In Russia News:
Some Trump tweets Monday morning praised Stone for not cooperating, and that Cohen was a liar who should be sentenced to maximum time. George Conway tweeted a suggestion that this might be witness tampering. Experts say it’s close but may not be provable in court.
Here is an Lawfare explainer of the witness tampering law and how it may or may not apply in this case.
In an addendum to Flynn’s sentencing memo, Mueller’s team writes that Flynn sat for 19 interviews, assisting three separate criminal investigations, only one of which is the Russian collusion investigation, and that some of the benefit Flynn has provided “may not be fully realized at this time because the investigations in which he has provided assistance are ongoing.” Muller is recommending no jail time.
There are still questions about whether or not Whitaker has recused himself from the Mueller investigation, and whether or not he has seen the redacted information (among other documents) in the Flynn sentencing memo. So far DOJ is not commenting when asked.
Court documents about Cohen and Manafort were released late Friday afternoon from SDNY and Muller. The Manafort sentencing memo came from Muller and accused Manafort of lying about being in contact with Kilimnick, about being in contact with senior administration officials as late as February 2018, and other matters. He also lied about a $125,000 payment to a firm, and this section was heavily redacted. Here is the Manafort document.
The SDNY issued a 40 page non-redacted sentencing memo that recommended the judge “impose a substantial term of imprisonment.” Cohen admitted to discussing with Trump “contacting the Kremlin in the fall of 2015, months after the beginning of his presidential bid, to organize a meeting between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin at the U.N. General Assembly in September 2015.” Also, the government accused Cohen of crimes in paying hush money to Daniels and McDougal: “Cohen’s commission of two campaign finance crimes on the eve of the 2016 election for President of the United States struck a blow to one of the core goals of the federal campaign finance laws: transparency. While many Americans who desired a particular outcome to the election knocked on doors, toiled at phone banks, or found any number of other legal ways to make their voices heard, Cohen sought to influence the election from the shadows. He did so by orchestrating secret and illegal payments to silence two women who otherwise would have made public their alleged extramarital affairs… Cohen deceived the voting public by hiding alleged facts that he believed would have had a substantial effect on the Election.”
The SDNY also said Trump directed Cohen to commit these crimes: “With respect to both payments, Cohen acted with the intent to influence the 2016 presidential election. Cohen coordinated his actions with one or more members of the campaign, including through meetings and phone calls, about the fact, nature, and timing of the payments. In particular, and as Cohen himself has now admitted, with respect to both payments, he acted in coordination with and at the direction of Individual-1.”
From Lawfare: “this is the first time that the government has alleged in its own voice that President Trump is personally involved in what it considers to be federal offenses.”
Mueller for the first time is publicly connecting the Trump Tower Moscow deal with the election collusion investigation: According to Buzfeed news: “The activity surrounding the Trump Tower Moscow project is ‘particularly’ relevant, Mueller said, because it happened in the time when ‘sustained efforts by the Russian government to interfere’ in the election were taking place.” A Russian athlete named Dmitry Klokov reached out to Cohen in the November 2015 about the Moscow Project, offering to connect Trump and Putin and promising “political synergy.” He told Cohen that “such a meeting could have a ‘phenomenal’ impact ‘not only in political but in a business dimension as well.'”
Reactions:
At 6:00pm Trump tweeted: “Totally clears the President. Thank you!”
David French’s first impression Friday night was to make comparisons to Nixon and Clinton articles of impeachment about encouraging and helping others to lie: “it is highly likely that senior Trump officials reviewed Cohen’s prepared, false testimony before he lied to Congress. This raises two important questions. Was Trump aware of the substance of Cohen’s testimony? If so, was Trump aware that Cohen’s testimony was false?… Nothing is yet set in stone, but tonight was a very bad night for his presidency. Donald Trump’s legal problems continue to mount.”
Ken White (PopeHat on Twitter) writes: “If the Southern District’s fury at Cohen is notable, its explicit accusation that President Trump directed and coordinated campaign-finance violations is simply stunning. The prosecutors’ openness suggests that they are sure of their evidence and have mostly finished collecting it. It’s a sign of a fully developed, late-game investigation of the president’s role, one that may soon make its way to Congress.” Also: “That statement suggests that the special counsel believes that someone in the Trump administration knew of, and approved in advance, Cohen’s lies to Congress. That’s explosive, and potentially impeachable if Trump himself is implicated.”
Andrew McCarthy goes into detail about the campaign finance violations Cohen is charged with, and predicts that SDNY will indict Trump: “According to prosecutors, Pecker arranged with Cohen that the Enquirer would buy McDougal’s story for $150,000 and bury it. Although it was contemplated that Cohen would reimburse Pecker (and then be reimbursed by Trump), the reimbursement did not happen. Cohen, therefore, pleaded guilty not to making his own excessive contribution but to causing a third party to make an illegal contribution. Cohen says he was operating at Trump’s direction. Logically, then, if this is true and Cohen caused the third-party illegal contribution, so did the president. Notably: prosecutors have given Pecker and another American Media executive, Dylan Howard, immunity from prosecution. Do you think prosecutors did that to tighten up the case against Cohen? I don’t.”
In other news:
The funeral of George H.W. Bush was held in the national cathedral on Wednesday. Trump and Melania attended, and sat with all the previous presidents and first ladies in one pew. It was the first time Trump was with all the living presidents.
A US district judge has said an emoluments case against Trump can proceed so long as discovery is limited to the Trump hotel is DC. Maryland and DC now have 13 subpoenas for records that may show Trump has received emoluments from foreign countries through the hotel.
The Washington Post reports that the Saudi’s used veteran groups to send veterans to DC to lobby Congress and put them up in Trump Hotel. They booked blocks of rooms for 500 nights. One veteran initially “believed the trips were organized by other veterans, but that puzzled him, because this group spent money like no veterans group he had ever worked with. There were private hotel rooms, open bars, free dinners. Then, Garcia said, one of the organizers who had been drinking minibar champagne mentioned a Saudi prince. ‘I said, Oh, we were just used to give Trump money,’ Garcia said.”
Haspel gave a classified briefing to senators Tuesday that convinced them the crown prince was directly responsible for the Khasoggi murder: “The intelligence agency is also believed to have evidence that the crown prince communicated repeatedly with an aide who commanded the team that assassinated Mr. Khashoggi, around the time of the journalist’s death on Oct. 2.” Senators suggest Matis and Pompeo are being misleading by sugesting that there is not “smoking gun” evidence of the prince’s guilt.
Friday morning, Trump announced he was downgrading the UN ambassador to a sub-cabinet position, and appointed former Fox News anchor Heather Nauert to the role. He appointed William Barr to be his next Attorney General; he previously held the job for H.W. Bush. And Trump announced Kelly will leave the White House by the end of the year.
Trump’s Job Approval Rating: 42.2%