#donald d. mcdougall

[handeaux]

An Eccentric Scottish X-Ray Quack Cooked Up Cincinnati’s Very First Vegetarian Restaurant

There is hardly a restaurant today that does not offer some sort of vegetarian option. Although for many years vegetarians were considered weird cranks at best and suspicious radicals at worst, Cincinnati jumped into vegetarianism fairly early. Cincinnati’s first totally vegetarian restaurant opened in 1906, and thereby hangs a tale.

The proprietor, one Donald D. McDougall, definitely spent his long life listening to the beat of a different drum. McDougall was born in Canada in 1860 and made his way to the Battle Creek, Michigan, sanitarium managed by John Harvey Kellogg – he of Kellogg’s corn flakes fame. Kellogg’s sanitarium operated on principles derived from the teachings of the Seventh Day Adventist church, emphasizing wholesale reform of the diet toward low-fat, low-protein vegetarian foods heavy on whole grains, fiber and nuts. Kellogg also prescribed frequent enemas.

Based on his stay at Battle Creek, McDougall announced, despite a total absence of actual medical training, that he was now a physician. He practiced for a couple of years in Connersville, Indiana, where no one seems to have asked to see his diploma. By 1887, McDougall was in Cincinnati, where he established the city’s first Seventh Day Adventist church while earning his living as a carpenter and sometime masseur.

Despite prior claims that he was a doctor, McDougall actually enrolled in medical school in Cincinnati. In doing so, he matriculated at the most notorious institution of outrageous quackery in the United States – the American Free Church and Health College, known as Hygeia - founded by a deliriously strange conman named John Bunyan Campbell. With not a single day of education in any of the medical sciences, Campbell announced his discovery of “vitapathic” principles that could cure any disease, usually involving electricity and colored lights. Otto Juettner, a bona-fide physician and pioneering historian of Cincinnati medicine, was appalled at Campbell's hokum. In an article in the Lancet medical journal, published in 1896, Juettner wrote:

"[Campbell] is the corporeal realization of vitapathic wisdom and the oracle of health. He is the inventor, perpetuator and perpetrator of a most daring and gigantic bunko game, played under the guise of science, in the name of religion and with the sanction of the great State of Ohio."

After just three months of study at Campbell’s quack factory, McDougall hung out his shingle as a legitimate doctor, specializing in electric baths, massages and, curiously, X-rays. Not only did McDougall practice medicine, he taught it as well. Campbell’s vitapathic college operated as a sort of pyramid scheme, in which alumni got recruited to teach the next incoming class. McDougall was now Professor of Masso-Therapy and Electro-Therapy.

For someone who lectured against the dangers of food and diet, McDougall spent the rest of his medical career promoting X-rays by exposing hundreds of people to radiation without any shielding or protection. In 1896, for an event staged to raise funds for Campbell’s vitapathic hospital, McDougall X-rayed anything and anyone. According to the Cincinnati Commercial Tribune [16 December 1896]:

“Dr. D.D. McDougall . . . demonstrated the power of the rays by allowing every one present to examine the bones of their arms or by placing any small objects inside of a book of several hundred pages.”

McDougall set up his medical office in the Cincinnati Athletic Club where his skills as a masseur were no doubt welcome. His wife, the former Emma Smith, joined him so they could advertise massage therapy for both women and men. In 1906, the McDougalls opened Cincinnati’s first vegetarian restaurant next-door to the athletic Club at 121 Shillito Place in partnership with another Adventist, Scott McPherson of Norwood. McDougall told the Cincinnati Post [1 December 1906]:

“Americans are such great meat-eaters that they are selfish and disagreeable, especially among the rich and they have little thought of raising children. When we become vegetarians, we will have nobler purposes. There will be less of the brute in us and consequently fewer criminal acts.”

McDougall claimed that the word, “vegetarian,” does not derive from vegetables but instead from the Latin “homo vegetus,” which he claimed translates as a strong, robust and thoroughly heathy man. Most Latin dictionaries disagree.

In addition to serving vegetarian meals optimized to provide set amounts of proteins, carbohydrates, fats and calories, the Vegetarian Restaurant also sold pre-packaged foods created in the laboratories of the Battle Creek sanitarium. Among the retail stock were lardless graham and oatmeal crackers, granola, zweibach, porkless baked beans, nut butter, bromose, malted nuts, toasted corn flakes and something called Peptol, billed as “the flesh builder.”

McDougall claimed that 500 former patients of his who had converted to the Battle Creek Sanitarium diet could not find nutritious vegetarian food in Cincinnati. Despite the built-in clientele, it does not appear that the Vegetarian Restaurant and Health Food Store survived much more than a year. McDougall moved his home and his “physio-therapy” practice to Clifton.

It would be more than 20 years until Cincinnati’s second vegetarian restaurant opened. In 1929, Harry Berman recruited Harry Morgan, another Battle Creek graduate, to run the kitchen at a short-lived meatless diner at 6 East Ninth Street.

As for Dr. McDougall, in addition to his pioneering efforts on behalf of vegetarianism and Seventh Day Adventism, he was also among the founders and early officers of the Caledonian Society, an association for Cincinnatians of Scots descent.

Ironically, for someone who operated unshielded X-ray equipment for more than three decades, it was an X-ray that killed Donald McDougall. He fell at his home in 1934 and went to the hospital for an X-ray of his injured shoulder. While being examined, he suffered a fatal heart attack at age 75. He is buried in Connersville, Indiana.

[andreusdwm]

Donald Trump has been indicted for allegedly paying hush money to porn star Stormy Daniels just before the 2016 presidential election. To test your knowledge of the case, see if you can guess which sordid details are true and which ones are made up.

