I was just slack-jawed dumbfounded when I saw this. I wonder if the honourable (hah!) gentleman has forgotten that he’s in the minority now, and there might actually be consequences for thuggish behavior.
I think he thinks his high cheekbones and pointy chin will protect him.
I think his pointy chin is a nice target, and wonder what it would take to get Buzz Aldrin mad at him.
In other news, the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit has ruled (surprising no one) that Roger Stone buddy Andrew Miller must comply with a grand jury subpoena and testify or face contempt and go directly to jail.
Miller had been trying the same “Mueller is not a real prosecutor!” schtick that didn’t work for Manafort, and didn’t work for several dumbass trolls a hunnert pages or so back in this thread.
Speaker Pelosi’s Twitter response.
There’s also this statement from her office.
Additionally, Cohen’s testimony has been rescheduled. I suspect to make time for any action against Gaetz that may be contemplated…
That rescheduling took place before Gaetz’s comments.
:smack:
Never mind ‘being in the minority,’ this is way beyond the line for any sitting member of Congress. I feel like I’m back in 1970s Cleveland now, just with new technology.
JFC, what is wrong with this guy? Can we now expect members of Congress to be nothing more than Internet trolls?
In addition to being a despicable troll, Gaetz doesn’t seem to understand how blackmail works. I’m pretty sure the idea is to threaten to release damaging information, not just to release it at the outset. Once you’ve told the world that Cohen is a philanderer, what’s left to blackmail him with? You’ve already published and been damned by your own big stupid mouth.
Anyway, tomorrow is going to be nuts. The President’s personal lawyer, and former RNC finance chair is going to testify in Congress, with receipts, that the President is a crook. And most of us are just kind of like “Yeah, this is a normal thing that happens.”
Republicans have demonstrated some serious failure of reason. We have a very long thread on the subject that is coming up on the 10th anniversary of its OP. The only way Gaetz’ tweet might be something would be if it was a taste of we have much worse. Based on the history Republican thought patterns, though, probably not.
Gaetz ought, at the very least, to be censured by the House.
Cohen’s prepared testimony has been released. Fun bits:
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Cohen says Trump directed the Moscow/Trump negotiations throughout the campaign and lied about it because a) 100s of millions were involved and b) he didn’t think he was gonna win.
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Cohen says, re: June 2016 Trump Tower meeting, Don Jr. told Trump that it was set up; whether Don Jr. would’ve set the meeting up himself, Cohen says that Trump says “Don Jr. has the worst judgment of anyone I know” and therefore Trump never let him set up meetings of that importance. LOL. Poor little Donny. Ouchies. No amount of beard hair can make up for that level of emasculation.
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Cohen has check from Trump while president paying Cohen back for the Stormy Daniels payoff.
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Alleges Stone called Trump to let him know that Assange had just told him about the upcoming wikileaks dump of stolen DNC emails; Trump said “wouldn’t that be great?”
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Cohen gave 3 years of financial statements as documentation; said Trump inflated his assets to press/media, while deflating his wealth for tax purposes.
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Trump directed Cohen to find a “straw bidder” to make sure a portrait of Donald Trump was the highest object at a charitable auction, for which Trump paid the fake bidder from his charitable organization. (Has docs for this too.) The painting is at one of Trump’s clubs.
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Petty but what the heck: Trump had Cohen threaten Trump’s high school, college(s) and the College Board not to release info about Trump’s grades or S.A.T. scores.
Aye; here’s a link: https://int.nyt.com/data/documenthelper/636-michael-cohens-congressional-t/3a1530b333230e775df5/optimized/full.pdf#page=1
ETA: A choice bit:
“He is capable of behaving kindly, but he is not kind.”
Isn’t that a major part of psychopathy?
I’ve seen too many footballs yanked away at the last minute to believe that Cohen is going to give that statement but if he does actually give it as written under oath - and provides the documentation referred to - we might be nearing the tipping point for Trump. Especially if the Committee invites the President to come give his response under oath as well.
Funnily enough, the stuff most likely to set Trump off - again, assuming this is the statement Cohen gives - are the things that aren’t illegal, like suggesting that he lies about his worth and his grades.
I am really not too excited about this. Cohen is a sleaze that’ll do anything for the buck. He’s lied for Trump for years. He lied to congress. He’s got a plea deal. He’s covering his own ass more than he’s saying about Trump. He says Trump’s a bad man who isn’t kind or generous. Big whoop. I knew this in the 1990s.
However, the Wikileaks, Moscow Tower and dopey Junior’s mistakes could lead to an impeachment or a trial. Then we hopefully get to his last 30 years of fraud. I really hope he has more documents than words.
He does?
Or he had one and muffed it up by lying to congress. I thought there was a plea deal for him before all that. I could be wrong.
He already has his plea deal, so his only incentive is to tell the truth. The only thing that could get him into more trouble would be lying. Also, he’s bringing evidence. The Trump signed check to reimburse the Stormy Daniels payment is already out there.
I wonder how much Mueller’s team prepped him in terms of what he could or could not say?
Is there not going to be an FBI lawyer sitting right next to him? I seem to remember that from previous witnesses…