WHAT A WEEK FOR DONALD AND HIS CIRCLE/CARTEL = A CRIMINAL/CORRUPT, ETC. = DONALD'S SELF-MADE SWAMP…
HERE, IS WHO IS UNDER INVESTIGATION BY THE FEDS & STATES’ ATTY. GENERAL’S (***) & CONGRESS:
--Donald
--His Family Members--Including his Father's Business Practices
--Some current members of his Administration
--Some Prior members of his Administration
--The Trump Organization
--The Trump Foundation
--Donald’s Presidential Campaign
--Donald’s Inauguration
--Donald’s Transition Process/Team
--Donald’s current/prior Business Associates
--Donald’s Political Advisors
--Donald’s Atty.
--Multiple Ethics Violations by Multiple Members of Donald's Team/Appointees
--And there will be more; so many more…
“Yes, Tequila you can laugh hard; for I am…”
***If Indicted by A State(s) for Crimes; a PARDON does not apply to States.
Never, in my lifetime have I seen/heard of so MANY investigations into so MANY areas of a President; NOT, even Nixon/Watergate.
YES, I believe as this Swamp of Donald is drained, it will make Watergate, look like Child’s Play.
There is NO DOUBT in my mind that he will face charges of Obstruction of Justice; Collusion; Various Corruption Charges and YES, more…
It would not surprise me at all if he were also, charged with Treason.
THE WEEK FOR DONALD (Sorry, but I giggling/laughing so hard, that I think I am losing weight, from doing such…):
--***12-16-18:
www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/investigations-look-at-trumps-life-from-all-angles/ar-BBR0C0L?li=BBnb7Kz WASHINGTON — Investigations now entangle Donald Trump's White House, campaign, transition, inauguration, charity and business. For Trump, the political, the personal and the deeply personal are all under examination.
Less than two years into Trump's presidency, his business associates, political advisers and family members are being probed, along with the practices of his late father.
On Saturday, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke became the fourth Cabinet member to leave under an ethical cloud, having sparked 17 investigations into his actions on the job, by one watchdog's count.All of this with the first special counsel investigation against a president in 20 years hanging over Trump's head, spinning out charges and strong-arming guilty pleas from underlings while keeping in suspense whether the president — "Individual 1" in prosecutor Robert Mueller's coded legalese — will end up accused of criminal behavior himself.
The scope of the scrutiny has shaped Trump's presidency, proving a steady distraction from his governing agenda. So far, much of it has been launched by federal prosecutors and government watchdogs that eschew partisanship.
The intensity is certain to increase next year when Democrats assume control of the House and the subpoena power that comes with it.
Although Trump dismisses the investigations as politically motivated "witch hunts," his high-octane Twitter account frequently betrays just how consumed he is by the scrutiny.
He's also said to watch hours of television coverage on milestone days in the investigations.
"It saps your energy, diverts your attention and you simply can't lead because your opponents are up in arms against you," Cal Jillson, a Southern Methodist University political scientist and historian, said of the scrutiny.
"It weakens your friends and emboldens your enemies."Almost midway through his term, Trump is struggling to deliver on his central campaign promises. He may end the year without a Republican-led Congress giving him the $5 billion he wants for a border wall. And he's previewed few legislative priorities for 2019.
Even if he had, it's unlikely the new Democratic House majority would have much incentive to help a president weakened by investigations rack up wins as his own re-election campaign approaches. READ MORE…
--***12-14-18:
www.msn.com/en-us/news/opinion/the-president%e2%80%99s-no-good-very-bad-terrible-week-just-got-worse/ar-BBQXi7Q?li=BBnb7Kz This was arguably the worst week (so far) of President Trump’s time in office. The incoming House speaker showed him up on national TV.
He couldn’t get someone to replace John F. Kelly as White House chief of staff (though his hapless son-in-law is said to now be on the list of potential replacements).
The president also was implicated (by his own Justice Department) in directing a scheme to hide hush-money payments to two former mistresses.
