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#John Dean the Watergate cover-up whistleblower
zayaanhashistory · 1 year
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The Watergate Scandal
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The Watergate scandal began early in the morning of June 17, 1972, when several burglars were arrested in the office of the Democratic National Committee, located in the Watergate complex of buildings in Washington, D.C. This was no ordinary robbery: The prowlers were connected to President Richard Nixon’s reelection campaign, and they had been caught wiretapping phones and stealing documents. Nixon took aggressive steps to cover up the crimes, but when Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein revealed his role in the conspiracy, Nixon resigned on August 9, 1974. The Watergate scandal changed American politics forever, leading many Americans to question their leaders and think more critically about the presidency. 
The origins of the Watergate break-in lay in the hostile political climate of the time. By 1972, when Republican President Richard M. Nixon was running for reelection, the United States was embroiled in the Vietnam War, and the country was deeply divided. A forceful presidential campaign therefore seemed essential to the president and some of his key advisers. Their aggressive tactics included what turned out to be illegal espionage. In May 1972, as evidence would later show, members of Nixon’s Committee to Re-Elect the President (known derisively as CREEP) broke into the Democratic National Committee’s Watergate headquarters, stole copies of top-secret documents and bugged the office’s phones. The wiretaps failed to work properly, however, so on June 17 a group of five burglars returned to the Watergate building. As the prowlers were preparing to break into the office with a new microphone, a security guard noticed someone had taped over several of the building’s door locks. The guard called the police, who arrived just in time to catch them red-handed. It was not immediately clear that the burglars were connected to the president, though suspicions were raised when detectives found copies of the reelection committee’s White House phone number among the burglars’ belongings. In August, Nixon gave a speech in which he swore that his White House staff was not involved in the break-in. Most voters believed him, and in November 1972 the president was reelected in a landslide victory. 
It later came to light that Nixon was not being truthful. A few days after the break-in, for instance, he arranged to provide hundreds of thousands of dollars in “hush money” to the burglars. Then, Nixon and his aides hatched a plan to instruct the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to impede the FBI’s investigation of the crime. This was a more serious crime than the break-in: It was an abuse of presidential power and a deliberate obstruction of justice. Meanwhile, seven conspirators were indicted on charges related to the Watergate affair. At the urging of Nixon’s aides, five pleaded guilty to avoid trial; the other two were convicted in January 1973. By that time, a growing handful of people—including Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, trial judge John J. Sirica and members of a Senate investigating committee—had begun to suspect that there was a larger scheme afoot. At the same time, some of the conspirators began to crack under the pressure of the cover-up. Anonymous whistleblower “Deep Throat” provided key information to Woodward and Bernstein. A handful of Nixon’s aides, including White House counsel John Dean, testified before a grand jury about the president’s crimes; they also testified that Nixon had secretly taped every conversation that took place in the Oval Office. If prosecutors could get their hands on those tapes, they would have proof of the president’s guilt. Nixon struggled to protect the tapes during the summer and fall of 1973. His lawyers argued that the president’s executive privilege allowed him to keep the tapes to himself, but Judge Sirica, the Senate committee and an independent special prosecutor named Archibald Cox were all determined to obtain them. 
When Cox refused to stop demanding the tapes, Nixon ordered that he be fired, leading several Justice Department officials to resign in protest. (These events, which took place on October 20, 1973, are known as the Saturday Night Massacre.) Eventually, Nixon agreed to surrender some—but not all—of the tapes. Early in 1974, the cover-up and efforts to impede the Watergate investigation began to unravel. On March 1, a grand jury appointed by a new special prosecutor indicted seven of Nixon’s former aides on various charges related to the Watergate affair. The jury, unsure if they could indict a sitting president, called Nixon an “unindicted co-conspirator.” In July, the Supreme Court ordered Nixon to turn over the tapes. While the president dragged his feet, the House Judiciary Committee voted to impeach Nixon for obstruction of justice, abuse of power, criminal cover-up and several violations of the Constitution. 
Finally, on August 5, Nixon released the tapes, which provided undeniable evidence of his complicity in the Watergate crimes. In the face of almost certain impeachment by Congress, Nixon resigned in disgrace on August 8, and left office the following day. Six weeks later, after Vice President Gerald Ford was sworn in as president, he pardoned Nixon for any crimes he had committed while in office. Some of Nixon’s aides were not so lucky: They were convicted of very serious offenses and sent to federal prison. Nixon’s Attorney General of the United States John Mitchell served 19 months for his role in the scandal, while Watergate mastermind G. Gordon Liddy, a former FBI agent, served four and a half years. Nixon’s Chief of Staff H.R. Haldeman spent 19 months in prison while John Ehrlichman spent 18 for attempting to cover up the break-in. Nixon himself never admitted to any criminal wrongdoing, though he did acknowledge using poor judgment. 
His abuse of presidential power had a long-lasting effect on American political life, creating an atmosphere of cynicism and distrust. While many Americans had been deeply dismayed by the outcome of the Vietnam War, and saddened by the assassinations of Robert F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King and other leaders, Watergate added further disappointment to a national climate already soured by the difficulties and losses of the previous decade. 
