He’s got a bad feeling about this
by Tom Sullivan
Just after former Trump fixer Michael Cohen received his prison sentence in a New York courtroom Wednesday, the sitting president’s legal troubles went from bad to worse:
In a court document released Wednesday, the tabloid publisher, American Media Inc., admitted to coordinating a hush-money payment with Trump’s 2016 campaign, reversing two years of denials. The confession came as part of an immunity agreement with the U.S. attorney’s office in New York, made public shortly after Trump’s former lawyer, Michael Cohen, was sentenced to three years in prison over charges of tax fraud, campaign finance violations and lying to Congress.
AMI’s immunity in the ongoing campaign finance investigation against the Trump campaign “is a huge red flag and loud gong against the president,” Gene Rossi, a former federal prosecutor, told Politico:
As part of the deal, the tabloid publisher acknowledged a series of “admitted facts” tied to its work with the Trump campaign to ensure damaging allegations about the real estate mogul didn’t come out before Election Day 2016. The arrangement — which involved Pecker, Cohen and one other member of Trump’s campaign — stretched back to August 2014, according to a separate court filing on Friday.
In the document released Wednesday, AMI confirmed that it paid a woman $150,000 in “cooperation, consultation and concert” with Trump’s campaign to ensure she “did not publicize damaging allegations about that candidate before the 2016 presidential election and thereby influence the election.”
The payments from AMI to Playboy model Karen McDougal, the company admitted, were campaign-related and undeclared in violation of federal campaign law. Cohen admitted payments he made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels were also campaign-related, undeclared, and reimbursed through the Trump Organization disguised as business expenses.
By the end of the day Wednesday, everyone connected to the Trump Organization and not named Trump is convicted, cooperating, or immunized, MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow observed Wednesday night, including longtime Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg who has been granted immunity by federal prosecutors. That leaves Trump’s family and Trump’s business. None of those are shielded from prosecution by Trump occupying the presidency. Indictment of Trump family members and his business are sure to follow.
This threatens the core of Trump’s outsized ego, Marcy Wheeler (emptywheel) told “Democracy Now!” on Monday.
“And so, I think we should start talking a lot more about how Trump is going to react when his eponymous corporation starts getting charged in crimes, as well,” Wheeler told Amy Goodman, “because, you know, that’s where his ego is invested, that’s where his alleged billions are invested. And that, too, I think, makes him vulnerable in a way other presidents have not been.”
Even if Justice Department protocols prevent the sitting president from being indicted, Trump could find himself called as a witness in a criminal prosecution of his campaign or his company, writes David Lurie, a New York attorney:
Trump might be faced with the excruciating problem of deciding whether to be the first sitting president to declare an intention to invoke his rights under the Fifth Amendment in a bid to avoid taking the stand. Furthermore, Trump might well be a critical witness for the defense, and could therefore face enormous pressure to take the stand voluntarily in order to lessen the risk that his companies would be convicted.
Or his children. Witness or not, Lurie believes, any such trial would effectively be a trial of Trump in the public’s mind.
That doesn’t even touch how the campaign finance violations and Russian conspiracy defrauded the American people. Presumably, those are also on prosecutors’ to-do list.
Princess Leia Organa: It could be worse.
[Garbage creature growls]
Han Solo: It’s worse.
I’ve now heard from two different sources that @newtgingrich (who was at the White House today) is currently topping the list for the next @realDonaldTrump administration White House Chief of Staff.— Andrew Feinberg (@AndrewFeinberg) December 13, 2018