What’s more, we learned, as Cohen did in receiving his three-year sentence, that the campaign-finance-related crimes are serious.Meanwhile, Russian spy Maria Butina pleaded guilty. On another front, the Senate rebuked Trump on his lies about Mohammed bin Salman and his policy of unfettered support for the Saudi crown prince’s war in Yemen. (Revelations that Jared Kushner advised MBS, as the crown prince is known, during the cover-up phase of the murder of Post contributing columnist Jamal Khashoggi didn’t help matters.)
In addition, we learned that not only Michael Cohen but executives at the National Enquirer tabloid are cooperating in revealing Trump’s hush-payment scheme. Then things really went downhill.
First, Wall Street Journal reporting puts Trump in the room where the plot to pay hush money was hatched. According to its report, David Pecker, the chief executive of American Media, Inc. met with Trump in August 2015:
Mr. Pecker, chief executive of American Media Inc., offered to use his National Enquirer tabloid to buy the silence of women if they tried to publicize alleged sexual encounters with Mr. Trump. . . .
The Trump Tower meeting and its aftermath are among several previously unreported instances in which Mr. Trump intervened directly to suppress stories about his alleged sexual encounters with women, according to interviews with three dozen people who have direct knowledge of the events or who have been briefed on them, as well as court papers, corporate records and other documents.
Trump’s consistent claims of ignorance about the payments to the two women — former Playboy model Karen McDougal and adult-film actress Stormy Daniels — appears to be a bald-faced lie. (“The Wall Street Journal found that Mr. Trump was involved in or briefed on nearly every step of the agreements.
He directed deals in phone calls and meetings with his self-described fixer, Michael Cohen, and others. The U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan has gathered evidence of Mr. Trump’s participation in the transactions.”)
At the very least, Trump has repeatedly lied, as have aides on his behalf, in denying knowledge of the payments while investigations were ongoing. Moreover, it belies the notion that Trump was ignorant of the elaborate mechanisms designed to hide the payments from voters.
Whether he can be indicted or convicted for conspiracy to violate campaign-finance laws remains to be seen. What cannot be doubted is that he misled staff, the media and voters.
As if being placed in the room where the scheme to pay off the women was not enough, Trump now faces another investigation (in addition to the ones being conducted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Southern District of New York concerning the hush-money payments, and the special counsel’s investigation of possible collusion and obstruction of justice).
This one concerns pay-to-play in connection with contributions to Trump’s inauguration fund.
The Wall Street Journal reports: “Federal prosecutors in Manhattan are investigating whether President Trump’s 2017 inaugural committee misspent some of the record $107 million it raised from donations, people familiar with the matter said.”
According to the report, New York prosecutors also are investigating “whether some of the committee’s top donors gave money in exchange for access to the incoming Trump administration, policy concessions or to influence official administration positions, some of the people said.
Giving money in exchange for political favors could run afoul of federal corruption laws. Diverting funds from the organization, which was registered as a nonprofit, could also violate federal law.”It seems there is no aspect of the Trump presidential campaign and presidency that is not under scrutiny — either in New York (where state investigators are already looking into the operation of his foundation), or as part of the Russia investigation.
The idea that Trump can escape blame by discrediting a single witness such as Cohen or defang special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s inquiry by screaming “Hoax!” cannot pass the straight-face test.
There may be still other investigations that still haven’t come to light.
One certainly had the sense this week that prosecutors, armed with mounds of evidence and cooperating witnesses, are getting closer by the day to ensnaring Trump.
The president has no idea what they have on him, let alone any ability to end his legal ordeal. For the first time, it is not unreasonable to believe he may not finish his term. If 2018 was horrible for Trump, 2019 likely will be worse.
12-14-18:
us.cnn.com/2018/12/13/opinions/trumps-dream-world-is-turning-into-a-hellscape-dantonio/index.html (CNN) — Michael Cohen. Paul Manafort. David Pecker. Michael Flynn. President Donald Trump's enablers are falling one by one, and his dream world is becoming a hell-scape.
Trump, a famous self-promoter who has bragged about his wealth, intelligence, physical prowess and winning ways, faces the prospect of humiliation on a scale that would be genuinely world class.
And his story is becoming a modern parable about the dangers of hubris and limits of fakery.