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malenipshadows · 3 years
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+ The Justice Department secretly seizing smartphone data of Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee is “Nixon on stilts and steroids,” a former White House counsel said Friday (6-11-2021). + John Dean, who served as counsel during the administration of Richard Nixon before flipping on the then-president over the Watergate scandal, told CNN’s Erin Burnett that the actions of former pres-ident Donald Tr*mp’s DOJ went far beyond what his former boss ever did. + “Nixon didn’t have that kind of Department of Justice,” Dean said.  He then recalled how the Nixon administration responded to the Pentagon Papers — classified documents detailing U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War — being leaked. + “I got a call from the Oval Office the day after he learned that, and could the Department of Justice bring a criminal action for this?  Called over, found out the short answer was they could, but they won’t,” Dean said.  “So Nixon couldn’t use the department as he wanted to.” + Burnett asked Dean if the Tr*mp DOJ’s actions went “beyond what Nixon did.” + “It is beyond Nixon, yes,” Dean responded. “It’s Nixon on stilts and steroids.”
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cogitoergofun · 4 years
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Watergate has long been told as a story of American exceptionalism. The system of checks and balances and public oversight worked. The Constitution triumphed over leaders who abused their power.
The word "Watergate" might be shorthand for scandal, but it's also a story of hope: Through a combination of dogged criminal investigators, serious oversight by Congress and sustained public attention, the wheels of accountability ultimately turned even for the president of the United States.
Donald Trump and his allies are telling a different story.
In everything from casual statements and tweets to formal court filings, Trump himself — along with his staff and supporters — has been framing a version of events that feels not just unfamiliar to many Americans, but which people who lived through it likely never thought possible.
In this story, President Richard Nixon is no longer necessarily the conductor of a sprawling attempt to cover up crimes, stamp out investigations and bully people. Instead, it's a question mark: “he may have been guilty,” Trump said. Nixon wasn’t forced out as he faced certain removal from office. According to Trump, “he left.” Trump has indicated Nixon’s biggest mistakes were that he “fired people” and “had tapes all over the place,” notably omitting why he wanted to fire people, or what behavior and cover-ups the tapes revealed. Then there’s the historic ruling that granted lawmakers in Congress access to a summary of the special prosecutor’s evidence on Nixon — a decision that propelled the congressional impeachment probe. In court, Trump’s attorneys argued the result would be “different” today.
Not only have Trump and his boosters reframed the Watergate story, they have effectively demoted it on the list of American political scandals. It now “pales in comparison” to a litany of modern-day offenses, real or not: Hillary Clinton’s private email server (real), Barack Obama secretly wiretapping Trump Tower (not), OBAMAGATE! (evidence-deficient claims about a government plot to take down Trump).
[...]
“What he’s trying to do, it seems, is to attack the very idea of presidential accountability, and the very idea that a president could have engaged in that kind of wrongdoing,” said Elizabeth Holtzman, who had just been elected to Congress in 1972 at the age of 31, then suddenly found herself working on Nixon’s impeachment proceedings just months later as a member of the House Judiciary Committee.
[...]
“He’s not only lessening Watergate, but he’s trying to pin others with what was clearly an unacceptable standard of conduct,” said John Dean, Nixon’s White House counsel-turned whistleblower whose congressional testimony helped turn the public against the president.
“His intuition tells him that he can use it first as a pejorative, and in doing so, he can make his conduct more acceptable in the process,” Dean added. “I think there’s no question that’s what his intuition is.”
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New Post has been published on Restore American Glory
New Post has been published on http://www.restoreamericanglory.com/breaking-news/watergates-john-dean-trumps-terrible-attitude-is-reason-to-impeach/
Watergate’s John Dean: Trump’s “Terrible Attitude” is Reason to Impeach
John Dean, the former Nixon White House official who came to notoriety for helping to cover up the Watergate break-in, told CNN on Saturday that President Donald Trump should be impeached. In fact, Dean believes that Trump should have been impeached on the day he assumed office.
“I think this president probably should have been impeached the day he walked in,” Dean said. “He’s incompetent. He has a terrible attitude. He doesn’t understand government. He is in there trying to build his own brand, and he’s taken advantage of the office from day one.”
Dean’s assertion that Trump should have been impeached for his “terrible attitude” may sound asinine when said out loud by one of his detractors, but it’s really no more ridiculous than what Democrats have been trying to do on Capitol Hill for the last year. It’s one thing after another for these people, and really, does it ever boil down to anything more serious than a visceral dislike for Donald Trump and his supporters?
The Ukraine scandal is a complete joke, but impeachment didn’t really begin here. Democrats have been calling for Trump’s ousting since the first months of his presidency. He should be impeached for inflating the crowd size at his inauguration. He should be impeached for hiring Steve Bannon. He should be impeached for enacting a “Muslim ban.” He should be impeached for paying Stormy Daniels to shut up. He should be impeached for tweeting nasty things about Jeff Sessions. For firing James Comey. For pondering the idea of firing Robert Mueller. For getting along with Vladimir Putin. For “obstructing justice.” For hating on Meryl Streep. For wearing his ties too long. It never ends.
