https://www.cnn.com/2019/01/17/politics/buzzfeed-trump-cohen-lie-congress-moscow/index.html President Donald Trump personally directed his longtime former attorney Michael Cohen to lie to Congress about the Moscow Trump Tower project, two federal law enforcement officials involved in an investigation of the matter told BuzzFeed. The law enforcement officials told BuzzFeed that Trump directed Cohen to claim negotiations to build a Trump Tower in Moscow ended months earlier than they actually did. The law enforcement sources told BuzzFeed that Cohen confirmed to special counsel Robert Mueller's team that Trump issued the order to lie to Congress. CNN has not corroborated the BuzzFeed report. Mueller's office learned Trump directed Cohen to lie to Congress through interviews with multiple witnesses from the Trump Organization, internal company emails, text messages and other documents, Buzzfeed reports. When asked for comment, Trump's attorney Rudy Giuliani told CNN, "If you believe Cohen I can get you a great deal on the Brooklyn Bridge." Cohen declined to comment to BuzzFeed, as did a spokesperson for the special counsel's office. Trump supported a plan to personally visit Russia during the 2016 presidential campaign, BuzzFeed reports, to personally meet with President Vladimir Putin to negotiate. According to BuzzFeed, Trump said to Cohen, "Make it happen." Democrats called for further investigation of the allegations, with Rep. Adam Schiff, chair of the House Intelligence Committee, saying the allegation was "among the most serious to date." "We will do what's necessary to find out if it's true," he tweeted Thursday. Eric Holder, former attorney general under President Barack Obama, tweeted early Friday morning on Buzzfeed's report: "If true - and proof must be examined - Congress must begin impeachment proceedings and Barr must refer, at a minimum, the relevant portions of material discovered by Mueller. This is a potential inflection point." The law enforcement sources familiar with Cohen's testimony to Mueller's office told BuzzFeed that the President, Ivanka Trump and Donald Trump Jr. received regular, detailed updates from Cohen about the Moscow project. A spokesperson for Ivanka Trump's attorney told BuzzFeed she was "only minimally involved" in the project. "Ms. Trump did not know about this proposal until after a nonbinding letter of intent had been signed, never talked to anyone outside the Organization about the proposal, never visited the prospective project site and, even internally, was only minimally involved," Peter Mirijanian told BuzzFeed. In September 2017, Trump Jr. testified in front of the House Judiciary Committee and was asked if he had any involvement in the potential project. "I was peripherally aware of it, but most of my knowledge has been gained since as it relates to hearing about it over the last few weeks," he said, according to a transcript of the interview. CNN previously obtained a document showing Donald Trump had signed a letter of intent to move forward with negotiations to build a Trump Tower in Russia, despite Giuliani initially claiming the document was never signed. After the report, Giuliani admitted he was incorrect and told CNN, "I probably meant to say there was never a deal, much less a signed one." CNN has previously reported the project would've given Trump's company a $4 million upfront fee, no upfront costs, a percentage of the sales and control over marketing and design. The deal also included an opportunity to name the hotel spa after Ivanka Trump. Cohen pleaded guilty in November to making false statements to Congress about the Russia investigation. While pleading guilty, Cohen said he and Trump had spoken more extensively about the propose Moscow Trump Tower project during the 2016 presidential election than he had admitted to Congress. Cohen previously said talks about the Moscow project had ended in January 2016. He said he lied out of a sense of obligation to Trump. Cohen's guilty plea revealed Cohen had been soliciting help from officials in the Russian government at a time when then-candidate Trump was praising Putin and disavowing any suggestion he was seeking to do business in Russia. On plenty of occasions throughout the campaign, Trump declared that he had "nothing to do with Russia." Cohen is cooperating with Mueller and has spoken with the special counsel's office for more than 70 hours on topics beyond the proposed Moscow project, a source with knowledge of the discussions told CNN.
Wow, what a coincidence. Just when Trump is beginning to get some leverage on the wall, we get an anonymous leak from "law enforcement", which we are meant to understand is either Mueller's crew or the FBI. And of course, the democrats are in an uproar and republicans are nervously checking in with their consultants and the Koch brothers as to how to handle this. Suddenly lying to congress is a BFD now. We just had the heads of social media monopolies, eg GOOG and FB, lie through their teeth to congress. Crickets... Obama's AG was held in contempt of congress, again no reaction. Christine Blasey Ford almost certainly lied to congress. She's a heroine. But this dirtbag Cohen's word is golden and Trump must go.