1. What happened in 2006? A. Donald Trump met porn actress Stormy Daniels at a charity golf tournament.

B. Stormy and Trump allegedly had sex in his Lake Tahoe hotel room.

C. Melania Trump gave birth to Barron.

D. During an appearance on the Howard Stern Show, Stern joked that Donald Trump was a sexual predator, and Trump replied, “That’s true.”

E. Trump told the co-hosts of The View, “I’ve said that if Ivanka weren’t my daughter, perhaps I’d be dating her.”

F. All of the above, although I wish I were making even one of them up.

2. What did Stormy Daniels say about their sexual encounter? A. They had generic sex and Trump did not wear a condom.

B. He compared Stormy to his daughter Ivanka.

C. He asked Stormy to spank him with a Forbes magazine.

D. He appeared on the cover of that same spanking Forbes magazine with two of his children, Ivanka and Don Jr.

E. Once again, and sadly, all of the above.

3. After the Lake Tahoe affair, what did Trump do? A. He stayed in touch with Stormy for about a year.

B. He said that he would get Stormy on The Apprentice and rig the show for her to win.

C. He said that he would get Stormy a condo in Florida.

D. You guessed it: all of the above.

4. Wait, this is the same guy beloved by American Christian Evangelists, right? A. Yes, they call him a “miracle.”

B. Yes, they worship him more than Jesus.

C. Yes, but no surprises there as this movement has a history of aligning with racism.

D. It’s one of the saddest aspects of this whole era, but all of the above.

5. Okay, what happened in 2011? A. Stormy Daniels tried to sell the Trump affair story to celeb magazine Life & Style for $15K.

B. The tabloid In Touch magazine got ready to publish a 5,000-word interview with Stormy Daniels about her affair with Trump.

C. Donald Trump’s lawyer Michael Cohen threatened to sue Life & Style.

D. Donald Trump’s lawyer Michael Cohen threatened to sue In Touch magazine.

E. Life & Style and In Touch killed their Stormy stories.

F. A man approached Stormy Daniels and her infant daughter in a Las Vegas car park and told her to, “Leave Trump alone… That’s a beautiful little girl. It’d be a shame if something happened to her mom.”

G. All. Of. The. Above.

6. In Touch magazine? I thought it was the National Enquirer. A. No, you’re thinking of how the National Enquirer conspired with Donald Trump’s 2016 Presidential campaign to buy the story about Trump’s affair with Karen McDougal and then kill the story so that the affair wouldn’t hurt his campaign. I bet you forgot about Karen McDougal, didn’t you?

B. No, the National Enquirer publisher offered to buy the rights to the McDougal story and also to other stories that might hurt Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign and then not publish them—a practice known as “catch and kill.”

C. The National Enquirer’s publisher was named David Pecker.

D. Seriously, his name was David Pecker. Also: all of the above.

7. The National Enquirer? I thought it was Access Hollywood? A. No, you’re thinking of the Access Hollywood tape in which Donald Trump said, “I moved on her like a bitch. But I couldn’t get there. And she was married. Then all of a sudden, I see her, she’s now got the big phony tits and everything.”

B. No, you’re thinking of the Access Hollywood tape in which Donald Trump said, “I better use some Tic Tacs just in case I start kissing her. You know, I’m automatically attracted to beautiful—I just start kissing them. It’s like a magnet. Just kiss. I don’t even wait. And when you’re a star, they let you do it.”

C. No, you’re thinking of the Access Hollywood tape in which Donald Trump said, “Grab ’em by the pussy. You can do anything.”

D. I remind you that this is still the same guy beloved by American Christian Evangelists, who make up the base of his supporters. And, obviously, all of the above.

8. Why is Trump being indicted again? A. Trump’s lawyer Michael Cohen set up an LLC shell company to secretly pay people off on behalf of Trump, and used this account to pay Stormy Daniels $130K, once again to keep the story about the affair quiet.

B. Michael Cohen said that Trump didn’t know about the payment.

C. In May 2018, Donald Trump’s other lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, appeared on Sean Hannity’s Fox News show and said that his client, the President of the United States, did, in fact, know about the payment.

D. In December 2018, American President Donald Trump also admitted to knowing about the payment to Stormy Daniels.

E. It’s anyone’s guess. Was the reimbursement to Michael Cohen made from campaign funds? Did Trump falsify business records when he reimbursed Cohen? Was there money laundering involved? The indictment is sealed, so we won’t know the exact charge until next week.

F. Whatever happens, we’ll always have Rudy’s astonishing incompetence on that Hannity interview, not to mention the Four Seasons Total Landscaping press conference. Oh, right, we’re still doing this part: all of the above.

9. How will all this affect the 2024 election? A. Trump is already fundraising off the right-wing outrage over this indictment.

B. Trump is claiming victimhood, his favorite role, to drum up support from his grievance-addicted-white-people-are-the-real-victims supporters.

C. All the Republicans are rallying around Trump, and not one of them cares that he broke the law.

D. They also don’t seem to care that Trump is going on trial for allegedly raping E. Jean Carroll.

E. This is the same man that took away women’s reproductive rights in the United States.

F. The January 6th crowd is preparing for a civil war because Donald Trump cheated on Melania and paid a porn star hush money?

G. I hate it here. I genuinely wish I had made any of these up. Anyway, yep, of course, all of the above.

[bountyofbeads]

Manhattan D.A. Subpoenas Trump Organization Over Stormy Daniels Hush Money https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/01/nyregion/trump-cohen-stormy-daniels-vance.html

🚨🚨BREAKING TRUMP ALERT 🚨🚨

Manhattan D.A. Subpoenas Trump Organization Over Stormy Daniels Hush Money

Cyrus R. Vance Jr., the Manhattan district attorney, is reviving an investigation into payments made to two women during the 2016 campaign.