Why NOT just come right out and say that he should be impeached for his “terrible attitude.” Hell, we applaud John Dean for being more honest than most of the Resistance.
“It’s just kind of caught up with him with this incident,” Dean said. “What has — the Ukrainian incident forcing the Congress to take action. He is still looking at about 10 instances of obstruction of justice from the Mueller report.”
Oh, is that the obstruction that Mueller failed to say constituted a crime? Just making sure we’re all on the same page here. Cool.
But indeed, Dean is not the only one who has wanted to see Trump removed from office since the inauguration. He shares that distinction with many people, including attorney Mark Zaid, who tweeted days after Trump took office: “Coup has started. First of many steps. Rebellion, impeachment will follow ultimately.”
Zaid now represents the anonymous Ukraine whistleblower.
America, are you awake yet?
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Impeachment Witnesses Can Expect Abuse, Death Threats, Say Survivors of Past Political Scandals
John Dean entered the witness protection program. Valerie Plame feared for her children.
Both are veterans of U.S. political scandals that threatened the White House, and they have a warning for the witnesses who are testifying against President Donald Trump in the current public impeachment hearings. Life is about to change, it could get ugly, and death threats will become routine.
“You know that politics is a blood sport, but you can never quite be prepared for what is coming your way,” Plame, who was at the center of a 2003 episode that rocked the presidency of George W. Bush, said in a telephone interview. “They’re going to be subjected to all kinds of abuse.”
The Democratic-led U.S. House of Representatives began calling the first public witnesses in the impeachment inquiry on Wednesday, hearing from officials who handled U.S. policy in Ukraine under the Republican president. Testimony will resume on Friday and continue next week.
Previous presidential scandals have turned anonymous bureaucrats or secretive operatives into household names. Those on the wrong side of the president discovered just how much intimidation a White House can marshal, especially when backed by outside acolytes and media allies.
Trump and his supporters have already started attacking one witness due to testify, U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman. They have also targeted the anonymous whistleblower who started the inquiry by raising questions about Trump’s July 25 telephone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, when Trump asked Zelenskiy to investigate political rival Joe Biden.
Crossing a president, as Dean, a former White House counsel, did in Watergate and civil servant Linda Tripp did in the impeachment of former President Bill Clinton, can trigger an avalanche of hate mail.
But rallying to the president’s defense can pay dividends. When National Security Council staffer Oliver North enthusiastically testified in favor of President Ronald Reagan in the Iran-Contra affair, he became a darling of conservatives, launching a new career as media personality and political activist.
‘HOLD FAMILY CLOSE’
Plame, a former CIA covert operations officer who is running as a Democrat for a U.S. House of Representatives seat in New Mexico in next year’s election, shot to unwanted fame for her role in discrediting Bush’s justification for starting a war in Iraq.
A Bush aide disclosed to a journalist that Plame worked for the CIA, exposing her to an onslaught from the president’s supporters and forcing her to resign since her cover was blown. Plame said the ensuing firestorm lasted for years.
Her advice to the current witnesses?
“Hold their family and their true friends close, and try to understand the bigger picture. This is such an important, historic time in our country,” Plame said.
Tripp, who encouraged former White House intern Monica Lewinsky to step forward and disprove Clinton’s denials of their affair, did not respond to a Reuters request for comment. In a 2018 speech, she lamented that it was “virtually impossible to get your good name back” following attacks by Clinton allies.
“There’s nothing quite like it, and there’s nothing that can prepare you for it,” Tripp said on National Whistleblower Day, according to a Washington Post report of the address.
Dean, who was President Richard Nixon’s White House counsel, drew the ire of the president’s men by detailing the Watergate cover-up before a Senate committee and a national television audience.
That led to death threats so vicious he spent 18 months in and out of witness protection, Dean said in a telephone interview.
Dean said the Trump witnesses could avoid similar treatment if Republican leaders toned down their rhetoric, but he was pessimistic considering that some were advocating revealing the name of the whistleblower.
Given that some backlash is inevitable, Dean had one recommended course of action: “If you tell the truth, you’ve got nothing to worry about.”
(Reporting by Daniel Trotta; Editing by Scott Malone and Peter Cooney)
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topworldhistory · 4 years
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The framers of the Constitution intentionally made it difficult to remove a sitting president from office.
Only two U.S. presidents have been formally impeached by Congress—Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton—and no U.S. president has ever been removed from office through impeachment.
In addition to Johnson and Clinton, only two other U.S. presidents have faced formal impeachment inquiries in the House of Representatives: Richard Nixon and Donald Trump. Many other presidents have been threatened with impeachment by political foes without gaining any real traction in Congress.
The framers of the Constitution intentionally made it difficult for Congress to remove a sitting president. The impeachment process starts in the House of Representatives with a formal impeachment inquiry. If the House Judiciary Committee finds sufficient grounds, its members write and pass articles of impeachment, which then go to the full House for a vote.
