Raid/break in at Cohen’s office

[flowerseverywhere]

It’s getting so the news and tweets are getting more interesting than a Tom Clancy novel.

I find it it extremely hard to believe that any judge or government entity would ask for or authorize a raid of the Presidents personal attorneys office without exploring thoroughly that it would hold up in court and there was compelling information that it would be worthwhile. I am fascinated by all this.

Maybe Mr. Magoo Sessions (Trump’s nickname, not mine) was involved. Who knows.
so this morning I watched some CNN and of course they were frothing at the mouth with spinning heads. On Fox they were talking about...Hillary.

Unfortunately a very consequential decision is imminent on Syria and I just hope the decision is made with clear heads. Of course, not being privy to the top secret info the president and his surrounding staff have, none of us know the correct action, we can only speculate. I cannot imagine what it is like to be a Syrian at this point.

So now we have to see where this will take us. I have a hard time believing the attorney would make a secret to the client payment on behalf of a client, but I am guessing in those circles stranger things have happened. It does seem illegal, but of course not being an attorney who knows.
And who knows if everything that was found will hold up in court assuming charges are coming.

More than anything I wish the president would shut up, keep his fingers off the twitter trigger and do his best to deal with running the country. He just cannot seem to resist the bait to send a tweet or answer a shouted question. Can you imagine being a career disciplined general and working for him? He has to drive them nuts. I am shocked they haven’t bailed.

[JaneV2.0]

According to news reports, this action was carefully planned and in scrupulous adherence to the rule of law--which Trump seems to disdain. Calling it a "break-in" plays into the hands of those who try to obscure its legality.

[gimmethesimplelife]

Ay carumba.....at least you can't say there's EVER a boring day under this administration, no? How I long for the relative peace and sanity of the Obama Years......Rob

[Alan]

How I long for the relative peace and insanity of the Obama Years......RobYou'd better watch your language Rob, from what you tell us of the 85006 you may be tarred/feathered and run out of town on a rail.

[gimmethesimplelife]

You'd better watch your language Rob, from what you tell us of the 85006 you may be tarred/feathered and run out of town on a rail.LOL Alan it's possible that I may never say this again but here you are right. This was but an innocent typo on my part and I'm glad you caught it and called it out. I will go back and edit my post right now. Rob

[flowerseverywhere]

You'd better watch your language Rob, from what you tell us of the 85006 you may be tarred/feathered and run out of town on a rail.


Funny. Good catch.

Alan, as one of the more conservative members here, do you have any opinion on the warrant? I personally hope they did it for the right reasons and legally.

[bae]

They seem to have had a warrant and were acting within the rule of law. Without examining the warrant, and the affidavit submitted to request the warrant, reviewing the procedures used, and so on, my baseline assumption is that responsible adults were following the correct procedures in a case this sensitive, to the letter.

So I don’t see a problem, as of yet, or any evidence offered that there is a problem, with the search.

[Alan]

Funny. Good catch.

Alan, as one of the more conservative members here, do you have any opinion on the warrant? I personally hope they did it for the right reasons and legally.
I don't see any problem with the warrant or the way it was served. I am curious though what avenue Mr Mueller's team is exploring in this stage of the investigation. I've always believed that in investigations such as this, there are a lot of ancillary paths which become part of the overall investigation. On this path, are they still looking for evidence of collusion with Russia? That doesn't seem to be the case. Are they looking for evidence of campaign finance abuse? Possibly. Has the primary investigation uncovered the possibility of financial crimes by the Trump organization or perhaps by Mr Cohen? Perhaps. Is there any guarantee that Mr Trump will be damaged legally by the results of this phase of the investigation? Not necessarily. Is there any guarantee that Mr Trump will be damaged politically by the hysteria associated with this stage of the investigation? Absolutely.

I remain annoyed that our news/entertainment media spends so much time on speculation and innuendo designed to convince the various target audiences that there is more or less there there than the facts would dictate. I wish we, as consumers of those outlets, used more discretion in the formation of our beliefs.
I'm reminded of the Michael Wolff book, 'Fire and Fury', and how Mr Wolff, when asked if certain assertions were true, replied something to the effect of "If it feels true to you, then it is true". I think that's the standard too many people use and exactly what the majority of commenters use to justify their opinions. I think we, as a society, can do better.

Sorry, I sometimes tend to digress..

[flowerseverywhere]

Alan, I agree with you 100%. The cable news shows, like CNN, Fox, MSNBC are no longer news shows. They are opinion panels.

