If you read one paragraph about yesterday's events, read this one

[scheming daemons]

Link to tweet

Bottom line: He can't fire his way out of this.

[scheming daemons]

1. shamelessly kicking my own thread. n/t

[Cha]

31. No shame, dude.. Mahalo!

Democrats!

[magicarpet]

2. Well,.. Rudy is sure to give SDNY a tongue lashing once...

.... he gets back from his trip to the trDump Scotland World Class Golf Course.

[dalton99a]

3. Trump can fire the U.S. attorney

but what Cohen said under oath is not going away

[dixiegrrrrl]

4. Plus the other attorneys in that office will keep on working.

He is racking up more charges everytime he fires/attacks witnesses or prosecutors.

[wishstar]

5. Cohen's lawyer Lanny Davis said this morning that Trump's own attorneys admitted he directed Cohen

Weeks ago, Giuliani admitted this publicly, contradicting Trump's lies but also Lanny Davis said something about Trump's lawyers telling this to the Special Counsel that Trump had directed Cohen in the payoffs.

[lagomorph777]

38. Trump admitted on Fux that he made the payment from his personal funds.

[HAB911]

6. K&R

[Glorfindel]

7. K&R n/t

[uponit7771]

8. Someone just mentioned this on MSNBC, it's Red Don directed Cohen in the commission of a crime. Is..

... that RICO?

Thx in advance

[gratuitous]

9. This goes beyond "Michael said, Donald said"

This is "Michael said, and the U.S. Attorney is willing to go in front of a federal judge on the strength of what he said, Donald said."

[BlancheSplanchnik]

10. Very good indeed!

Very very good...I love that Mueller gave it to SDNY so it can’t be fired away.

[KY_EnviroGuy]

11. K&R. Excellent thoughts from the "BOOM" man himself.

Benjamin Wittes' Twitter page....

----
Benjamin Wittes @benjaminwittes
Senior Fellow at Brookings.
Editor in Chief: Lawfare (@lawfareblog).
Washington DC
benjaminwittes.com

Link: https://twitter.com/benjaminwittes

----
Direct link to Mr. Wittes' article in The Atlantic.....

The Most Damaging Thing That’s Happened to Trump
It wasn’t what Michael Cohen alleged in court, nor the conviction of his campaign chair.
Benjamin Wittes

Link: https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/08/the-presidents-situation-gets-worse/568135/

.............

[ffr]

12. Rachel Maddow also unearthed some goodies from Cohen's testimony.

Trump's organization made the payments, so they're now on the hook too.

[njhoneybadger]

13. Perhaps, but he can try to bomb his way out with a war against Iran

Just saying.

[Lucinda]

14. KNR

[Ferrets are Cool]

15. Lawrence drove this point home last nite incessantly. nt

[nolabear]

16. Kickety

[PNW-Dem]

17. Why did he pay with campaign funds? Stupid? Cheap? Why?

What I don’t get is why in the world did Trump use campaign funds to pay off those two women? Is he really that cheap? Why didn’t he use his own money or Trump Organization money? If he had, it probably wouldn’t have been a crime. Why didn’t Cohan advise him to act differently?

Either way, yesterday was an epic, historic day of Watergate proportions! It’s amazing to watch the shrewd Mueller strategy…

[flibbitygiblets]

20. Greed and entitlement DEFINE trump

Look no further than his "charity" and how it pays expenses that he could easily afford. But paying your own way in life is for "suckers" to this man.

He's gotten away with this kind of grifting for years as a private businessman, using threats and lawsuits as his weapons against anyone who challenged him.

Then, either for reasons of ego, greed, or Russian kompromat (or some combination), he decided to "up his game" to the political arena.

And here we are, watching him circle the drain like a human turd.

[proglib217]

34. Love the gif!

Best gif I've ever seen

[Gidney N Cloyd]

27. Limited options? He may have a helluva lot less money than he's claimed over the years.

[mr_lebowski]

28. Where do you see that Trump paid Cohen with campaign funds?

I've not seen that being asserted other than by people speculating ...

It would be a crime in this case I believe because the sums involved and not reporting them as campaign contributions (from Trump Org to Trump Campaign). Even though it's 'your money you're contributing to yourself', it still has to be declared over a certain amount that's WAY less than what he spent on the two ladies.

[lagomorph777]

39. No, equally stupid, Trump admits he paid from his own funds.

That's just as illegal, because he didn't declare it.

[joshcryer]

40. It was an undisclosed campaign related expense.

It doesn't matter where the money came from. It didn't come out of campaign coffers. But it was a campaign expense because it was directly related to campaign actions by people within the campaign (Cohen was finance chair of the RNC; his actions were directly campaign finance).

[hedda_foil]

42. He didn't pay with campaign funds. He paid from the business funds ten days before the election.

To influence the vote. That's a campaign finance violation. He paid hush money to influence the election. Actually Cohen paid with his own borrowed funds and Trumpinc paid him back plus gobs more later.

[Hekate]

18. The Mad King can't fire his way out of this

[C Moon]

19. I have a feeling Trump will have an inperson meeting with Putin in the very near future.

[Doitnow]

33. Maybe he'll ask Putin for asylum in Russia.

[Javaman]

21. K & R! nt

[yonder]

22. K&R and thanks!

"...that the United States Department of Justice allowed him to enter a guilty plea..."

It sounds like the Justice Dept. can prove something about the basis of that plea.

Slowly reeling him in. Yuge. Yikes.

[mucifer]

23. Did anyone hear if they have tapes and/or emails to confirm what Cohen said?

I assume they do or they would know this could be a big mess.

[mnhtnbb]

24. Yes. The prosecutor was asked during Cohen's

court appearance if they were in possession of documents, tapes, emails,etc to support the guilty plea and the prosecutor answered affirmatively.

[mucifer]

25. I heard that. So that includes the trump part?

[mnhtnbb]

26. Yes.

It applies to the direction of activity in violation of campaign finance laws.

[Angry Dragon]

29. and then you get Pence

[N_E_1 for Tennis]

30. Trump should be put under...

White House arrest.

I know there is no such animal but something of the kind should be initiated. Just a way to throttle him so he can’t do more damage. Everyone is worried about him bombing something if he was “layered” in protocol he might find it impossible. Effectively castrating him.

[Honeycombe8]

32. Oh, yeah. Was that as good for you as it was for me?

[Judi Lynn]

35. K & R. Thank you. n/t

[malthaussen]

36. An important distinction, thanks. n/t

[niyad]

37. belated k and r

[Scurrilous]

41. K&R

[lambchopp59]

43. Methinks maybe we ought to crowdfund Sean Hannity a lifetime supply of Depends.

And hope most of the other sycophants blow a few important blood vessels.

[lpbk2713]

44. Thanks for posting this.

I hope justice still exists and that Trump & Co will get what is coming to them.