A simple majority in the House is all that’s needed to formally impeach a president. But that doesn’t mean he or she is out of a job. The final stage is the Senate impeachment trial. Only if two-thirds of the Senate find the president guilty of the crimes laid out in the articles of impeachment is the POTUS removed from office.
Although Congress has impeached and removed eight federal officials—all federal judges—no president has ever been found guilty during a Senate impeachment trial. Andrew Johnson came awfully close, though; he barely escaped a guilty verdict by one vote.
Andrew Johnson: Impeached in 1868
The 1868 impeachment trial of Andrew Johnson. 
Johnson was elected as Abraham Lincoln’s vice president in 1864. The toughest decision facing Lincoln’s second term was how to reestablish ties with the Confederate states now that the Civil War was over. Lincoln’s plan for Reconstruction favored leniency while so-called “Radical Republicans” in his party wanted to punish Southern politicians and extend full civil rights to freed slaves.
Lincoln was assassinated only 42 days into his second term, leaving Johnson in charge of Reconstruction. He immediately clashed with the Radical Republicans in Congress, calling for pardons for Confederate leaders and vetoing political rights for freedmen. In 1867, Congress retaliated by passing the Tenure of Office Act, which barred the president from replacing members of his cabinet without Senate approval.
Believing the law to be unconstitutional, Johnson went ahead and fired his Secretary of War, an ally of the Radical Republicans in Congress. Johnson’s political enemies responded by drafting and passing 11 articles of impeachment in the House.
"Sir, the bloody and untilled fields of the ten unreconstructed States, the unsheeted ghosts of the two thousand murdered negroes in Texas, cry [...] for the punishment of Andrew Johnson," wrote the abolitionist Republican Representative William D. Kelley from Pennsylvania.
Johnson was impeached in the House of Representatives by 126 votes to 47, but narrowly avoided a two-thirds guilty verdict in the Senate by a single vote. After his acquittal, he served out the rest of his term and became the first (and only) former U.S. president to be elected to the Senate.
READ MORE: 150 Years Ago, a President Could Be Impeached for Firing a Cabinet Member
Bill Clinton: Impeached in 1998
President Clinton walking to the podium to deliver a short statement on the impeachment inquiry, apologizing to the country for his conduct in the Monica Lewinsky affair and that he would accept a congressional censure or rebuke.
Clinton was plagued by legal troubles and scandals from the moment he entered the White House. In 1993, Clinton and his First Lady, Hillary, were the subject of a Justice Department investigation into the so-called Whitewater controversy, a botched business deal from their days in Arkansas. And in 1994, Clinton was sued for sexual harassment by Paula Jones, who claimed Clinton exposed himself to her in a hotel room in 1991.
Interestingly, it was a combination of both legal cases that would ultimately lead to Clinton’s impeachment. Independent counsel Kenneth Starr was appointed by the Justice Department to investigate the Whitewater affair, but he couldn’t find any impeachable evidence. Meanwhile, lawyers for Jones got a tip that Clinton had an affair with a 21-year-old White House intern named Monica Lewinsky, a claim that both Lewinsky and Clinton denied under oath.
Starr switched the focus of his investigation when he received 20 hours of taped phone conversations between Lewinsky and Linda Tripp, a former White House colleague, in which Lewinsky alludes to the affair. Starr then got the FBI to fit Tripp with a wire to meet with Lewinsky at a Ritz-Carlton hotel outside Washington, DC, when Lewinsky again admitted to a sexual relationship with the president.
When the story went public, Clinton was forced to address the accusations on national television.
Clinton Denies Sexual Relationship (TV-14; 0:56)
“I want you to listen to me,” Clinton famously said. “I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky. I never told anybody to lie, not a single time, never.”
Starr’s investigative team ended up producing a long and lurid report detailing Clinton’s sexual dalliances with Lewinsky and providing evidence that Clinton lied under oath (perjury) in an effort to obstruct the Starr investigation.
On December 19, 1998, the House of Representatives voted along party lines to impeach Clinton on two separate counts: perjury and obstruction of justice. But in the ensuing five-week Senate trial, Clinton was acquitted on both counts.
Despite a very public and embarrassing scandal, and being only the second president in history to be impeached, Clinton’s job approval rating peaked at 73 percent in 1999.
READ MORE: Why Clinton Survived Impeachment While Nixon Resigned After Watergate
Richard Nixon: Resigned in 1974
People read about President Nixon's resignation outside the gate of the White House.
Despite being complicit in one of the greatest political scandals in U.S. presidential history, Richard Nixon was never impeached. He resigned before the House of Representatives had a chance to impeach him. If he hadn’t quit, Nixon would likely have been the first president ever impeached and removed from office, given the crimes he committed to cover up his involvement in the Watergate break-ins.
On July 27, 1974, after seven months of deliberations, the House Judiciary Committee approved the first of five proposed articles of impeachment against Nixon, charging the president with obstruction of justice in an effort to shield himself from the ongoing Watergate investigation. Only a handful of Republicans in the judiciary committee voted to approve the articles of impeachment, and it was unclear at the time if there would be enough votes in the full House to formally impeach the president.
