Lanny Davis - Michael Cohens Attorney
"Today he stood up and testified under oath that Donald Trump directed him him to commit a crime by making payments to two women for the principal purpose of influencing an election. If those payments were a crime for Michael Cohen, then why wouldn't they be a crime for Donald Trump?"
Here's what I think:
Attorneys shouldn't ask questions that they don't know the answer to. That being said, there is an easy answer for that question. It isn't necessarily a crime. Michael Cohen even made a donation that was considered too large under federal campaign finance laws. Donald Trump isn't guilty of that. Plus, he would have to prove conspiracy of intent here for Donald Trump and he would have to prove that he necessarily violated campaign law by using campaign money for something else. There's a whole bunch of information that hasn't even been revealed yet and Lanny Davis is trying to confuse the American people.
Like I said before, you would have to prove intent before you could prove conspiracy. Based on 18 U.S.C. § 371 (1), a general conspiracy statute in the U.S. Attorneys Manual, the prosecution in a conspiracy case must prove above all else that the defendant is guilty beyond a reasonable doubt by these criteria: criminal offense, knowledge and intent, an agreement to conspire, and also aiding and abetting of the conspiracy.
Lanny Davis here seems to be implicating that he has all of this evidence, but he hasn't shown any of it. The evidence hasn't been presented to the jury. However, Michael Cohen did plea guilty to eight counts related to tax evasion, bank fraud, and campaign finance violations (2). If he does have this evidence, this would lead to serious implications against Donald Trump. All they have right now are allegations.
Although, it begs the question: is he making a plea agreement so he can get away with the tax evasion and bank fraud? If you don't recall, Alan Dershowitz went on Fox News and claimed that Mueller was "squeezing" Manafort to get to Trump by making him "sing or compose" (3). By "sing or compose", he means giving a statement that is matching a narrative that a side wants the judge to hear, whether or not it's true.
The reason I mention the Paul Manafort case is because I heard about it on the news and then I hear about Michael Cohen pleading guilty immediately afterward. That made me wonder if Mueller was able to make Cohen compose. I can tell you without a shred of doubt that people have lied in the courtroom before, but isn't it possible that Cohen saw what happened to Manafort and decided to compose? After all, the case against Manafort was thrown out by the FBI/CIA over 10 years ago.
There are so many things wrong with both of these cases that they should both be thrown out. However, this crusade against Donald Trump by Robert Mueller and the far-left is never going to end. As long as Donald Trump is president somebody on the left is going to continue with their defamation agenda against him.
Forget about the fact that he got NATO allies to include $12 billion on top of what they were paying towards the organization (4). Only 5 of the 28 members of NATO were paying the 2% target funding for the organization. While While Greece, Estonia, the U.K., and Poland were the only ones paying a little over 2%, we were paying almost 4%. (5)
Forget about the fact that he admitted he was wrong on his stance with withdrawing troops from Afghanistan and reversed Obama's withdrawal. He recognized that it would just create another vacuum for terrorists, much like what happened during Obama's presidency. (4)
Forget about the fact that he recognized Jerusalem as Israel's capital (4). Bill Clinton promised to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital. So did George W. Bush and so did Barack Obama. But did they? NOPE! (6)
Okay, I've made my point. Donald Trump has done a lot of good for this country. However, he seems to associate himself with a lot of morons. And the point of this whole thing is that we've never had a president who was 100% effective in the position. Otherwise, we would just re-elect the guy over and over again. No. Clinton fucked his secretaries in the Oval Office. Bush lied about his intensions for invading a country. Barack Obama enacted a bunch of socialist policies and doubled our country's debt. At this point, I don't give a damn if Donald Trump fucked a prostitute while visiting Thailand and I wouldn't be surprised either. Just let the man do his fucking job. He was fairly elected into the system, he did most of what he said he would do when he ran and he's going to continue doing what he does.
Works Cited
(1) 18 U.S.C. § 371—Conspiracy to Defraud the United States
(2) Sheth, Sonam. “'The Worst Day of the Trump Presidency': Manafort's Conviction and Cohen's Plea Deal Land within Striking Distance of the White House.” Business Insider, Business Insider, 21 Aug. 2018, www.businessinsider.com/paul-manafort-conviction-michael-cohen-plea-deal-trump-white-house-mueller-russia-2018-8.
(3) “Dershowitz: Mueller Is 'Squeezing' Manafort to Get to Trump.” Edited by Fox News, Fox News, FOX News Network, 18 July 2018, insider.foxnews.com/2018/07/18/alan-dershowitz-robert-mueller-squeezing-paul-manafort-get-president-trump.
(4) “Opinion | The 10 Best Things Trump Has Done in His First Year in Office.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 27 Dec. 2017, www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-10-best-things-trump-has-done-in-his-first-year-in-office/2017/12/27/c79ce93c-ea7e-11e7-9f92-10a2203f6c8d_story.html?utm_term=.35de4a116c89.
(5) "Twenty-three of the 28 member nations are still not paying what they should," Trump told heads of NATO states assembled Thursday in Brussels. "Many of these nations owe massive amounts of money from past years.". “NATO Funding: How It Works and Who Pays What.” CNNMoney, Cable News Network, 25 May 2017, money.cnn.com/2017/05/25/news/nato-funding-explained-trump/index.html.
(6) Landler, Mark. “Trump Recognizes Jerusalem as Israel's Capital and Orders U.S. Embassy to Move.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 6 Dec. 2017, www.nytimes.com/2017/12/06/world/middleeast/trump-jerusalem-israel-capital.html.