room of President Trump’s longtime personal lawyer, Michael D. Cohen, on Monday, seizing business records, emails and documents related to several topics, including payments to a pornographic film actress.

Federal prosecutors in Manhattan are investigating Mr. Cohen for possible bank fraud, and the documents identified in the warrant date back years, according to a person briefed on the search.

The payments to the pornographic film actress, Stephanie Clifford, who is known as Stormy Daniels, are only one of many topics being investigated, according to a person briefed on the search. The F.B.I. also seized emails, tax documents and business records, the person said. Agents raided space Mr. Cohen uses in the Rockefeller Center office of the law firm Squire Patton Boggs, as well as a room Mr. Cohen is staying at the Loews Regency Hotel on Park Avenue while his apartment is under renovation, the person said.

In order to obtain a search warrant, prosecutors must convince a federal judge that agents are likely to discover evidence of criminal activity.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/09/us/p ... cohen.html

And of course, Il Boobce reacts by going once again into his Captain Queeg rambling melt-down mode:

President Donald Trump has called the FBI raid on his attorney Michael Cohen’s office a “disgraceful situation.” Agents searched multiple locations Monday while serving warrants obtained by the U.S Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York as part of an investigation into Cohen, Trump’s personal lawyer. You can watch his full statement on the raid above.

Trump spoke to reporters prior to a meeting with military leaders, Vice President Mike Pence and his new national security adviser John Bolton, along with others.

“I just heard that they broke into the office of one of my personal attorneys, good man, and it’s a disgraceful situation, it’s a total witch hunt, I’ve been saying it for a long time, I’ve wanted to keep it down, we’ve given I believe over a million pages of documents to the special counsel,” Trump said.

“They continue to just go forward and here we are talking about Syria, we’re talking about a lot of serious things with the greatest fighting force ever and I have this witch hunt constantly going on for over 12 months now. And actually much more, you could say it was right after I won the nomination it started.”

According to CNN, the raids on Cohen’s office and home are linked to Stormy Daniels. The case was referred to the Southern District of New York by Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s office, Cohen’s attorney, Stephen Ryan, said in a statement. Ryan said FBI agents “seized the privileged communications.” The Manhattan U.S. Attorney behind the Cohen raids is a Trump appointee, Geoffrey S. Berman.

Trump called the Mueller investigation, and the Cohen raids, “an attack on our country in a true sense. It’s an attack on what we all stand for. So when I saw this, and I heard it, I heard it like you did, I thought, ‘that is really now in a whole new level of unfairness.'”

Trump added, “They found no collusion whatsoever with Russia, the reason they found it, is there was no collusion at all. No collusion.”

Trump went on to revive his criticism of Attorney General Jeff Sessions, reiterating that he never would have appointed the former Alabama senator had he known he would have recused himself from the Russia inquiry.

About the special counsel’s team, Trump said, “This is the most biased group of people, these people have the biggest conflicts of interest I’ve ever seen. Democrats all, or just about all, either Democrats or a couple Republicans who worked for President Obama, they’re not looking at the other side. They’re not looking at the Hillary Clinton horrible crimes that she did, they’re not looking at all of the things that happened, that everybody is very angry about. I can tell you from the Republican side and I think even the independent side. They only keep looking at us. So they find no collusion and then they go from there and they say, ‘let’s keep going’ and they raid an office of a personal attorney early in the morning and I think it’s a disgrace. But this is the most conflicted group of people I’ve ever seen.”

Trump also responded to a reporter’s shouted question about firing special counsel Robert Mueller, according to the pool:

“I think it’s a disgrace what’s going on. We’ll see what happens..Many people have said ‘you should fire him.’ Again, they found nothing and in finding nothing that’s a big statement because you know the person who is in charge of the investigation — you know all about that – Deputy Rod Rosenstein he wrote the letter very critical of Comey,” Trump said. “Well I turned out to do the right thing (firing Comey). If you look at all of the things he’s done and the lies and you look at whats going on at the FBI..turned out I did the right thing. But it turns out he also signed the FISA warrant — Rod Rosenstein whose in charge also signed the FISA warrant and he also wrote the letter that fired Comey and he was right about that. He was absolutely right about that.”

[Scooter]

[Econoline]

MAGA
My Attorney Got Arrested

[Sue U]

Did Cooley Law even have an ethics course?

Oh, ETA:

The Search of Trump Lawyer Michael Cohen's Office: What We Can Infer Immediately

April 9, 2018
by Ken White

The Very Big News of the day: FBI Agents raided the law office of Michael Cohen, President Trump's lawyer who was involved in payment of $130,000 to adult performer "Stormy Daniels" for a nondisclosure agreement.

