The Pay-to-Play President

[Copernicus]

In the scandal du jour: Trump lawyer 'paid by Ukraine' to arrange White House talks

A high-ranking Ukrainian intelligence officer in Mr Poroshenko's administration described what happened before the visit to the White House.

Mr Cohen was brought in, he said, because Ukraine's registered lobbyists and embassy in Washington DC could get Mr Poroshenko little more than a brief photo-op with Mr Trump. Mr Poroshenko needed something that could be portrayed as "talks".

This senior official's account is as follows - Mr Poroshenko decided to establish a back channel to Mr Trump. The task was given to a former aide, who asked a loyal Ukrainian MP for help.

He in turn used personal contacts who attended a Jewish charity in New York state, Chabad of Port Washington. (A spokeman for the Chabad has asked us to make clear that officials there were not involved.)

This eventually led to Michael Cohen, the president's lawyer and trusted fixer. Mr Cohen was paid $400,000.

Cohen has denied this story, but it seems in line with the kind of work that Cohen has done with Trump in the past. And that meeting was scheduled after the payment was made.

One of "fixer" Cohen's jobs has been to peddle influence, and that is why corporations such as AT&T, Korea Aerospace Industries, and Novartis paid Cohen's LLC, Essential Consulting, fees. Ukraine, of course, is a country, and they were buying an opportunity to get their President face-time with Trump. So they paid a lot more. Cohen is known to have approached other companies, e.g. Ford and Uber, to see if they needed to buy access. More recently, Qatar discovered that US foreign policy was for sale, so they finally agreed to bail the Kushner family out of a fiasco they created in a NY real estate deal. US policy on Qatar, which had been quite hostile ever since they turned down the deal, changed to really friendly days after they helped fund the Kushner bailout.

Of course, there is the apparent hypocrisy: "Lock Her Up!" All of those scandals about "Crooked Hillary" and allegations of influence peddling through the Clinton charity. So this is really going to matter, right? Nope. The Republican Congress will never impeach Trump, because Republican voters and a vast number of apathetic voters just don't care what Trump does. He can violate just about any law and use his public office to cash in on any deal. Congress will look the other way. I predict that it won't even matter if Democrats take both houses of Congress. Donald Trump is truly above the law.

 

[braces_for_impact]

There's literally so much corruption by so many actual stupid people, this is why despite Mueller's investigation proceeding at breakneck speed, it's still taking a good deal of time. There's A LOT to investigate.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

Don't know if Trump got a dime of any of this.

I think the more dangerous connection to Trump is that Cohen is clearly a dirty motherfucker. What else has Cohen done for Trump? Clearly people know Cohen is a conduit to Trump.

 

[Copernicus]

Don't know if Trump got a dime of any of this.

I think the more dangerous connection to Trump is that Cohen is clearly a dirty motherfucker. What else has Cohen done for Trump? Clearly people know Cohen is a conduit to Trump.

Jimmy, are you serious? Do you think that Cohen has been playing Donald Trump? I think it more likely the reverse. Trump has been engaged in many corrupt activities in the past that did not involve Cohen, who is a relatively recent member of his "family". Cohen isn't even the one who had the most "insider" status when it came to core finances and business. He was something of a bit player who mainly took on issues as a "fixer". Trump reportedly treated him like a doormat. If Cohen was collecting hundreds of thousands of dollars to give access to Trump, it is really likely that Trump got something out of granting that access. He didn't just do it as a favor to Cohen.

 

[Underseer]

In the scandal du jour: Trump lawyer 'paid by Ukraine' to arrange White House talks

A high-ranking Ukrainian intelligence officer in Mr Poroshenko's administration described what happened before the visit to the White House.

Mr Cohen was brought in, he said, because Ukraine's registered lobbyists and embassy in Washington DC could get Mr Poroshenko little more than a brief photo-op with Mr Trump. Mr Poroshenko needed something that could be portrayed as "talks".

This senior official's account is as follows - Mr Poroshenko decided to establish a back channel to Mr Trump. The task was given to a former aide, who asked a loyal Ukrainian MP for help.

He in turn used personal contacts who attended a Jewish charity in New York state, Chabad of Port Washington. (A spokeman for the Chabad has asked us to make clear that officials there were not involved.)

This eventually led to Michael Cohen, the president's lawyer and trusted fixer. Mr Cohen was paid $400,000.

Cohen has denied this story, but it seems in line with the kind of work that Cohen has done with Trump in the past. And that meeting was scheduled after the payment was made.

One of "fixer" Cohen's jobs has been to peddle influence, and that is why corporations such as AT&T, Korea Aerospace Industries, and Novartis paid Cohen's LLC, Essential Consulting, fees. Ukraine, of course, is a country, and they were buying an opportunity to get their President face-time with Trump. So they paid a lot more. Cohen is known to have approached other companies, e.g. Ford and Uber, to see if they needed to buy access. More recently, Qatar discovered that US foreign policy was for sale, so they finally agreed to bail the Kushner family out of a fiasco they created in a NY real estate deal. US policy on Qatar, which had been quite hostile ever since they turned down the deal, changed to really friendly days after they helped fund the Kushner bailout.

Of course, there is the apparent hypocrisy: "Lock Her Up!" All of those scandals about "Crooked Hillary" and allegations of influence peddling through the Clinton charity. So this is really going to matter, right? Nope. The Republican Congress will never impeach Trump, because Republican voters and a vast number of apathetic voters just don't care what Trump does. He can violate just about any law and use his public office to cash in on any deal. Congress will look the other way. I predict that it won't even matter if Democrats take both houses of Congress. Donald Trump is truly above the law.

Let's talk about Uranium One instead!

Why isn't anyone calling for the impeachment of Hillary Clinton? Is it because you think she is a perfect angel incapable of doing anything wrong? Is that why you are so desperate to avoid talking about all the stuff Hillary did wrong and just keep bashing the most intelligent president we've ever had? [/conservolibertarian]