But everything changed on August 5, 1974, when the Supreme Court ordered Nixon to release unedited tapes of his Oval Office conversations with White House staffers during the Watergate investigation. The so-called “smoking gun” tapes included Nixon proposing the use of the CIA to obstruct the FBI investigation, and paying hush money to the convicted Watergate burglars. The transcript included the following:
NIXON: How much money do you need?
JOHN W. DEAN: I would say these people are going to cost, uh, a million dollars over the next, uh, two years. (Pause)
NIXON: We could get that.
Once the tapes were made public, Nixon got word from Republican congressional leadership that all but 15 Senators would likely vote against him in an impeachment trial, more than enough to remove him from office. To save himself the indignity of becoming the first sitting president fired by Congress, Nixon resigned on August 8, 1974.
Nixon was pardoned of criminal charges by Gerald Ford, but many of his Watergate conspirators weren’t so lucky. Most of his White House legal counsel, including John Dean, went to jail for their involvement in Watergate.
READ MORE: The Watergate Scandal
Donald Trump: Impeachment Inquiry Launched in 2019
On October 9, 2019 in Washington, D.C., President Trump answers questions on a pending impeachment inquiry.
On September 24, 2019, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced a formal impeachment inquiry into President Trump regarding his alleged efforts to pressure the President of Ukraine to investigate possible wrongdoings by his political rival, former Vice President Joe Biden.
The decision to authorize the impeachment inquiry came after a leaked whistleblower complaint detailed a July phone conversation between Trump and President Volodymyr Zelensky in which Trump allegedly tied Ukrainian military aid to personal political favors. The White House later released a reconstructed transcript of the phone call, which many Democrats argued demonstrated that Trump had abused his power.
As of this writing, the House Judiciary Committee has not yet passed articles of impeachment against the president, so the process is still in its early stages. The Trump case marks the fourth time in U.S. history that a president has been the subject of a formal House impeachment investigation.
Other Presidents Threatened with Impeachment
A significant number of U.S. presidents have faced calls for impeachment, including five of the past six Republican presidents. But few of those accusations were taken seriously by Congress.
There were even rumblings about impeaching the nation's first president, George Washington, by those who opposed his policies. Those calls, however, did not reach the point of becoming formal resolutions or charges. 
John Tyler was the first president to face impeachment charges. Nicknamed “His Accidency” for assuming the presidency after William Henry Harrison died after just 30 days in office, Tyler was wildly unpopular with his own Whig party. A House representative from Virginia submitted a petition for Tyler’s impeachment, but it was never taken up by the House for a vote.
Between 1922 and 1923, a congressman introduced two impeachment resolutions against Herbert Hoover. Both were eventually tabled by large margins. 
More recently, both Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush were the subject of impeachment resolutions submitted by Henry B. Gonzales, a Democratic representative from Texas, but none of the resolutions were taken up for a vote in the House Judiciary Committee.
George W. Bush faced a slightly more serious impeachment threat when Democratic Representative Dennis Kucinich introduced a House resolution charging Bush with including war crimes. The House voted 251 to 166 to refer the resolution to the House Judiciary Committee, but House Speaker Pelosi said any talk of impeachment was “off the table.”
Barack Obama was also accused of “high crimes and misdemeanors” befitting impeachment. In 2012, Republican Representative Walter Jones submitted a House resolution charging the president with authorizing military action in Libya without the consent of Congress. The resolution was referred to the Judiciary Committee where it was never brought up for a vote. 
from Stories - HISTORY https://ift.tt/33QProh October 22, 2019 at 12:59AM
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investmart007 · 6 years
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NEW YORK | Money and loyalty were the glue that bound Trump and Cohen
New Post has been published on https://is.gd/12H6W8
NEW YORK | Money and loyalty were the glue that bound Trump and Cohen
NEW YORK  — For Michael Cohen and Donald Trump, it’s always been about money and loyalty.
Those were guiding principles for Cohen when he served as more than just a lawyer for Trump during the developer’s rise from celebrity to president-elect. Cohen brokered deals for the Trump Organization, profited handsomely from a side venture into New York City’s real estate and taxi industries and worked to make unflattering stories about Trump disappear.
Money and loyalty also drove Cohen to make guilty pleas this past week in a spinoff from the swirling investigations battering the Trump White House.
Feeling abandoned by Trump and in dire financial straits, the man who once famously declared that he would “take a bullet” for Trump now is pledging loyalty to his own family and actively seeking to cooperate with special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation.
The unraveling of their relationship was laid bare Tuesday when Cohen pleaded guilty to eight criminal charges and said in federal court that he broke campaign finance laws as part of a cover-up operation that Trump had directed.
In the days after Cohen’s guilty plea, two close associates — the magazine boss who helped him squash bad stories and the top financial man at the president’s business — have been granted immunity for their cooperation. These moves could have a ripple effect on the legal fortunes of Cohen and, perhaps, Trump. For years, Cohen was a fixture in Trump’s orbit.