Recently I've been listening to the Podcast "Slow Burn," about Watergate. There's a fascinating theme throughout it: when you're living a historical event, how do you know? How can you tell when a development is a Big Deal?

This is a big deal. It's very early on, but here's some things we can already tell.

1. According to Cohen's own lawyer, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York (widely regarded within itself as being the most important and prestigious U.S. Attorney's Office in the country) secured the search warrants for the FBI. Assuming this report is correct, that means that a very mainstream U.S. Attorney's Office — not just Special Counsel Robert Mueller's office — thought that there was enough for a search warrant here.

2. Moreover, it's not just that the office thought that there was enough for a search warrant. They thought there was enough for a search warrant of an attorney's office for that attorney's client communications. That's a very fraught and extraordinary move that requires multiple levels of authorization within the Department of Justice. The U.S. Attorney's Manual — at Section 9-13.320 — contains the relevant guidelines and regulations. The highlights:

The feds are only supposed to raid a law firm if less intrusive measures won't work. As the USAM puts it:

In order to avoid impinging on valid attorney-client relationships, prosecutors are expected to take the least intrusive approach consistent with vigorous and effective law enforcement when evidence is sought from an attorney actively engaged in the practice of law. Consideration should be given to obtaining information from other sources or through the use of a subpoena, unless such efforts could compromise the criminal investigation or prosecution, or could result in the obstruction or destruction of evidence, or would otherwise be ineffective.

Such a search requires high-level approval. The USAM requires such a search warrant to be approved by the U.S. Attorney — the head of the office, a Presidential appointee — and requires "consultation" with the Criminal Division of the U.S. Department of Justice. This is not a couple of rogue AUSAs sneaking in a warrant.

Such a search requires an elaborate review process. The basic rule is that the government may not deliberately seize, or review, attorney-client communications. The USAM — and relevant caselaw — therefore require the feds to set up a review process. That process might involve a judge reviewing the materials to separate out what is privileged (or what might fall within an exception to the privilege), or else set up a "dirty team" that does the review but is insulated from the "clean team" running the investigation. Another option is a "special master," an experienced and qualified third-party attorney to do the review. Sometimes the reviewing team will only be identifying and protecting privileged material. Sometimes the reviewing team will be preparing to seek, or to implement, a court ruling that the documents are not privileged. (Robert Mueller is aggressive on this sort of thing; he already sought and obtained a court ruling that some of Paul Manafort's communications with his lawyers were not privileged because they were undertaken for the purpose of fraud — the so-called "crime-fraud exception" to the attorney-client privilege.

3. A Magistrate Judge signed off on this. Federal magistrate judges (appointed by local district judges, not by the President) review search warrant applications. A Magistrate Judge therefore reviewed this application and found probable cause — that is, probable cause to believe that the subject premises (Cohen's office) contains specified evidence of a specified federal crime. Now, Magistrate Judges sometimes are a little too rubber-stampy for my taste. But here, where the Magistrate Judge knew that this would become one of the most scrutinized search warrant applications ever, and because the nature of the warrant of an attorney's office is unusual, you can expect that the Magistrate Judge felt pretty confident that there was enough there.

4. The search warrant application (the lengthy narrative from the FBI agent setting for the evidence) is almost certainly still under seal, and even Michael Cohen doesn't get to see it [yet]. But the FBI would have left the warrant itself — and that shows (1) the federal criminal statutes they were investigating, and (2) the list of items they wanted to seize. Much can be learned for those. Assuming Michael Cohen doesn't release it, watch for it to be leaked.

Again: this is a Big Deal.

Source: Popehat

[Burning Petard]

Any NY lawyers around? One news source yesterday stated that acting without informing the client (as both POTUS and Cohen claim happened with the payoff to Ms Stormy) is ample grounds for disbarment in NY State.

Is it really that simple?

snailgate

[Sue U]

As I noted previously, if Cohen and Trump are to be believed, then Cohen plainly violated the NY RPCs. I'm not sure what the standards are, but the Disciplinary Committee can recommend a variety of penalties, including fines, conditions on a lawyer's employment (e.g., close supervision by another lawyer), suspension, disbarment or a combination of sanctions. But first someone's gotta file a complaint, and that usually has to be someone aggrieved by the ethical violation alleged.

[Burning Petard]

So is Ms Stormy the aggrieved party on this one?

snailgate