“When I said I would squinch in high school, that referred to farting. Don’t you fart sometimes, Senator?? I farted sometimes, we all do it!! I would squinch with Timmy in his garage, along with Squi and No-Ball Billy…and yes, sometimes we’d drink beer while we squinched. Is that a crime now, Senator? I like beer, OK?!?”
Looks like the nude selfies were collected from social media accounts of the Russians indicted by Mueller, not other targets.
Do we have any idea what
Concord Management is charged with? I couldn’t tell from that bizarre motion.
Concord Management is one of the Russian entities that Mueller indicted back in February.
Thank you.
:eek: That’s putting it mildly. It reads like a script for a Fox and Friends segment.
Did Cohen ever make a counter-assertion as to where he actually WASduring the period in question?
Burner phones are literally crime 101. How are these people this stupid?
I am always slightly amazed that Spiro Agnew isn’t more infamous - but in any event, it’s starting to look to me like this will be the playbook to get him out of office.
Agree to only charge him with one crime, no prison time, in return for his immediate resignation. In Spiro Agnew’s day, obviously prosecutors were initially livid that he’d be getting off with no time behind bars, with the only reason that wasn’t in his future was his position in government. But at the time, the prosecutors decided getting him out of office ASAP before he might become president given the growing Watergate cloud was the lesser of two evils.
One could argue that we don’t really have that situation (that we’re aware of, at any rate) right now, so maybe there’s no need to rush to get him out of office, if you can both get him out of office with jail time.
I don’t know how the calculus works out on that. Would having a faster solution be preferable to a more fair solution as far as the rest of the country is concerned? As much as I would love to see Trump rot in jail, I think happily let him plea bargain to no jail time for any federal charges if he resigned today - and let him spend the rest of his life throwing away what remains of his assets defending himself from a multitude of state charges.
Rachael Maddow did apodcast this year on the Spiro Agnew affair. It’s about two hours of content spread over four hours, but is still pretty comprehensive. Worth a listen.
Again, I’m shocked that more people aren’t talking about Spiro Agnew and how this might play out for Nixon.
This latest “discovery” that Cohen lied about where he was, should mean the judge can put him away forever - soon as Meuller is done with him and he’s been dangled on a string long enough to get others talking. And then, all previous deals should be null and void.
As his former boss Trump would do, “renegotiate”, renege and then fuck him over royally.
The tenor of the filing was not great, and distracted from the real meat of the filing, which in my mind may have some merit. As a criminal defense attorney, I take a very dim view of any prosecutor being the sole arbiter of what is or is not discovery in a criminal case… even the illustrious Mr. Mueller. My civil law is severely rusty. But any request for an ex parte ruling has the appearance of impropriety in my mind; the bar for its necessity should be high indeed. And Counsel for Concord should be pissed. But I do not believe the Judge will be happy with the tenor or language in this filing.
“Wire Tapps”
“DeepState1” 
Even better: “DeepState23”
So far the Cohen is unsubstantiated rumors in the press. If he did go to the Czech Republic, I’m sure it won’t be that hard to find supporting evidence such as flights, entering the US, customs and immigration, etc. Much as I would love this to be true, methnks it’s easy enough to collaborate and make a real case
Yeah, I’m not terribly impressed with the sourcing, especially given that it’s listed only as “people familiar with the matter.”
IANAL as most who post in this thread are aware, but from years of working as a paralegal in a public defender’s office and as a judge’s assistant, I’ve drafted/seen a buttload of pleadings. I also have great admiration for criminal defense attorneys and the work they do.
But AIUI – and please, correct me if I’m wrong! – the defendant is not seeking the actual discovery; rather, he is seeking information on how the discovery was obtained. Big difference. Mueller’s reason for moving for an ex parte ruling is to maintain secrecy around sources and methods, not to deprive the defendant of the actual discovery itself. It’s a little hard to tell, given the vaporous tenor of Concord’s responsive pleading and without seeing all motions that have gone before in this dust-up (meaning Concord’s motion to disclose discovery pursuant to protective order, Mueller’s response in opposition, Mueller’s motion for leave to file an ex parte, in camera addendum).
As for ex parte hearings/rulings, there is nothing improper about them. They are extremely routine. Our judges held them every single morning between 8-8:30 a.m. One of the most egregious aspects of Concord’s pleading is to make this seem like an unusual move on Mueller’s part. Concord is cynically counting on the general ignorance of the public to do so. It’s not.
I would only add that the prosecutor is not the final arbiter of of what is or is not discovery in a criminal case. The judge is. Hence the ex parte hearing/ruling.
We agree that the judge will not be happy with the tenor or language in the pleading.
That’s Obama’s code name. 
So…you don’t think the judge will start dropping the word *squinch *in his rulings, opinions, and general conversation?
Cohen went to Italy once and London twice in 2016. Going to Italy would put him in the Schengen Zone where he wouldn’t need a passport to travel to the Czech Republic. He could go all the way to Prague and back without an official trace.