January 28, 2019 – Original Post Date
March 10, 2019 – Update on Cohen, improvements and additional linked references
written by Net Advisor™
Southern District, New York. Michael Cohen, was one of Donald Trump’s lawyers for about 12 years, mostly prior to Trump becoming U.S. President.
A Last Place Show Horse.
Cohen is now a convicted felon (plea agreement) for major million-dollar tax evasion and bank fraud. Cohen was also convicted for felony perjury – lying before Congress. Cohen will being serving three years in prison starting in about two months.
Yet, this man is suddenly deemed ‘credible’ by the Democratic-controlled House Judiciary Committee who called for Cohen to ‘testify‘ (against President Trump).
It was said during the hearing by Republican Congressman Jim Jorden, that Cohen just might be the first convicted felon who lied before Congress just one year ago, to now testify as a star witness before a Congressional Committee.
During Cohen’s testimony, Cohen made himself out to be a victim. Victimization seems to be the latest trend as (alleged) criminals claim they are real the victim?
This ‘victim’ again willingly worked for Trump for 12 years and received millions of dollars in legal fees. Cohen also apparently made some $4 Million offering to sell out his boss to corporate interests.
Cohen was under FBI investigation and appeared to say whatever he needed or was coaxed into saying to disparage Trump.
In 2018, Cohen hired Lanny Davis as his legal representative. Davis, a long-time Democratic political operative also represented the Clintons. Cohen said Davis was working for free – at least for now.
Cohen spent hours before the House Judiciary Committee making every effort to slam Trump from claiming Trump is a racist, running a mafia-style organization with (inferences) of Trump having hit-men; to Trump is working against the interests of the People of the United States.
Cohen offered no evidence to support any of this claims other than his newfound opinions, hearsay, and a barrage of disparaging accusations; all of which would never be admissible in any court of law.
Cohen: Trump is Working Against America’s Interests?
Cohen claimed that Trump is ‘working against America’s interest.’ This is a very simple public fact to debunk.
In a short, President Trump is working for America – for free, donating 100% of his presidential salary each quarter. Like him or not, agree or disagree with him or not, economically, Trump has been a big win for America.
Trump managed to pass the largest tax cuts since the 1980’s. Trump massively cut government regulations; removed the tax penalty from healthcare and brought back domestic manufacturing jobs.
The result of Trump’s economic policies drove down the U.S. unemployment rate to the lowest in nearly 50 years. The unemployment rate for Afro-Americans and Hispanics are now at historic lows – something no prior U.S. President has ever achieved.
President Trump is currently working on disarming North Korea of their nuclear weapons pointed at the U.S. and our allies. This may or may not happen. Every U.S. President since the 1950’s have largely ignored North Korea as a national security threat. There was no official end to the Korean War, it just has been in a cease fire.
Trump is the first U.S. President to be proactive in creating new dialogues with North Korea. Trump also has tough sanctions on the Communist country which is hurting North Korea‘s economy.
All of this hardly seems as ‘evidence’ to suggest that Trump is ‘working against America’s interests.’
Book and Movie Deal?
Cohen was just disbarred in New York where he practiced law since about 1992. Cohen needed a way to make a new living. It seems he figured out how to potentially make millions of dollars, and find something to do while in prison for three years.
Cohen testified that he would not give any proceeds from future book or movie deal(s) to charity. It appears Cohen will likely profit from his criminal behavior.
Cohen also said he has entertained media offers, but would not elaborate. It would not surprise us if that means getting a job with a politically-left media organization. We will have to wait until he is out of prison in three years if the media still has interest (political use) for him.
In order for Cohen to make bank on any book, movie, or TV-media deal, he had to slam every negative he could think of against Trump; and hiring the lawyer of your political opponent just fits that narrative perfectly.
Dog and Pony Show.
Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee repeatedly pointed out Cohen’s criminal convictions, including financial (bank) fraud and lying before Congress.
Cohen admitted that he privately met only with certain Anti-Trump Democrats on the House Committee prior to his public Congressional testimony.
Cohen testified that he and Committee Democrats discussed what matters would be talked about, and what would not be talked about at the public hearing. Ethically speaking, it appears the Committee colluded with Cohen and his attorney to plan out a public attack against Trump.
It turns out that Cohen privately met four times covering about ten hours with (Anti-Trump) Democrats who serve on the House Judiciary Committee. Cohen met with ZERO Republicans who sit on the same committee.
As the New York Post pointed out, “Michael Cohen gave Democrats the performance they wanted.”
What Evidence Again?
The issue for Cohen is his lack of hard evidence to support any legal or otherwise criminal claims. Making a bunch of outlandish statements is not deemed ‘evidence’ in a court of law.
