The shutdown is going to be a multipurpose excuse for anything and everything.
That’s true.
I suppose if we’re feeling especially precise, we might say that it’s true about cross examination – and attorney investigators in a Special Counsel’s Office who are questioning primary targets of potential criminal charges at the tail end of their investigations.
My apologies for not spelling it out.
What a conundrum for Trump!
If he declares his “national emergency” and Republicans move to reopen government, then what excuse will Mr. Barr use to avoid meetings with Democrats?
And all those federal workers will get back to work prosecuting Trump and his family. (!!!)
But if he doesn’t reopen government, his base might continue to turn on him. (!!!)
Decisions, decisions. :rolleyes:
Shutdowns, tax audits, they’ve got this “stopping things from ever moving forward” thing down to a science.
Aren’t competent lawyers famous for ONLY asking questions that they already know the answers to?
In cross-examination, yes. But in discovery and elsewhere it’s quite common… even needed… for attorneys to ask questions to get more information.
Michael Cohen is going to testify before Congress.
With any luck, thiswill be the result.
In court before a jury, you don’t want surprise answers. You want to be presenting evidence that you’ve already ascertained exists. But outside of a court is where you obtain said ascertainment by asking questions you don’t know the answer to and seeing where they lead. Or perhaps more likely, pay someone else to.
I hope he has good security. Because he’s particularly dangerous to Trump: he’s already going to jail, so won’t be silenced by the hope of a pardon; and he’s burned all his GOP-cred bridges, so won’t hold back in the hopes of having a lucrative job handed to him when he gets out of prison.
And he knows a lot of stuff. A lot.
Public testimony. The GOP is incentivized to end the shutdown to get as many people back to work as possible before these hearings take place.
I’ll agree with that. The last thing the GOP or that Trump wants is for the public to be at home with absolutely nothing to do but watch Cohen’s testimony.
Foxnews now agreeing that illegal collusion/conspiracy took placebetween Russia and Trump campaign.
Well, if we’re in a state of National Emergency, it would be quite simple to shut down coverage of hearings.
Shut down the hearings, for that matter.
I would imagine in an investigation like Mueller is doing you would want a combination of both. You are interested in what they say about the things you don’t know about but you sprinkle in a few questions that you know the answer to so you can tell how honest they are being.
The degree of nit-picking they go to to argue that collusion isn’t a crime is astounding. You might as well say that child molesting isn’t a crime because we call it sexual assault of a minor.
Feb. 7 for those who were wondering.
Cohen, 52, said in a statement on Thursday that he agreed to appear before the House Oversight Committee on Feb. 7 “in furtherance of my commitment to cooperate and provide the American people with answers.”
“I look forward to having the privilege of being afforded a platform with which to give a full and credible account of the events which have transpired,” he added.
From this article, which I posted in another thread:
Do tell, Michael. Do tell.
He has a moral compass? So how did he become a consigliere?
It had a certain attraction.
He never said which direction it was pointing.