5 Questions To Ask Trump’s Accountant: Allen Weisselberg

He was almost unknown a week ago. A longtime accountant for a family firm, Allen Weisselberg will be 71-years-old next month and had to have at least considered a quiet retirement in the near future. Suddenly, after being mentioned twice in the leaked Michael Cohen/Donald Trump audio tapes describing how they paid $150,000 to squelch a story about Trump’s alleged affair with Playboy Playmate Karen MacDougal. Within a few days, Weisselberg was subpoenaed to testify to a Federal Grand Jury in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York in the investigation of Michael Cohen.

Given his long ties to the Trump Organization, dating back to the 1970’s. There are a few questions I hope Weisselberg is asked while under oath on the witness stand:

1. HOW MARRIED IS TRUMP TO THE MOB? Allen began working while Fred Trump was in charge and he once had a partner, Willie Tomasello, who was a Genovese mob family associate. S & A Concrete, owned by a joint venture of the Genovese and Gambino families, built Trump Tower and Trump Plaza. Trump worked with Nicky Scarfo and the Cleveland Wrecking Company and multiple other mob front operations. The mob settled Trump’s labor disputes. Following the money; how much money in the past and is currently going to mob operations including, of course, the Russian mob?
2. HOW MANY WOMEN? Just how many women has Trump paid off and more importantly, what is it he’s trying to keep silent? Besides the multiple affairs, how many women are being paid to hush-up allegations of sexual harassment, assault, and even rape? How many abortions has he paid for?
3. HOW MUCH RUSSIAN MONEY? Eric Trump and Donald Jr have both bragged about the vast amount of Russian money they had access to in building golf courses worldwide. There are multiple real estate transactions providing hundreds of millions of profits for Donald Trump and where the Russians seemed to have little use for the properties. How much money has Russia provided to Trump and what did they get in return?
4. HOW MUCH DOES TRUMP GIVE TO CHARITABLE CAUSES? To be more specific, how much of Trump’s personal money has he given away that wasn’t actually a payoff of some kind? Inquiring minds want to know.
5. WHAT’S IN TRUMP’S TAX RETURNS? It’s obvious Trump never intended to release his tax returns. What’s in them he doesn’t want anyone to see? Money laundering? Tax evasion? We can assume Special Counsel Robert Mueller has Trump’s taxes and some of that information may come out in his report, but can you give us a few tidbits in the meantime?

Looking out for Allen Weisselberg, I’d get immunity if I were you before I started spilling information. Once you’ve received it, tell all you know and set yourself free. Then you can go ahead and enjoy that retirement without having to look over your shoulder.

Update: 8/24/2018  Allen Weisselberg has been granted immunity by Federal prosecutors. Watch out now!

Trump Word For The Day: Collusion!

Definition – Secret or illegal cooperation or conspiracy, especially in order to cheat or deceive others.

Donald Trump says it in almost every public conversation. “No Collusion!” “There was no collusion!” “No Collusion!” We now learn that Trump’s former personal attorney is willing to testify that Donald Trump knew about the infamous “Trump Tower” meeting in June 2016 where Russians came to Trump Tower to meet with Donald Jr., Paul Manafort, and Jared Kushner to allegedly provide dirt on Hillary Clinton.

All of the attendees of the meeting originally denied the purpose of the meeting and that Donald Trump was aware it was taking place. When news of the meeting broke when the President and Donald Jr were returning from an overseas trip on Air Force One. Donald Trump dictated a letter downplaying the meeting and making a claim it was merely about Russian adoptions.

We now know Donald Trump knew in advance and approved of the Russian meeting, being approached about it by Donald Jr. Donald Trump approved the meeting and is more likely than ever to have been the source of a call Donald Jr took during the meeting from a number marked “Private” which calls from Trump’s cell phone are.

The legal and criminal implications of Trump’s knowledge, approval, and subsequent denials of the meeting are staggering. Donald Jr and Kushner have perjured themselves in testimony before Congressional committees. Manafort, Kushner and Don Jr will have given false testimony in interviews with the FBI. Trump himself will have done the one thing he constantly denied, conspired (colluded) with Russians to get information about Hillary Clinton, and of course, Russia knew.

Russia has always known about Trump’s culpability in at least this instance. They know about his financial ties to Russian oligarchs. His dependence on Russian funding over the years and even his relationship with the Russian mob in New York. This is why Trump bends over everytime Putin is near, and the information is coming out a piece at a time on a daily basis. One claim Trump won’t be able to credibly make any longer is “No collusion!” Because he’s corrupt as hell!