By Ben Protess and William K. Rashbaum | Published Aug. 1, 2019 | New York Times | Posted August 1, 2019 |

State prosecutors in Manhattan subpoenaed President Trump’s family business on Thursday, reviving an investigation into the company’s role in hush-money payments made during the 2016 presidential campaign, according to people briefed on the matter.

The subpoena, issued by the Manhattan district attorney’s office, demanded the Trump Organization provide documents related to money that had been used to buy the silence of Stormy Daniels, a pornographic film actress who said she had an affair with Mr. Trump.

The inquiry from the district attorney’s office, which is in early stages, is examining whether any senior executives at the company filed false business records about the hush money, which would be a state crime, the people said.

Marc L. Mukasey, an attorney for the Trump Organization, called the inquiry a “political hit job.”

“It’s just harassment of the president, his family and his business, using subpoenas as weapons. We will respond as appropriate,” Mr. Mukasey said.

The investigation will focus on a $130,000 payment Michael D. Cohen,  the president’s lawyer and fixer at the time, gave Ms. Daniels. Mr. Cohen also helped arrange for a tabloid media company to pay the Playboy model Karen McDougal, a second woman who said she had had an affair with the president. The disclosure of the payments ignited a scandal that threatened to derail the Trump presidency.

The Manhattan district attorney’s office on Thursday separately subpoenaed the media company, American Media Inc., the publisher of the National Enquirer.

The subpoenas from Cyrus R. Vance Jr., the Manhattan district attorney, came only weeks after the Trump Organization had appeared to fend off federal scrutiny of the same payments.

The United States attorney’s office in Manhattan, which charged Mr. Cohen last year with campaign finance violations in the hush-money case, revealed in a court filing last month that prosecutors had “effectively concluded” their inquiry, signaling that it was unlikely they would file additional charges.

But state law makes it a crime to falsify business records, offering the Manhattan district attorney’s office another avenue.

The Trump Organization reimbursed Mr. Cohen for his payment to Ms. Daniels. State prosecutors are examining whether the company — and any of its senior executives — then falsely listed the reimbursement as a legal expense, the people briefed on the matter said.

Following the groundwork laid in the federal investigation, the district attorney’s office is expected to scrutinize the senior ranks of the company, although it is unclear whether the inquiry will reach the president. Mr. Trump has denied the affairs and any wrongdoing.

While Mr. Cohen has said he arranged the hush-money at the direction of Mr. Trump — and federal prosecutors have since repeated that accusation in court papers — less is publicly known about the president’s role. Mr. Cohen is currently serving a three-year prison sentence in Otisville, N.Y.

A spokesman for American Media Inc., the media company that was subpoenaed, did not respond to a request for comment. The company bought the rights to Ms. McDougal’s story of an affair with Mr. Trump and never ran the story. The company, whose leader was friends with Mr. Trump, cooperated with the federal investigation and received a nonprosecution agreement.

The district attorney’s office initially considered mounting the inquiry nearly a year ago, after Mr. Cohen pleaded guilty. Mr. Vance’s office paused at the request of the federal prosecutors.

Mr. Vance’s latest foray into the hush-money case could present a legal and political quandary.

Mr. Trump’s lawyers will try to portray Mr. Vance, a Democrat, as leading a partisan attack. Earlier this year, similar criticism was leveled by a lawyer for Paul J. Manafort, Mr. Trump’s former campaign chairman. After Mr. Manafort was convicted of federal crimes, Mr. Vance’s office charged him with state felonies in hopes he would still face prison if he received a presidential pardon.

Still, if Mr. Vance declined to bring charges in the hush-money case, the decision could fuel criticism that he has pulled punches with the Trump family. His office previously declined to charge two of Mr. Trump’s children, Ivanka Trump and Donald Trump Jr., who were under criminal investigation in 2012 over allegations that they misled buyers interested in the Trump SoHo hotel-condominium project.

A spokeswoman for Mr. Vance declined to comment on Thursday’s subpoenas.

Even if the new investigation ultimately leads to charges, state law would limit the severity of the punishment. A charge of filing false business records could amount to a misdemeanor. It becomes a felony only if prosecutors can prove that the filing was done to commit or conceal another crime.

It is unclear whether, under the law, the state prosecutors can cite the federal campaign finance violations as the other crime.

Maggie Haberman contributed reporting.

[newstfionline]

Trump’s lawyer could use a lawyer

Vox, April 11, 2018

President Donald Trump’s alleged history with women is coming back to haunt him. And his longtime personal lawyer Michael Cohen is currently taking the fall. [Reuters]

On Monday, FBI agents raided Cohen’s office and hotel room to search for records about payments to two women--Karen McDougal and Stephanie Clifford, better known as Stormy Daniels--who say they had affairs with Trump. The search warrant was carried out by the public corruption unit of the Manhattan federal attorney’s office under a suspicion of fraud and campaign finance violations. [NYT / Michael D. Shear, Matt Apuzzo, Michael S. Schmidt, Sharon LaFraniere, and Maggie Haberman]

During the raid, the FBI seized emails, tax documents, and business records, including ones pertaining to a $130,000 payment to Daniels in exchange for her signing a nondisclosure agreement agreeing not to talk about the alleged affair with Trump (Daniels has since gone public). [NYT / Matt Apuzzo]

The investigation was prompted by a recommendation from special counsel Robert Mueller, who tipped off the US attorney for the Southern District of New York. [Washington Post / Michael Kranish]

