Representative. Political parties in U.S. Headlines are assigned with a “[Name] (D)” or “[Name] - D” (“D” for Democrat, for a Republican it would of course be an “R”).
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80% of the time, when a rep says something dumb, it’s a Republican.
100% of the time, when it’s a Republican, they’ve said something dumb.
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Cohen’s going to prison for 3 years. Seems lenient but also very likely part of a plea deal and cooperation. He also stated that he feels free of shackles and that he will publically state everything he knows about Trump upon release or after the investigation concludes, casting himself as “covering up dirty deeds”.
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IANAL (my favourite acronym) but I thought that he, by cooperating with the old members of his joint defensive pact, WHILE cooperating with the prosecution team as part of a deal meant his guilty pleas still hold, the sentencing recommendation he secured was forfeit AND his communications with the people in his defensive pact (see individual 1) were now discoverable wheras before they were protected by their aligned interests and attorney client privilege.
So my thinking on the 3 year is that it’s odd because he forfeited his plea deal he should probably be eating the whole book they throw at him. Then again I’ll read popehat’s delve into the minutia of the federal sentencing arrangements when he writes them and I reserve the right to change my mind after hearing from the experts.
You’re thinking of Paul Manafort, not Michael Cohen.
Manafort kept the joint defensive agreement with Trump’s lawyers while dealing with prosecutors. Cohen severed that tie a while ago before he entered into an agreement with both Mueller and the Southern District of NY.
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I am, in fact, mistaken. I do stand by waiting for the analysis of the minutia of the federal sentencing.
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The interesting sentence announcement will be Michael Flynn. Surprisingly, Mueller has recommended that Flynn get no prison time because he was so helpful. It was noted in some report that Mueller submitted to the court that Flynn met with prosecutors 19 times!
Additionally, based on the amount of information that was redacted, people with knowledge about these things have speculated that Flynn must be giving Mueller information about other investigations besides just Russian interference.
If in fact Flynn gets zero jail time, that will be a big key in confirming that he’s been super helpful to Mueller.
The read I’m seeing (IANAL) is that he’d go to jail for a long time normally, but that the value he’s provided (and possibly is still providing) to the investigation is a major mitigating factor. The fact that he still gets a relatively stiff sentence with cooperation implies that the crimes involved are very very very serious. That is to say, the crimes he is not currently charged with.
As in, the crimes a certain other individual is likely implicated in.
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I AM a lawyer, although not a criminal one, so take that for what it’s worth, but from the sentencing recommendations put forth, Mueller’s team has characterized Cohen as being helpful. This makes sense considering Cohen has confessed to having further contacts with Russia, etc.
However, SDNY has said that Cohen has not been that helpful, and recommended a heavier sentence. While Cohen had confessed to campaign finance violations, it appears that he has not been forthcoming with SDNY regarding other Trump related, but not Russia related matters. That’s why SDNY didn’t recommend a lighter sentence.
As a result, you have two conflicting reports: Mueller says Cohen was helpful with those investigations while SDNY is stating that Cohen wasn’t helpful and held back.
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One thing that shouldn’t fall under the table is that Cohen is former deputy finance chair of the Republican Party. He probably has a lot of dirt on a looooot of Republicans.
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This is actually pretty wild tbh, because this rag has been killing negative stories for Trump for a while by buying them off of people. Who knows what dirt they have on file?
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EDIT:
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Gronk build wall. Gronk build wall good. Wall good.
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Straight from someone’s russian handler to press release unedited.
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“I treated you like shit. Why can’t you be grateful?”
Classical narcissism and sociopathy.