Rudy Guiliani, came out after the story broke calling Michael Cohen “unbelievable” and “a liar.” He never said the story wasn’t true!

Donald Trump And The Harry T. Upshaw Defense

Harry T. Upshaw (the T is for Tyrone) is a long time friend of mine. From time to time he would have the occasion to make the following statement, “If you didn’t put your hand on my shoulder while I was doing it… it wasn’t me!” His theory was that no matter the allegation, however strong the proof. If you weren’t an actual eyewitness that got his confirmation at the time that you saw him doing what he was doing, he would deny it. Donald Trump is doing his best imitation of Harry T. Upshaw after his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Trump is still unable to admit that Russians, under the direction of Putin, interfered in the 2016 Presidential Election. Last Friday, his own Justice Department issued 12 more indictments against Russian military officers containing extraordinary detail. It listed the twelve Russian officers by name, down to the level of which computer they used while transmitting funds or creating personas or coordinating with unnamed Americans to influence the results. Trump was briefed in advance about the pending indictments and still went out of his way to call the ongoing Special Counsel Investigation, “a witch hunt.”

Immediately after the press conference in Helsinki where Trump threw his own Intelligence Agencies under the bus, saying he had no reason not to believe Putin’s denials. He also managed to say the words, “No Collusion” several times as if each subsequent repetition made it more believable. Not long afterward, a Russian woman, Maria Butina, was arrested in the United States with a new indictment spelling out her attempts to influence Republicans and funneling money through the National Rifle Association (NRA). The indictment refers to several unnamed Americans and represents the definition of collusion.

Trump’s lies were never credible before, they were just something someone who believed in his agenda could hang their hat on as they ignored his words and deeds. We are now witnessing treason right before our eyes. Back to Harry Upshaw, that defense of his only worked if someone was willing to let it go. The question is, will the American public and in particular, the Republican Congress who thus far has been aiding and abetting, finally put their collective hand on Trump’s shoulder and remove him from office. The other option is to let Russia continue to call the shots.

 

Forget The Mueller Questions, These Are The Twelve Questions I’d Like Trump To Answer!

The New York Times just broke a story publishing a list of 49 questions the Mueller investigation would like Donald Trump to answer. The questions are a result of negotiations between the Special Counsel’s team and Trump’s lawyers. Discussions that came to an end when lead Trump lawyer John Dowd was fired resigned from the position. The questions were provided orally to the Trump lawyers who wrote them down and presumably are the source of the leak.

The questions are highly specific and center on Donald Trump’s knowledge about how certain decisions were made and what Donald Trump knew. They seem to be focused on whether or not Trump has obstructed justice. While I want those questions answered and have no doubt that Trump has obstructed justice, laundered money, paid illegal bribes to foreign countries, violated FEC laws regarding contributions (paid off women he had affairs with to aid his election effort) and of course conspired with Russia. The 49 questions cited by the times aren’t really the ones I want to be answered. I want him to answer these:

1. What is your reading level? I’ve seen you struggle with documents, sounding out words and showing off your Hooked On Phonics skills but can you read at better than a 5th-grade level? Inquiring minds want to know.
2. Are you disappointed that even though you got to be President, you can never be a made man because you’re not Italian? Hanging out with mobsters half your life and always being shut out when the big meetings were held and the real decisions made, had to hurt.
3. Who does your hair? Normally the stylist to the President would try to capitalize on the fame and build their business based on their relationship with you. In this case, there’s a Nondisclosure Agreement (NDA) requiring you never to reveal their name and expose them to shame.
4. Do you pick out your own clothes? You’re allegedly a rich man, you can do better than those ugly coats and super long ties. Maybe you’re trying to distract from that gut but it’s not really working.
5. What’s up with your fixation with women that look like your daughter and why do you tell your women that? In a related question, do you ask them to call you Daddy?
6. What do you and Melania talk about when you’re alone? Of course, it’s possible you have an arrangement where you are never alone together? Separate bedrooms and all. Here’s a tip; stop trying to hold her hand in public. It’s clear she’s not feeling you.
7. When you lie (which is all the time), do you realize you’re lying or just not care? Your lies aren’t even good at the moment and certainly don’t age well. You are the exception to the rule that, “The Truth Will Set You Free!” In your case, the truth will lock you up?
8. You know Barack’s is bigger right? That’s gonna haunt you the rest of your life that you’ll never be the man he is, in every meaning of the word.
9. What did Omarosa do in the White House? I’d say something about her lack of knowledge about any policy matter but I forgot that would make you equal.
10. While we’re on your black sycophants, what’s the deal with the black guy with the sign and t-shirt at all your rallies and how much do you pay Diamond and Silk, Pastor Mark Burns and Dr. Darrell Scott? Whatever it is it isn’t enough unless the price for selling your soul has really gone down.
11. How well do you think you’ll do in jail and would you rather be in the same prison or different prisons than Donald Jr and Jared?
12. How does the President of the United States end up with the worst lawyers of all the people in the White House that had to lawyer up? Maybe you should have looked a little further than Fox News for applicants?

