| | | | Trump's response to Cohen's plea deal is total gibberish | | On Wednesday afternoon, Fox News released a snippet of its interview with President Donald Trump. (The interview is set to run in its entirety on Thursday morning). Here's the exchange between Fox's Ainsley Earhardt and Trump on whether he knew about payments arranged by his one-time lawyer Michael Cohen to women alleging affairs with Trump in the run-up to the 2016 election:
Earhardt: "Did you know about the payments?"
Trump: "Later on I knew. Later on. But you have to understand, Ainsley, what he did -- and they weren't taken out of campaign finance, that's the big thing. That's a much bigger thing. Did they come out of the campaign? They didn't come out of the campaign, they came from me. And I tweeted about it. You know, I put -- I don't know if you know but I tweeted about the payments. But they didn't come out of campaign. In fact, my first question when I heard about it was did they come out of the campaign because that could be a little dicey. And they didn't come out of the campaign and that's big. But they weren't -- that's not a -- it's not even a campaign violation. If you look at President Obama, he had a massive campaign violation but he had a different attorney general and they viewed it a lot differently."
There's so much wrong here. Let's go through it point by point.
1. Trump says he knew about the payments -- $130,000 to porn star Stormy Daniels, $150,000 from American Media Inc. to ex-Playboy model Karen McDougal -- "later on." That runs directly counter to what Trump said in April when asked about the Cohen payment to Daniels. Here's that exchange:
Reporter: "Did you know about the $130,000 payment to Stormy Daniels?"
Trump: "No."
Reporter: "Then why did Michael Cohen make [the payment], if there was no truth to her allegations?"
Trump: "You'll have to ask Michael Cohen. Michael's my attorney, and you'll have to ask Michael."
Reporter: "Do you know where he got the money to make that payment?"
Trump: "No I don't know."
Trump's latest statement also contradicts the audio tape released by Cohen last month that contains an apparent September 2016 conversation between Trump and his one-time lawyer in which a payment to David Pecker -- the head of AMI, the National Enquirer's parent company -- is discussed. That payment was to buy the rights to McDougal's story, which Pecker, a longtime Trump friend, had purchased but refused to run. (Trump never bought the story.)
If you can't figure out how all of these statements can be true, I'll solve it for you: They can't.
2. Trump is trying to draw some sort of distinction between paying the hush money out of campaign funds and paying them out of his own pocket. But, either way, it's illegal. Assuming Trump used his personal money to repay Cohen -- and remember both Trump and Cohen have insisted in the past that none of the money came from Trump, which is, of course, not true -- then he was making an illegal loan to his campaign. You can't dole out tens of thousands of dollars for the express purpose of silencing people with damaging allegations right before voters vote -- and then never report it. (Here's the Federal Election Commission's guidance governing loans by a candidate to his or her campaign.)
3. The comparison to Obama's fine by the FEC is a total and complete straw man. It is true that Obama's campaign was fined a hefty $375,000 by the FEC in 2013 for failure to file 48-hour contribution reports -- donations made within the final weeks of a campaign -- that totaled $1.3 million. The oversight was discovered in an audit of the Obama campaign.
Compare that fine to what is alleged here: A candidate for president directed the end-run of campaign finance laws in hopes of suppressing allegations made by women about romantic dalliances. He did so, according to Cohen, with the express purpose of influencing the election. That's not even in the same universe as a candidate's campaign being fined for not correctly reporting $1.3 million in donations from the final days of an election.
The Point: Trump, at some level deep down, knows that Cohen's plea deal -- specifically as it relates to the hush money payoffs -- is a big, big problem for him. But he also knows one tactic when backed into a corner: Fight like hell with whatever you can lay your hands on. That's what this response to Fox News amounts to. Unfortunately for Trump, none of these punches land. In fact, he whiffs badly on them all.
-- Chris | | "That's a ridiculous accusation. The President, in this matter, has done nothing wrong and there have been no charges filed against him."
- White House press secretary Sarah Sanders when asked if Trump has lied to the American people | | | THE FALLOUT FROM COHEN AND MANAFORT | | The fallout from Tuesday's developments -- Michael Cohen's guilty plea and Paul Manafort's guilty conviction, in case you could have possibly forgotten -- continues. The latest: - Trump lashes out: Trump started his day signaling his support for "brave" Manafort, while attacking Cohen -- part of a plan among his allies to discredit his former attorney as a liar and a non-credible witness. A source familiar with internal White House discussions said staffers were "stunned" and "rattled." CNN's Kevin Liptak and Jeremy Diamond have the full story.
