US politics general thread

[RanzB]

Remember when this was all a "witch hunt"?

Lolz

 

[RanzB]

Rep. Duncan Hunter, wife charged with spending campaign money on personal expenses

The Justice Department on Tuesday charged a Republican congressman and his wife with using more than $250,000 in campaign funds to pay for family vacations, theater tickets and other personal expenses.

Rep. Duncan D. Hunter (Calif.) and his wife, Margaret, were charged in a 47-page indictment that details how they allegedly used campaign money to live beyond their means, funding trips to Italy, Hawaii and other places, as well as school tuition, dental work and theater tickets. The Justice Department said in a news release that the couple also allegedly spent tens of thousands of dollars on more modest items, such as golf outings, video games and even home utilities.

Womp womp.

 

[OrbitalDawn]

Rep. Duncan Hunter, wife charged with spending campaign money on personal expenses



Womp womp.

Dude literally bought games on Steam with campaign money. Baller.

*edit*

Also...

https://www.businessinsider.com.au/...ment-campaign-funds-military-2018-8?r=US&IR=T

During a trip to Hawaii in 2015, Hunter allegedly told Margaret he planned “to buy my Hawaii shorts” but had run out of money. Margaret then advised him to buy the shorts at a golf pro shop so they could later falsely describe the sale as “some [golf] balls for the wounded warriors,” the indictment said.

That same year, Hunter attempted to justify using campaign money to fund a family trip to Italy by setting up a tour of a US Navy facility in the country. Navy officials said they could not accommodate a tour on his date, to which he responded by telling his chief of staff, “tell the navy to go f— themselves,” the indictment said.

Of course he pretty soon afterward criticised Colin Kaepernick for "disrespecting the troops".

 

[Aquila ka Hecate]

Noteable absence of Trump supporters talking about Manafort and Cohen on social media. The silence is heavenly.
Trumpists seem to lack the personal consciousness to admit they were wrong, so I'm not really surprised.

 

[OrbitalDawn]

Noteable absence of Trump supporters talking about Manafort and Cohen on social media. The silence is heavenly.
Trumpists seem to lack the personal consciousness to admit they were wrong, so I'm not really surprised.

Already got their responses lined up.

An actual article headline from some conservative propaganda outlet "Jury Fails To Convict Manafort On Majority Of Counts, Finds Him Guilty On 8 Counts Of Fraud".

 

[rietrot]

Noteable absence of Trump supporters talking about Manafort and Cohen on social media. The silence is heavenly.
Trumpists seem to lack the personal consciousness to admit they were wrong, so I'm not really surprised.

How much more can people really say about that witch hunt?

 

[Aquila ka Hecate]

How much more can people really say about that witch hunt?

Aaarrrghh. You just had to go and rend the quiet, didn't you?

 

[Aquila ka Hecate]

Already got their responses lined up.

An actual article headline from some conservative propaganda outlet "Jury Fails To Convict Manafort On Majority Of Counts, Finds Him Guilty On 8 Counts Of Fraud".

It's as if they don't realise that there's a much more serious trial coming up for Manafort.
That pile of witches just keeps on growing.

 

[cerebus]

Cohen's lawyer on Maddow show:

Mr. Cohen has knowledge on certain subjects that should be of interest to the special counsel and is more than happy to tell the special counsel all that he knows—not just about the obvious possibility of a conspiracy to collude and corrupt the American democracy system in the 2016 election, which the Trump Tower meeting was all about, but also knowledge about the computer crime of hacking and whether or not Trump knew ahead of time about that crime and even cheered it on.

 

[greg0205]

 

[The_Assimilator]

 

[The_Assimilator]

How much more can people really say about that witch hunt?

I dunno... maybe that it found witches?

 

[rietrot]

I dunno... maybe that it found witches?

Old news. We've known the guy paid off the prostitute for a year already.

 

[cerebus]

Old news. We've known the guy paid off the prostitute for a year already.

Did we know he ordered Cohen to pay them off, in violation of campaign finance laws?

 

[konfab]

Did we know he ordered Cohen to pay them off, in violation of campaign finance laws?

The laws in question:

In the case of Clifford, Cohen arranged a nondisclosure agreement for which he paid her $130,000, and for that Cohen was charged with making an excessive campaign contribution, since the payment was made in service of the campaign and exceeded the federal limit.

https://edition.cnn.com/2018/08/21/politics/michael-cohen-plea-deal-talks/index.html

I do stand to be corrected but, the violation is for the amount being over the limit rather than being "ordered to".

 

[greg0205]

The laws in question:


https://edition.cnn.com/2018/08/21/politics/michael-cohen-plea-deal-talks/index.html

I do stand to be corrected but, the violation is for the amount being over the limit rather than being "ordered to".

Campaign finance violations are federal crimes.

Mikey knowingly committed a federal crime at the direction of “the candidate”... it’s the very definition of a criminal conspiracy.

 

[cerebus]

https://www.vox.com/2018/8/21/17765566/michael-cohen-plea-deal-trump-mueller

Jens David Ohlin, law professor, Cornell University

Trump is clearly guilty of violating campaign finance laws and also guilty of federal conspiracy as well (because he agreed with Cohen, and possibly others, on a plan to violate federal law). Normally he would be indicted right away. But that won’t happen only because he’s the president. But I suspect he’ll be named as an unindicted co-conspirator and also there’ll be a separate section of the Mueller report titled “Conspiracy to Violate Campaign Finance Laws” or something like that.

 

[buka001]

Noteable absence of Trump supporters talking about Manafort and Cohen on social media. The silence is heavenly.
Trumpists seem to lack the personal consciousness to admit they were wrong, so I'm not really surprised.

MAGA twitter is either all about the unfortunate death of Mollie Tibbets, allegedly killed by an illegal immigrant, as they need to spin those wheels to distract and create the counter narrative, or they are downplaying the conviction and guilty plea to say it was pre-campaign or since Trump used his own money to pay off Stormy, it is not illegal.

 

[greg0205]

https://www.vox.com/2018/8/21/17765566/michael-cohen-plea-deal-trump-mueller

Jens David Ohlin, law professor, Cornell University

Trump is clearly guilty of violating campaign finance laws and also guilty of federal conspiracy as well (because he agreed with Cohen, and possibly others, on a plan to violate federal law). Normally he would be indicted right away. But that won’t happen only because he’s the president. But I suspect he’ll be named as an unindicted co-conspirator and also there’ll be a separate section of the Mueller report titled “Conspiracy to Violate Campaign Finance Laws” or something like that.

^ This.

Although he hasn't been named as an unindicted co-conspirator in court documents yet, that's exactly what Cohen's guilty plea makes him.
If/when Mikey cooperates with the Mueller probe now, and they have him testify before a Grand Jury, you can bet the house on that unindicted co-conspirator asterisk being printed next to Trump's name into perpetuity.

 

[Unhappy438]

Ooh the witch pursuit is starting to gather steam.