Yeah, one of the basic requirements of the lawyer-client relationship pretty much anywhere I’d imagine is that the lawyer has to tell the client what is going on and seek their instructions.
I believe these are the relevant rules for the New York bar:
http://www.nycourts.gov/rules/jointappellate/ny-rules-prof-conduct-1200.pdf
Exam question: How many of those rules would you say the conduct alleged against Mr Cohen would breach?
Wow, he sure went under that bus quickly. Going to get popcorn now.
I just meant they were too coherent, advancing a specific legal theory of events. Trump would have contradicted himself and lost track of his own point by the middle of the second tweet.
EDIT: Also there were no personal insults, no “Slimy Stephanie” or comments on her appearance
isn’t the idea here to take pressure off of cohen? trump probably thinks that he can wriggle out of a FEC charge but cohen can’t… thus taking some pressure off of cohen to flip.
not that it works, but it’s a step in the right direction for trump’s team.
I am really missing why people are trying to make themselves feel better about the freaking hell our presidency is by pointing out what a slimeball he is when all this was known far far before the election and he still got elected?
You realize if there was an election today, he’d STILL get re-elected? What’s being put on display that is any different than the first time around? Who is going to be the reasonable alternative for people to vote for?
So we are going to end up with acting President Pence which is an even bigger nightmare because he will end up picking the most possible conservative supreme court judges. And he instead will run for re/election and probably get elected.
How are we going to fix this? Because attacking him is not fixing anything.
If this were the case, then Cohen has to cop to what the money was for. Or flip on Trump.
Cohen may be toast in any case. Ms. Daniels’ lawyer made an appearance on Colbert’s show last night. He claims that since there’s evidence the money issued from the California branch of their shadow company, the California Attorney General might just choose to get involved. If so, Trump can’t pardon Cohen for any state charges filed.
Yeah like I said its still a shit show.
But what this looks like is presenting a cogent, legally sensible explanation for events. Suggests a defense against the worst, And mostly clearly political of the speculation. And especially where it touches on the legitimacy of Trumps election. Something of a touchy subject for Trump.
That’s all I’m saying. This doesnt look like Rudy blew up Trump’s spot. This looks like floating an explanation that can be a potential legal defense and tamps down the worst of the PR problem. Rather than a sketchy void that leaves open all sorts of questions from the public. Now you have a series of sketchy specifics that can clearly be spun and totally legal and normal you guys.
Giuliani’s comment about payment being routes through another firm leads to questions about money laundering. And settlements aren’t handled that way. Paying your clients hush money out of pocket and then taking what your owed out of his retainer ain’t normal.
If the reimbursable money came out of Trump’s pocket. Not the campaign’s they can argue that he didn’t. He made Trump an interest free unreported loan. It’s spinable and suggests an actual defense strategy based on something other than key stone kops denial.
And it hems in the worst of the public speculation. There’s a lot fewer thing it could be with this new story than the old one.
All I’m trying to say is this is likely deliberate and not a bad thing from there perspective.
Why isn’t anybody asking why Trump didn’t sign the NDA? It seems to me that, now Trump claims he knew about it, there’s no reason for him not to have signed it. And since he didn’t sign it, how can it be valid?
People were already asking it. When he claimed bot to know about it. It’s the whole justification for the current suit.
The news hasn’t digested this current series of “shocking” revelations.
Now apparently the White House is REALLING because of Giuliani’s revelation. Because idiots. Probably because they don’t like the reaction of Rudy jumped the gun. Or not all of them got the memo.
It’s not a smart or consistent move. But I think it’s pretty clearly a move.
Eta: And it’s clearly not 4th dimensional chess. It 4th dimensional grab ass.
Though that came from the moron’s twitter feed, it was obviously not written by the moron, but by his lawyer. Just look at it: no weird capitalization, no epithets, no “No Collusion”, etc. The complete thought expressed across 3 tweets is that of an adult and not a sputtering child.
Although, this isn’t the smartest lawyer: just how does a lawyer misspell “role”??
Seriously? I am so sick of this PC bullshit. We can’t call them wealthy people or, god forbid, rich, now it has to be people of wealth?!
/s
If I go with the Giuliani-not-a-total-moron theory you are advancing, I guess I can see how this might be the best to be made of a bad situation. So many awful things are in public knowledge already, so what can they control now?
This could be the best version of events for Trump:
Michael Cohen was his attorney
Michael Cohen fixed a problem with someone coming forward with false claims
Trump didn’t know how Michael Cohen fixed it at the time
Trump later became aware of the $130k payment and repaid it to Cohen out of his own pocket.
Campaign finance violations might be hard to make out of that. And the Edwards case for illegal donations wasn’t actually successful, so going up against that is a lot safer than going up against misspending campaign money.
It still leaves a lot of problems from a political perspective, and if it isn’t true it may well leave some very serious legal problems depending on what records were seized from Cohen’s office. But the political problems are mitigated by the fact that it just doesn’t matter what Trump does - nothing matters at all.
I never understood the “Trump is playing 4-dimensional chess” argument. When has he shown that he’s smart enough to play regular chess? He hasn’t. Anything he’s accomplished in life has been because he was born with a rich father.
I thought he had.
(Trump is white, obviously)
That’s not my theory at all. He’s a total moron. But he is a lawyer of some sort working with other lawyers. And that’s a plausible legal approach.
People looking at the never ending series of new shocking reveals, scandals, And idiocy. Which has at times legitimately distracted from some more important issues. And assuming it’s deliberate. Or looking for a sensible explanation.
The meme/claim seemed to start with trumps supporters just confirmation bias. If Trump is a genius at manipulating and distracting us then it justifies their support better than Trump being a total goon. The press likes it because it’s a great argument to have on TV and the left buys it because there’s never been a left winger who can’t constantly predict doom.
Sorry, that was sloppy writing. I meant a Giuliani’s-actions-are-not-totally-moronic-here theory.
I agree with you, but note that predicting doom is not solely a quality of left-wingers. I have right-wing friends who are still loudly warning people that the Commies are coming.
Isn’t “When the Revolution comes…” the ultimate indicator of optimism?