Five Things Sean Hannity Never Denied Or Forgot To Tell Us

Sean Hannity’s day went south when in a hearing about the disposition of records seized in the raid on Donald Trump’s personal lawyer, Michael Cohen. Sean Hannity was named as one of only three clients Michael Cohen had done legal work for in the past year. Hannity had gone to great lengths to keep from being named, telling Cohen’s and Trump’s lawyers to employ various threats, but ultimately, he was named as the third client.

The other two clients were Donald Trump, for whom Cohen made a $130,000 payment to silence her from going public about their affair, just before the election. Then there was Elliott Broidy, a Deputy Finance Committee Chairman of the RNC that paid a Playboy model $1.6 million for her to remain silent about their affair and the birth of their love child.

Once Hannity’s involvement was known, there was immediate speculation about whether his use of Cohen was similar to his only other clients, to cover-up extra-marital affairs. There was also great criticism that Hannity failed to disclose his relationship as a client of Cohen’s while doing nightly stories supporting Trump and Cohen and blasting the raid on Cohen’s office, which may contain his name on documents seized. Cohen has appeared on Hannity’s show at least seventeen times with no mention of their legal association.

Hannity began damage control with a series of tweets and statements. These are the most amazing things he either said or forgot to say regarding this matter.

1. Immediately after Cohen’s lawyers named him as the third client, Hannity said, Cohen never represented him, “in any matter.” Thus denying he was Cohen’s client. He went on to say Cohen never represented him in relation to a third party (translate to; he never paid any women off for me) and we “almost” exclusively talked about Real Estate.
2. Hannity claimed, “I never denied being represented by Michael Cohen.” A question no one knew to ask until he was named as a client. There are certainly millions of other things Hannity has never denied, some of them true.
3. When lawyer Alan Dershowitz told him on his own show he should have disclosed his relationship with Cohen. Hannity said he, “was entitled to his privacy.” Anyone that’s watched a half-hour of Hannity, ever, knows he has no privacy concerns and if we didn’t already know, no ethics.
4. Hannity himself is not unfamiliar with accusations related to women. Debbie Schlussel, a political analyst, said Hannity invited her to his hotel room after a show. She says when she refused, she was ultimately banned from Fox News.
5. Sean Hannity is rumored to have been involved in sexual affairs with several women. an open question is whether or not and Cohen drafted Nondisclosure Agreements were seized in the raid?  As anticipated, Fox News is standing behind their man (and the advertising revenue his show brings in) and refusing to answer any questions about ethical concerns.

A Plea To All Leakers, Investigative Reporters, And Rumor Mongers, With Breaking News About Donald Trump

Y’all need to get organized! America is tired of not being able to get through a single day without new stories about who Trump fired, what he tweeted or what new policy he appropriated by watching Fox News. We are beyond our capacity to process all this information in an orderly fashion so we’re are going to insist you stick to a schedule!

You can get together and agree on a weekly day and time to release all breaking news, and the public can have the rest of the week to live their lives without fear that when they go to work, go to bed, or even take a short nap, that Trump won’t have started a Trade War, had a new affair or threatened Russia, North Korea, or even Venezuela with Nuclear War.

Anxiety levels across the nation will go down, the economy will keep growing as people go back to taking their vacations, play more golf, eat out in restaurants and making big-ticket purchases with less fear that the world will end before they get to enjoy these activities. Bars, on the other hand, might see a drop in income as people find less of a need to drown their sorrows.

Might I suggest Friday nights at 9:00 PM as a good time. People can choose to watch or not and take the whole weekend to either absorb whatever chaos has come our way or ignore it altogether. If the breaking news had to be condensed, you could cut out all the panels, discussion, and speculation and just give us the facts. You could cut your payrolls by not having to hire all the strategic experts to explain to us what you just said and what it might mean.

