Friday AM ~ TheFrontPageCover

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TheFrontPageCover
~ Featuring ~
Cohen, Manafort Developments Don't 
Reveal Any Illegal Conduct or Collusion 
by Trump, His Campaign
by Hans von Spakovsky  
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Federalist Society and Conservatives’ 
Wishlist for Attorney General
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by Ken Klukowski
{breitbart.com} ~ The Federalist Society’s national convention is the foremost gathering of conservative legal minds in America... and this year it was abuzz with the names of several giants from whom this critical part of President Donald Trump’s base hopes he will choose his next attorney general. The National Lawyers Convention of the nonpartisan Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy is a three-day affair in the nation’s capital each November. The high point this year was a black-tie dinner with 2,200 attendees held at Union Station, at which four Supreme Court justices, several of the president’s Cabinet members, former Attorney General Jeff Sessions, numerous senators and congressmen, and literally dozens of federal judges appeared. The convention was a tour de force of conservative and libertarian legal thought, including several prominent liberals to debate controversial issues during the convention’s panel discussions. One of the most energetic topics of conversation was who President Trump should pick as his next attorney general to lead the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ). Led by Gene Meyer and Leonard Leo, the Federalist Society boasts among its more than 75,000 members multiple former U.S. attorneys general, deputy attorneys general, solicitors general, and other top DOJ officials from every administration from the Reagan years to the current Trump years, not to mention dozens of senators, congressmen, governors, state attorneys general, and scores of federal judges. Everyone at the Federalist Society seemingly agreed that the president can take his time to get this right. Matthew Whitaker is by all accounts doing an excellent job as acting attorney general, receiving uniform praise from all those present at the convention...
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Putin threatens new arms race with US
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{washingtonexaminer.com} ~ Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday threatened a new nuclear arms race with the U.S. after the Trump administration threatened to abandon an arms treaty due to Russia's noncompliance... Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Tuesday the U.S. would leave the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces arms control treaty in 60 days because Russia has failed to adhere to it. That move raised the prospect of the re-emergence of quick-strike nuclear missiles that were around during the Cold War. And on Wednesday, Putin went on television to warn that if the U.S. starts developing these weapons, so will Russia, according to several reports.Putin said the Trump administration's move shows that the U.S. "has to have these weapons," according to the Associated Press. He added that Russia's response would be, "We will do the same." Pompeo blamed Russia for the demise of the treaty, and said Tuesday that Russia must admit its violations and "fully and verifiably" come back into compliance before the U.S. can consider staying in it...
Despite Media Claims, Witch Hunt Still Has Nothing
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{americanlibertyreport.com} ~ While Trump is busy negotiating trade deals across the world and finally getting China to play ball... the media is reigning destruction on his character once again. You won’t catch any of them coming down with a case of “good will toward men” this Christmas season. Instead, they have twisted everything we know about the dirty cop-Mueller investigation. If you took their word for it, Trump is minutes away from being impeached and will most assuredly rot in jail for the rest of his life. If you actually read the reports yourself, you’ll learn that the real story is quite different. The media has gone absolutely crazy over the last week. News broke that Michael Cohen plead guilty to a new charge: lying to Congress. According to releases from the dirty cop-Mueller investigation, Cohen violated his oath and intentionally deceived Congress during his testimony. Specifically, he lied about the Trump organization’s business dealings in Russia in 2016. Cohen’s original statement was that Trump abandoned the project in January 2016. New reports suggest that the deal didn’t fully collapse until June of 2016. That suggests that Trump’s business was still working on a Russian deal during six months of Trump’s presidential campaign. According to the media, this is absolute proof that Trump colluded with Russia to win the election. Let’s slow those horses for a moment. This is definitely bad news for Michael Cohen. If it can be proven that he lied under oath, he’ll face perjury charges among whatever else dirty cop-Mueller is throwing at him. By association, this is bad for Trump too. It shows that the lawyer he trusted was even more corrupt than we already knew. What this isn’t, is proof that Trump himself did anything wrong...
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Russia lashes out, threatens to target U.S. 
allies if Trump kills arms treaty
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by Guy Taylor 
{washingtontimes.com} ~ Russia lashed out Wednesday in response to Washington’s threat to pull out of a key Cold War weapons treaty... with a top general in Moscow saying Russian forces will target European countries hosting American missiles if the U.S. follows through on the threat. “The target for Russian retaliation won’t be U.S. territory but the countries where the intermediate-range missiles are deployed,” Russian General Staff Chief Valery Gerasimov said, a day after the Trump administration said it is preparing to withdraw from the 30-year-old Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF). U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo made the announcement at NATO headquarters in Belgium Tuesday, claiming Russia is already flagrantly violating the INF and asserting that Washington will “remedy” the situation by pulling out of the pact in 60 days unless Moscow takes clear steps to come back into compliance. Mr. Pompeo’s ultimatum came after months of warnings from the Trump administration, which has been joined by NATO allies in calling Russia out for developing and deploying missiles that violate the 1987 year INF Treaty — allegations Moscow denies...
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Turkey Sides with Hamas on U.N. Resolution
Condemning Rocket Attacks
by John Rossomando

