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SDNY Investigation

Discussion in 'BBS Hangout: Debate & Discussion' started by Rashmon, Feb 6, 2019.

  1. Rashmon

    Rashmon Contributing Member

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    I fgure a separate thread for the SDNY investigation can help keep the corruption case separate from the treason case.

    Southern District of New York Will Tear Into Trump Organization

    In the span of one week, we learned that the Office of the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York had both secured a guilty pleafrom Trump Organization lawyer Michael Cohen and offered an immunity deal to the company’s chief financial officer, Allen Weisselberg. President Donald Trump should be worried. Once the Southern District gets its jaws onto a string of crimes, it doesn’t let go.

    Weisselberg, as part of his deal, will likely be required to provide information on all criminal activity he knows about. That spells potential disaster for Trump personally, and major problems for his presidency. That’s apart from any potential state-level criminal investigation by the New York district attorney’s office.

    Trump is now facing a two-front war against the Justice Department. The team led by special counsel Robert Mueller is supposed to focus on Russian interference in the 2016 election. But the Southern District can investigate any aspect of Trump’s behavior that took place in its jurisdiction, at any time.

    And unlike Mueller, who could in principle be fired, the Southern District isn’t one man; it’s a whole office of career lawyers. It can’t be fired. Even if Robert Khuzami, the acting U.S. attorney in this case, were removed, no new U.S. attorney could realistically call off the prosecutors.

    Why should we think that the Southern District won’t be satisfied with having convicted Cohen?

    For one thing, there’s Cohen’s statement when he pleaded guilty to campaign-finance crimes. Cohen said in open court that he had acted at the direction of the candidate, meaning Trump.

    That statement wasn’t legally necessary to the guilty plea. But Cohen wasn’t acting on his own when he made it. According to Cohen’s attorney, Lanny Davis, the statement was made in consultation with the Southern District prosecutors.

    That means the Southern District actively wanted to make Cohen implicate the president. The prosecutors or Khuzami could have easily taken the more cautious path of convicting Cohen without demanding that he make any public statement with regard to Trump.

    They chose otherwise. In essence, by making Cohen say he acted at Trump’s direction, the Southern District declared war on the president.

    Then there’s the Weisselberg immunity grant. Although the reporting so far indicates that Weisselberg’s deal was limited to testimony about Cohen’s conduct, it seems likely prosecutors have bigger things in mind. To convict Cohen, the Southern District didn’t need the CFO’s testimony. There was already plenty of documentary evidence against Cohen.

    And Cohen’s guilt did not depend on whether he was ever paid back by the Trump Organization for the payoffs he made to two women alleging affairs with Trump. According to the prosecutors (and the plea itself), Cohen’s campaign-finance crime was complete when he made the payment from his own funds in coordination with the campaign.

    Weisselberg’s usefulness then is almost certainly in areas beyond the Cohen case — in any investigation into criminality in the Trump Organization. That could take many forms. The Southern District could explore money laundering crimes, tax evasion, or bribes of foreign officials or governments, which are illegal under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.

    The Cohen conviction makes any such Southern District investigation normal and logical, not a “witch hunt.”

    Consider that the prosecutors now have strong evidence that the Trump Organization was part of a conspiracy to commit campaign-finance violations. The repayment of Cohen by the Trump Organization makes the company fair game.
     
    #1 Rashmon, Feb 6, 2019
    Last edited: Feb 6, 2019
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  2. Rashmon

    Rashmon Contributing Member

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    Catching up...

    Trump inaugural committee subpoenaed: what we know about the investigation

    President Trump’s inaugural committee received a sweeping subpoena from the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York — meaning criminal investigations into the inauguration’s money are heating up.

    The scope of documents requested in the subpoena and potential crimes investigators are probing are both remarkable — investigating everything from false statements to money laundering. Investigators are said to be interested in the inaugural committee’s spending, its donations, whether any donations came from illegal foreign sources, and potential corruption involving favors for donors.

    Since last year, there have been reports that special counsel Robert Mueller was investigating potential foreign donations to the inaugural committee. But in December, news broke that federal prosecutors in New York were overseeing a broader probe into the inauguration and its money.

    Trump’s inaugural committee raised a truly astonishing $106.7 million, double the previous record set by Barack Obama’s 2009 inaugural, and there have long been many questions about where that money came from, and where it went.