Neither is showing ‘evidence’ that Cohen received two $35,000 checks from President Trump; then trying to associate the checks were really in relation to reimbursement-related to ‘Stormy Daniels.’
Reminder, Cohen worked for the Trump Organization for 12 years. Cohen said he was “loyal,” which that obviously isn’t true. In all likelihood, Cohen received scores of checks for salary and expenses as one of Trump’s attorneys.
If, on any of the checks in question, Trump wrote something like, ‘reimbursement for X,’ then one can make an argument that the check is in relation to “X.”
The checks do not specify what the payment is for. The problem for Democrats is, paying your lawyer isn’t a crime.
Lying Before Congress – Again?
Cohen may have got himself in trouble again. It appears that Cohen may have lied again before Congress, and is now been criminally refereed to the Justice Department for investigation.
Plea Deal Does Not Implicate Trump in Wrong Doing.
After review with some legal minds, and subsequent research, it appears that Cohen plea deal doesn’t implicate Trump to a crime, but this hasn’t stopped some in the media and political figures seeking to impeach President Trump from office in doing so.
Since some of these operatives allegedly are lawyers, here are the legal issues they have apparently failed to understand.
1. It is not illegal to pay someone to work for you, especially your attorney.
2. It is not illegal to give anyone money, as long as the consideration is not for the purpose of committing a crime.
3. It is not illegal to pay off a blackmailer.
It is illegal to black mail someone: (Demanding money – in this case $130,000 to avoid one party going public regarding an event that may be embarrassing but not unlawful). No one is investigating Trump being subject to Daniel’s alleged blackmail.
“Blackmail is the crime of threatening to reveal embarrassing, disgraceful or damaging information about a person to the public, family, spouse or associates unless money is paid to purchase silence. It is a form of extortion.”
— Source: U.S. Legal.com, 18 USC § 873
4. It is not illegal for a political candidate to use as much as their personal funds for a political campaign.
Mr. Cohen, an attorney, received a monthly retainer, not from the campaign and having nothing to do with the campaign, from which he entered into, through reimbursement, a private contract between two parties, known as a non-disclosure agreement, or NDA. These agreements are…..
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 3, 2018
Cohen previous said he used personal funds to pay off consensual adult relationship(s) to keep the alleged relationships from going public. It is not illegal to pay “hush money” in consideration of a confidential agreement.
*IF* (then, Candidate) Trump reimbursed Cohen with personal funds, this is NOT illegal.
*IF* (then, Candidate) Trump reimbursed Cohen with Trump Presidential Campaign funds, AND if such was not disclosed to the Federal Elections Committee (filings) as ‘campaign funds,’ then, that would amount to a civil penalty at best; and such would not be deemed a criminal action.
In any case, such (pay off) action(s) would not rise to the level of “Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.”
A similar case regarding the payoff to a mistress went nowhere, but seemed serious at the time.
The John Edwards Case.
John Edwards, Democrat, former Senator from North Carolina, a former Vice Presidential Candidate, and once considered to be Barack Obama’s Vice President in 2008, had an affair with a political campaign employee, Rielle Hunter. The story was broke by the tabloid, The National Inquire.
The affair lasted four years and spawned a child. The relationship continued five years after John Edwards’ wife Elizabeth, also an attorney died in 2010 of breast cancer.
Edwards first denied the affair, but eventually admitted to it. By the way, having an affair or lying about it is not a crime. If affairs or lying about them were crimes, more than half of America would be in prison, including many U.S. Presidents and Congresspersons.
Edwards, a very wealthy trial lawyer, through his political campaign reportedly paid off Ms. Hunter about $1 Million ‘hush money’ for her silence about the affair.
John Edwards was charged for campaign finance violations, faced up to 30 years in prison and up to $1.5 Million fine in re: United States v. Johnny Reid Edwards.
A jury found Edwards not guilty on 1 count, and declared a mistrial for 5 other counts. The New York Times reported in 2012, that according to jurors, “the government had not proved that any laws were broken.”
As we discussed above, the Court found the same conclusion. Affairs, lying about them, or paying hush money to keep them from going public is not illegal. Such actions can question morality, but Congress can’t legislate the morality of consenting adults.
Bill Clinton.
The Bill Clinton – Monica Lewinsky case occurred while Clinton was in office. But having an affair with a consenting adult is not what got Clinton into trouble. It was Clinton’s obstruction of justice, witness tampering, and lying to Congress that got him impeached by the House – NOT for having an affair with a White House intern.
Clinton was not removed from office because the then Democrat-controlled Senate did not follow the House vote. (House-Senate Vote on Clinton Impeachment – CNN, 1999).
