The Presidency of Donald J. Trump: No smocking guns. - Page 3699 - Politics and Economics

ABC News reported Tuesday that Geoffrey Berman, the interim US attorney for the Southern District of New York, recused himself from the investigation into Trump’s longtime personal lawyer, Michael Cohen....

After the Politico story, Bharara tweeted that it was “neither normal nor advisable for Trump to personally interview candidates” for US attorney, particularly in the Southern District of New York.

In a statement at the time, Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, the ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, questioned why Trump would meet with candidates for those vacancies.

“The US attorney for the Eastern and Southern Districts of New York – like the US attorney for Washington, DC -would have jurisdiction over many important cases, including those involving President Trump’s personal and family business interests,” she said.

“There’s no reason for President Trump to be meeting with candidates for these positions, which create the appearance that he may be trying to influence or elicit inappropriate commitments from potential US attorneys. US attorneys must be loyal to the Constitution – not the president.”....

Painter, who said he could not recall such an interview taking place in the Bush administration, also questioned by Trump was interviewing only in those districts.

“That’s highly peculiar,” he said. “And it suggests that he has an interest in the outcome of the US attorneys who work in these districts. That is very problematic, because we’re looking at a situation where he could be trying to get a promise of loyalty from a US attorney. He’s probably not going to be stupid enough to ask, but he’s probably going to be interviewing somebody who is not going to prosecute certain cases.”

04-10-2018 , 05:03 PM

#92452

Matty Lice

veteran

Join Date: Aug 2017 Posts: 3,438

If the NY guy was hand picked by Trump, why the recusal? Is Trump that toxic?

04-10-2018 , 05:07 PM

#92453

iron81

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Join Date: Sep 2005 Posts: 17,729

The above people are implying that Trump pressured him to obstruct justice and he felt conflicted due to that.

04-10-2018 , 05:10 PM

#92454

Rococo

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Quote:

Originally Posted by Namath12

Would Cohen's law license be in jeopardy if Trump pardoned him? (I legit do not know)

It's really about Cohen's conduct, not Trump's response to Cohen's conduct.

04-10-2018 , 05:14 PM

#92455

Rococo

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Join Date: Jul 2004 Posts: 18,413

Quote:

Originally Posted by wheatrich

I can't fathom a single R that wants to get re-elected that would under any circumstances b/c they'd snap lose the primary.

The self-interested electoral calculus is not that simple. It really depends on which R you are talking about. Not every state/district is West Virginia.

04-10-2018 , 05:17 PM

#92456

master3004

Revisionist Historian

Join Date: Mar 2010 Posts: 56,420

Quote:

Originally Posted by whosnext

It is widely reported that Mueller referred this "case" to the SDNY. Meaning, of course, that Mueller's team was the ones who "uncovered" the probable cause predicates.

The question is what caused the Mueller team to uncover this in the first place. Why did they look into Cohen's financial dealings at all?

My educated guess (and maybe this has been reported) is that Cohen was involved in securing Russian money to flow into the Trump Organization and/or the Trump campaign.

I am usually not a fan of leaks, but I would be in favor of leaking that information so as to forestall, to some degree, the backlash from the Right.

Have you looked at anything the right has done in the last decade at all?

Nothing is going to forestall them. They had 586937374 hearings on Benghazi with no evidence of wrongdoing. They do whatever the **** they want regardless of any facts.

04-10-2018 , 05:18 PM

#92457

Matty Lice

veteran

Join Date: Aug 2017 Posts: 3,438

Yea if that little hellhole slice of PA can go blue, no red seat is safe.

04-10-2018 , 05:22 PM

#92458

otatop

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Quote:

Originally Posted by Matty Lice

If the NY guy was hand picked by Trump, why the recusal? Is Trump that toxic?

It's not just that Trump's toxic, it's that Berman (like Sessions) knows that he has to recuse himself in cases like this where not doing so would be inappropriate. Dumb Donnie thought these guys would be loyal to him and not follow standard legal procedure.

04-10-2018 , 05:22 PM

#92459

Rococo

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Join Date: Jul 2004 Posts: 18,413

Quote:

Originally Posted by Matty Lice

If the NY guy was hand picked by Trump, why the recusal? Is Trump that toxic?

It could have been anything. For all I know, that guy represented Trump or one of his companies in the recent past.

04-10-2018 , 05:25 PM

#92460

ScreaminAsian

For President

Join Date: Oct 2008 Posts: 33,333

Quote:

Originally Posted by Matty Lice

Yea if that little hellhole slice of PA can go blue, no red seat is safe.