The President's former personal attorney Michael Cohen is the latest Trump associate to be sentenced to prison, after he pleaded guilty to campaign finance violations, among other charges. According to prosecutors, Cohen admitted he "acted in coordination with and at the direction of" Trump when he made or helped arrange hush money payments to a Playboy model and an adult film actress in order to silence claims they each had affairs with Trump before he was President.
Trump, who has denied the affairs, appeared in a Fox News interview on Thursday to dismiss accusations of campaign finance violations, calling it a "civil matter" instead.
He also went on to say, "I never directed [Cohen] to do anything wrong. Whatever he did, he did on his own."
At his sentencing the day before, Cohen offered an apology and told the court he had ignored his own "inner voice" and "moral compass" in order to serve his boss.
It's hard to believe anyone with a working moral compass would have ever found himself in Cohen's position in the first place.
Yes, it's possible a straight-shooter could have accepted an executive position in the Trump Organization, but anyone with an interest in honesty and fair-dealing would not have stuck around for as long as Cohen did.
The lies Trump has told as President were foreshadowed by the manipulation he practiced as a private citizen.David Pecker, CEO of American Media Inc., which publishes the National Enquirer, was one of the most important guardians of Trump's media image.
In the run-up to the 2016 presidential elections, AMI used the pages of its publications to gild the Trump image and attack his rivals, publishing one wild falsehood after another in an attempt to persuade readers that Hillary Clinton was either headed to jail or on the brink of death.
On Wednesday, federal prosecutors announced it had reached a non-prosecution deal with AMI. As part of the deal, AMI admitted it worked with Trump's campaign to pay Karen McDougal $150,000 in order to "catch and kill" claims she had a sexual affair with Trump.
Pecker is also said to have reached an immunity deal. Given that he agreed to suppress damaging claims about Trump in August 2015, it's possible there are other stories that have yet to see the light of day.
What would have motivated Pecker to buy the exclusive rights to stories about Trump, only to bury them? Perhaps he thought Trump would offer exclusive interviews in return, which might allow him to rake in more money through tabloid sales.
But Pecker was already wealthy without Trump. He may have also appreciated Trump's power and influence, or simply enjoyed the time he spent in Trump's world.
Parties at Mar-a-Lago and Trump's other properties could be glittering affairs. The guest list for Trump's wedding to Melania Knauss, after all, included Bill and Hillary Clinton as well as Tony Bennett.
The Trump image may have been built on false premises, but the tinsel was certainly real.
Others who became Trump allies may not have had better opportunities to gain the relevance they craved.
The criminally convicted Paul Manafort, who flipped on the President only to be accused of lying to investigators, was a man without a candidate before he joined the Trump campaign in 2016 and steered it to the nomination.
Having previously worked for Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, Manafort must have seen that Trump was not fit for the role.
Although Manafort backtracked in his cooperation with prosecutors, he may have already given them a look behind the Trump façade.
Certainly Michael Flynn, Trump's former national security adviser, is providing essential details on the truth about Trump.
The threats to the Trump image, and whatever substance lies behind his claim to extraordinary competence and vast wealth, go well beyond the information that may be provided by known cooperators.
Trump's longtime adviser Roger Stone has said he expects to be indicted, and several of his associates have been contacted for interviews or called to testify before a grand jury.
Letitia James, New York's incoming attorney general, is also promising to investigate Trump's businesses and his charitable activities.
If she discovers wrongdoing under state law, Trump's presidential pardon power will be useless because it applies only to federal offenses. To top it off, the Democrat-controlled House of Representatives will be able to conduct hearings and produce testimony that is likely to contradict many of Trump's claims about himself.
Altogether, the investigations, hearings and prosecutions are dissolving the shiny veneer that Trump created to make himself look bigger, better, richer and more talented. The price paid by those who willingly aided in the mythmaking is high, as these disgraced figures and their loved one would attest.
But no one who entered Trump's orbit and stayed there for a significant amount of time should have failed to see that Trump's main product was illusion.
As the Trump edifice crumbles, the President is not the only one in danger.
Everyone who joined his businesses and his campaign, including his own children and top political operatives, likely faced moments when they needed to consult a moral compass. One wonders how many followed Cohen into the hell scape?
