Donald Trump and Rudy Giuliani haven't been seen together since the heady days of the Republican leadership race.
But Trump has been shaking up his legal team as Robert Mueller closes in on him, so he decided to call on Giuliani again.
And it may have been one of the worst decisions of his life.
For yesterday Giuliani went on Fox News and admitted that Trump had repaid the hush money paid to the porn star Stormy Daniels.
President Trump reimbursed Michael D. Cohen, his longtime personal lawyer, for a $130,000 payment that Mr. Cohen has said he made to keep a pornographic film actress from going public before the 2016 election with her story about an affair with Mr. Trump, according to Rudolph W. Giuliani, one of the president’s lawyers.
If you listen closely, you can hear the sound of the truck Rudy Giuliani is tossing Donald under. pic.twitter.com/ugTYiAscLB— FK__45™ (@Fk__45) May 3, 2018
Which is something Trump has always denied.
And that can only help Mueller build an obstruction of justice case.
As well as help Stormy Daniels who is suing Trump for calling her a liar...
And I'm sure make some people wonder whether Trump went off with the wrong
#TrumpIsSoBroke— Sin's Beggar (@SinsBeggar) April 29, 2018
He can't afford Russian prostitutes to pee on him, so he has #RudyGiuliani dress as one and do it instead.#PeeTape #PeePeeTape pic.twitter.com/50CA2vLbK1
But makes me hope that at least there might be some poetic justice.
Giuliani helped Trump become President.
So it seems only right that they both go down together...
Don't be fooled by Rudy seemingly contradicting what Trump said earlier. Rudy appeared as Trump's lawyer and spoke on his behalf with his knowledge and approval.
ReplyDeleteRudy is implementing a carefully planned strategy to 1) get his boss out of the trouble with campaign finance laws that an in-kind contribution from Cohen would have caused, 2) get Trump's story out ahead of the revelations expected at the Stormy Daniels trial, and 3) harm Cohen's credibility in case he decides to cooperate with Mueller.
The media is treating Rudy's Fox interview as a blunder. It's not. Trump is playing the media for the fools they are and reprogramming his rabid meathead base.
hi anon@10:42...maybe Giuliani and Trump did come up with some kind of scheme they figured might save their asses. But if so the consensus seems to be it was half assed, and has opened them up to even more trouble than the Trump crime family was in before. Ever since Trump came to power his supporters have been claiming that he plays chess, while his opponents play chequers or tiddly winks, but I don't believe it....
DeleteSimon, this all seems too ridiculous to be taken at face value. I believe they are playing some kind of angle that would ultimately be in Trump's best interest, or the lesser of two evils in this case. I also think that Fox and Rudy have his blessings for whatever charade they are playing.
ReplyDeleteThink about it, would Fox let Rudy go out there and rat on Trump in primetime unless they thought it could benefit him? Of course they wouldn't. Their sole purpose in life is to either fellate Trump, or defend him for the indefensible.
The facts will come out. They just may take time on this bizarre turn of events.
JD
hi JD...as I just told the previous commenter it's possible that Trump and Giuliani cooked up a scheme without telling anybody else in the White House. But remember both men are loose cannons, and even Hannity seems to have been taken by surprise.
DeleteGiuliani has always loved "scooping" others since the days he was fighting the mob, and he just can't keep his big mouth shut. And the net effect was that Trump was finally forced to admit he did indeed lie about paying hush money to a porn star, and that will come back to haunt him...
Agreed. They are moving the payment away from Campaign Financing to personal client representation. At best it confirms another lie which everyone assumed in the first place.
ReplyDeletehi ffibs...as I said that might have been the plan, but if it was I doubt it will work. Not after all the lies, and not when Michael Cohen is said to be ready to squeal. A small adjustment here and there might delay the inevitable, but the big picture will still kill you, if not in a court of law, in the next election...
DeleteUndeclared campaign contributions are illegal even if they were repaid by Trump after the fact. Perhaps Trump is trying to establish some distance between the Stormy bribe and his political campaign by insinuating that Cohen was his fixer for protecting his marital relationship (or other) and the retainer money simply flowed on a regular basis to protect his private life. Melania is strangely quiet for a wife that has been repeatedly wronged in a very public forum, wonder what the story is?
ReplyDeleteRT
RT, you're right that either way Trump's in trouble with the FEC. But, he's setting the media up for the winning smash. If the FEC moves against him, he'll launch a torrent of garbage about how Obama's campaign paid record fines to the FEC (which is true). That'll satisfy the base.
DeleteMeanwhile, Trump knows that the FEC fined the Obama campaign for its 2008 infractions after the 2012 re-election campaign was over. With Trump's understaffing of the FEC and GOP obstruction, it'll be even slower this time.
hi RT...I'm sure that Trump is trying to separate his campaign from the Stormy Daniel's deal, but the fact is that buying her silence so soon before the election can only be seen as an attempt to lessen the political damage, and fits into a pattern of attempted obstruction of justice. And all Giuliani really accomplished during the Hannity interview was force Trump to admit he had lied, and there will be a price to pay for that...
Deletehi anon @3:39 PM... RT is a clever person but I don't agree with him on this occasion, and I don't believe that Trump can use Obama to get out of the mess he's in. The Benghazi moment is over, and claiming Obama was worse won't save him...
DeleteIrrespective of the legal aspects the big picture is devastating. A president of the United States of America has been found guilty of lying about payments of hush money to a porn star. When Trump is finally evicted from the White House they are going to have to scrub it from floor to ceiling with Javex.
ReplyDeleteHi anon@4:45 PM...you and I are in the minority in this thread, but I agree with you completely. I realize that Trump has normalized behaving badly, but there are limits and I think he just stuck one hairy paw over the line. But of course I admit I am a bit of a prude, and my parents impressed upon me the importance of having good manners. So maybe we'll both be proved wrong, and Trump will swing from the chandeliers in the White House for as long as he wants... ;)
DeleteGuliani the Peter Principle personified.
ReplyDeletehi Steve...honestly, if you were in trouble, would you want Giuliani as your lawyer? The guy is such a loser some are even speculating he's just trying to get back at Trump for not giving him a cabinet position. The truth is probably even weirder than that, but it will come back to haunt him...
DeleteJust another example of Trump's predatory M.O....take what you want and surround surround yourself with a wall of lies, bribes and perverted justice to vanquish anyone who dares to challenge. I am sure the FBI and Justice departments were horrified to discover how subversive he actually is; which of course makes them emotionally prejudiced and plays well with his conspiracy suckered base. Eventually season 2 of the reality show will come to an end. Will there be a darker season 3 where the crimson taint or realism starts to seep onto the stage or will viewer ratings simply plummet through repetitive boredom with followers moving on to the next prime time show. Hopefully in the interlude there will be a few hit comedy shows where everyone takes the time to process the irony of the past 20 years of US politics before moving on. The transition from delivering (or not) justice and freedom for everyone to screw you I am all right has been quite a ride.
ReplyDeleteRT
hi RT...the problem of trying so hard to appeal to one's base is that you can never expand beyond those fanatics and appeal to the more moderate elements of your party who you need to win an election. I went over to see what the Trump Nation was saying on Breitbart the other day, and though most are still in denial, doubts are creeping in. And if Trump loses just 10% of his base, his goose will be cooked...
ReplyDelete