Cohen’s name has been in the news since he admitted to paying Daniels $130,000 of his own money in exchange for her silence. [Vox / Jen Kirby]

The FBI is also looking for information related to Karen McDougal, a former Playboy model who says she had an almost year-long affair with Trump shortly after the birth of his son Barron in 2006, and was allegedly paid $150,000 worth of hush money by the National Enquirer’s parent company, whose CEO is a friend of Trump’s. [CNN / Gloria Borger, Pamela Brown, and Eli Watkins]

The president is, unsurprisingly, enraged. At the beginning of a meeting with military and national security advisers to discuss Syria, Trump said about the investigation: “It’s a disgraceful situation. It’s a total witch hunt. I’ve been saying it for a long time.” [NPR / Jessica Taylor and Ryan Lucas]

And (in a very roundabout way), the president threatened Mueller, by saying that other people have told him to fire the special counsel. That has Republican and Democratic lawmakers alike nervous, although legislation protecting Mueller is stalling in the Senate. [Politico / Burgess Everett, Elana Schor, and Kyle Cheney]

[opedguy]

Associated Press Reveals Anti-Trump Bias

LOS ANGELES (OnlineColumnist.com), Sept. 6, 2020.--In a shameful article, the Associated Press [AP] showed its anti-Trump bias for all to see, publishing a story about Trump’s 54-year-old disbarred, disgraced and convicted felon former personal attorney Michael Cohen.  How in the wildest stretch of imagination is it newsworthy for the AP to report on Cohen’s trashy, vindictive Scarlet Letter, written purely to retaliate against Trump?  Cohen, a disbarred attorney, violated every legal ethical principle, ratting out privileged communication for personal gain.  Now that Cohen can’t make a living as an attorney, he’s peddling his smut to any-and-all takers, today at the AP.  Cohen reprised the Stormy Daniels affair in his memoir, “Disloyal:  The True Story of the Former Personal Attorney to President Donald J. Trump.”  Cohen served Trump until Aug. 21, 2018 when he was convicted of multiple felonies, including tax evasion, bank and wire fraud, etc.        

     Cohen’s friends in the anti-Trump press, like the AP, don’t say he was sentenced  Dec. 12, 2018 to multiple felonies, including campaign finance violations for paying off Stormy Daniels and former Playboy centerfold Karen McDougal.  Before the election Trump was extorted by Daniels and McDougal for alleged affairs in 2011, years before he considered running for president.  Cohen told the press Jan. 13, 2916 that no affair with Stormy Daniels every occurred, admitting Feb. 13, 2016 that he paid her $130,000.  Former Secretary of State and Democrat nominee Hillary Rodham Clinton accused Trump of violating campaign election law, paying “hush money” stop Daniels from disclosing her past affair with Trump.  Cohen admitted at the time that he paid Storny to avoid a bigger settlement with Melania Trump.  Yet Hillary hammered the idea the Trump violated campaign finance laws.    

         When former U.S. Sen. Gary Hart (D-Col.) ran for the Democrat nomination in 1988, he was also confronted with an affair, paying her money to keep her quiet during the campaign.  Unlike Trump in 2016, Hart was hounded out of the campaign in 1988, eventually charged with campaign finance violations.  Hart was acquitted because a jury couldn’t find him guilty of campaign finance violations for paying money to a mistress to keep her from ruining his marriage.  Yet it you listen to AP’s article, they want to revisit Trump’s alleged campaign finance violations.  “It never pays to settle these things, but, many, many friends advised me to pay,” Trump allegedly said in 2016.  “If it comes out, I’m not sure how it would play with supporters.  But I bet they’d think it’s cool that I slept with a porn star,” repeating Cohen’s account.  Revisiting the Stormy Daniels affair shows the AP’s bias.   

          Obtaining an early copy to Cohen’s book, the AP targeted Trump at a time he’s responding on multiple fronts to wild allegations, including that he disparaged U.S. war-dead in France in 2018.   White House called Cohen’s book, “Fan Fiction.” “He [Cohen] readily admits to lying routinely but expects people to believe him now so that he can make money from book sales.” “It’s unfortunate that the media is exploiting this sad and desperate man to attack President Trump,” read a White House statement.  When you consider that Trump’s 71-year-old former National Security Adviser John Bolton already wrote his worthless tell-all tabloid story for media consumption, it’s not surprising that the anti-Trump press would seek more dirt.  After Trump’s niece, Mary L. Trump, published her tell-all fantasy, “Too Much and Never Enough,” you’d think thing’s couldn’t get worse, then Cohen get in his two cents.     

        What’s most disturbing is not the Bolton, Mary Trump and Cohen try to capitalize on book sales, it’s that credentialed news organizations like the AP gives it any credibility. It’s not news for Cohen to spew his vitriol against Trump.  But it’s speaks volumes about today’s sad state of journalism when once respectable news organizations go all in with convicted felons.  It wasn’t that long ago that disbarred-and-disgraced former Atty. Michael Avenatti appeared on CNN, MSNBC and any other broadcast or print outlet that would hear him out. Once he was convicted of extorting Nike Inc. on all counts Feb. 14, he was radioactive, actually an embarrassment to the media.  Cohen never takes responsibility for his own criminal behavior, blaming Trump for committing income tax evasion and illegally selling New York City traffic medallions.  How he blames Trump for that is astonishing.     

