We stand at a tipping point: do we fire up the popcorn maker or start digging a fallout shelter in the garden? (Trump cont)

[boatyardblues]

Old thread here: www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/3207431-When-a-nation-s-children-marched-and-their-President-ignored-them-Trump-cont

I’m all out of inspiration for the rest of this opening post. Send the St Bernard with the brandy please.

It's also airing at 10pm PDT, which would be 6 am Monday morning in the UK.

For any of you savvy enough to get a West Coast TV network feed on your computer try:

KABC (Los Angeles)
KGO (San Francisco)
KGTV (San Diego)

I know my son watches BBC on his computer via some tech-y thingy that tricks the BBC into thinking he's in the UK.

Ooooh I'd like to know about the BBC techy thing that your son knows about Across as I'm abroad at the mo and can't get anything that isn't live

David Allen Green @ davidallengreen
^This is a fascinating legal document.

According to the US Attorney, an preliminary review of evidence seized from Michael Cohen "indicate[s] that Cohen is in fact performing little to no legal work".^

Whole doc worth reading carefully.

The document also sets out that because Trump has denied that Cohen was acting on his behalf regarding Stormy Daniels...

...then there can be no client-attorney privilege in respect of those dealings.

(Footnote 5.)

Whoopsie.

Ian Bassin @ ianbassin
This document makes things look pretty bad for Michael Cohen. t.co/HFws7mD4Z1

Daniel Hornung @ DanielZHornung
Wow: "there is reason to doubt that even communications with [Trump] regarding payments to Stephanie Clifford . . . would be protected . . . Trump has publicly denied knowing that Cohen paid Clifford, and suggested to reporters that they had to “ask Michael” about the payment."

Penny @ pennytpup
One fascinating thing in here I have not heard the media mention is this “strategic relationship” with a firm that gave him a free office and $500k a year, plus a share of business he brought in. No legitimate firm in its right mind would pay $500k a year plus for nothing.

I do love a document.

www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2018/04/15/republican-leaders-warn-trump-against-firing-mueller-rosenstein/518569002/

shareblue.com/trump-approval-orange-county-california-republicans/

It's a very fine document. Some refs to precedents but generally very readable for us hoi polloi.

I liked this bit on pp12-3:

Fourth, the USAO-SDNY has specific reason to doubt that the seized materials will include the volume and nature of attorney-client communications that Cohen claims. This is because the USAO-SDNY has already obtained search warrants – covert until this point – on multiple different email accounts maintained by Cohen, and has conducted a privilege review of the materials obtained pursuant to those warrants.

Ouch!

Oh they've been investigating for many months already.

Well this all just got even more interesting...thanks for the links all.

It's going to a be busy week in the UK, too. DCMS Fake News inquiry is hearing evidence again:

17 April 2018 10:30 am
Brittany Kaiser, former Director of Program Development, Cambridge Analytica

18 April 2018 2:15 pm
Alexander Nix, Chief Executive, Cambridge Analytica

www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/commons-select/digital-culture-media-and-sport-committee/inquiries/parliament-2017/fake-news-17-19/

This next article probably belongs more on the Westminstenders threads, but with the Mercer involvement in Cambridge Analytica and AIQ, I think CAnalytica stuff is relevant over here too:

Mark Gettleson: the reluctant 'third whistleblower' on Vote Leave spending
Former Vote Leave staffer submitted evidence to Electoral Commission after being persuaded by whistleblower Shahmir Sanni
www.theguardian.com/politics/2018/apr/14/mark-gettleson-the-reluctant-third-whistleblower-on-vote-leave-spending

For those of you who aren't staying up, there are some - a very few - excerpts from the Comey interview in this ABC piece.

Comey interview

I’ll be sure to let you know if WW3 starts, Boatyard, never fear! (That’s an odd statement!)

Claws

I honestly didn't expect to make it to July 2017 so I'm already in credit.

I like your way of thinking cozie

I have to say that, watching those few excerpts from the Comey interview, he really comes across as utterly believable.

Here you all go.

And, for good measure.

Someone in the MSM made the point that 45 has never called out De Niro - although he's called out plenty of other stars in his tweets. Wonder if that will change?

Caroline O.’s live tweetathon of the Comey interview (this is but one.)

Caroline O.
‏

@RVAwonk
35m35 minutes ago
More
Comey says he thinks of Trump's presidency like a "forest fire."

"His presidency is doing, and will do, tremendous damage to our norms and our values, especially the truth... But...what forest fires do is allow things to grow that never could've grown."

#ComeyInterview

The ABC transcript of the interview.

Comey interview - transcript

"A person who sees moral equivalence in Charlottesville, who talks about and treats women like they're pieces of meat, who lies constantly about matters big and small and insists the American people believe it, that person's not fit to be president of the United States, on moral grounds.

"Our president must embody respect and adhere to the values that are at the core of this country. The most important being truth. This president is not able to do that. He is morally unfit to be president," *

Couldn't have said it better myself.

Meanwhile keep those popcorn buckets full.

Trump wants to review material seized from personal lawyer before federal investigators

President Trump asked a federal judge Sunday night to allow him to review documents that FBI agents seized from the office of his longtime lawyer before criminal investigators have a chance to see the material.
The request underscores the high stakes in an ongoing legal fight in federal court in New York, where Michael Cohen, Trump’s lawyer, is also fighting to get a chance to review material seized as part of a criminal investigation of his business dealings.
Trump’s request, in the form of a letter from other lawyers representing him, could further complicate a hearing set for Monday afternoon. During that session, lawyers for Cohen are expected to tell the judge overseeing the case how many legal clients he has and how many seized documents he thinks might be covered by attorney-client privilege.
Cohen is set to attend the hearing.
www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/trump-wants-to-review-material-seized-from-personal-lawyer-before-federal-investigators/2018/04/15/c927d9f4-4115-11e8-bba2-0976a82b05a2_story.html?utm_term=.4aca818eaf00

Yes.

Bizarrely, just woke up to Radio 4 snippets from Comey followed by an interview with an ex CIA bod who was basically saying it's not good form to do what Comey did. As if it should be business as usual.

I noticed this the other day in relation to March for our Lives on the BBC. A report on the thousands marching across the States followed by, 'Here's an interview with a teenager who disagrees with the march and likes guns.'

Is this their version of balance?

www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-43778831#

'French President Emmanuel Macron has said he convinced US President Donald Trump not to withdraw troops from Syria and instead commit "for the long term".

Earlier this month, Mr Trump declared that the US would "be coming out of Syria very soon".

On Saturday, joint US, UK and French strikes targeted Syrian government sites in response to an alleged chemical weapons attack.

Mr Macron said he also persuaded Mr Trump to keep the strikes limited.

The pair, who are reported to have a friendly relationship, spoke multiple times in the days before the military action was taken..

More than anything, I don't think Comey needed to do this. Nothing he said is really new.

And the Trump acolytes won't change their minds.