- How Republicans reacted: Congressional Republicans are largely avoiding speculation that the guilty plea by Cohen could potentially implicate the President in campaign finance violations. Read more on their response -- or lack thereof -- here.
- How Democrats reacted: Senate Democrats are calling on Republicans to suspend the confirmation hearing for SCOTUS nominee Brett Kavanaugh, arguing that Trump's nominee shouldn't get a hearing due to his former aides' legal woes, CNN's Lauren Fox and Phil Mattingly report. Rep. Elijah Cummings, the ranking member of the House Oversight Committee, is pushing for a hearing with Cohen.
- Cohen could testify: Cohen's lawyer, Lanny Davis, said he believes his client will testify before any congressional committee without being granted immunity, via CNN's Maegan Vazquez.
- What about Bob? Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., is raising the alarm over Mueller, CNN's Lindsey Ellefson reports. "What Congress needs to do right now is we need to make sure that special (counsel) Mueller is fully protected from being fired by Donald Trump."
Earlier, Chris answered the 12 questions you may have been scared to ask re: Cohen, Manafort, Mueller and Trump. | | | Today's topic: Donald Trump's interesting strategy to distance himself from Michael Cohen. | | SCOOP: DNC CALLS FBI AFTER DETECTING HACKING ATTEMPTS | | From CNN's Donie O'Sullivan: "The Democratic National Committee contacted the FBI on Tuesday after it detected what it believes was the beginning of a sophisticated attempt to hack into its voter database, a Democratic source tells CNN."
What happened: The DNC was alerted in the early hours of Tuesday morning that a fake login page had been created in an attempt to gather usernames and passwords that would allow access to the party's database. The page was designed to look like the access page Democratic Party officials and campaigns across the country use to log into a service called Votebuilder, which hosts the database, the source said.
"It was very convincing..."It would have been a very effective attack," said Mike Murray, the vice president of Lookout, a San Francisco-based cybersecurity firm who initially discovered the page late Monday and alerted the DNC to its findings.
Who did it? The DNC is investigating who may have been responsible for the attempted attack, but that it has no reason to believe its voter file was accessed or altered. Read more here. | | WHILE THE MANAFORT AND COHEN NEWS WAS BREAKING... | | GOP Rep. Duncan Hunter, one of Trump's first supporters, and his wife, Margaret, have been indicted for the alleged use of campaign funds for personal expenses, CNN's Laura Jarrett and Maeve Reston reported Tuesday.
Chris breaks down the 30 most astounding moments, which says the Hunters used campaign funds for things like: - A 2015 family vacation in Italy totaling more than $14,000
- Nearly $2,000 on a Nov. 2010 birthday gift for a family member to attend a Pittsburgh Steelers game at Heinz Field
- $462.46 for 30 shots of tequila and one steak at El Tamarindo in DC for a bachelor party
Maintaining his innocence: A spokesperson for Duncan Hunter told CNN the California congressman believes the indictment against him and his wife is "purely politically motivated." Rep. Hunter told CNN affiliate ABC 10News in San Diego, "We're excited about going to trial with this, frankly" ..."This is modern politics and modern media mixed in with law enforcement that has a political agenda. That's the new Department of Justice."
But...the charging decision was made by US Attorney Adam Braverman, who was appointed by Attorney General Jeff Sessions, a Republican.
Flashback: Hunter was one of the first lawmakers in the House to endorse Trump during the 2016 campaign. CNN's Z. Byron Wolf notes how the rest of the original "Trump Caucus" has fared to date. Spoiler alert: Not well.
Read more from CNN's Laura Jarrett and Maeve Reston's story here. | | | CNN White House reporter Betsy Klein alerted us to a "very good dog in the briefing room" today. And later spotted in the East Room. | | | Correction: In last night's newsletter, we reported that Michael Cohen had told the judge he drank a glass of Lillet, a French blend of Bordeaux region wines and citrus liqueurs, the night before his court appearance. What he actually drank was Glenlivet 12, a Scotch, "on the rocks." | | | From Brenna: "Sen. Bob Menendez is basically America today, collectively wiping our brows and scooting in closer after yesterday's barrage of news. (Sidebar: Remember how earlier this year Sen. Menendez was also the subject of a major court case?) Keep your friends on the edge of their seats by telling them to subscribe to The Point." | | | | | | |
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