Trump says he expects to be arrested on Tuesday in Manhattan DA case

Sounds like this makes a Tuesday arrest unlikely, and Mango a liar yet again...

Anybody still keeping track of that number?

Doesn't sound like a fact witness to me... I didn't know they would bother "undermining" a witness at the GJ level.... isn't that a trial task??

SNIP
Costello is a former legal advisor to Cohen, and will appear before the grand jury "solely to undermine" Cohen's credibility, sources familiar with the matter told The New York Times, which first broke the identity of the mystery defense witness testifying Monday.
ENDSNIP

Dammit... I was all ready to have some celebratory beverages too....

 

Did you compare the cases? Obviously not.

 

In lieu of a "normal" conjugal visit, Mango will request his hair and makeup folks in the sex trailer...

 

The Loser having paid hush money to a any of the bimbos he schtupped behind the backs of trophy wives was not illegal.

It is well known that Trump is very skanky.

Trump Admits To Authorizing Stormy Daniels Payoff
​

Giuliani confirmed that such payoffs were probably his normal practice:

Rudy Giuliani said on Sunday he would not rule out the possibility that payments were made to women other than porn star Stormy Daniels to get them to stay silent about accusations against Trump.

​

Giuliani told ABC's This Week that he had no knowledge of whether former Trump attorney Michael Cohen had other payments but he said, "I would think if it was necessary, yes. He [Cohen] made payments for the president or he's conducted business for the president."
https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/trump-giuliani-stormy-daniels-payments-other-women-1.4650838

​

Of course, what is illegal is falsely claiming that such a payoff is a campaign expense.

That is obvious, and no political candidate, no matter how slutty, is above the law, whine as he may.​

 

I read it's uncommon for a rebuttal witness to testify in a GJ proceeding but can be granted.
This could be about a pardon, Cohen said Costello was dangling one and Costello said Cohen asked for one.
Giuliani was in the middle of all the schemes and lies,,,by all of them.
Did they have a joint defense in the hush payments or maybe the Trump Russia Tower?
These guys were in so many investigations/lawsuits/trials it's hard to keep up.


That said, remember this Giuliani - Hillary "what the ****" moment?

"Is the payment a violation of campaign finance law?"

"Giuliani says no, because the money was not campaign money. But experts say yes, arguing that the money was used to influence the campaign and this should have been reported – and that both Cohen and Trump are responsible.

“Trump’s tweets about Michael Cohen’s retainer do not change the fact that Cohen’s payment to Daniels was made just days before the election,” said Corey Goldstone, media strategist at the nonpartisan Campaign Legal Center. “A reasonable person might think that the payment was made to protect Trump from bad headlines that could damage his standing in the 2016 election. There are still questions that have to be answered about whether the payment constitutes an illegal in-kind contribution.”

Indeed, Giuliani basically admitted in a later interview that the timing had political considerations.

“Imagine if that came out on October 15th, 2016, in the middle of the, you know, last debate with Hillary Clinton,” he told Fox News’s “Fox & Friends” about the payment. “Cohen didn’t even ask. Cohen made it go away. He did his job.”

Trevor Potter, the President of the Campaign Legal Center, said in a subsequent lengthy statement that these comments proved the political relevance of the failure to disclose the payment, strengthening the argument about a violation of campaign finance laws. “…that is an admission that the confidentiality agreement and the timing of the payment influenced the 2016 elections,” he said."

https://time.com/5264311/rudy-giuliani-donald-trump-michael-cohen-stormy-daniels-payment/

 

You bolded a lot of good stuff, but I like the "Cohen made it go away. He did his job.” line... The fixer fixed it, then went to prison for it.... I expect he'll actually make an empathetic witness...

Anybody who thinks the timing of this didn't have "political considerations" is a bigger fool than even Rudy...

A smart candidate would have made sure his past f*cks.....errr.... ducks were paid off BEFORE he announced, but the numbers proved too large to handle..

 

Rudy just outdid himself.

Spiro’s Ghost
@SpiroAgnewGhost
·
1h

Dementia Rudy with an all time great quote
Quote Tweet



@RonFilipkowski
·
1h
Rudy on a Trump indictment: “You can look at ancient history, and you can see this is the kind of thing that ends a civilization.”

 

That IS funny...

That must be the 2nd box of Chardonnay speaking...

I'll never forget where I was when I learned about Romulus Augustus being indicted for a campaign finance violation in 476 AD...

