It sounds like a cunning cunning trap to let Trump pardon him

Part of me hopes that this whole affair just builds and builds and builds, to the point that its turns into a (wolf of wall st reference) ‘Grenada’ for Mueller et al, and it makes history as the biggest slam dunk ever, and is used as an example in text books for centuries as a ‘whatever you do, don’t do this, this is the worst thing you can do’ type example.

My only worry is the damage that will be done in the build up.

One thing about Trump being arrested/accepting a plea to resign rather than face jail/go to jail/whatever is that the world ends up with Pence as president. Not sure that’s much better, if at all.

Especially when you consider that the man who ‘contributed barely anything to Trump’s campaign’, one P. Manafort, was instrumental in getting Pence chosen as running mate by Trump.

Perhaps for tactical reasons to get the God bothering vote out, perhaps because he’s a vacant, gullible, pliable fool who won’t get in the way of swamp-filling activities should he become POTUS.

https://www.newsweek.com/mike-pence-was-handpicked-paul-manafort-696412

Apparently impeachment is only a convention, a president can be indicted.

Apparently impeachment is only a convention, a president can be indicted.

DOJ has issues with inditing a sitting president, it’s not been done before but it will probably end up in the Supreme court if the Houses don’t want rid of him forst

But Cohen’s personal lawyer said his client was ready to “tell everything about Donald Trump that he knows”.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-45270339

I’m sure even Muller doesn’t want to know “everything”

Cohen apparently has already spoken to Meuller re collusion

Also new allegations about Manafort taking money from Russians already indicted by Meuller

Cohen has now said he wouldn’t accept a pardon from the “criminal” Trump. How long until he cops a plea bargain and leaves the US presidency? I don’t imagine he is dumb enough to ride this into a jail cell.

I don’t imagine he is dumb enough to ride this into a jail cell.

Not on purpose, anyway.

If anyone is looking for a good lawyer, I would strongly suggest that you don’t retain the services of Michael Cohen!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 22, 2018

Has someone hacked his account? Thats a reasonably well constructed sentence without and FAILING capitals. SAD!

I WOULD STRONGLY SUGGEST THAT YOU DON'T RETAIN THE SERVICES OF MICHAEL COHEN pic.twitter.com/vKFmmnTocg

— delrayser (@delrayser) August 22, 2018

Surely someone has a still from a Stormy Daniels movie to add to this meme? 🙂

seth abramson predicted this 6 months ago, now hes even more certain

CONCLUSION/ The end of this story was all but confirmed tonight—proof of Trump-Russia collusion in the public square and Trump's impeachment or resignation (though resignation would lead to indictment, so he'll avoid that). The question now? *How long it takes to get there*. /end

— Seth Abramson (@SethAbramson) August 22, 2018

Wonder if hes going for the shortest time served by a president who didn’t die on the job? brightest star burns for the shortest time etc

how long before we get the “of course I conluded” tweet with the ex aequo et bono defence 🙂

Agreed. While this is an uplifting moment, Trump has sowed so much anger at the fictitious ‘deep state’ and the federal government in general among his base in a bid to save his own skin, that we can expect domestic terrorism of the type we saw in Oklahoma City if he finally gets turfed out or resigns.

And again the very people that fear terrorism the most will be the ones doing it, where’s my Alanis album…

how long before we get the “of course I colluded” tweet

Didn’t he already post that one?

Didn’t he already post that one?

Think so, he definitely said it wasn’t illegal. Which is good enough for me

Question is can Mannafort hold out until after the midterms when, assuming Meuller has wrapped up, Trump can pardon him safely?

If Cohen or others have given Meuller the goods on the trump tower Russian meetings, will Don jr & kushner be indicated soon too ?

Cohen also implicated others in trump organisation that handle his property dealings, there’s some very shady stuff there for Trump, including in Russia.

https://www.bostonglobe.com/news/nation/2018/08/22/trump-company-approved-payments-cohen-relying-sham-invoices-prosecutors-say/cnDygjXJquzH0G6xl6T9mJ/amp.html

It all hangs on the midterms, before impeachment could start

Has he got the Plans drawn up for that wall yet ?

😜🔥🔥🔥🔥

its all ok, he have pleaded guilty to things which is not illegal, and Obama broke the law.

DOJ has issues with inditing a sitting president, it’s not been done before but it will probably end up in the Supreme court

Well considering trump jump appointed a new supreme court judge that believes a sitting president can do no wrong and should never be indited doesn’t look like it will happen…

There are two ways out of this, either Trump voluntarily cooperates and ultimately resigns, or the GOP throw him under a bus. Even if the mid terms go as expected, The Senate has ultimate day over impeachment proceedings.

There is also growing concern that the mid-term elections will be subject to foreign interference.

or the GOP throw him under a bus

The GOP and most the American business community have proven to be nothing but a bunch of snivelling toads, I don’t expect that to change. The few who tried to act with honour have been forced out.

The GOP and most the American business community have proven to be nothing but a bunch of snivelling toads, I don’t expect that to change.

I would expect their sense of self preservation to kick in soon enough if he heads south (I don’t mean getting more racist by that) they are having issues with candidates either trying not to be too trumpy or being very trumpy.

It will be telling who gets in. That is what will shape what comes next, if trump gets toxic to being on the gravy train.

Cohen wants a deal so bad!