Exceptions to this rule can be actual indictments, guilty pleas and compromising pictures of Donald Trump, Ivanka, or Melania. If it’s just Donald Jr, Eric, or any of the Cabinet members, it can wait until Friday. If wars could only be declared on Friday nights, each week we could sigh with relief and know there’s at least one more week before Trump puts our military in harm’s way.

I think what set off this rant was the breaking news that a Trump Tower doorman was paid $30,000 not to talk about an alleged relationship between Trump and his housekeeper… that produced a child. As salacious as that may be, it could have waited until Friday.

 

Paul Ryan Isn’t Going To Quit Congress, He Already Quit A Long Time Ago!

Congressman Paul Ryan (R) Wisconsin, the Speaker of the House, announced today he won’t be running for re-election for Congress. He’s only making clear now what has been obvious for some time that he quit doing his job a long time ago. Turning over control of the House to the likes of Devin Nunes and Mark Meadows. Ryan has been unable ( or unwilling) to exert any control over the rogue House Intelligence Committee which has put Party before Country and ignored Russian meddling in our elections and potential crimes committed by the President.

One of the lowest moments of his tenure came when the FBI Director and Assistant Attorney General came to see Ryan about Nunes request for secret Justice Department files. Ryan backed Nunes and requested the Top Secret files be turned over to Nunes, selective and misleading confidential information were promptly leaked by Nunes to right-wing media outlets.

Ryan has stood by while Trump blew up the deficit, destroyed health-care and gave windfall tax benefits to corporations and billionaires. Ryan threatened from time to time to stand up to Trump during his worst behavior, but every time he backed off and assumed a submissive position like the weakling he proved to be.

Right now, the President is threatening to openly obstruct justice by firing the Special Counsel because he made a referral that is getting preciously close to Trump, his lawyer, and the women he paid to keep silent about his affairs. Some in the Senate are making clear that firing Mueller would be “the beginning of the end of Trump’s Presidency.” The one man that would have to institute Impeachment proceedings in the House of Representatives, is saying nothing, afraid of Trump, afraid of the Republican base and afraid of his caucus who doesn’t want him to put them on the spot.

Paul Ryan will be completing his term and technically giving up the ghost in January of 2019. We know though, that ship sailed long ago and Ryan is simply collecting his check, fulfilling none of his actual responsibilities as Speaker of the entire House of Representatives, just those of a Trump puppet.

The Real Danger To Trump From The Raid On Michael Cohen

On April 9, 2018, the offices, hotel, and home of Trump personal lawyer Michael Cohen were raided by the FBI which has sent Donald Trump into a frenzy. While one obvious concern is that the raid might uncover more facts about that $130,000 payment to porn star Stormy Daniels and possibly prove Trump’s affair. Another might be that Cohen’s e-mails reveal further negotiations with Russia about projects like Trump Tower Moscow or other real estate projects during a time Trump was claiming he had no business interests in Russia. There might be some completely unknown criminal behavior that comes to light as a result of the raid. Trump has much to be fearful of but none of that is the worst-case scenario for the President.

The real fear is that Special Counsel Bob Mueller along with the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, amass enough information against Michael Cohen to make him flip, bringing into play every dirty deal Donald Trump has done over the last decade. Money laundering, foreign bribes, conspiracy to affect an election, how he ended up surrounded by grifters and cons (his Cabinet)? And then there’s the women, the Nondisclosure Agreements (NDA’s) and the payoffs.

Cohen can theoretically tie Trump to all sorts of illegal and/or immoral behavior and the only standard a man like Trump can use is, what would he do in similar circumstances? Mueller has been shown to being willing to throw the entire book at someone to get their cooperation (ask Paul Manafort). As the charges pile up against Cohen, beyond the currently asserted FEC violations and bank fraud. At what point will Cohen decide to trade Trump’s misdeeds for a get out of jail free card?

Trump’s options were already few. Do nothing and wait for Mueller to gather damning information by following the money which he’s already been doing. Watch as his son, son-in-law, and possibly daughter face criminal charges? Fire Mueller and risk immediate impeachment for obstruction of justice? Can he pardon his personal lawyer without confirming additional obstruction? Can he pardon himself? Should he quit?

Despite the fact the raid was conducted not by the Special Counsel’s office but by a regional US Attorney. Mueller has indeed thrown down the gauntlet while simultaneously slapping Trump upside the head with it. My only hope is that if Cohen does flip, we get to watch the testimony on television.