    Rick Gates, the former Trump campaign aide who helped run the inaugural committee and struck a plea deal with Mueller in February, has also been cooperating with SDNY prosecutors, per the Wall Street Journal. Michael Cohen, who helped fundraise for the inaugural, is another major figure, though it’s not entirely clear whether he’s helping out with the investigation or whether he’s a target of it.

    What the subpoena demanded from Trump’s inaugural committee
    The Wall Street Journal reports that the documents the government is demanding from the inaugural committee include:

    • “All documents related to the committee’s donors and vendors”
    • All records related to “benefits” provided to donors
    • Documents related to the financier Imaad Zuberi and his company Avenue Ventures LLC. (He is the only donor specifically named in the subpoena. The Daily Beast has previously reported on Zuberi’s connections to Michael Cohen.)
    • Documents related to donations “made by or on behalf of foreign nationals,” including communications about possible donations from foreign individuals
    • Documents related to “donations or payments made by donors directly to contractors and/or vendors.” (The Journal reports that there was some discussion on the inaugural committee about having donors pay vendors for the inauguration directly — which could violate disclosure laws.)
    • The New York Times reports that the subpoena also asks for documents about Stripe, a startup that processes credit card payments, for which Jared Kushner’s brother is an investor.
    Meanwhile, CNN reports that the subpoena specifically names several different offenses that investigators are probing:

    • Conspiracy against the United States
    • False statements
    • Mail fraud
    • Wire fraud
    • Money laundering
    • Inaugural committee disclosure violations
    • “Violations of laws prohibiting contributions by foreign nations and contributions in the name of another person, also known as straw donors.”
    What we know about the investigations into Trump’s inauguration
    Three Justice Department offices have reportedly been investigating aspects of Trump’s inauguration.

    1) Special counsel Robert Mueller: Between April and June of last year, both CNN and ABC News reported that Mueller’s team was questioning witnesses about potential foreign donations to the Trump inaugural — specifically, about “donors with connections to Russia, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar,” per ABC.

    It is unclear if Mueller is still investigating this, and he may have since referred some or all of it to another Justice Department office.

    2) SDNY US Attorney’s Office: In April, the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York had Michael Cohen’s residence and office raided for documents. SDNY’s current probe into the Trump inauguration grew out of this investigation and raid and is being led by the public corruption unit, per the Wall Street Journal.

    SDNY sent the subpoena to the inaugural committee this week, and appears to be leading the investigation.

    3) EDNY US Attorney’s Office: To complicate matters further, New York Times reported that the US Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York “is separately investigating whether inaugural officials helped foreigners illegally funnel donations to Mr. Trump’s inaugural committee using so-called straw donors to disguise their donations.”

    Rick Gates and Michael Cohen are key figures
    The inaugural committee was chaired by billionaire real estate investor Tom Barrack, a longtime close friend of Trump. But according to reports at the time, Barrack turned to Rick Gates — Paul Manafort’s right-hand man, who remained on the Trump campaign after Manafort was fired — to handle much of the fundraising and planning work.

    Eventually, Mueller indicted Gates for financial and lobbying crimes connected to his work with Manafort. And in February 2018, Gates cut a deal — pleading guilty and pledging his full cooperation with the government. This cooperation has reportedly included providing information about the Trump inauguration.

    Another key figure is Michael Cohen, who also cut a plea deal with prosecutors — but his role in the investigation may be somewhat different.

    Cohen pleaded guilty to financial and campaign finance violations brought by SDNY in August, and to lying to Congress related to the Russia investigation in November, but he never committed to cooperate with the government.

    Instead, Cohen said he would voluntarily provide information, rather than committing to testify accurately about any crimes he might know about. This became a sticking point during his sentencing; Mueller’s office said they found Cohen’s information useful, but SDNY chided him for not fully committing to cooperate.

    And notably, Imaad Zuberi — the only inaugural donor mentioned in the subpoena by name — discussed his inaugural contributions with Cohen and talked with him about business afterward. So it’s not entirely clear whether Cohen is helping out with this investigation of the inauguration — or whether he’s a target of it.

    For more on investigations into President Trump, follow Andrew Prokop on Twitter and check out Vox’s guide to the Mueller investigation.
     
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  3. NewRoxFan

    NewRoxFan Contributing Member

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  4. NewRoxFan

    NewRoxFan Contributing Member

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  5. NewRoxFan

    NewRoxFan Contributing Member

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  6. NewRoxFan

    NewRoxFan Contributing Member

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  7. No Worries

    No Worries Contributing Member

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    Trump's very, very large brain is at it again. Whitaker appears to have lied to Congress. Too bad, so sad.

