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Nature With Cohen Implicating Trump, a Presidency’s Fate Rests With Congress

Nature With Cohen Implicating Trump, a Presidency’s Fate Rests With Congress Nature With Cohen Implicating Trump, a Presidency’s Fate Rests With Congress http://www.nature-business.com/nature-with-cohen-implicating-trump-a-presidencys-fate-rests-with-congress/

Nature

The former personal lawyer to President Trump pleaded guilty to campaign finance violations, as well as multiple counts of tax evasion and bank fraud.Published OnAug. 21, 2018CreditImage by Andres Kudacki for The New York Times

WASHINGTON — As he pleaded guilty in a Manhattan courthouse on Tuesday to violating federal campaign finance laws, Michael D. Cohen, President Trump’s longtime fixer, put his future in the hands of the American legal system.

But the fate of Mr. Trump, the man who Mr. Cohen said directed him to break the law by making payments to a pornographic film actress and a former Playboy model, rests, in all likelihood, in the political arena and in the halls of Congress.

At least for now, the Republican Party continues to stand by the president. But with only weeks until the midterm elections, the question will soon be put before voters, who will decide whether to hand Congress — and the power of investigation, subpoenas and, possibly, impeachment — to the Democrats.

After Mr. Cohen’s pleas and a guilty verdict, minutes later, in the bank and tax fraud case against Mr. Trump’s former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, Democrats wasted no time in demanding a congressional investigation into the Cohen affair and warned of an increasingly dangerous threat to the rule of law.

“This is getting deeper and deeper, and it’s going to get more and more serious,” said Representative Jerrold Nadler of New York, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee. Asked about the potential for an impeachment inquiry, Mr. Nadler said he wanted to see more evidence.

Image

Representative Jerrold Nadler of New York, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, in June in Washington. “This is getting deeper and deeper, and it’s going to get more and more serious,” he said.CreditJ. Scott Applewhite/Associated Press

“We need to see what Mueller comes up with,” he said, referring to Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel investigating the Trump campaign’s ties to Russia and whether Mr. Trump obstructed justice. “We may get there.”

Senator Ron Wyden, Democrat of Oregon, broached the charged phrase “high crimes and misdemeanors,” the Constitution’s threshold for impeachment.

But lawmakers in Mr. Trump’s party, who have repeatedly brushed away concerns about Mr. Trump’s own legal exposure, seemed unperturbed. With the House away from Washington for the month and senators sick of the drama emanating from Mr. Trump’s orbit, few openly rose to Mr. Trump’s defense. Those who did said the threat was elsewhere.

“Campaign finance violations — I don’t know what will come from that, but the thing that will hurt the president the most is if, in fact, his campaign did coordinate with a foreign government like Russia. Anything short of that is probably going to fall into partisan camps,” Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, told reporters. As a House member, Mr. Graham helped prosecute the impeachment of President Bill Clinton two decades ago.

Senator John Cornyn of Texas, the No. 2 Senate Republican, repeatedly stepped around questions from reporters about the implications of Mr. Cohen’s pleas. He observed instead that independent counsel investigations often tended veer away from their origins.

“I have no idea about what the facts are surrounding his guilty plea other than the fact that none of it has anything to do with the Russia investigation,” Mr. Cornyn said. “I would make the same observation with regard to Mr. Manafort.”

Image

Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, on Tuesday in Washington. “Campaign finance violations — I don’t know what will come from that, but the thing that will hurt the president the most is if, in fact, his campaign did coordinate with a foreign government like Russia,” he said.CreditErin Schaff for The New York Times

Aides to Speaker Paul D. Ryan, Republican of Wisconsin, said Mr. Ryan was “aware of Mr. Cohen’s guilty plea to these serious charges” but would wait for more information to comment further. Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky and the majority leader, said nothing publicly.

In a sign of how cemented both the opposition to and support for Mr. Trump is a year and a half into his presidency, few Republicans believed the double-digit felony count would drastically reshape the political climate. Party strategists largely dismissed Mr. Manafort’s conviction, viewing it as not directly related to Mr. Trump, and said voters had already concluded that the president agreed to pay off the actress, Stephanie Clifford, better known as Stormy Daniels.

“I’d be surprised if it causes anything more than a ripple in the campaign,” said Steven Law, who oversees the Senate Leadership Fund, the “super PAC” aligned with Mr. McConnell.

Part of what the president has going for him is that expectations about his conduct were already low before Tuesday’s split-screen drama, with Democrats believing he is an amoral demagogue and many Republicans seeing him as an unsavory character who has the right policies and, just as important, the right enemies.

“In a normal world, it’s not good,” said Chris Wilson, a Republican pollster. “In today’s political environment, it probably just creates further polarization and political tribalism.”