{investigativeproject.org} ~ NATO ally Turkey plans to oppose an American-sponsored draft resolution at the United Nations condemning Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and other Palestinian terror factions... A vote on the resolution is scheduled for Thursday. It specifically condemns "Hamas for repeatedly firing rockets into Israel and for inciting violence, thereby putting civilians at risk." It also demands that Palestinian terror factions stop using  "airborne incendiary devices" against Israel. Turkey will vote against the resolution, Iran's Mehr News Agency reported Tuesday. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu promised Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh that Turkey would do everything it could to stop its passage. Haniyeh lobbied  the Turks to help Hamas thwart the American effort. Hamas called the resolution "aggression against the rights of the Palestinian cause" in a communiqué posted on its website and claimed it was an assault on "the right of the Palestinian people to defend themselves." Çavuşoğlu vowed  that his country would "remain alongside the right of Palestine and Palestinians, and that its position is constant on the Palestinian Cause." Turkey has become a key Hamas ally and protector. Çavuşoğlu  condemned January's U.S. decision to classify Haniyeh as a specially designated global terrorist, and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan declared last May that Hamas was not a terrorist organization... We alway knew where Turkey stood.
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Cohen, Manafort Developments Don't Reveal Any Illegal Conduct or Collusion by Trump, His Campaign

by Hans von Spakovsky

 