 

What The Hell Do You Have To Lose? Why Trump’s Census Question Matters

According to the White House (which is always suspect), the Jeff Sessions Justice Department requested a question about citizenship be added to the 2020 Census. The Census is conducted by the government every 10 years and among other things is used to allocate Congressional Districts and Federal resources to States. The Justice Department said:

“This data is critical to the Department’s enforcement of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act and its important protections against racial discrimination in voting. To fully enforce those requirements, the Department needs a reliable calculation of the citizen voting-age population in localities where voting rights violations are alleged or suspected.”

Even the concept of this Justice Department looking to enforce the Voting Rights Act is laughable. In 2013, when the Supreme Court gutted the enforcement provisions of the Act, Sessions called it, “good news for the South.” He elsewhere claimed that Shelby County which sued to terminate enforcement provisions, “never had a history of denying the vote, certainly not now.” Sessions did famously take credit for Civil Rights prosecutions while he was the Alabama Attorney General, in which he played no role.

The Citizenship question has appeared on the Census before, though not on the long form given to the general public since 1950. My first question was, how has the citizenship information been used in the past? My research provided no answer but in today’s Washington Post it was revealed that the Census Bureau provided block by block data on the location of Japanese-Americans living in California, Arizona, Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, Idaho, and Arkansas.

For decades the Census Bureau denied its participation and that it had released confidential information but not so surprisingly they lied. Ask yourself, would Donald Trump and/or Jeff Sessions feel a bit of remorse about using census data to round up undocumented aliens? In 2007, the proof was discovered that the Commerce Department had lists with names and addresses of those with Japanese ancestry. The Second War Powers Act made the release of that information between agencies legal if not moral. The Census Bureau refrain has changed from “we didn’t do it” to “it wasn’t illegal.”

The basis for much of the criticism of the citizenship question is that fears that the government will do what it is now known already has, will lead to a significant undercount. That will redistribute resources and Congressional seats from blue states to red ones and possibly impact control of the House of Representatives. Of course, if you acknowledge an undocumented person is in your home, the government might come to your door. If they’ve done it before, why would we believe that this President and Attorney General wouldn’t do it again?

What We Learned From The Stormy Daniels Interview On “60 Minutes.”

I watched the Stormy Daniels interview on 60 Minutes so you wouldn’t have to. While we heard many of the things she and her lawyer had been saying in the media the last several weeks. There were some things worth noting.

When she was preparing to do an interview in a magazine before the election in 2016. She was with her infant daughter and approached in a parking lot while she was getting out of her car. The man said, Leave Trump alone, forget the story. Such a beautiful young girl, it would be a shame if something happened to her mother!”

About whether they had unprotected sex?

Ms. Daniels said they met in July 2006 at a golf tournament and Trump invited her to dinner in his suite. His initial conversation was all about himself, he showed her a magazine with his picture on the cover. She said, “That actually works for you? Somebody ought to take that magazine from you and spank you with it.” She asked him for the magazine and told him to turn around and drop his pants. He lowered them somewhat with his underwear still on and she swatted him a couple times. After that, they settled into a normal conversation.

She got up and used the restroom and when she came out he was sitting on the edge of the bed. She said she didn’t want to have sex with him but faulted herself for putting herself in the situation. She stated she was “not a victim” but dumb for having gone to his room alone. She said they did have sex, without a condom.

She said Trump didn’t want to talk about his wife Melania who had recently given birth to their son Barron. He brushed the subject aside saying, “It’s okay, we sleep in separate bedrooms.” He also told her, “You remind me of my daughter.”

Stormy indicated she accepted invitations to meet Trump at a “Trump Vodka Launch Party” in California and at Trump Tower. He had been suggesting he could get her on “Celebrity Apprentice” and they met again at the Beverly Hills Hotel to discuss it but they mostly watched a documentary on sharks. After four hours of watching TV, she asked about the Celebrity Apprentice and he said he’d have an answer, “within a week.” He wanted sex but she grabbed her purse and left. A month later he contacted her saying he couldn’t make it happen with her Celebrity Apprentice appearance.

Stormy’s lawyer appeared to discuss whether the $130,000 payment she received from Trump’s personal lawyer, Michael Cohen was a violation of Federal Election Commission rules. He says it was and provided documentation that correspondence related to the money was sent to Cohen via the Trump Organization to Trump Tower. A former F.E.C. Chairman appointed by George Bush said how troubling the payment was whether Trump knew or not and it was likely a violation in any circumstance.

Stormy was directed by her lawyer not to answer questions about videos, letters, texts, or photo’s she may have retained.

Michael Cohen and Sarah Huckabee Sanders declined to be interviewed for the story.

To be continued…