This is not to say that the president’s approval ratings will not dip slightly or that preferences for a Democratic-controlled Congress will not rise on the news: Many Republicans believe they are already likely to lose control of the House and that such Trump-linked wrongdoing will only further enhance Democrats’ chances for a takeover.

Image

Senator John Cornyn of Texas, the No. 2 Senate Republican, on Tuesday at the Capitol. He repeatedly stepped around questions from reporters about the implications of Mr. Cohen’s pleas.CreditErin Schaff for The New York Times

But given the health of the economy and relative stability abroad, Mr. Trump’s approval ratings are already significantly lower than what virtually any other president would be enjoying at this moment of his administration. And if there is one predictable element of this otherwise unpredictable presidency, it is that some new story will detonate in the days or weeks ahead, pushing the last eruption off the home page and television chyron.

That fact was both a tonic to Republicans on Tuesday and a reason for concern. While suggesting that the Manafort and Cohen felonies were merely this week’s version of the Omarosa tapes — the latest ephemeral drama to grip Washington but barely faze voters — Republican officials were also apprehensive about what more Mr. Cohen may reveal on his way to a likely prison sentence.

And even more worrisome to Republicans is what damage Mr. Trump may do to himself. If the president is seen as thwarting Mr. Mueller’s investigation, either by terminating the special counsel or pardoning allies who are implicated, it would create a far more serious upheaval and force Republican lawmakers into a confrontation they have long avoided.

“Of course you can imagine the president doing things that would be counterproductive,” said Senator Bill Cassidy, Republican of Louisiana, before adding with evident hope in his voice, “But you also could imagine the president saying something but never acting on it, just venting.”

Privately, Democrats speculated that the guilty pleas and decisions stacking up around Mr. Trump would fuel a message that Republicans controlling all levers of Washington were woefully corrupt.

Their case got another boost only hours later when a federal grand jury indicted Representative Duncan Hunter of California on charges that he spent tens of thousands of dollars in campaign funds on personal expenses. Mr. Hunter was the second Republican congressman to be federally charged in just three weeks and, taken together with the Cohen and Manafort felonies, some Republicans thought the misdeeds carried a stench reminiscent of the 2006 elections, when Democrats last reclaimed control of Congress.

“Today’s events are a bombshell, and if nothing shakes them loose from their purposeful inertia, the electorate will do so,” Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, one of Mr. Trump’s most outspoken Democratic critics, said of the Republicans.

Get politics and Washington news updates via Facebook, Twitter and the Morning Briefing newsletter.

Read More | https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/22/us/politics/trump-cohen-impeachment.html | https://www.nytimes.com/by/nicholas-fandos, http://www.nytimes.com/by/jonathan-martin

Nature With Cohen Implicating Trump, a Presidency’s Fate Rests With Congress, in 2018-08-22 13:44:12

#Nature of Business in the Current Market

[blogcompetnetall]

Nature With Cohen Implicating Trump, a Presidency’s Fate Rests With Congress

Nature With Cohen Implicating Trump, a Presidency’s Fate Rests With Congress Nature With Cohen Implicating Trump, a Presidency’s Fate Rests With Congress http://www.nature-business.com/nature-with-cohen-implicating-trump-a-presidencys-fate-rests-with-congress/

Nature

The former personal lawyer to President Trump pleaded guilty to campaign finance violations, as well as multiple counts of tax evasion and bank fraud.Published OnAug. 21, 2018CreditImage by Andres Kudacki for The New York Times

WASHINGTON — As he pleaded guilty in a Manhattan courthouse on Tuesday to violating federal campaign finance laws, Michael D. Cohen, President Trump’s longtime fixer, put his future in the hands of the American legal system.

But the fate of Mr. Trump, the man who Mr. Cohen said directed him to break the law by making payments to a pornographic film actress and a former Playboy model, rests, in all likelihood, in the political arena and in the halls of Congress.

At least for now, the Republican Party continues to stand by the president. But with only weeks until the midterm elections, the question will soon be put before voters, who will decide whether to hand Congress — and the power of investigation, subpoenas and, possibly, impeachment — to the Democrats.

After Mr. Cohen’s pleas and a guilty verdict, minutes later, in the bank and tax fraud case against Mr. Trump’s former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, Democrats wasted no time in demanding a congressional investigation into the Cohen affair and warned of an increasingly dangerous threat to the rule of law.

“This is getting deeper and deeper, and it’s going to get more and more serious,” said Representative Jerrold Nadler of New York, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee. Asked about the potential for an impeachment inquiry, Mr. Nadler said he wanted to see more evidence.

Image

Representative Jerrold Nadler of New York, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, in June in Washington. “This is getting deeper and deeper, and it’s going to get more and more serious,” he said.CreditJ. Scott Applewhite/Associated Press

“We need to see what Mueller comes up with,” he said, referring to Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel investigating the Trump campaign’s ties to Russia and whether Mr. Trump obstructed justice. “We may get there.”