This may be the smoking gun in the Russia investigation https://www.cnn.com/2019/01/18/politics/buzzfeed-trump-cohen-russia/index.html For much of the past 20 months, President Donald Trump and his administration have insisted that, for all of the smoke surrounding his 2016 campaign, there was no fire. A lot of people in Trump's orbit engaging in conversations and relationships with Russian officials, but no evidence of collusion and certainly nothing that linked Donald Trump to any wrongdoing. That very well might have changed Thursday night, with this report from BuzzFeed: "President Donald Trump directed his longtime attorney Michael Cohen to lie to Congress about negotiations to build a Trump Tower in Moscow, according to two federal law enforcement officials involved in an investigation of the matter. "Trump also supported a plan, set up by Cohen, to visit Russia during the presidential campaign, in order to personally meet President Vladimir Putin and jump-start the tower negotiations. 'Make it happen,' the sources said Trump told Cohen." The BuzzFeed story also claims that Cohen confirmed this information to special counsel Robert Mueller after "the special counsel's office learned about Trump's directive for Cohen to lie to Congress through interviews with multiple witnesses from the Trump Organization and internal company emails, text messages, and a cache of other documents." It's hard to overstate what a big deal that is. No other major outlets have confirmed the BuzzFeed report. But if the BuzzFeed report is right, then the President of the United States directed an underling to lie under oath -- which is, in and of itself, a crime. Don't take my word for it. Check out this exchange between Democratic Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar and Attorney General nominee William Barr during his confirmation hearings earlier this week (hat tip to Washington Post's Jacqueline Alemany for flagging): Klobuchar: The President persuading a person to commit perjury would be obstruction, is that right? Barr: Well, yes. Well, any person who persuades another to -- yeah." Klobuchar: "You also said that a President or any person convincing a witness to change testimony would be obstruction, is that right? Barr: Yes." Which, well, that was sort of on point, no? Ask yourself this: Why, if there was nothing worrisome or untoward about Trump's dealings with Russia, would he instruct Cohen to lie to about the depth and breadth of the conversations between the Trumps and the Russians regarding a potential construction project in Moscow? You don't have to lie or cover up things that are no big deal, right? And we know from Cohen that he not only lied to the special counsel's office about Trump Tower Moscow but did so because he believed the truthful details of how long the conversations with Russians over the project went on (until June 2016, according to Cohen) and the involvement of the Trump family (Cohen said he repeatedly briefed them on developments) might jeopardize the billionaire businessman's chance of winning the Republican presidential nomination. The Trump response to all of this? To attack Cohen. "If you believe Cohen I can get you a great deal on the Brooklyn Bridge," Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani told The New York Times' Maggie Haberman on Thursday night after the news broke. The problem for Giuliani is that the BuzzFeed report doesn't hinge on Cohen. It says that the special counsel unearthed the evidence that Trump had told Cohen to lie through "multiple witnesses from the Trump Organization and internal company emails, text messages, and a cache of other documents." Mueller's office only went to Cohen to confirm/admit he actually did it. The special counsel's office didn't get the information from Cohen. That fact makes Giuliani's claim that Cohen is a proven liar -- which he is! -- largely meaningless. If the BuzzFeed report is true (and yes that remains an "if" since CNN has not corroborated the reporting), then the entire Russia conversation changes. As Barr helpfully noted earlier this week, the President telling someone who works for him to lie to Congress about an ongoing investigation is obstruction of justice. And obstruction of justice is a crime. The question is where Mueller would go next, assuming he has the goods on Trump for obstruction. Giuliani has repeatedly insisted that Mueller's team has told the Trump lawyers that they believe they cannot indict a sitting president. "All they get to do is write a report," Giuliani told CNN's Dana Bash in May 2017. "They can't indict. At least they acknowledged that to us after some battling, they acknowledged that to us." Let's assume that's true -- although to do that it means we take Giuliani's word for it, which, given his recent "no collusion" flip-flop, might be a dicey proposition.) What that means is that Mueller's report will likely move through political channels rather than legal one. So rather than an indictment, perhaps impeachment. "If true -- and proof must be examined -- Congress must begin impeachment proceedings and Barr must refer, at a minimum, the relevant portions of material discovered by Mueller," tweeted former Attorney General Eric Holder. "This is a potential inflection point." Democratic Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse agreed, tweeting, "If this is true, this is plain, slam-dunk, criminal obstruction of justice (18 U.S.C. 1505, 1512), subornation of perjury (18 U.S.C. 1622), conspiracy (18 U.S.C. 371) and likely aiding and abetting perjury (18 U.S.C. 2)." The "if true" part is, of course, the key. BuzzFeed has put the credibility of its entire organization on the line here. To make an allegation that the President of the United States purposely obstructed justice in an investigation into Russia's attempts to interfere in a presidential election is a massive deal -- and the sort of thing that, if wrong, can do irreparable damage to a company's reputation. But if the BuzzFeed article is right -- and one of the reporters who bylined the story insisted on CNN Friday morning that the information in the piece is "rock solid" and that the sourcing "goes beyond" the two sources cited -- then this is the smoking gun (or at least a smoking gun). If Mueller has the goods -- as the BuzzFeed report suggests he does -- then it is very, very hard to see how impeachment proceedings won't be started in the House once the special counsel report comes out. Whether Trump is actually removed from office is a more political question that depends on how clear -- if at all -- Trump's culpability is in the Mueller report. Make no mistake: This is a very big moment in an investigation seemingly stuffed full of them. And, for students of history, you'll remember that the first article of impeachment against then-President Richard Nixon was that he had obstructed justice by ordering others to lie. So, there's that.
So while Trump was secretly conspiring with Cohen he helpfully left a paper trail at Trump HQ and let numerous people there in on the plan? And none of those doc's has been leaked yet?
Two things, one being what AAA brought up. Considering everything in Washington leaks like a sieve it's at a minimum unusual that no supporting documents for this allegation has been leaked. Secondly, and most importantly, unless they have a written document with a signature by Trump, or a taped recording, then they have nothing which will hold up in court. Simple testimony from a now obviously less than credible witness is useless legally. Politically another story and at the end of the day that's all anyone really cares about.
In court 2 witnesses usully beats one.The buzzfeed story says there are other witnesses,emails,texts etc.