Breach of Legal Privilege?
It is questionable that Trump’s former attorney Michael Cohen disclosed his work-relationship with Trump is a violation of Attorney-Client Privilege (ABA Model Rule 1.6.).
Generally a lawyer can break privilege if it will prevent a crime from happening in the future.
An attorney cannot disclose a crime that their client committed after the fact. That is the whole purpose of Attorney-Client Privilege, so defense lawyers and their client can have open, candid conversations about what happened. An attorney cannot run to the court or otherwise testify against his client for things that already occurred.
Raid.
The FBI (under the direction of Robert Muller’s Special Counsel’s Office) raided Michael Cohen’s business office and seized computers and documents which arguably contain extensive attorney-client privilege records of all of Cohen’s clients.
The FBI/ DOJ decided what was confidential or not? That is not the Fed’s job. Normally a Presiding Judge, not the FBI, DOJ or other prosecutors make this call, 31 CFR § 501.733, in re: United States v AB Electrolux et al (2015).
Having law-enforcement perform a blanket raid (prohibited in re: Maryland v. Garrison (1987) on a lawyer’s offices, a non-felon, no priors, no drugs, weapons, or terrorism issues, sets a dangerous legal precedent.
Federal prosecutors threw out the Attorney-Client Privilege Rule setting a precedent that any lawyers’ office can be raided; that any private citizen can be attacked (charged) by the government when no evidence of a crime existed in the first place?
This kind of behavior is more reserved by Social-Marxist and Communist countries that have no regard for citizens’ legal rights. We’ll touch on this more with legal cases in a moment.
We still don’t know any details of what was the cause to get the feds to raid Cohen’s law office(s). But the search and seizure was likely approved by Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein who is overseeing the Mueller investigation.
Cohen’s Real Crime Was Tax Evasion.
Cohen’s biggest crimes was not giving “hush money” to a 3rd party, but rather his charges of five counts of tax evasion. Cohen had a side taxi business where the taxi company made millions and Cohen allegedly paid no income taxes on that money.
To save himself, Cohen clearly flipped on Trump from being his long-time well-paid lawyer to saying anything to minimize his own prison sentence.
‘Evidence’ from Cohen Not Likely Admissible Against Trump.
Any ‘evidence’ from say Cohen that is disclosed to a 3rd party (ie: Mueller, a Judge, or Congress, etc.,) AFTER the FACT, cannot be used against a party (ie: Trump, or anyone else) as ‘evidence’ to bring any criminal charges.
This is especially true if the Cohen search warrant was not legally justified; overly broad, including but not limited to failing to demonstrate probable cause; in re: Ornelas v. United States (1996).
The Muller probe into Cohen had little or nothing to do with Muller’s overall mission; which was to investigate the false claim that Russia somehow assisted to get Trump elected.
Additional Case Law That May Apply Here.
In re: Silverthorne Lumber Co. v. United States (1920), federal enforcement unlawfully seized records from Silverthrone Lumber Company. The Feds believed the company committed tax evasion. The Feds then made copies of the sized records and used those records as ‘evidence;’ against the lumber company.
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that such action by law-enforcement violated the Fourth Amendment. Further, the Court ruled that illegally copied documents were “tainted” and thus could not be used (inadmissible) in court. As a result, the case against Silverthrown was dismissed.
From this case gave us what was eventually called, “Fruit of the Poisonous Tree” first referenced by this term in re: Nardone v. United States (1939). The ‘Court held that where evidence is taken in violation of the law, any use by the prosecution should be forbidden;’
If the court permitted such evidence it would ‘‘invite the very methods deemed inconsistent with ethical standards and destructive of personal liberty.”
Not only do law-enforcement need a properly executed search warrant, Weeks v. United States (1914) and Mapp v. Ohio (1961), but the scope of the warrant is fairly narrow. To say we want to search and seize everything, is a very broad search warrant, and if challenged, would likely be unconstitutional under the Fourth Amendment.
So, what is the cause to warrant such a broad search and seizure of Cohen, his home and law office? Terrorism? Drugs, weapons, human trafficking or an impending homicide? No, Cohen (at the time) was just Trump’s lawyer.
What was Cohen’s crime the Feds knew about BEFORE a warrant was written and executed? It appears, the Feds discovered crimes committed by Cohen AFTER his home and business offices were raided.
Cohen didn’t seem to challenge any of the Fed’s actions. Cohen just entered a plea deal to get three years in prison, and to openly testify to bash Trump with unfounded claims.
Cohen’s reward? He may very well likely come out of it a multi-millionaire with book, movie and or TV-media news appearances.
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