--12-14-18:
www.cnbc.com/2018/12/13/butina-pleads-guilty-to-conspiring-to-influence-us-politics-through-nra.html Alleged Russian agent Maria Butina pleads guilty to conspiring to influence US politics through the NRA
•Butina was charged by U.S. prosecutors in Washington, D.C., federal court with conspiring to advance Russian interests in the U.S. as an unregistered foreign agent.
•The 30-year-old Russian citizen and purported gun rights activist came to the U.S. on a student visa in 2016, and allegedly worked to develop and "exploit" relationships with politically influential figures and organizations, including the National Rifle Association.
•Butina had originally pleaded not guilty to prosecutors' charges. But her lawyers and federal prosecutors on Monday asked U.S. District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan for a hearing to change Butina's plea.
Russian citizen Maria Butina pleaded guilty in federal court Thursday to conspiring to influence U.S. politics through her connections to the National Rifle Association.
Butina's admission on the single conspiracy charge in U.S. District Court reportedly marks the first time a Russian national has been convicted of attempting to impact American politics around the time of the 2016 presidential election.
Clad in a green prison jumpsuit, Butina told a judge that she acted "under direction of" a Russian official, according to CNN.Prosecutors dropped a second count against Butina of acting as an unregistered foreign agent as part of the deal, according to The Washington Post.
Multiple outlets have reported that Butina's plea deal includes an agreement to cooperate with investigators. CNN reported Wednesday, citing a person familiar with the case, that Butina has already offered information to investigators about an American she allegedly conspired with, as well as a Russian official alleged to have directed her U.S. activities.
Her violation carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison. A hearing was planned for February to discuss a date for sentence.
Butina was first charged by U.S. prosecutors in July. They alleged that she infiltrated U.S. organizations and cultivated relationships to advance a Russian agenda without registering as a foreign agent.
The 30-year-old purported gun rights activist came to the U.S. on a student visa in 2016, and allegedly worked to develop and "exploit" relationships with politically influential figures and organizations, including the NRA.Butina had originally pleaded not guilty to prosecutors' charges. But her lawyers and federal prosecutors on Monday asked U.S. District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan for a hearing to change Butina's plea.
She has been in a northern Virginia jail since July, when prosecutors argued that she posed an "extreme risk of flight" because the charges against her also implicated "the activities of a senior Russian Federation official" who is believed to be Alexander Torshin, a close associate of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The case is not directly linked to special counsel Robert Mueller, who is investigating Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, as well as possible obstruction of justice and potential collusion between Trump campaign-related figures and the Kremlin. READ MORE…
--12-15-18:
www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/trumps-interior-chief-to-step-down-as-pressure-mounts-from-ethics-inquiries/ar-BBQZhtn?li=BBnb7Kz Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke will leave the Trump administration at the end of the year amid a swirl of federal investigations into his travel, political activity and potential conflicts of interest.
President Donald Trump announced the secretary’s impending departure on Twitter, without providing a rationale, following a Bloomberg News report that Zinke planned to announce his coming resignation on Wednesday. Trump said a new Interior chief will be named next week.
Zinke’s move comes as Democrats, who’ve vowed to grill the him over his conduct, are about to take control of the House of Representatives, raising the prospect of heightened oversight — and a crush of legal bills from defending himself.
Concern about all the scrutiny and legal costs on the horizon were factors in Zinke’s decision to quit, said sources who asked not to be identified to discuss it.
The departure also emerges as Trump grapples with other changes to his Cabinet that underscore the challenges of filling vacancies in a tumultuous administration.
On Friday, the president announced that budget director Mick Mulvaney would take over as chief of staff, replacing John Kelly, whose ouster on Dec. 8 touched off a roller-coaster search to fill the key White House post.
The president had been aware of Zinke’s plans for several days; the interior chief was at the White House as recently as Wednesday. On Saturday Trump tweeted that Zinke, 57, had “accomplished much” during his almost two years at the head of the agency.
Zinke had championed using federal lands to pursue U.S. “energy dominance,” and that agenda will be continued by his likely successor as acting Interior Secretary: David Bernhardt, the agency’s No. 2 official. As deputy he’s played a key, behind-the-scenes role in shaping the department’s policies. READ MORE…