 

This is where it gets REALLY fun.

Apparently Meatball hasn't taken the knee (quickly enough) and defended his potential future opponent by shutting the borders to Florida from the feds... or whatever he's supposed to do here...

https://www.yahoo.com/news/trumpworld-attacks-desantis-over-not-021147095.html

Sadly, the best line is from the convicted felon who still hasn't seen the inside of his prison

SNIP
The right-wing radio host and Steve Bannon ally added: “You have to choose between your Wall Street gangster-bankster big donor hedge fund open border benefactors-or us. Who do you choose to stand with, Ron?”
ENDSNIP

Quite the mouthful there....

 

That is funny,

Where were you?
(chuckle"

 

Yes, it's naive idealism. We know their position, they've sang the position for years. And yet, the result is the current bloody stalemate that exists between Ukrainian and Russian forces now. Neither side is willing to budge, and both sides will bleed to death. And yes, the idea that some war in a far off European continent is going to influence Xi Jingping, is the wish of those in the Pentagon.

Emphasis on the word 'wish'. Not reality. The spat with Taiwan lasted far longer than the current Ukrainian episode. It's lasted past several presidencies and several decades. The CCP has had a long, ardent desire to reincorporate the island into mainland China. The idea of 'ooh, look, we're going to respond' is not threatening to the Chinese. They are aware of an American response. They're just readying themselves for said response and the ongoing war over Taiwan and the navigational waters.

Likewise, we should be preparing ourselves for what that response will be but we're not. Instead, we're putting time and resources into the Ukrainian war theater, hoping that the theater will affect the outcome in Asia.(And I'm basically paraphrasing their military theory.) But one cursory look at Chinese war doctrine shows that Ukraine will not be a factor whatsoever in the battle of Asia. They're two different war theaters.

 

They're acting like packs of rabid animals,


No mention of Bannon's bff the zillionaire Guo?
I haven't seen anything, also haven't looked.

Steve needs to refrain from using the word "wall" memories of "we build the wall"


Trump should consider killing 2 birds with one stone and make a pit stop in Fulton Co. Georgia on his way to Wash DC.

 

The MAGA MOAT is gonna stop The Marauders...
Trump is gonna do his best Randy Weaver/David Koresh Impression...

 

Firstly US Air and Naval arsenals have been virtually untouched by the the war in Ukraine with the exception of some older generation and soon to be obsolete HARMS etc. Secondly the only areas where there have been serious draw downs in land force arsenals are in artillery shells, HIMARS, MANPADS and ATGMS etc. Again virtually everything else is intact/at pre-war levels. On top of that production of all the of those systems is being seriously ramped up to replace those draw downs. So much so that unless China decides to attack in the next 2-3 years there won't be a shortfall.

Thirdly and more importantly if (and that's a huge if) there is another Chinese initiated war in South East Asia involving the US it won't be a land war. At least not initially. So even a temporary shortage of the systems I listed is unlikely to matter. What will matter are the naval and air power arsenals of the US and its Pacific Allies, which as I noted above are more or less completely intact.

Lastly and most critically your completely forgetting the political element in deciding to go to war. The war in Ukraine may not have direct military application to China but the political ramifications do. Firstly XI has got to see first hand the how the Soviet based systems and tactics his army has developed have performed in real life. You can bet the leadership of the Chinese army is watching events there with concern and rewriting combat manuals as we speak. Secondly Xi has got to see first the international political and economic ramification of the war. And he's seen how a supposedly slam dunk victory by the Russians against a supposedly inferior foe has turned into a crippling and humiliating stalemate - perhaps soon even a defeat.

So while XI may be all in favor of invading Taiwan (and I'm sure the plans are drawn up and ready to go) but he now has a glaring example of the risks he personally will be facing if that invasion goes wrong. And he'll be meeting with the man who ordered the invasion of Ukraine shortly, the man who has gambled not just his political future but the future of his entire country on winning a war he now looks like loosing. Putin has given XI a first hand lesson in political ramifications of lost wars and you can bet he WILL be thinking very heavily about those ramifications before he launches any war himself.

Don't ever forget the politics.

 

The logistics of the two theaters are also completely different. Whereas Russian logistical challenges were significant, Taiwan is just off of the coast of the main Chinese homeland. China will have little to no logistical difficulty in taking Taiwan if it should so choose. The ONLY reason they hadn't done so yet, is an American response. And the longer and more prudent the Chinese are at letting this ride out while building their own naval and air forces, the more our advantage in the Pacific theater dwindles.