        Cohen’s book raises real problems with today’s journalism that no longer reports news but advances a political agenda aligned with the Democrat Party.  For the AP to dignify anything coming out of Cohen’s mouth speaks volumes of how today’s media is driven by political bias, in this case to remove Trump from office.  Trump runs his campaign against the mainstream press, often joking with the audience, drawing boos, about the media’s colossal dishonesty.  Making anything Cohen’s book as news makes a mockery of the First Amendment, giving the press the “fifth column,” able to keep the government honest.  But the press, as exemplified by the AP, has turned ethical journalism on its head, reporting on convicted felon because they hold information, whether true or not, to advance their political agenda.  No one sees the press today as anything but a voice for the Democrat Party. 

About the Author    

   John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He’s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.        

[nickyschneiderus]

Michael Cohen calls working for Trump ‘mental incarceration’ during sentencing

Michael Cohen, President Donald Trump‘s former long-time lawyer, was sentenced to three years in prison by a federal judge on Wednesday.

Cohen was sentenced for bank fraud, tax evasion, campaign-finance violations, and lying to Congress.

NEW YORK (AP) — Ex-Trump lawyer Cohen gets 3 years in prison for crimes including hush-money payments that prosecutors say Trump ordered.

— Zeke Miller (@ZekeJMiller) December 12, 2018

During the sentencing, Cohen said his time working for the president was a “mental incarceration,” according to CNN.

“I have been living in a personal and mental incarceration ever since the day that I accepted the offer to work for a real estate mogul whose business acumen that I deeply admired,” he reportedly said during Wednesday’s hearing.

He also referenced the president calling his former lawyer “weak.” Cohen told the court he felt it was his “duty to cover up” Trump’s “dirty deeds.”

Cohen letting loose on Trump: "Recently the president tweeted a statement calling me weak and it was correct but for a much different reason than he was implying. It was because time and time again I felt it was my duty to cover up his dirty deeds"

— Abby D. Phillip (@abbydphillip) December 12, 2018

Part of the sentencing revolved around hush-money payments made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal, both of whom allege they had affairs with Trump before he became president.

Cohen must surrender to authorities to head to prison on March 6, USA Today reports.

Trump’s former long-time lawyer had agreed to cooperate with Special Counsel Robert Mueller, and within his guilty plea filed late last month there were numerous references to “Individual 1,” believed to be the president.

Many people on Twitter pointed to an old tweet of Cohen’s where he taunted Hillary Clinton about going to jail–a popular theme from Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign.

Welp. pic.twitter.com/Rd88k342bq

— Doug Farrar (@NFL_DougFarrar) December 12, 2018

This tweet was sent 36 months ago, which is the exact same prison term Michael Cohen was sentenced to just minutes ago. pic.twitter.com/uBMFmEUTZ9

— Frank Luntz (@FrankLuntz) December 12, 2018

Congratulations on receiving three years of free room and board, #MichaelCohen! pic.twitter.com/NGPnd10tUi

— Nick Jack Pappas (@Pappiness) December 12, 2018

Damn this aged well. Free room and board for Michael Cohen!! pic.twitter.com/rczylSDojw

— .teja.

(@tejaatej) December 12, 2018

There’s a Michael Cohen tweet for everything. pic.twitter.com/rCMGxrNXzG

— Philippe Reines (@PhilippeReines) December 12, 2018

Michael Cohen is going to prison and this tweet might be in history books. pic.twitter.com/e0Kj1cVRDM

— Frozen Political Takes (@ColdTakeArchive) December 12, 2018

Other people cracked jokes.

Michael Cohen’s worst crime? Liking his own tweets. pic.twitter.com/L0EPPUM4pT

— James O'Malley (@Psythor) December 12, 2018

Let us #neverforget: Michael Cohen paid more than $3000 for this jacket pic.twitter.com/gf9reHJUrP

— Hadley Freeman (@HadleyFreeman) December 12, 2018

READ MORE: 

Pence gets meme’d for zen-like looks during Trump’s White House showdown

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez fires back at Trump Jr. after his dog-eating meme attack

Everyone’s talking about ‘Individual 1’ after Michael Cohen’s guilty plea

from Ricky Schneiderus Curation https://www.dailydot.com/layer8/michael-cohen-sentenced/

[moonwalkertrance]

Prosecutors Announce Deal With Tabloid Company in Trump Hush-Money Inquiry

Federal prosecutors took a major step on Wednesday in their investigation of hush-money payments made to two women who said they had affairs with Donald J. Trump, announcing that The National Enquirer’s parent company was cooperating.

The company, American Media Inc., the country’s biggest tabloid publisher, admitted to playing an important role in a scheme to keep the women silent before the 2016 election so Mr. Trump’s chances would not be damaged. Payments to the women amounted to campaign finance violations, federal prosecutors said.

Under the agreement with A.M.I., dated in September but previously kept private, federal prosecutors in Manhattan agreed not to charge the company in return for its cooperation. The company also agreed to train employees on election law standards and appoint a qualified lawyer to vet future deals that may involve paying for stories about political candidates.

The agreement came after David J. Pecker, A.M.I.’s chief executive, provided key testimony to prosecutors as they investigated the president’s personal lawyer, Michael D. Cohen. Mr. Cohen received a three-year prison sentence on Wednesday in part for his involvement in the payments.

According to prosecutors, A.M.I. said its $150,000 payment in August 2016 to Karen McDougal, a former Playboy model who said she’d had a 10-month affair with Mr. Trump, had been made in coordination with the Trump campaign and was intended to suppress allegations about the candidate.

Mr. Cohen initially denied having any connection to the A.M.I. payment, though The New York Times reported in February that he had been in contact with Ms. McDougal’s lawyer as it was being negotiated.

From the onset of A.M.I.’s deal with Ms. McDougal, Mr. Cohen had promised to reimburse the company for the payment.

In late summer 2016, Mr. Cohen contacted Mr. Pecker about fulfilling that promise, prosecutors said in their filing on Wednesday.