Amid the media hysteria over Michael Cohen’s guilty plea and discussions between the lawyers representing Paul Manafort and President Donald Trump, it’s important to understand from a legal standpoint what this means — and what it does not.
               We don’t know what other evidence special counsel dirty cop-Robert Mueller may have that hasn’t yet been disclosed. But the evidence disclosed to date — including in Cohen’s plea deal — still doesn’t reveal any illegal conduct by Trump or his campaign or any collusion with the Russian government to change the outcome of the 2016 election. There is nothing illegal or unethical about discussions and sharing of information between lawyers representing individuals who may be the focus of the same prosecutor.
               Cohen pleaded guilty to one count of lying to Congress. What was he lying about? For the past 30 years, the Trump real estate organization has been trying to negotiate a deal to build a marquee property in Moscow. There is certainly nothing unusual or untoward about that.
               The criminal information filed by the special counsel describes the false statements that Cohen now admits he made. Cohen originally told Congress that the negotiations he was involved in over that deal ended in January 2016 and that they did not involve Trump himself. He now admits that the negotiations didn’t end until June 2016 (the deal was never consummated), and that he did brief individuals within the Trump Organization, including Trump, about the negotiations.
               Cohen also stated that he never planned to travel to Russia for the hotel deal, nor did he ask Trump to travel there. He also swore to Congress that he had reached out to the press secretary for the Russian president, but that he did “not recall” whether he received a response. These statements were also false, thus constituting a federal crime of lying to Congress.
               No one should minimize the seriousness of lying under oath to Congress. During the guilty plea before the district court judge, Cohen said, “I made these statements to be consistent with Individual-1’s political messaging and to be loyal to Individual 1.
               So Cohen lied to be loyal to Trump (Individual 1 presumably). But it’s important to understand that the underlying conduct that Cohen was lying about — negotiating a real estate deal — is not illegal or unlawful in and of itself, whether you’re working to get something built in New York City or Moscow.
               Furthermore, there is no federal law that tells individuals who own a business and run for federal office, whether it is the presidency or Congress, that they have to stop running their business, negotiating deals, or taking part in the other myriad details involved in being a business owner the moment they decide to run for office.
               Yes, they have to avoid conflicts of interest, and cannot enrich themselves unlawfully once in office. But those laws kick in after someone is elected.
               All of Cohen’s entreaties to get the real estate deal appear to have been perfectly legal, at least so far as we know.
               If we assume that Cohen pleaded guilty this time because he really did lie to Congress, then the underlying conduct — talking to Russian officials about a possible real estate deal in Moscow and briefing individuals within the Trump Organization — is all lawful conduct. Does Cohen secretly have some other testimony that shows illegal activity? We don’t know, and there is nothing in the plea agreement that indicates one way or another.
               We also don’t know what Cohen told dirty cop-Mueller during his seven proffer sessions that took place between August 2018 and Nov. 20, 2018, as noted in the plea agreement. We do know that Trump submitted his written responses to dirty cop-Mueller on Nov. 20, and the Cohen guilty plea took place after that, leading one to conclude that dirty cop-Mueller was waiting for the president’s written answers before unveiling Cohen’s latest guilty plea. Where this leads is difficult to tell.
               By the way, it should be noted that Cohen faced a maximum of five years in prison and a maximum fine of $250,000; the plea agreement with dirty cop-Mueller says that the special prosecutor is recommending no more than six months in prison and a maximum fine of only $9,500.
               The media has also been full of stories claiming the special counsel is upset that the lawyers representing Manafort have apparently been briefing the lawyers representing Trump about their discussions with dirty cop-Mueller and implying that there is something nefarious in such sharing of information. There is nothing illegal or unethical about lawyers with different clients sharing such information.
               The extensive, 17-page plea agreement that Manafort entered into with dirty cop-Mueller on Sept. 14 has no provision of any kind barring Manafort or his lawyers from briefing the president’s lawyers on their discussions with dirty cop-Mueller. There is an entire page and a half detailing the cooperation that Manafort has to provide to the special counsel, but nowhere does it say that Manafort is prohibited from sharing information about that cooperation.
               In fact, Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s lawyer, says he has joint defense agreements with 32 potential witnesses in the special counsel’s investigation, including Manafort. Some legal experts say that agreement should have ended when Manafort pleaded guilty, but as long as Manafort’s lawyer is simply providing information to Giuliani and there is no effort to tamper with a witness or obstruct justice, there is no unlawful behavior in such sharing of information (although it is unusual).
               Of course, Manafort, who was convicted for criminal violations of the law related to his consulting business that had nothing to do with his brief participation in the Trump campaign, has more serious problems.
               On Nov. 26, dirty cop-Mueller filed a pleading with the federal court in the District of Columbia claiming that Manafort has breached his plea deal by “lying” to the FBI and the special counsel “on a variety of subject matters.” Those “subject matters” are not detailed in the filing; instead, the special counsel says he will outline what those “lies” are when he files a “detailed sentencing” report to the court.
               So far, after a year and a half of the special counsel investigation, we’ve had multiple indictments of Russians for trying — with no coordination with any Americans — to use social media and the internet to encourage social unrest in America in 2016. We had various indictments for criminal activity unrelated to the Trump campaign and for lying to Congress and federal investigators over conduct that was itself lawful.
               But we still have had no indictments that have revealed any evidence about the issue the special counsel was supposed to investigate — whether there was any collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russian government. The latest developments with Cohen and Manafort add very little to answering that ultimate question. We’re still waiting.  ~The Patriot Post  

https://patriotpost.us/opinion/59840?mailing_id=3918&utm_medium=email&utm_source=pp.email.3918&utm_campaign=snapshot&utm_content=body
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