Aseahawkfan wrote:Hmm. One thing I'll give you, if he survives Cohen being flipped he'll be nearly bulletproof. Only way I see him getting taken down if that happens is the release of a tape with him speaking racial epithets during The Apprentice.
So you think that using a racial epithet some amount of years before he was even a candidate is a "high crime and misdemeanor"?
I do understand campaign finance law violations are extremely common. It's hard to manage everything perfectly with a campaign that large and so many zealots on both sides doing whatever they can to help you win or make you lose. This is his personal lawyer. If anyone can sink him, it's Cohen.
Yes, campaign finance law violations are pretty common. But the differences in the violations that Cohen plead guilty to is one of intent and that he supposedly conspired with Trump on it. It wasn't some bookkeeping error or accountant's oversight. But you're right about Cohen being the guy that can bring him down. He's Trump's John Dean. But like Dean, they're going to need some sort of physical evidence to push this thing forward (in Dean's case, it was the tapes that validated his claims). They can't turn it into a case of "my word against his", particularly in Cohen's case, as I agree with Idahawk that Cohen's not a credible witness due to his penchant for dishonesty. My understanding is that they do have evidence to back up Cohen's claims. We'll see.
We'll see if survives. If all they have are the payouts to women, I don't know if that will sink him given Clinton sat on the witness stand and committed perjury after banging an intern in The White House and skipped out. If Cohen doesn't have more, he might wriggle off the hook.
I agree 100%, and have used the Clinton example...if perjury with sex as its root cause isn't a "high crime and misdemeanor", then certainly a campaign violation with sex as its root cause isn't, either...on numerous occasions. But we'll see. Supposedly Cohen has lots more dirt and is willing to talk to anyone, including Congress, about what he knows. And so the drama builds.
IMO there is not a silver bullet in any of what's been released that can take Trump down. If he just lays low and lets it play out, I think he can survive. But if he does something really stupid, like granting a pardon to Manafort to prevent him from testifying or fires Mueller and/or shuts down the investigation, then I'd go along with an obstruction of justice impeachment charge. But I don't know if Trump has the self discipline to lay low. He's used to being in control, and it frustrates him not being able to use the powers that are constitutionally granted to him.
Trump really has turned The White House into a reality TV show and a picture of our times where realty TV stars and their associates are key figures in our politics. It's one of those times when reality is stranger than fiction.
10-4. Cbob said it best when he said that the Trump Adminstration will be one continous SNL skit, and he was exactly right. This is highly entertaining.