Mr. Pecker agreed to sell the rights to Ms. McDougal’s story to Mr. Cohen for $125,000. To carry out the deal, Mr. Cohen incorporated a shell company called Resolution Consultants L.L.C.

Mr. Pecker also directed a consultant to complete the transaction through “a company unaffiliated” with A.M.I., prosecutors said, a technique that presumably helped mask the transaction.

In another sign that A.M.I. may have sought to hide the deal, the consultant provided Mr. Cohen with an invoice that “falsely stated” the purpose of the transaction, according to prosecutors.

The invoice attributed the $125,000 payment to an “agreed upon flat fee for advisory services,” when in fact it was to ensure Ms. McDougal’s silence at a pivotal moment in the campaign.

It was previously known that Mr. Trump was aware of Mr. Cohen’s discussions about paying A.M.I. During a recorded conversation late in the campaign, Mr. Cohen told Mr. Trump that “I need to open up a company for the transfer of all of that info regarding our friend, David,” a reference to Mr. Pecker.

Mr. Trump asked, “So what do we got to pay for this?”

Although Mr. Pecker signed off on the deal, he later contacted Mr. Cohen and called it off. He also instructed Mr. Cohen to tear up the paperwork, prosecutors said.

A.M.I. was also involved in the early stages of Mr. Cohen’s dealing with a second woman, the pornographic film actress Stormy Daniels, who said she had an affair with Mr. Trump. The company did not pay Ms. Daniels but notified Mr. Cohen that she was trying to sell her story.

[duaneodavila]

Stop Comparing Donald Trump’s Campaign Finance Fraud With John Edwards’s Case

John Edwards (D-Jerkface) (Photo by Gail Oskin/WireImage)

I get it. One-time Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards was once accused of campaign finance violations arising from hush payments to a mistress, but was not convicted. That makes people say maybe Donald Trump didn’t commit any crimes for which he can be convicted? That’s a take that makes a person sound “smart” and “lawyerly” and not tempted into hyperbole.

It’s also a surface-level analysis that ignores key differences between the Edwards case and the mounting evidence against Donald Trump. Comparing the two is like saying “Fran is sitting there drinking her third cup of coffee right now, so why are you on my case?” as you ram two lines up your nose in the break room.

The cases of John Edwards paying off his mistress and Donald Trump paying off his mistresses are easily distinguishable. Let’s roll through the three highlights:

1. TRUMP’S CO-CONSPIRATORS ADMIT TO THE FRAUDULENT CONSPIRACY

Do you remember that time John Edwards’s personal attorney pleaded in open court to violating campaign finance laws and lying to Congress at the behest of the candidate? No, you don’t remember that, because that DIDN’T HAPPEN to John Edwards.

Trump’s personal attorney, Michael Cohen, just got sent to jail. He admitted to paying off two women, Stephanie Clifford and Karen McDougal. He admitted to lying about it. He alleges that he did so at the behest of Donald Trump.

John Edwards did have co-conspirators rolling on him. But the prosecution could not show that either Edwards, or anybody on his staff, solicited campaign contributions specifically for the purposes of paying off his mistress, Rielle Hunter. There was no tape of Edwards telling his lawyer to make it “cash.” There was no tape of Edwards pretending to know nothing about the hush money payments that he himself ordered.

The key witness against Edwards was a junior staffer named Andrew Young. Young testified to a devious scheme he helped Edwards execute. But, crucially for distinguishing purposes, Young could not testify to giving Edwards the money to execute his expensive cover-up. From the Daily Beast:

In a stunning revelation, the witness alleged the multimillionaire Edwards first asked him for a loan knowing that the Youngs had recently come into a windfall of some $400,000 on the sale of their home. Asked for his response to Edwards by the prosecutor, Young replied, “I said, ‘No, sir.’ We needed that money to build our new house.” And, Young added, “We always had trouble getting reimbursed from the office. Giving him two or three hundred dollars once in a while was one thing, but …” His voice trailed off and the point was made. (To hear Young tell it, Edwards rarely dipped into his own pocket—not even the day Young drove the lovers to a clinic to get their shots prior to their alleged trip to Africa.)

According to Young, after he turned down Edwards’s request for a loan the senator instructed him to approach a dear friend, David Kirby, and ask for money. That didn’t work. Young says he and Edwards discussed the idea of asking über-wealthy Texas lawyer Fred Baron for financial help since he had been generous in the past. The senator nixed that idea, said Young, saying Baron was too close to his political rivals—Bill and Hillary Clinton—and, besides, Baron was “too much of a gossip.”

Then, serendipitously, a note from one of Edwards’ richest donors arrived offering help. Rachel “Bunny” Melon wanted John to be the next president so he could “rescue America.”

Compare that to Michael Cohen’s ADMISSION that he loaned Trump the money to pay off Stormy Daniels.

John Edwards’s main defense was that he didn’t know he was using “campaign” money when he paid off Hunter. He argued that he did not know that the “serendipitous” donation Young testified to was “campaign” money. I find that argument to be bollocks, but Trump cannot credibly make the same claim. That’s in part because of the OTHER co-conspirator who kind of rolled on Trump today.

2. THE NATIONAL ENQUIRER WAS PART OF THE HUSH MONEY SCHEME

You might remember that the National Enquirer actually broke the story about John Edwards’s sordid affair. The publication did not break the story on Trump’s affairs, because they were in on it.

American Media Inc., the publisher of the National Enquirer, has finally officially admitted to that, today. From Talking Points Memo:

After Michael Cohen was sentenced to three years in prison, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York announced that prosecutors had previously reached an agreement not to prosecute the National Enquirer’s parent company over its payment to kill Karen McDougal’s story about her alleged affair with President Trump.

