Michael Cohen had been a long-time lawyer, fixer, and friend of the Trump family.
Cohen covered up an affair Trump had with porn star Stormy Daniels, paying her $130,000 just ahead of the 2016 election. For his role, Cohen was later charged with campaign finance violations and counts of tax evasion.
There have been multiple reports on how Trump communicates via unsecured lines, especially among his inner circle, because using secure methods is too great an inconvenience. Intelligence analysts believe Russia or other foreign powers could use these conversations against both America’s foreign policy and Trump individually, and have detected signs of such spying.
Particular concern has been raised about the Kremlin listening in on conversations between Trump and his lawyer Rudy Giuliani regarding communications to the Ukrainian President over military aid for defense from Russia. White House officials have stated that Trump makes such calls regularly.
The Mueller Report specifically said that Trump was not exonerated from the claimed crimes.
Robert Mueller has since explicitly denied that his report exonerated the President of obstructing the Special Council investigation. This was reiterated in front of Congress.
Trump’s attorney general, Jeff Sessions, had recused himself from the investigation into Russian election interference, which developed into the Special Council after Trump fired FBI Director James Comey. Trump’s tweet that “Jeff Sessions should stop this Rigged Witch Hunt right now” was immediately called an example of attempting to obstruct the Special Council’s investigation.
..This is a terrible situation and Attorney General Jeff Sessions should stop this Rigged Witch Hunt right now, before it continues to stain our country any further. Bob Mueller is totally conflicted, and his 17 Angry Democrats that are doing his dirty work are a disgrace to USA!
As has been stated by numerous legal scholars, I have the absolute right to PARDON myself, but why would I do that when I have done nothing wrong? In the meantime, the never ending Witch Hunt, led by 13 very Angry and Conflicted Democrats (& others) continues into the mid-terms!
The remarks were in reference to any potential charges stemming from the Special Council investigating Russian interference in US elections. While asserting his right to pardon himself, he denied any wrongdoing.
Article II, Section 2 of the Constitution explicitly states that the President “shall have power to grant reprieves and pardons for offenses against the United States, except in cases of impeachment.”
Trump said repeatedly before and after the election that his tax returns would eventually be released, but couldn’t because they were under perpetual audit. Being under audit does not deny one the ability to share them.
After the House subpoenaed his financial records from the IRS, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin defied the subpoena.
Trump filed suits against the US House Ways and Means Committee and the state of New York to prevent his taxes from being obtained. His legal team’s contention was that a sitting president enjoys “absolute immunity from criminal process of any kind.”
After being stuck in appeals, the Supreme Court decided to review both legal cases, Trump v. Mazars US, LLP and Trump v. Deutsche Bank AG. A decision is still pending.
Trump admitted he fired Comey because of the “Russia thing” in an interview with Lester Holt:
“And, in fact, when I decided to just do it, I said to myself, I said: ‘You know, this Russia thing with Trump and Russia is a made up story, it’s an excuse by the Democrats for having lost an election that they should’ve won.’”
This contradicted the original White House memo that stated Comey was fired because of his handling of the Hillary email investigation. He again backtracked the comments later after claiming that the interview had been “fudged,” though no evidence was offered.
Trump told Russian officials visiting the Oval Office that “I just fired the head of the FBI. He was crazy, a real nut job…I faced great pressure because of Russia. That’s taken off.” He also said he was unconcerned with Russian election interference and shared classified intelligence with the Russian officials gathered by Israel, despite Russia’s ally Iran being Israel’s longtime enemy.
During the freewheeling interview, he railed against Iran and the nuclear deal, distanced himself from the “crazy” Stormy Daniels story and his personal attorney Michael Cohen, and slammed Obama’s handling of North Korea while praising his own. He also spoke about his friendship with Kanye West and boasted about the employment rate of blacks under his administration, noting, “Republicans really did the thing. Lincoln was a Republican.”
The cast looked visibly uncomfortable throughout the last few minutes, during which Trump complained about “how dishonest the news is,” Brian Kilmeade suggested, “I’m not your doctor, Mr. President, but I would recommend you watch less of them.” Trump replied, “well I don’t watch them at all…I watched leakin’ lying Comey last night.” He had sacked James Comey, Director of the FBI, for investigating Russia election interference. He went on to attack the “witch hunt” from the Mueller investigation, and said “I would give myself an A+, no one has done what I’ve been able to do, and I did it despite the fact that I have a phony cloud over my head that doesn’t exist.” Kilmeade finally ended the interview by cutting into a rant about the Justice Department and “crooked” FBI by saying, “we talked to you all day, but it looks like you have a million things to do, but I hope you can join us again.”
Charges were filed by the state of New York regarding the illegal manner in which Trump Foundation funds were disbursed for political campaigning purposes. The filing noted the charity’s “persistently illegal conduct.”
Trump tweeted his anger at the unfairness of the situation, claiming that he would never settle.
The sleazy New York Democrats, and their now disgraced (and run out of town) A.G. Eric Schneiderman, are doing everything they can to sue me on a foundation that took in $18,800,000 and gave out to charity more money than it took in, $19,200,000. I won’t settle this case!…
Trump was then ordered by the court to pay $2 million to settle charges over his fraudulent charity, which he agreed to later that year. He had made similar claims about Trump University before it was also shut down and he was forced to settle for $25 million.