The other mistake here, is the idea that the Chinese are borrowing from the Soviet based system. Not so, the Chinese have not only modernized their economy but in the Great Famine era(mid-60's) broke vastly with Soviet Moscow on several key issues. They are not the same. I know the Pentagon wants to hope and pray they're the same, but they're not the same.

If we keep on the current path, and if the Ukrainian-Russian war has no end in sight, then we will be in a Vietnam-esque quagmire, meanwhile the Chinese will prepare their long awaited ambitions to reclaim the island. The hope that the Chinese are 'watching' Russia, is again, a laughable silly dream when one is even remotely familiar with the Chinese ambitions.

China doesn't care about American politics(see: Balloon-gate, as well as the Chinese caught spies in the US.). China doesn't care about what we think, anymore than the Russians cared either. All China cares about, is reclaiming the island and expanding its claims to the 'south Chinese sea'.

What happens in Ukraine is a snore fest to the upper echelons of the Chinese military.

 

This may seem terribly obvious to any American, but tell me again why I care about that Island off the coast of China? I know I have been told to, since I was prepublescent. I know we made lots of promises so our 'honor' says we should, like the British did in Hong Kong. But I think I need more than that.

 

Appeasement of one will be easily perceived as appeasement of another. Location is irrelevant.

If has everything to do with it, but it's only one small aspect of the total picture, which I've already expressed and substantiated.

You have made a lot of declarations of what you believe to be fact, but you do not substantiate your positions.

You'll have to do better, so, until then, my comment stands unrefuted.

 

Again you are wrong. The logistical challenges facing China if it chooses to invade Taiwan are enormous. The problem is you are conflating 'attack' with invasion. China can attack Taiwan the moment of Xi' decides to do so and with no more than a few minutes notice. What it can't do is invade it on short notice.The two actions are entirely in terms of difficulty and complexity. An attack merely requires launch orders, an invasion requires China to assemble an invasion fleet and concentrate troops, equipment and supplies on the coast. Now of course it can do that but it takes time (at least weeks if not longer) to concentrate all the forces and transports required. And this is the important point - as soon as it starts doing this those preparations will be noticed. By the US, by Taiwan and by all the other major powers in the Pacific region.

It simply can't be hidden, any more than the Allied preparations for the invasion of Europe could be hidden and they took the best part of two years to complete! And of course the same thing applies to Germany's aborted invasion of England. In both cases the preparations were blatantly obvious. And it's only gotten worse since then given the ubiquity of electronic surveillance. Hell even Russia's build up for the invasion of Ukraine was 'telegraphed' weeks in advance. Ukraine's government might have initially not wanted to believe it was true but NATO intelligence picked up the signs long before the troops actually went in - and Russia didn't have 20 miles of ocean to cross when it did so.

As of the 'snore fests comment again you've missed the point unless of course you claim to sit in on PRC Army planning sessions? Firstly while China has developed it's own military and industrial complex and is now far less reliant on Russian military purchases than it was 20 years ago that complex is still based on Russian military designs and purchases. China has doesn't what it always tried to do. It purchased advanced aircraft and other military equipment from Russia and then reverse engineered it!

The thing is with the purchase of those systems came the training and tactical doctrines that comes with it. When the US sells advanced systems to it's trade partners it not only sells the system but also (A) it trains the purchasers military on how to operate and maintain the system in question but it also importantly (B) trains the user on what it considers to be the best tactical doctrines for using that system so that the country in question uses that system to it's maximum advantage ( or if you prefer how to get the most 'bang for you buck'). Russia and all other major arms sellers do exactly the same with their own big ticket, expensive weapon systems.

In China's case this means the doctrines they have developed for using the aircraft, missiles,armored vehicles, ships and submarines etc they originally purchased from Russia and then copied are based on Russian military doctrines. And it's not as if they have a choice about this since the US and its major arms exporting allies don't advanced weapon systems to China!. It literally has had no choice but to base its military doctrines on a Russian template because that's the only one available! And its not as if they've fought any war of their own to provide contrasting lessons. (The Vietnam war was a complete disaster for them and predated China's modernization so it's no help.)