As part of the agreement, American Media, Inc., admitted that it paid McDougal $150,000 in an attempt to influence the 2016 election, according to a statement from the U.S. attorney’s office.

“The Office also announced today that it has previously reached a non-prosecution agreement with AMI, in connection with AMI’s role in making the above-described $150,000 payment before the 2016 presidential election,” the U.S. attorney’s office said in a statement on Cohen’s sentencing. “As a part of the agreement, AMI admitted that it made the $150,000 payment in concert with a candidate’s presidential campaign, and in order to ensure that the woman did not publicize damaging allegations about the candidate before the 2016 presidential election. AMI further admitted that its principal purpose in making the payment was to suppress the woman’s story so as to prevent it from influencing the election.”

You can tell me all you want that Donald Trump was too stupid to know that Michael Cohen’s money was a campaign contribution, but you cannot credibly say that Trump didn’t know the National Enquirer’s money was not a contribution, or that he didn’t recognize catching-and-killing McDougal’s story was an “in-kind” contribution.

So that means Trump is left with arguing that he didn’t know that the Enquirer was paying off mistresses on his behalf which… MAKES NO GODDAMN SENSE.

Karen McDougal has always been a bigger danger to Trump than Stormy Daniels because of AMI’s involvement. Trump’s defenses against campaign finance violations involving McDougal basically requires Cohen and David Pecker to organize expensive payments and underhanded schemes to kill McDougal’s story, without once asking Trump, “Hey, did you f**k Karen McDougal?”

People like to throw around the term “plausible deniability” like it inculcates wrongdoers who are smart enough to not keep notes about their criminal enterprises. But we shouldn’t read “plausible” out of the phrase. Trump can, of course, deny that he had any knowledge of what AMI was doing on his behalf, but NOBODY is required to believe him. If Cohen says that they paid off McDougal and AMI says that they paid off McDougal and everybody agrees that they did it to influence the election, and Trump was aware that there was a “Karen McDougal” running around with stories to tell, then Trump saying “I didn’t know they were trying to influence the election” is not an argument that passes the smell test.

John Edwards didn’t have this problem. Edwards’s defense did not rest on him not knowing who Reille Hunter was, or not knowing that people were trying to keep her quiet. Edwards was not asking people to disregard common freaking sense.

Instead, Edwards’s lawyers positioned the former candidate in a completely different position than lackeys are advocating we view Donald Trump.

3. JOHN EDWARDS ADMITTED TO BEING A HORRIBLE HUMAN

The key to John Edwards’s defense was not that he didn’t have an affair while his wife was stricken with cancer. He didn’t deny paying his mistress off in hopes that she would keep quiet. He admitted that he was a horrible human being who lacked the moral character to lead a nation. He just didn’t know that the money he used to support his gross life were campaign donations. From TIME:

The victory of the former North Carolina Senator and onetime presidential candidate was in part due to a shrewd tactical decision by the defense: it played up the bad person/criminal distinction brilliantly. Edwards never tried to clear his name. Even in his postverdict remarks, he declared: “While I do not believe I did anything illegal, or ever thought that what I was doing was illegal, I did an awful, awful lot that was wrong.” In case there was any doubt, he referred to his “sins,” which he insisted that he alone was responsible for.

This approach played into the fundamental weakness of the prosecution’s case….

While the government presented a convincing case for Edwards’ general turpitude, what it failed to do was show that he had committed a crime. This prosecution was a stretch from the beginning. Edwards was accused of violating campaign-finance laws, but those laws are notoriously arcane. None directly addresses a candidate’s or his staff’s soliciting contributions to cover up a candidate’s affair. It was not surprising that, navigating this murky legal landscape, at least some jurors would accept the defense’s contention that the funds were gifts rather than campaign contributions — and that the campaign-finance laws therefore did not apply.

The only way out for Trump is… down. Like, figuratively on his knees, begging for forgiveness. Trump has yet to ADMIT to having these affairs with these women. The argument, last seen emanating from sentient canker sore Tucker Carlson, that Trump was “extorted” by Daniels and McDougal, plays into the hands of Trump’s (eventual) prosecutors.

Remember the facts of the story. These are undisputed: Two women approach Donald Trump and threaten to ruin his career and humiliate his family if he doesn’t give them money. That sounds like a classic case of extortion. Yet, for whatever reason, Trump caves to it, and he directs Michael Cohen to pay the ransom. Now, more than two years later, Trump is a felon for doing this. It doesn’t seem to make sense.

Dude, if Trump has an extortion case against Daniels or McDougal, he should bring it. Michael Avenatti is always happy to work. But in the meantime, the argument that Trump was afraid of these women is (wait for it) MOTIVE to engage in a criminal scheme to violate campaign finance laws.

There’s no “but it was a really bad story” exception to campaign finance rules. They’re just the rules. “I had a good reason for violating the rules” is… NOT A RULE.

And if it ever gets in front of an impartial jury (which it won’t, also because we don’t have a machine which allows up to go back to in time and abduct people with no opinions on President Trump), Trump’s repeated lies about the core affairs are what’s going to sink him.

John Edwards admitted to all of his dirty dealings, which gave him credibility when he argued that in the heat of all of his lust he wasn’t aware where all the money was coming from. Remember, the key “donation” that was at issue in the Edwards case was money that was washed through a number of sources to obscure its true origin.

Here, Trump is lying about all of these affairs, but we’re supposed to believe him when he says that he didn’t know where the money came from and/or he didn’t know using the money was a violation of law? Come on.

