# Cohen Testimony Thread **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [February 27, 2019, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cohen-testimony-thread/830296 "2019-02-27T15:15:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2019, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cohen-testimony-thread/830296/61 "2019-03-03T02:17:34Z")
Has a transcript emerged yet of the open-session testimony? ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2019, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cohen-testimony-thread/830296/62 "2019-03-03T03:07:31Z")
> [@E-DUB](#): > > Campaign finance law requires that a person breaking the law know that their behavior is illegal. No politician, before Edwards, had ever been accused under the law resulting from a third party payment of the nature of that made by Bunny Mellon to Edward’s mistress. Therefore it was far easier to argue credibly that the candidate did not meet the requirement of knowing that his behavior was illegal. But only the _first_ person so charged can make that argument because knowledge of the Edwards case makes that argument far less credible\*\*, especially when you’re arranging for the payment to be made via a cutout. > [@Shodan](#): > > So Edwards wasn’t convicted, therefore Trump should know that it was illegal? That also lacks in logic. > > Regards, > Shodan Well, yeah, I suppose it does when the initial premise is _Edwards wasn’t convicted._ Given how **E-DUB** presented his argument, though, it strikes me as a bit questionable to insist on “Edwards wasn’t convicted” as a fundamental premise in that syllogism. A more straightforward summation of his point would be _”Edwards was prosecuted, therefore Trump [sic] should know that it was illegal.”_ ---
**Author:** ![UnwittingAmericans](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/d9b06d/32.png) [@UnwittingAmericans](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UnwittingAmericans)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2019, 11:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cohen-testimony-thread/830296/63 "2019-03-03T11:54:22Z")
The premise of the accusation of campaign finance law violation is not that Cohen told Trump it was illegal or that Trump told Cohen he knew it was illegal or that there’s some document that shows either. Yet. Testimony or documents to that effect may come out. It’s the way the payments were executed. You have Trump on tape saying “Cash.” and Cohen saying “No no no no no. No.” in the conversation where they are talking about Weisselberg setting up a shell corp to pay Pecker. Now, is that enough? Eh. Trump’s defense at this point would be either “I was just trying to hide it and this is how they told me to do it.” or, “I knew I was trying to get around something, but I didn’t know what.” If deliberate and premeditated is required, it’s going to be hard to pin it on him without a smoking gun. ---
**Author:** ![Sherrerd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sherrerd/32/8_2.png) [@Sherrerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sherrerd)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2019, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cohen-testimony-thread/830296/64 "2019-03-03T23:22:08Z")
> [@UnwittingAmericans](#): > > Where has the SDNY been for the last 35 years? None of this shit about Trump or any one of a hundred other grifters in NYC has ever been a secret. It’s quite possible that SDNY has looked at Trump and his kids and his Organization in the past. But if we look at violations of state laws (as opposed to the federal laws SDNY would deal with), we see that the Trumps _have_ come in for scrutiny: > [@](#): > > … For two years starting in 2010, the aspiring entrepreneur [Ivanka] and her brother Donald Trump Jr. were under investigation in a felony real estate fraud case involving Trump SoHo, a luxury hotel and condominium project in New York City that they were developing for their father’s Trump Organization, according to a new story by the New Yorker. > > But then Trump’s personal attorney, Marc Kasowitz, intervened with a meeting with Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. Kasowitz had donated generously to Vance’s re-election campaign. Within a few months the investigation was dropped, according to the report, a collaboration of the New Yorker, ProPublica and WNYC. > > “For two years, prosecutors in the Manhattan District Attorney’s office had been building a criminal case against them for misleading prospective buyers of units in the Trump SoHo,” reads the story. … > **[Ivanka Trump’s little secret: She avoided criminal indictment in 2012, report...](https://www.mercurynews.com/2017/10/04/ivanka-trumps-little-secret-she-avoided-criminal-indictment-in-2012/)** > > A new report says a fraud case against Ivanka Trump and Donald Trump Jr. was dropped after Manhattan D.A. Cyrus Vance Jr. received a visit from Donald Trump’s lawyer, a top donor. Just as the fix appears to have been in for those state charges, “something” could have happened with potential federal charges; that’s one of the things that may become known as investigations proceed. ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2019, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cohen-testimony-thread/830296/65 "2019-03-04T15:32:13Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > Well, yeah, I suppose it does when the initial premise is _Edwards wasn’t convicted._ Given how **E-DUB** presented his argument, though, it strikes me as a bit questionable to insist on “Edwards wasn’t convicted” as a fundamental premise in that syllogism. A more straightforward summation of his point would be _”Edwards was prosecuted, therefore Trump [sic] should know that it was illegal.”_ Lacking in logic to an equal degree. Being prosecuted does not establish that anything illegal has been done. That’s why we have trials. Can you cite me a case where it was established that one person broke the law by the fact that someone else was not convicted of breaking the same law? Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2019, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cohen-testimony-thread/830296/66 "2019-03-04T16:28:08Z")
> [@UnwittingAmericans](#): > > Where has the SDNY been for the last 35 years? None of this shit about Trump or any one of a hundred other grifters in NYC has ever been a secret. It had previously all been small-time stuff, for him as well as the hundred others. Who do you go after? But the other hundred \*still \*don’t endanger national security or the Constitution. Now, the SDNY has had piles of evidence dumped upon them for free, and an easy prosecution ahead of them. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2019, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cohen-testimony-thread/830296/67 "2019-03-04T18:36:53Z")
Wasn’t there video of Trump criticizing Edwards’ law-breaking, at the time? It’s kind of hard to say that he didn’t know it was illegal, after that. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2019, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cohen-testimony-thread/830296/68 "2019-03-04T18:59:19Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Wasn’t there video of Trump criticizing Edwards’ law-breaking, at the time? It’s kind of hard to say that he didn’t know it was illegal, after that. He also declared he knows more about campaign finance law that anyone else. For what that’s worth. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cohen-testimony-thread/830296.md?page=3)