Working alongside Trump and Trump’s three adult children — Don Jr., Ivanka, Eric — in Trump Tower, Cohen took on a number of roles for the developer, including emissary for projects in foreign capitals and enforcer of Trump’s will. At times a bully for a family-run business, Cohen was known for his hot temper as he strong-armed city workers, reluctant business partners and reporters.
He was there in the lobby of Trump Tower in June 2015 when his boss descended an escalator and changed history by declaring his candidacy for president. But Cohen’s place in Trump’s political life ended up being peripheral.
Cohen did become a reliable surrogate on cable TV — he created a viral moment by repeating “Says who?” when told Trump was down in the polls — and founded the candidate’s faith-based organization.
But Cohen was never given a prominent spot in the campaign. And despite telling confidants that he thought he had a shot at White House chief of staff after the election, Cohen was never given a West Wing job. He remained in New York when Trump moved to Washington.
Cohen found ways to profit from the arrangement, making millions from corporations by selling access to Trump, but felt adrift and isolated from Trump, according to two people familiar with his thinking who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss private conversations.
But early one April morning, more than three dozen federal agents raided Cohen’s home, office and hotel room.
A chief focus for investigators was Cohen’s role in making payments during Trump’s campaign to women who claimed they had sex with Trump, and whether campaign finance laws were violated. In the fall of 2016, weeks before the election, Cohen had set up a limited liability company in Delaware to hide the deal he made to silence the pornographic film actress Stormy Daniels about an affair she said she had with Trump.
Worry grew within the White House about what had been seized. That April day, Trump berated the raid as “an attack on all we stand for.” But then, in a “Fox & Friends” interview, Trump began to dramatically play down his relationship with Cohen.
“I have nothing to do with his business,” Trump said, asserting that Cohen was just one of many lawyers and was responsible for “a tiny, tiny fraction” of Trump’s legal work.
A dispute soon broke out between Cohen and Trump over who would pay the former fixer’s mounting legal bills. Holed up in a Park Avenue hotel after his apartment flooded, Cohen began to worry about his financial future, according to the two people.
By all appearances, Cohen’s lifestyle was lavish.
He bought a $6.7 million Manhattan apartment last fall, though the sale didn’t close until April and no one could move in until the summer. With bills piling up for his team of expensive lawyers, the suddenly unemployed Cohen began to tell confidants that he was worried about his job prospects and ability to support his family.
Meanwhile, the broadsides from the White House kept coming. Trump and Cohen had long stopped speaking, but word would get back to the lawyer that the president was belittling him. The president’s attorney and frequent attack dog Rudy Giuliani went from calling Cohen “an honest, honorable lawyer” in May to deriding him as a “pathological liar” in July.
Cohen began wondering to friends whether loyalty with Trump had become a one-way street, the people said.
Eager to hit back and attempt to regain some hold on the story, Cohen hired Lanny Davis, a former Bill Clinton attorney, to be his public relations lawyer. Davis began striking back at the White House and lobbed a clear warning shot at the president when he released a secret recording of a conversation in which Trump appears to have knowledge about hush-money payments to former Playboy model Karen McDougal, who also alleged an affair with the developer.
Cohen was embraced by the cable news networks as an irresistible foil to Trump. Some on the left styled him as a star of the resistance.
Cohen’s camp made some effort to play into the role, reaching out to Watergate whistleblower John Dean and, after Cohen’s plea, establishing an online fundraising tool that seemed to predominantly receive backing from liberals.
Cohen, who could get about four years to five years in prison, is due to be sentenced Dec. 12.
Davis has strongly telegraphed that Cohen is willing to cooperate with Mueller’s investigation. But a deal has yet to be struck and there are doubts about what Cohen can prove or whether the special counsel would want to rely on an untrustworthy witness.
Cohen has stayed out of sight and has remained emotional since his plea, according to the people close to him.
The attacks from Trump have continued.
“If anyone is looking for a good lawyer, I would strongly suggest that you don’t retain the services of Michael Cohen!” Trump tweeted Wednesday.
By Associated Press ___
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investmart007 · 6 years
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NEW YORK | Money and loyalty were the glue that bound Trump and Cohen
New Post has been published on https://is.gd/12H6W8
NEW YORK | Money and loyalty were the glue that bound Trump and Cohen
NEW YORK  — For Michael Cohen and Donald Trump, it’s always been about money and loyalty.
Those were guiding principles for Cohen when he served as more than just a lawyer for Trump during the developer’s rise from celebrity to president-elect. Cohen brokered deals for the Trump Organization, profited handsomely from a side venture into New York City’s real estate and taxi industries and worked to make unflattering stories about Trump disappear.
Money and loyalty also drove Cohen to make guilty pleas this past week in a spinoff from the swirling investigations battering the Trump White House.
Feeling abandoned by Trump and in dire financial straits, the man who once famously declared that he would “take a bullet” for Trump now is pledging loyalty to his own family and actively seeking to cooperate with special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation.
