Page 6 - Florida Sentinel 3-12-19

White House And Political News
The President's Former Lawyer, Michael Cohen, Wants His Coins, Sues Trump
Manafort Caught A Break
Organization For $1.9 Million In Legal Fees
On His Sentence, But Will Soon Face A Tougher Judge
The president’s former fixer, Michael Cohen, wants all his bread, all his cheddar, and all his mozzarella so he can make a cheese sandwich be- fore he heads off to the pokey.
According to the president’s favorite newspaper, The New York Times, Cohen filed a lawsuit on Thursday against the Trump Organization, ac- cusing them of breaking a con- tract and refusing to pay him some $1.9 million in legal fees.
The lawsuit, filed in New York Supreme Court in Man- hattan, said that the Trump Organization had agreed to pay Mr. Cohen attorney’s fees or related costs connected to his work with the Trump Organization but had failed to live up to that promise.
Mr. Cohen is also seeking reimbursement for an addi- tional $1.9 million he was or- dered to pay in fines, forfeitures and restitution after he pleaded guilty to breaking campaign finance laws, tax evasion and lying to
MICHAEL COHEN
Paul Manafort won le- niency Thursday from a federal judge who sent him to prison for less than four years, but next week he’ll be sentenced in a second case by a less forgiv- ing judge who could add an- other 10 years to his term.
Manafort, 69, faced as long as 24 years in prison after ju- rors in Alexandria, Virginia, convicted him last year of hid- ing $55 million in offshore ac- counts, failing to pay $6 million in taxes, and defraud- ing banks. But U. S. District Judge T. S. Ellis III said Thursday that a quarter-cen- tury behind bars was too ex- treme and sentenced Manafort to 47 months.
Next, Manafort will be sen- tenced on March 13 by U. S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson in Washington, where he pleaded guilty to two conspiracy charges and pledged to cooperate with Spe- cial Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.
JUDGE AMY BERMAN JACKSON
It was Jackson who sent Manafort, President Don- ald Trump’s former cam- paign chairman, to jail on June 15 after prosecutors accused him of tampering with wit- nesses. She also ruled last month that he breached his plea deal by lying to prosecu- tors. Jackson could add to the sentence that Ellis imposed. She could also make some or all of it run at the same time.
Gene Rossi, a former fed- eral prosecutor, said Ellis may have assumed that Jackson will impose “significant addi- tional time.”
Congress, the lawsuit said. The complaint said that around July 2017, Mr. Cohen and the Trump Organization entered an agreement under which the company would pay for Mr. Cohen’s legal fees and costs connected to inves- tigations being conducted by Congress and Robert S. Mueller, III, the special counsel who is investigating Russian interference in the
2016 election.
The Trump Organization reportedly honored the deal until May 2017, around the time Cohen began claiming he’d be willing to work with special counsel Robert Mueller and his investigation into all things Trump. The Trump Organization then al- legedly stopped paying Cohen’s lawyers.
Now Cohen wants the Trump Organization to run him his money, ASAP.
The Pros and Cons of Impeaching Trump
Trump’s Call For Budget Cuts Sparks New Shutdown Fears
The announcement last week that Representative Jerrold Nadler, the chair- man of the House Judiciary Committee, was demanding documents from eighty-one agencies, companies, and in- dividuals with knowledge of the Trump Administration’s behavior, or misbehavior, was, in its way, momentous. Though properly classed as the kind of oversight that the see-no-evil-even-when- you’re-staring-at-it Republi- cans in Congress avoided for the past two years, it seems clear that Nadler is planning what amounts to pre-im- peachment hearings.
Nadler himself cautioned that, regarding the potential eviction of the Trump family from Pennsylvania Avenue, “we don’t have the facts yet,” but the committee’s demand appears designed to assemble as much of what can be known about any potential Trump family depredations as possi- ble, and see where it all leads. Trump called the demand nothing but “a big fat fishing expedition,” provoking the re- flection that you are rarely scared of big fat fishing expe- ditions unless you know that there are big fat fish lurking somewhere in your pond.
There is, however, a real and reasonable argument among congressional Democ- rats—and, indeed, among the public—about whether pursu- ing Trump’s impeachment, even assuming that we get the facts, is a wise idea. The argu-
ments against it range from the hyper-practical point that a Mike Pence would be worse, to the procedural- minded one that, since im- peaching Trump would mean that two of the four most re- cent Presidents would have been impeached, and since ar- ticles of impeachment can be passed by a simple majority in the House, every President from now on would risk facing it the moment the opposition has a majority. This would create perpetual governmen- tal paralysis, and, while Trump might not care about safeguarding democratic insti- tutions, the country should.
A point common to all the anti-impeachment argu- ments, though, comes right out of an old Western; as the lawmen used to say about the cattle-rustling varmint after he was caught, “Hanging’s too good for him.” In this case, impeachment is seen as too rarefied, too technical a pro- ceeding to end Trumpism. Trump should be defeated at the polls; ejecting him in any other way provides too many opportunities for after-the- fact stab-in-the-back recrimi- nations, and will only further convince his base that the “deep state” conspired against him. Indeed, given the con- gressional Republican Party’s cultlike adherence to Trump, beginning a process in the House that can end only with acquittal in the Senate would- n’t be good for the Democrats, or for the country.
President Donald Trump will make a cost-cut- ting opening budget offer Monday that will dismiss hopes for a grand budget deal and likely stoke fresh fears of another government shut- down.
Trump will put on paper what the White House has al- ready prepared lawmakers to receive — an audacious plan for sucking 5 percent from the budgets of non-military arms of the federal government, while using an accounting trick to bust beyond set spending limits for defense programs. The 5 percent would be below the fiscal 2019 budget limits for domestic agencies.
Trump in his budget pro- posal is expected to rekindle partisan feuds with an $8.6 billion request for the border wall. The administration also will project robust economic growth above 3 percent, pro- pose taking longer to balance the books than Republicans have advocated in the past and seek funding for a new Space Force within the Air Force.
Although the request is merely a messaging document, the president’s posture will contribute to apprehension about a government shut-
Although the White House's budget request is merely a mes- saging document, President Donald Trump’s posture will con- tribute to apprehension about a government shutdown.
down, some seven months be- fore federal funding runs out again on Sept. 30.
On Capitol Hill, even Re- publicans are saying the presi- dent will need to come to the realization that the GOP must give some ground this year to Democrats, who hold the House majority and 47 seats in the Senate. But the Trump administration wants to hold fast to its mission to slash spending.
“Congress wants an auto- matic big-spending deal, and now they’re upset because they lost their favorite talking point that the president’s budget as- sumes a caps increase,” a sen-
ior administration official speaking on background said Saturday, referring to an in- crease in budget limits set eight years ago. “Congress has- n’t grappled with their spend- ing addiction since 2011, and the administration is forcing the conversation before the debt crisis worsens.”
In recent years, Democrats in Congress have insisted that spending increases above the budget caps remain equal for defense and non-defense spending. But Trump admin- istration officials say the pres- ident won’t bend this time to those demands of funding “parity.”
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