    [NYT] Intimidation, Pressure and Humiliation: Inside Trump’s Two-Year War on the Investigations Encircling Him

    President Trump’s efforts have exposed him to accusations of obstruction of justice as Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel, finishes his work.

    By Mark Mazzetti, Maggie Haberman, Nicholas Fandos and Michael S. Schmidt
    Feb. 19, 2019

    WASHINGTON — As federal prosecutors in Manhattan gathered evidence late last year about President Trump’s role in silencing women with hush payments during the 2016 campaign, Mr. Trump called Matthew G. Whitaker, his newly installed attorney general, with a question. He asked whether Geoffrey S. Berman, the United States attorney for the Southern District of New York and a Trump ally, could be put in charge of the widening investigation, according to several American officials with direct knowledge of the call.

    Mr. Whitaker, who had privately told associates that part of his role at the Justice Department was to “jump on a grenade” for the president, knew he could not put Mr. Berman in charge because Mr. Berman had already recused himself from the investigation. The president soon soured on Mr. Whitaker, as he often does with his aides, and complained about his inability to pull levers at the Justice Department that could make the president’s many legal problems go away.

    Trying to install a perceived loyalist atop a widening inquiry is a familiar tactic for Mr. Trump, who has been struggling to beat back the investigations that have consumed his presidency. His efforts have exposed him to accusations of obstruction of justice as Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel, finishes his work investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election.

    ...

    Mr. Whitaker, who this month told a congressional committee that Mr. Trump had never pressured him over the various investigations, is now under scrutiny by House Democrats for possible perjury.

    A Justice Department spokeswoman said Tuesday that the White House had not asked Mr. Whitaker to interfere in the investigations. “Under oath to the House Judiciary Committee, then-Acting Attorney General Whitaker stated that ‘at no time has the White House asked for nor have I provided any promises or commitments concerning the special counsel’s investigation or any other investigation,’” said the spokeswoman, Kerri Kupec. “Mr. Whitaker stands by his testimony.”
     
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  8. KingCheetah

    KingCheetah Contributing Member

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    Great day for Team Trump.
     
  9. justtxyank

    justtxyank Contributing Member

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    Whitaker's testimony seemed so implausible from the jump.
     
  10. Space Ghost

    Space Ghost Contributing Member

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    Need moar investigations.

    With every cycle, its becoming harder and harder to distinguish between Republicans and Democrats. Did we not have enough silly investigations during the Obama years?
     
  11. edwardc

    edwardc Member

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    Apparently not there has been a lot of tax payer money spent on these investigations that a have sent on one to jail for more than a couple of years.
     
  12. cml750

    cml750 Member

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    So have we moved on from "collusion" now to the point that they need something or should I say "anything" to pin on Trump? I guess the plan is to keep on investigating until any type of crime is found? This will likely be yet another dry hole but it should give the echo chamber a lot of good sound bites to keep everyone stirred up and pissed off for a time.
     
  13. Anticope

    Anticope Member

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    Well, no crimes committed except for the multiple felonies committed by Trump's campaign manager, personal lawyer, close personal adviser and National Security adviser, among others. I'll give you a free life lesson: people who surround themselves with criminals typically end up being criminals themselves.

    And let's be real here, if Obama's campaign manager, personal lawyer, close personal adviser and National Security adviser had all been charged with multiple felonies during his presidency you would have been in every one of these threads proclaiming him as the most corrupt president ever. But since your Dear Leader has that magical (R) next to his name you (and many others) are apparently completely incapable of recognizing the immense amount of criminals and criminal activity that he has surrounded himself with. Very sad!
     
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  14. No Worries

    No Worries Contributing Member

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    Individual 1 says hello.
     
    #14 No Worries, Feb 19, 2019
    Last edited: Feb 20, 2019
  15. FranchiseBlade

    FranchiseBlade Contributing Member
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    deleted. @Anticope already said it better than I could have.
     
  16. dachuda86

    dachuda86 Member

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    How do you know he's a criminal?

    Cause he looks like one!


    [​IMG]
     
  17. No Worries

    No Worries Contributing Member

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  18. Rocket River

    Rocket River Member

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    Propaganda Machine

    Rocket River
     
  19. NewRoxFan

    NewRoxFan Contributing Member

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    Interesting exchanges of tweets between people in the know... the whole thread is interesting, but these tweets seem more so...




     
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  20. NewRoxFan

    NewRoxFan Contributing Member

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