The unraveling of their relationship was laid bare Tuesday when Cohen pleaded guilty to eight criminal charges and said in federal court that he broke campaign finance laws as part of a cover-up operation that Trump had directed.
In the days after Cohen’s guilty plea, two close associates — the magazine boss who helped him squash bad stories and the top financial man at the president’s business — have been granted immunity for their cooperation. These moves could have a ripple effect on the legal fortunes of Cohen and, perhaps, Trump. For years, Cohen was a fixture in Trump’s orbit.
Working alongside Trump and Trump’s three adult children — Don Jr., Ivanka, Eric — in Trump Tower, Cohen took on a number of roles for the developer, including emissary for projects in foreign capitals and enforcer of Trump’s will. At times a bully for a family-run business, Cohen was known for his hot temper as he strong-armed city workers, reluctant business partners and reporters.
He was there in the lobby of Trump Tower in June 2015 when his boss descended an escalator and changed history by declaring his candidacy for president. But Cohen’s place in Trump’s political life ended up being peripheral.
Cohen did become a reliable surrogate on cable TV — he created a viral moment by repeating “Says who?” when told Trump was down in the polls — and founded the candidate’s faith-based organization.
But Cohen was never given a prominent spot in the campaign. And despite telling confidants that he thought he had a shot at White House chief of staff after the election, Cohen was never given a West Wing job. He remained in New York when Trump moved to Washington.
Cohen found ways to profit from the arrangement, making millions from corporations by selling access to Trump, but felt adrift and isolated from Trump, according to two people familiar with his thinking who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss private conversations.
But early one April morning, more than three dozen federal agents raided Cohen’s home, office and hotel room.
A chief focus for investigators was Cohen’s role in making payments during Trump’s campaign to women who claimed they had sex with Trump, and whether campaign finance laws were violated. In the fall of 2016, weeks before the election, Cohen had set up a limited liability company in Delaware to hide the deal he made to silence the pornographic film actress Stormy Daniels about an affair she said she had with Trump.
Worry grew within the White House about what had been seized. That April day, Trump berated the raid as “an attack on all we stand for.” But then, in a “Fox & Friends” interview, Trump began to dramatically play down his relationship with Cohen.
“I have nothing to do with his business,” Trump said, asserting that Cohen was just one of many lawyers and was responsible for “a tiny, tiny fraction” of Trump’s legal work.
A dispute soon broke out between Cohen and Trump over who would pay the former fixer’s mounting legal bills. Holed up in a Park Avenue hotel after his apartment flooded, Cohen began to worry about his financial future, according to the two people.
By all appearances, Cohen’s lifestyle was lavish.
He bought a $6.7 million Manhattan apartment last fall, though the sale didn’t close until April and no one could move in until the summer. With bills piling up for his team of expensive lawyers, the suddenly unemployed Cohen began to tell confidants that he was worried about his job prospects and ability to support his family.
Meanwhile, the broadsides from the White House kept coming. Trump and Cohen had long stopped speaking, but word would get back to the lawyer that the president was belittling him. The president’s attorney and frequent attack dog Rudy Giuliani went from calling Cohen “an honest, honorable lawyer” in May to deriding him as a “pathological liar” in July.
Cohen began wondering to friends whether loyalty with Trump had become a one-way street, the people said.
Eager to hit back and attempt to regain some hold on the story, Cohen hired Lanny Davis, a former Bill Clinton attorney, to be his public relations lawyer. Davis began striking back at the White House and lobbed a clear warning shot at the president when he released a secret recording of a conversation in which Trump appears to have knowledge about hush-money payments to former Playboy model Karen McDougal, who also alleged an affair with the developer.
Cohen was embraced by the cable news networks as an irresistible foil to Trump. Some on the left styled him as a star of the resistance.
Cohen’s camp made some effort to play into the role, reaching out to Watergate whistleblower John Dean and, after Cohen’s plea, establishing an online fundraising tool that seemed to predominantly receive backing from liberals.
Cohen, who could get about four years to five years in prison, is due to be sentenced Dec. 12.
Davis has strongly telegraphed that Cohen is willing to cooperate with Mueller’s investigation. But a deal has yet to be struck and there are doubts about what Cohen can prove or whether the special counsel would want to rely on an untrustworthy witness.
Cohen has stayed out of sight and has remained emotional since his plea, according to the people close to him.
The attacks from Trump have continued.
“If anyone is looking for a good lawyer, I would strongly suggest that you don’t retain the services of Michael Cohen!” Trump tweeted Wednesday.
By Associated Press ___
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NEW YORK | Money and loyalty: A look inside dramatic Trump-Cohen rift
New Post has been published on https://is.gd/xWNlwh
NEW YORK | Money and loyalty: A look inside dramatic Trump-Cohen rift
NEW YORK— For Michael Cohen and Donald Trump, it’s always been about money and loyalty.
Those were guiding principles for Cohen when he served as more than just a lawyer for Trump during the developer’s rise from celebrity to president-elect. Cohen brokered deals for the Trump Organization, profited handsomely from a side venture into New York City’s real estate and taxi industries and worked to make unflattering stories about Trump disappear.