“Mr Cohen has direct knowledge … that suggests, I’m not sure it proves, that Mr Trump was aware of Russian government agents hacking illegally, committing computer crimes, to the detriment of the candidate he was running against, Hillary Clinton.”

-Michael Cohen’s lawyer on PBS pic.twitter.com/OgGSxHeywX

— Ryan Goodman (@rgoodlaw) August 22, 2018

Of course he was aware.

trump is clearly not one for ethics or rules. Not once if he was offered any dirt/leverage/advantage would he ever have said no, and most importantly he is too stupid to have distanced himself appropriately

DOJ has issues with inditing a sitting president

This is is the critical piece for me.

the POTUS is an almost pope/deity like position for the Americans. The sanctity of that role is huge to them. As far as I know, and I’m more than happy to be corrected, but no POTUS has been forcibly removed from power. Nixon is the only one to ever resign.

americans pretty much can’t deal with the POTUS being fallible. Remove one, and the whole integrity of that position is dented forever. Americans know that.

they have to try and convince him behind the scenes to step down. However I don’t think his ego will allow him to do that.

The next few weeks and months are certainly going to be interesting!

As we’ve said before, somebody like Trump, in his line of business, MUST have so many skeletons in his closet.  Whats protected him in the past was that there was no motivation to go after him – particularly given his litigious nature.  In becoming such a contentious president he’s motivated armies of people to dig around in his past and uncover all the shady shit he’s been up to over the years.

I think that realistically they are looking at tying him up until 2020 so he can’t do too much harm – it will be interesting to see at what point the GOP cuts him loose.

I’m guessing that whenever he leaves the presidency the floodgates of civil suits and criminal charges are going to open.

Interesting to see the different approaches of Cohen and Manafort.  Manafort is standing by his man, and obviously banking on a presidential pardon (although I suspect he will simply be re-arrested for something else).  Cohen has obviously seen the writing on the wall and completely switched teams…… maybe an indication of recent progress in the investigation.

americans pretty much can’t deal with the POTUS being fallible. Remove one, and the whole integrity of that position is dented forever. Americans know that.

Fail to remove over one and lose the political system as they know it.

I predict no change. He’s successfully painted the FBI,CIA, DOJ and about every other government organisation as biased and corrupt. And his voter base believes him.

And his voter base believes him

Agreed.  But his “base” will support him whatever he does – its a complete waste of time and effort trying to engage with them, and it’s pinning the level of discourse to the floor.  This thread is a great example of a tiny minority of one or two individuals disproportionately influencing the debate.

Fortunately, I don’t think his base is big enough in itself to win re-election – he needs sufficient support from republican/independent voters, and/or democrat voters to stay away.

The question is whether he will be able to get sufficient votes outside of his base, and whether the democrats will field a candidate that 100% of democrats (and enough moderate republicans/undecideds) can get behind.

I’m predicting a pre-election mega-flounce, which will result in Pence running as the republican candidate.  He’s keeping his powder dry for something….

The question is whether he will be able to get sufficient votes outside of his base, and whether the democrats will field a candidate that 100% of democrats (and enough moderate republicans/undecideds) can get behind.

Completely agree with this.  I thought the nomination of Clinton at the time to be spectacularly ill advised.

The mid-terms will certainly be interesting, should give a good idea of how big his deluded supporter base actually is. Can’t see the GOP doing anything, they’d still rather be in power with Trump as President than not be in power.

Fingers-crossed most Americans come to their senses and give him a kicking in the mid-terms and that’s enough for the GOP to start turning against him. Sadly I think it’s unlikely though.

Regarding the whole “infallible POTUS” thing: does anyone know how that compares to the UK?

It seems that an  American president (as in “any”, not specifically Trump) could be clearly guilty of a crime but be untouchable while in office.

What would we do in the UK if our PM was found to be acting illegally? I expect they’d resign or face a vote of no confidence, but do we have the same assumed protection from prosecution?

What would we do in the UK if our PM was found to be acting illegally? I

It’s not really a like for like comparison. The pm isn’t directly elected and doesn’t perform the same role as president.

A president is more of a directly elected short term monarch- all be it with a few more executive powers than our monarch now has (the power to have ships, hospitals and by-passes named after you and eat swans)

in fairly recent history a monarch has been strongly encouraged to abdicate – but they did the abdicating. I don’t know if we can depose a monarch against their will

I don’t know if you can depose a monarch against their will

I believe it’s been done… 🙂

Basically Nixon or Clinton

Nixon was backed so far into a corner the only way out was resign but with the sweetener of

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pardon_of_Richard_Nixon

Full pardon

They took Clinton down the impeachment route but the numbers didn’t go for them

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impeachment_of_Bill_Clinton#Senate_votes

IMHO there’s no way Trumps going to be a two term president under the amount of pressure that’s building up on him.

Unless he can make it all go away he’s going to be broken by it.

Well tactics seem to be short lived

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-45285585

<p class=”story-body__introduction”>US President Donald Trump has responded to speculation that he might be impeached by warning that any such move would damage the economy.</p>
“If I ever got impeached, I think the market would crash,” he said in an interview with Fox & Friends.

It might crash but recovery would also happen if it’s done right, many will see it as a relief.

But sack me and I’ll take you all down with me is certainly heading into a corner from a strategy point of view.

Meanwhile this is how you have a real battle for the top job

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-08-23/live-peter-dutton-poised-to-challenge-malcolm-turnbull-again/10155008