As per a Buzzfeed story tonight: Michael Cohen has apparently indicated that Trump himself instructed Cohen to lie to Congress about the Trump Tower Moscow project.
Is lying to the House as big an offence as misleading parliament is in Westminster systems?
Up to five years in prison kind of serious, yes.
He’s projecting yet again. “**I do it so everyone else must be, too.”
Key graf:
So if this story is accurate, it isn’t just Cohen’s word here - this is Cohen being shown the documentary evidence and confirming that that’s how it went down.
If House investigators can verify this, they have to impeach, if impeachment is to continue to mean anything.
An ABC journalist was on twitter claiming Mueller hasn’t interviewed any Trump Org people. SDNY interviewed someone, but not the Mueller’s office.
I see no reason why the interviews couldn’t be secret though. Just trying to be cautious in my optimism.
That’s because you don’t interview suspects until you are ready to charge them with something.
Were I involved in any trump circles, I would be very nervous if Mueller didn’t want to talk to me.
Which is completely besides the point. Buzzfeed says Trump Org people were interviewed, ABC says nobody was interviewed. It’s a reason to be cautious about the report.
Nothing means anything any more. The public hearings that go with impeachment would be illuminating and probably entertaining too, but any efforts at removing Trump would die on the vine because of Republicans in the senate.
Did he forget about Allen Weisselberg? He was the CFO of the Trump Org and has been granted immunity.
Could it hinge on the specific definition of “Trump Organization”? Wikipedia defines that as:
There is still, in theory at least, a difference between the group that oversees Trump’s business interests, and the group that helped run his campaign for president. Mueller’s investigation has been into the latter. Maybe Buzzfeed is using “Trump Org” as a non-specific term for all the advisers in Trump’s orbit.
No, he didn’t. Weisselberg was interviewed by the Southern District of New York, not the special counsel.
I’m not actually concerned about this. It’s just something curious to be aware of. I mean SDNY could have just forwarded info, or the interviews might have been secret.
Lawfare post on the topic: The Latest Revelation From BuzzFeed News: Trump Reportedly Directed Cohen to Lie to Congress - Lawfare
Excellent summary — thanks.
That’s from the William Barr memo. My bold.
This is an update to a ten months-ago post:
I just noticed this headline:
Russia didn’t want that evidence to get out?
Mueller releases a statement saying that he has no information nor documents saying that Cohen was directed to lie to Congress by Trump:
I’m curious who the “Federal law enforcement officers” were who gave BuzzFeed the original information…
I am making no claims about what the Mueller statement means, but a point to keep in mind is that Cohen is being prosecuted by SDNY, not Mueller’s team, and all of these claims in the media about what evidence Mueller has may be pointing at the wrong office. Could this be the source of the push back? That the information is not from Mueller’s office, but SDNY?
Mueller, based on all reports, is not the sort to be coy.
I presume that he issued the notice because he knew who it was who was talking to BuzzFeed and the release served as a slap to them, preventing other journalists from trusting them.
Here’s the statement by spokesman Peter Carr:
I see nothing in that statement that states that the Mueller team has no information saying that Cohen was directed to lie to Congress by Trump. I’m not sure how you can draw your conclusion from Carr’s statement.