Edwards played his hand in a focused manner to get out of the specific charges of campaign finance violations. Trump is playing his hand randomly to… I don’t know, sell more hats? There has been no sound or even consistent legal strategy to deal with any of the allegations that have beset Trump for two years, and I don’t think he’ll come up with one any time soon.

Which is why Trump won’t “get away” with this like Edwards did. The two situations have almost nothing to do with each other anymore. John Edwards was a failed presidential candidate arguing a specific legal technicality to keep himself out of jail. Trump is a successful presidential candidate under investigation by seemingly every law enforcement agency in the country who isn’t in jail already because the Secret Service works for him. The legal danger the two men were in is not comparable.

The John Edwards defense cannot save Trump now.

Elie Mystal is the Executive Editor of Above the Law and the Legal Editor for More Perfect. He can be reached @ElieNYC on Twitter, or at elie@abovethelaw.com. He will resist.

[allbestnet]

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[opedguy]

Cohen’s Testimony Eclipses Trump’s Summit

LOS ANGELES (OnlineColumnist.com), Feb. 26, 2019.--Testifying in closed session today before the Senate Intelligence Committee, President Donald Trump’s personal attorney Michael Cohen has been exploited by the Democrat Party to undermine the president’s summit in Hanoi with North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un.  Whatever the reasons Democrats couldn’t wait a week before Trump finished his high stakes summit, it shows the egregious partisanship, putting party before country. Cohen pled guilty to multiple felonies Aug. 23, 2018, after cooperating with Special Counsel Robert Mueller and U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Geoffrey Berman.  Cohen pleaded guilty to perjury for lying to Congress, campaign finance violations, income tax evasion, bank and wire fraud and illegally selling New York City taxi medallions.  Media reports don’t talk about Cohen’s multiple felonies, only violating campaign finance laws.

            Today’s closed-door hearing with Sen. Richard Burr’s (R-N.C.) Intelligence Committee focused on why Cohen lied to Congress about his involvement during the campaign in the Trump Tower Moscow project. Cohen told Congress in 2016 that he had completed all work on the project in Dec. 2016, when it fact email exchanges proved he was still talking to the Russians until June 2017.  That six month difference earned Cohen a perjury conviction, on a plea bargain that netted Cohen three years in federal prison starting May 1.  Tomorrow’s public testimony tomorrow before Rep. Elijiah Cummings’ (D-Ga.) House Government Reform and Oversight Committee promises to eclipse Trump’s summit with Kim. Democrats made sure to steal the headlines from Trump, shifting the media’s attention away from Hanoi and onto Cohen’s salacious testimony in Washington D.C.

            Cohen has promised to rat out Trump to the fullest extent possible, saying that he’s simply giving his story of events, especially about hush money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels [AKA Stephanie Clifford] and Playboy centerfold Karen McDougal, both claiming one-night stands with Trump in 2006.  Since his arrest and conviction on multiple felonies, Cohen became a cooperating witness for Special Counsel Muellet and U.S. Atty. Berman.  It’s unimaginable, no matter how Cohen reduced his jail-time, that he would sing like a canary against his former boss, letting Democrats use him to go after the president.  Showing that Democrats have no restraint when it comes to going after Trump, Mueller at least decided to wait on his final report to Atty. Gen. Bill Barr until Trump returns from Vietnam.  Democrats had no compunction about putting Cohen on the stand this week.

            Before Cohen reports for federal prison May 1, he wanted to “clear the record and tell the truth” in open testimony before Cummings’ committee.  “I look forward to tomorrow, to be able to in my voice to tell the American people my story,” Cohen repeated to reporters Tuesday.  Why Democrats or Cohen think the American people want to hear his nonsense is anyone’s guess.  Disbarred today by the New York Attorney General’s office, Cohen has zero credibility, while Democrats try their best to use him for their own political gain in the 2020 election.  Whether he’s believed or not, Cummings wants nothing more than to allow Trump’s former personal attorney to stab him in the back on national TV.  Whether his story’s believable or not is of no importance to Democrats looking to smear Trump anyway possible.  Letting Cohen lash out at Trump makes good theater.

            Cohen promised to expose Trump’s “lying, racism, cheating, and criminal conduct.”  Told he ran a “smorgasbord of fraudulent conduct,” Judge William Pauley III left no doubt about Cohen’s sophisticated criminal activity.  Yet tomorrow, Cohen plans to tell the world that Trump told him to violate federal campaign laws by paying hush money to Daniels and McDougal.  Trump has said repeatedly he never asked Cohen, a licensed New York attorney, to do anything illegal. Cohen plans to show the committee a cancelled check, reimbursing him for paying off Stormy.   Yet the whole matter related to Stormy Daniels and McDougal had to do with a private manner, taking no cash from Trump’s presidential campaign.  Cohen’s plea bargain to Mueller or U.S. Attorney’s office had to do with his situation, not Trumps. Democrats can’t wait to let Cohen smear Trump on national TV.

            Pulling the rug out from underneath the summit in Vietnam, Democrats have stolen all the headlines for now, hoping their convicted felon star witness throws as much mud on Trump as possible.  “Two years ago when this investigation started I said I may be the most important thing I m involved in my public life in the Senate, and nothing I’ve heard today dissuaded me from that view,” said Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.).  Placing all his trust in Cohen, Warner shows the egregious partisanship plaguing Washington.  Refusing to join today’s circus, Sen. John Cornyn (R-Tx.) shared his skepticism.  “I don’t have any desire to go listen to a lying lawyer,” Cornyn said.  Democrats hope that Cohen provides fresh testimony and new documents on Trump’s finances, especially on the Trump Tower Moscow project, to begin impeachment hearings in the House at the earliest possible time.

About the Author

John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He’s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma

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