Dem won Bama

04-10-2018 , 05:26 PM

#92461

Rococo

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Quote:

Originally Posted by otatop

It's not even that Trump's toxic, it's that Berman (like Sessions) knows that he has to recuse himself in cases like this where not doing so would be inappropriate. Dumb Donnie thought these guys would be loyal to him and not follow standard legal procedure.

I doubt that he recused himself just because Trump appointed him. If that were the standard, newly appointed SCOTUS justices would have to sit out a bunch of cases until the administration turned over.

04-10-2018 , 05:28 PM

#92462

vaya

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Smart move by Berman. He'll spend the rest of his career being elevated by Democrats eager to show how bipartisan they are. Then he'll probably get a chance to **** the country good and hard like Comey.

04-10-2018 , 05:33 PM

#92463

SirOsis

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So all these senators/reps who keep saying stuff like "Trump would never remove Mueller, we've been assured" and refuse to pass anything preventing it, are they all working on perfecting surprised faces and surprised statements of shock when he starts doing so?

"I'm incredibly surprised and deeply concerned! Let's sit here and see what happens now!"

04-10-2018 , 05:34 PM

#92464

MrAdvantage

Guest

Posts: n/a

Quote:

Originally Posted by Matty Lice

Lol loco poco

Well done .

04-10-2018 , 05:37 PM

#92465

Rococo

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Quote:

Originally Posted by SirOsis

Passing that sort of legislation would rarely, if ever, be in any Republican's self-interest. Turning on Trump if he indirectly fired Mueller would be in the self-interest of more than a few.

If there were no repercussions to getting rid of Mueller, Trump would have done it months ago. Trump doesn't know much, but he knows that getting hid of Mueller is a desperate, high-risk gamble.

04-10-2018 , 05:48 PM

#92466

goofyballer

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Join Date: Jun 2005 Posts: 70,719

Random statistics of the day:
- California had more Donald Trump voters (4.5 mil) than every state except Florida (4.6 mil) and Texas (4.7 mil)
- California had more Donald Trump voters than 11 red states combined (Arkansas, Kansas, Utah, Nebraska, West Virginia, Idaho, Montana, South Dakota, North Dakota, Wyoming, Alaska)

04-10-2018 , 05:50 PM

#92467

kerowo

lolcat

Join Date: Nov 2005 Posts: 37,190

Good thing 3 million of them were illegal.

04-10-2018 , 05:51 PM

#92468

tomdemaine

Just tries harder

Join Date: Feb 2005 Posts: 20,065

economic insecurity?

04-10-2018 , 05:52 PM

#92469

master3004

Revisionist Historian

Join Date: Mar 2010 Posts: 56,420

Quote:

Originally Posted by tomdemaine

economic insecurity?

Rednecks in cities east of I5

04-10-2018 , 06:01 PM

#92470

ScreaminAsian

For President

Join Date: Oct 2008 Posts: 33,333

Quote:

Originally Posted by SirOsis

[mueller fired]

Reporter: will you vote on legislation to reinstate an independent special counsel?

McConnell: the president insists “no collusion”, so i’m not sure that’s necessary at this time

04-10-2018 , 06:06 PM

#92471

otatop

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Join Date: Jul 2008 Posts: 12,721

Quote:

Originally Posted by ScreaminAsian

[mueller fired]

Reporter: will you vote on legislation to reinstate an independent special counsel?

McConnell: the House Intelligence Committee insists “no collusion”, so i’m not sure that’s necessary at this time

FTFY

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rococo

Do newly appointed Justices often have to rule on cases involving the POTUS who appointed them?

04-10-2018 , 06:14 PM

#92472

iron81

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Join Date: Sep 2005 Posts: 17,729

Yes if you're talking about policy disputes. No if you're talking about personal matters.

04-10-2018 , 06:19 PM

#92473

Our House

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Quote:

Originally Posted by Matty Lice

Zuckerberg confirmed Mueller has been in contact with him as far as Russia goes. Is that common knowledge? Seems pretty big.

He first said that FB was subpoenaed by Mueller, then that employees had been interviewed by special counsel and that he hasn't been yet, then after all that said "Wait a minute. A lot of this stuff is confidential, so I shouldn't confirm any of it." Sorry, a little late.

What I found interesting was how Zuck implied that he expects that investigating will find a good amount of overlap between the data that CA has and the data that Russia has, including the targeting of very specific voters in detrimental states or areas (like WI, PA and MI).

Watched the whole hearing so far. It's almost over.