My Theory on the Buzzfeed-Mueller Statement Situation:

[louis c]

My personal analysis. Please feel free to agree or disagree with me, I would like to just open a discussion on the matter.

Buzzfeed reported that they have two credible sources inside the investigation of Cohen who say that Michael Cohen was instructed to lie directly from Donald Trump. I believe the sources are from the Southern District of New York, or the FBI, but not from Mueller's Team.

My theory is the sources got just part of this wrong. I believe that Trump told Cohen to lie indirectly.

Cohen's guilty plea states that he passed around the text of his testimony to the Congressional Committees to White House insiders. I think that Cohen was coached and encouraged by people inside the White House. I think that a Trump advisor, like Hope Hicks, Donnie Jr., Stephen Miller or some other underling passed along an email or text message to Cohen indicating they were talking for Trump.

This theory would make all three known pieces of evidence substantially correct. The court readings, the Buzzfeed article (correct in everything except the direct link to Trump, and the documented evidence being from Trump). This would still put Trump in the position of obstructing justice, but it would be once removed. That means we need another witness between Trump and Cohen

In addition, I think that the speculation that the Buzzfeed leak came from the Mueller Team really pissed Bob Mueller off, so he wanted to correct that, as well as the technical correction of the Cohen subornation coming from the White House, but not directly from Trump.

[AndJusticeForSome]

1. Fwiw, here is my take

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100211693956

I think the accountant, who I believe was one of the only Trump Org peeps to talk to SC, didn't like the idea that his name would be the only one coming up, and Mueller needed to step in to abort that.

If you read my thread, see if you follow the logic. I'd love to discuss further.

To me, it was all about the parsing of the words.

[madashelltoo]

2. I agree.

BuzzFeed didn’t get it wrong. They know Mueller has this info because New York has it. Hence, no outright denials from the Tangerine Terrorist or his imps.

[onenote]

6. why would "new york" have this information?

It relates to a conversation that allegedly took place in 2017 at the White House.

[madashelltoo]

8. New York FBI

Raided Cohen’s offices. Any physical evidence would have been found there.

[onenote]

9. But they would have no reason to know of Mueller's subsequent interviews with Cohen

or even what Mueller concluded from the documents collected from Cohen or the testimony given to Mueller by others -- and those are the linchpins of Buzz Feed's claim that Cohen told Mueller he was directed to lie to Congress.

If you consider it carefully, it doesn't add up unless you think folks inside the Mueller investigation were sources for Buzz Feed's story, which I for one am not buying at all.

[rampartc]

3. "who will rid me of this troublesome priest?"

does trump really have to order hus stooges to lie?

[AndJusticeForSome]

4. Agree about indirect vs direct

Gee, which mobster doesn't know you tell Vinnie to "bake the cake" or "dump the garbage" or anything besides "go whack this guy".

The language of the Cohen indictment supports this too--the use of the wording "in accordance with"--as noted here:

https://mobile.twitter.com/SethAbramson/status/1086656107655979008/actions

(how to embed Tweets?)

[Hoyt]

5. If Mueller being ticked was it, why hasn't he responded to all the "according to sources close to

the investigation" trump is a traitor, crook, or whatever.

My concern is that the fact he responded to this one might mean investigators don't have a lot on trump directly. There's no doubt his campaign -- including his kids -- have committed crimes. But maybe they don't have a lot on trump other than suspicion. Mueller's group had to know that trump would use their statement for cover, and I'm not one to believe Mueller is trying to trick trump. Either he has the evidence, or he doesn't. Getting trump to lie or catch him in a like -- and hoping to bring him down from a lie -- is not going to play well to anyone but those of us shocked by such a worthless POS heading our country.

Hope I'm wrong. But it's time for Mueller to open up and tell the House what he has so that they can take the investigation from here.

On the other hand, I'm kind of the "just impeach the POS because he's not good for America" crowd.

[InAbLuEsTaTe]

7. Seems quite reasonable... thanks for sharing.