Page 6 - Florida Sentinel 12-11-18

White House And Political News
Prosecutors Effectively Accuse Trump Of Defrauding Voters
Comey Calls On Americans To
The latest revelations by prosecutors investigating President Trump and his team draw a portrait of a can- didate who personally di- rected an illegal scheme to manipulate the 2016 election and whose advisers had more contact with Russia than Mr. Trump has ever acknowl- edged.
In the narrative that the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller, III, and New York prosecutors are building, Mr. Trump continued to se- cretly seek to do business in Russia deep into his presi- dential campaign even as Russian agents made more efforts to influence him. At the same time, in this ac- count he ordered hush pay- ments to two women to suppress stories of impropri- ety in violation of campaign finance law.
The prosecutors made
In the narrative that prosecutors are building, President Trump continued to secretly seek to do business in Russia well into his presidential campaign even as Russian agents made more efforts to influence him.
Former FBI Director James Comey asked Amer- ican voters Sunday night to end Donald Trump's pres- idency with a "landslide" vic- tory for his opponent in 2020.
"All of us should use every breath we have to make sure the lies stop on January 20, 2021," Comey told an audi- ence at the 92nd Street Y on New York City's Upper East Side. He all but begged De- mocrats to set aside their ide- ological differences and nominate the person best suited to defeating Trump in an election.
"I understand the Democ- rats have important debates now over who their candidate should be," Comey told MSNBC's Nicolle Wallace, "but they have to win. They have to win."
Over the course of more than an hour, Comey repeat- edly derided Trump's char-
JAMES COMEY
acter, again likening the at- mosphere around the Presi- dent to what he saw in prosecuting mafia figures and suggested that Trump's tweets could eventually amount to witness tamper- ing. Asked if Trump might be an unindicted co-conspira- tor in some of the crimes re- cently described by special counsel Robert Mueller, Comey said he didn't know, "but if he's not there, he's cer- tainly close."
clear in a sentencing memo filed on Friday that they viewed efforts by Mr. Trump’s former personal lawyer, Michael D. Cohen, to squelch the stories as nothing less than a perver- sion of a democratic election — and by extension they ef- fectively accused the presi- dent of defrauding voters,
questioning the legitimacy of his victory.
On Saturday, President Trump dismissed the fil- ings, and his lawyer, Rudolph W. Giuliani, minimized the importance of any potential campaign fi- nance violations. Democrats, however, said they could lead to impeachment.
Done With Michael Cohen,
Latest Victim Of Trump's
Federal Prosecutors Shift Focus
Dumpster Fire Of Calamities
'Use Every Breath We Have'
To Oust Trump In 2020
To Trump Family Business
It has been a busy few days for Donald Trump. A new attorney general here, a new UN ambassador there. All that legal stuff about his felonies in the 2016 election and “synergy” with the Russ- ian government.
What’s a guy to do?
Fire someone, obvi- ously. If there’s one thing Trump knows how to do, it’s pretending like he knows how to wield power in front of the gawking media. It worked pretty well on The Appren- tice, projecting the image of power onto the boss of a small-time real-estate busi- ness with multiple bankrupt- cies.
But at this mid-life crisis stage of a catastrophically doomed presidency, there aren’t that many people worth firing anymore.
So it came to pass that John Kelly found himself dumped on the Trump side- walk of history, a throwaway tidbit of news in a dumpster fire of calamities. Trump’s face-palming chief of staff was just another casualty of this president’s dismal need to destroy the reputations of those who come too close.
“John Kelly will be leav-
When federal prosecutors recommended a substantial prison term for President Trump’s former lawyer, Michael D. Cohen, they linked President Trump to the crimes Cohen had com- mitted in connection with the 2016 presidential campaign. What the prosecutors did not say in Cohen’s sentencing memorandum filed on Fri- day, however, is that they have continued to scrutinize what other executives in the president’s family business may have known about those crimes, which involved hush- money payments to two women who had said they had affairs with President Trump.
After Cohen pleaded guilty in August to breaking campaign finance laws and other crimes he will be sen- tenced on Wednesday the federal prosecutors in Man- hattan shifted their attention to what role, if any, Trump Organization executives
Michael D. Cohen, President Trump’s longtime lawyer, leav- ing court in Manhattan last month. Prosecutors have been ex- amining whether other Trump Organization executives were involved in campaign finance violations.
JOHN KELLY
ing,” he told reporters on the south lawn of the White House before flying off to see the Army v Navy football game.
“I don’t know if I can say ‘retiring,” he explained, slam- ming the door into Kelly’s back as he shoved him out of the West Wing. He couldn’t say retiring and he couldn’t say firing. Either way he said both, in passing, and without the man present to witness his own humiliation.
Trump said his non-re- tiring chief of staff was “a great guy” but only managed to offer up this tepid testimo- nial to a former four-star Marines general who was the most important staffer in his White House: “He’s been with me almost two years now.”
John Kelly Is Just The
played in the campaign fi- nance violations, according to people briefed on the mat- ter.
Cohen, Trump’s self-de- scribed fixer, has provided assistance in that inquiry, which is separate from the in- vestigation by the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller, III.
In addition to implicating Trump in the payments to the two women, Cohen has told prosecutors that the
company’s chief financial of- ficer was involved in discus- sions about them, a claim that is now a focus of the in- quiry, according to the peo- ple, who spoke on the condition of anonymity be- cause the investigation is continuing.
Cohen has told prosecu- tors that he believes Trump personally approved the company’s decision to reim- burse him for one of the pay- ments, one of the people said.
PAGE 6 FLORIDA SENTINEL BULLETIN PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY AND FRIDAY TUESDAY, DECEMBER 11, 2018