Money and loyalty also drove Cohen to make guilty pleas this past week in a spinoff from the swirling investigations battering the Trump White House.
Feeling abandoned by Trump and in dire financial straits, the man who once famously declared that he would “take a bullet” for Trump now is pledging loyalty to his own family and actively seeking to cooperate with special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation.
The unraveling of their relationship was laid bare Tuesday when Cohen pleaded guilty to eight criminal charges and said in federal court that he broke campaign finance laws as part of a cover-up operation that Trump had directed.
In the days after Cohen’s guilty plea, two close associates — the magazine boss who helped him squash bad stories and the top financial man at the president’s business — have been granted immunity for their cooperation. These moves could have a ripple effect on the legal fortunes of Cohen and, perhaps, Trump.
For years, Cohen was a fixture in Trump’s orbit.
Working alongside Trump and Trump’s three adult children — Don Jr., Ivanka, Eric — in Trump Tower, Cohen took on a number of roles for the developer, including emissary for projects in foreign capitals and enforcer of Trump’s will. At times a bully for a family-run business, Cohen was known for his hot temper as he strong-armed city workers, reluctant business partners and reporters.
He was there in the lobby of Trump Tower in June 2015 when his boss descended an escalator and changed history by declaring his candidacy for president. But Cohen’s place in Trump’s political life ended up being peripheral.
Cohen did become a reliable surrogate on cable TV — he created a viral moment by repeating “Says who?” when told Trump was down in the polls — and founded the candidate’s faith-based organization. But Cohen was never given a prominent spot in the campaign.
And despite telling confidants that he thought he had a shot at White House chief of staff after the election, Cohen was never given a West Wing job. He remained in New York when Trump moved to Washington.
Cohen found ways to profit from the arrangement, making millions from corporations by selling access to Trump, but felt adrift and isolated from Trump, according to two people familiar with his thinking who spoke on condition of anonymity because but not authorized to discuss private conversations.
But early one April morning, more than three dozen federal agents raided Cohen’s home, office and hotel room.
A chief focus for investigators was Cohen’s role in making payments during Trump’s campaign to women who claimed they had sex with Trump, and whether campaign finance laws were violated. In the fall of 2016, weeks before the election, Cohen had set up a limited liability company in Delaware to hide the deal he made to silence the pornographic film actress Stormy Daniels about an affair she said she had with Trump.
Worry grew within the White House about what had been seized. That April day, Trump berated the raid as “an attack on all we stand for.” But then, in a “Fox & Friends” interview, Trump began to dramatically play down his relationship with Cohen.
“I have nothing to do with his business,” Trump said, asserting that Cohen was just one of many lawyers and was responsible for “a tiny, tiny fraction” of Trump’s legal work.
A dispute soon broke out between Cohen and Trump over who would pay the former fixer’s mounting legal bills. Holed up in a Park Avenue hotel after his apartment flooded, Cohen began to worry about his financial future, according to the two people.
By all appearances, Cohen’s lifestyle was lavish.
He bought a $6.7 million Manhattan apartment last fall, though the sale didn’t close until April and no one could move in until the summer. With bills piling up for his team of expensive lawyers, the suddenly unemployed Cohen began to tell confidants that he was worried about his job prospects and ability to support his family.
Meanwhile, the broadsides from the White House kept coming.
Trump and Cohen had long stopped speaking, but word would get back to the lawyer that the president was belittling him. The president’s attorney and frequent attack dog Rudy Giuliani went from calling Cohen “an honest, honorable lawyer” in May to deriding him as a “pathological liar” in July.
Cohen began wondering to friends whether loyalty with Trump had become a one-way street, the people said.
Eager to hit back and attempt to regain some hold on the story, Cohen hired Lanny Davis, a former Bill Clinton attorney, to be his public relations lawyer. Davis began striking back at the White House and lobbed a clear warning shot at the president when he released a secret recording of a conversation in which Trump appears to have knowledge about hush-money payments to former Playboy model Karen McDougal, who also alleged an affair with the developer.
Cohen was embraced by the cable news networks as an irresistible foil to Trump. Some on the left styled him as a star of the resistance. Cohen’s camp made some effort to play into the role, reaching out to Watergate whistleblower John Dean and, after Cohen’s plea, establish an online fundraising tool that seemed to predominantly receive backing from liberals.
Cohen, who could get about four years to five years in prison, is due to be sentenced Dec. 12.
Davis has strongly telegraphed that Cohen is willing to cooperate with Mueller’s investigation. But a deal has yet to be struck and there are doubts about what Cohen can prove or whether the special counsel would want to rely on an untrustworthy witness. Cohen has stayed out of sight and has remained emotional since his plea, according to the people close to him.
The attacks from Trump have continued.
“If anyone is looking for a good lawyer, I would strongly suggest that you don’t retain the services of Michael Cohen!” Trump tweeted Wednesday.
By JONATHAN LEMIRE, Associated Press
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