Do you see the problem now? China has no baseline but Russia's to base it's tactical doctrines on. Yes on paper it knows what to do but it's never actually fought a war where it could test those doctrines and make adjustments. And now if Xi want's to invade Taiwan he has to plan/initiate that invasion knowing that not only will the West be aware of its preparations well in advance but that it's military may and I stress 'may' have based it's tactical operations on a flawed model. (Not to mention the fact that the tech it bought from Russia doesn't seem to have fared very well against even the oldest/most basic of Western combat systems some of which like Stinger's are what? 40 years old!

So tell me. All that taken into consideration if you were a 'Chinese General' would you be engaging in a snore fest right at the moment?

 

Don't want to stick my big schnozz in your private argument, but history proves the preparations for Overlord, at least the eventual landing beach sites, were reasonably well disguised.

SNIP
In addition, the Allied deception plan, Operation ‘Fortitude’, convinced OKW – and Hitler - that Normandy was a feint and the main Allied landings would come later in the Pas de Calais region. Fifteenth Army was held there. Such was the success of ‘Fortitude’ that many units were kept away from the Normandy battlefield until July.
ENDSNIP

https://www.iwm.org.uk/history/the-german-response-to-d-day

Sure the Germans knew the Allies were coming at some poin and some locationt, but, but give credit where credit is due....

 

No probs!

My point wasn't that the specifics of Overlord were know to the Germans, just that it was blatantly obvious an invasion was imminent regardless of the details! And it follows by inference that China (or rather Xi) has the same problem. Sure he can make public statements about how he has no imminent plans to invade Taiwan and that the buildup of an 'invasion fleet' in Chinese ports close to the island is just an 'exercise'. (Does that sound familiar BTW in terms of recent events in eastern Europe. ) But that doesn't change the fact that the US, Taiwan, Japan and Korea etc wouldn't be aware the buildup was happening! And what would you do in their shoes once you noticed?

That's basically the problem China has. Sure, it can plan and (behind the scenes) prepare the logistics for an invasion and yes, maybe no-one will notice at the time that those preparations were being made (I wouldn't bank on that BTW) but regardless, the moment China decides activate that plan and starts moving all the pieces into position it's effectively lifting its skirts and telling everyone what it has to offer!

So I'm sure you see the problem. China can (perhaps) hide the details of any invasion from Taiwan and the rest of the world but not the fact it's preparing one. An attack however is a totally different kettle of fish. China can launch missile and bombs etc at Taiwan any time it wants. But an attack is not an invasion.

 

Explains what my or may not take place today at the Grand Jury with Robert Costello and Michael Cohen .


"Former President Trump has asked attorney Robert Costello to testify in the Manhattan District Attorney’s hush money probe. Former U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade discusses Trump’s potential legal strategy and how ex-fixer Michael Cohen will act as a “rebuttal witness.”

 

That's interesting... Per Barbara, Costello must meet with the prosecutors first and they'll decide whether he has anything of value to add to the GJ... If it's just bad mouthing Cohen, I don't see how that could at this point. Perhaps in the actual trial...

Sounds like they can nip this distraction in the bud, but they'll probably err on the side of more delay (partly just to **** with Trumps prediction of Tuesday).

 

Costello did some "hush money" mediating with Cohen and Trump's "joint- defense" agreement until Cohen got his own attorney.
It was heating up on Cohen, enter the pardon.
Cohen said that Costello emailed him that he could sleep well and he had friends in high places.

'Michael Cohen hints at possible cooperation with investigators'
Michael Cohen sat down for an exclusive interview with George Stephanopoulos.

ByJames Hill
July 2, 2018, 4:57 PM

"Once Petrillo officially assumes his role as lead counsel, Cohen intends to exit a joint-defense agreement he shared with the president and others potentially implicated in federal probes, sources familiar with the case told ABC News.

“Being part of a joint defense agreement generally means your cooperation is with fellow targets and you're sharing confidential information,” Coffey said. “Exiting a joint defense agreement generally means you are leaving them behind and your cooperation is now focused on the United States government. The message to the president is: ‘I’m not taking any more bullets.’”

In the interview this weekend, Cohen told Stephanopoulos that he would rely on Petrillo’s legal advice to help him decide how to proceed in his dealings with the government. Prosecutors in New York are investigating Cohen for potential violations of campaign finance and banking laws. Cohen has not been charged with any crime."


cont:
https://abcnews.go.com/US/michael-cohen-hints-cooperation-investigators/story?id=56313716

 

Stop it Mike.
You're way beyond embarrassing yourself.
Nobody wants you, right-left and everyone in between, then up,down and sideways.

 

Hopefully the PAB has a sense of humor cause this is damn funny and highly creative.