I had the Zucherburg testimony on today. He would make a great politician. He was squirming when they tried to hold him to a yes or no answer. He wanted to blab on and on how it was consumers choice who to share stuff with. It was very interesting to say the least. My favorite was the Senator who asked him personal questions, like what hotel he was staying at. He was squirming, but the senator was trying to make a point. What is good for the goose is good for the gander.

[bae]

I’m looking at my outdated copy of the Constitution, and I don’t see one of the Senate’s enumerated powers being “make a business owner squirm” anywhere.

[gimmethesimplelife]

This all is a bit frustrating to me as my work has slowed down a bit - to the point where I can sit in the F and B office once in awhile and go online like I am doing right now. I just saw a headline of yahoo.com news titled "Mueller investigation closing in on Trump and he's no longer denying it" - Exciting stuff but I have only so much time these days and my chief concern is doing what I can legally to have my voice heard regarding passing this bill in California to strip police power in use of lethal force - this is my chief activist focus at the moment as this bill's passage may save many lives and also serve to lock law breaking police officers up for years.

To me, it's even more important to flatten police power to save lives than it is to get Trump out of office. But the idea of Trump squirming and being (FINALLY) cast into the role of Victim Against His Will -that very much works for me, too. Ay carumba, only so much I can keep up with and engage in activism against at once..........I'm sure many others will take my place at the moment in activism against Donald Trump, though. Rob

[jp1]

Personally i’m not as certain as Alan that Mueller is t still on the trail of russian collusion with this warrant. If Cohen was heavily involved in the negotiations of trump tower moscow one must wonder what transpired in those negotiations. If that’s what he’s looking into it seems likely that he would have had to present more than just the desire to fish in order to get the warrant approved on such a high profile case as this.

But at this point all those of us on the outside looking in can do is speculate and wait until the investigation’s conclusions are presented.

[flowerseverywhere]

I’m looking at my outdated copy of the Constitution, and I don’t see one of the Senate’s enumerated powers being “make a business owner squirm” anywhere.

good one. It was extremely interesting and very important. Always a power struggle going on over regulation, too much or too little, or none needed.

[flowerseverywhere]

Personally i’m not as certain as Alan that Mueller is t still on the trail of russian collusion with this warrant. If Cohen was heavily involved in the negotiations of trump tower moscow one must wonder what transpired in those negotiations. If that’s what he’s looking into it seems likely that he would have had to present more than just the desire to fish in order to get the warrant approved on such a high profile case as this.

But at this point all those of us on the outside looking in can do is speculate and wait until the investigation’s conclusions are presented.

Who knows at this point. There was even a story that one of the targets were cohen’s ownership of NYC taxi medallions. Certainly they run in different circles than I do.

[JaneV2.0]

Personally i’m not as certain as Alan that Mueller is t still on the trail of russian collusion with this warrant. If Cohen was heavily involved in the negotiations of trump tower moscow one must wonder what transpired in those negotiations. If that’s what he’s looking into it seems likely that he would have had to present more than just the desire to fish in order to get the warrant approved on such a high profile case as this.

But at this point all those of us on the outside looking in can do is speculate and wait until the investigation’s conclusions are presented.

I believe Mueller passed this case on to the DOJ office in New York; otherwise, he's not involved with it.

[Alan]

I believe Mueller passed this case on to the DOJ office in New York; otherwise, he's not involved with it.
It's more likely it's something outside the scope of his special investigation, although since he's the one doing the passing along, he's definitely involved with it.

After all this time, I'm beginning to believe there's nothing to come out of the Russian collusion/interference investigation other than whatever sidebar incidents involving ancillary players that may be uncovered (but don't tell Rob he may never get to wear his special outfit, that would be such a blow to the 85006.).

[jp1]

Personally I'm betting that like any good reality tv show, the most dramatic part of "The Mueller Investigation" will be the final episode. Anyone who/s ever watched even just one season of Vanderpump Rules or The Real Housewives of NJ knows that that final episode packs as much crazy as the entire rest of the season did.

[flowerseverywhere]

I’m looking at my outdated copy of the Constitution, and I don’t see one of the Senate’s enumerated powers being “make a business owner squirm” anywhere.

wanted to add it does not make me happy to see him squirm. Or for people to be sued, jailed or indicted. Or people’s offices searched. Of course we should all follow the law. I think we are watching an interesting period in US history.