Senator Ron Wyden, Democrat of Oregon, broached the charged phrase “high crimes and misdemeanors,” the Constitution’s threshold for impeachment.

But lawmakers in Mr. Trump’s party, who have repeatedly brushed away concerns about Mr. Trump’s own legal exposure, seemed unperturbed. With the House away from Washington for the month and senators sick of the drama emanating from Mr. Trump’s orbit, few openly rose to Mr. Trump’s defense. Those who did said the threat was elsewhere.

“Campaign finance violations — I don’t know what will come from that, but the thing that will hurt the president the most is if, in fact, his campaign did coordinate with a foreign government like Russia. Anything short of that is probably going to fall into partisan camps,” Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, told reporters. As a House member, Mr. Graham helped prosecute the impeachment of President Bill Clinton two decades ago.

Senator John Cornyn of Texas, the No. 2 Senate Republican, repeatedly stepped around questions from reporters about the implications of Mr. Cohen’s pleas. He observed instead that independent counsel investigations often tended veer away from their origins.

“I have no idea about what the facts are surrounding his guilty plea other than the fact that none of it has anything to do with the Russia investigation,” Mr. Cornyn said. “I would make the same observation with regard to Mr. Manafort.”

Image

Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, on Tuesday in Washington. “Campaign finance violations — I don’t know what will come from that, but the thing that will hurt the president the most is if, in fact, his campaign did coordinate with a foreign government like Russia,” he said.CreditErin Schaff for The New York Times

Aides to Speaker Paul D. Ryan, Republican of Wisconsin, said Mr. Ryan was “aware of Mr. Cohen’s guilty plea to these serious charges” but would wait for more information to comment further. Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky and the majority leader, said nothing publicly.

In a sign of how cemented both the opposition to and support for Mr. Trump is a year and a half into his presidency, few Republicans believed the double-digit felony count would drastically reshape the political climate. Party strategists largely dismissed Mr. Manafort’s conviction, viewing it as not directly related to Mr. Trump, and said voters had already concluded that the president agreed to pay off the actress, Stephanie Clifford, better known as Stormy Daniels.

“I’d be surprised if it causes anything more than a ripple in the campaign,” said Steven Law, who oversees the Senate Leadership Fund, the “super PAC” aligned with Mr. McConnell.

Part of what the president has going for him is that expectations about his conduct were already low before Tuesday’s split-screen drama, with Democrats believing he is an amoral demagogue and many Republicans seeing him as an unsavory character who has the right policies and, just as important, the right enemies.

“In a normal world, it’s not good,” said Chris Wilson, a Republican pollster. “In today’s political environment, it probably just creates further polarization and political tribalism.”

This is not to say that the president’s approval ratings will not dip slightly or that preferences for a Democratic-controlled Congress will not rise on the news: Many Republicans believe they are already likely to lose control of the House and that such Trump-linked wrongdoing will only further enhance Democrats’ chances for a takeover.

Image

Senator John Cornyn of Texas, the No. 2 Senate Republican, on Tuesday at the Capitol. He repeatedly stepped around questions from reporters about the implications of Mr. Cohen’s pleas.CreditErin Schaff for The New York Times

But given the health of the economy and relative stability abroad, Mr. Trump’s approval ratings are already significantly lower than what virtually any other president would be enjoying at this moment of his administration. And if there is one predictable element of this otherwise unpredictable presidency, it is that some new story will detonate in the days or weeks ahead, pushing the last eruption off the home page and television chyron.

That fact was both a tonic to Republicans on Tuesday and a reason for concern. While suggesting that the Manafort and Cohen felonies were merely this week’s version of the Omarosa tapes — the latest ephemeral drama to grip Washington but barely faze voters — Republican officials were also apprehensive about what more Mr. Cohen may reveal on his way to a likely prison sentence.

And even more worrisome to Republicans is what damage Mr. Trump may do to himself. If the president is seen as thwarting Mr. Mueller’s investigation, either by terminating the special counsel or pardoning allies who are implicated, it would create a far more serious upheaval and force Republican lawmakers into a confrontation they have long avoided.

“Of course you can imagine the president doing things that would be counterproductive,” said Senator Bill Cassidy, Republican of Louisiana, before adding with evident hope in his voice, “But you also could imagine the president saying something but never acting on it, just venting.”

Privately, Democrats speculated that the guilty pleas and decisions stacking up around Mr. Trump would fuel a message that Republicans controlling all levers of Washington were woefully corrupt.

Their case got another boost only hours later when a federal grand jury indicted Representative Duncan Hunter of California on charges that he spent tens of thousands of dollars in campaign funds on personal expenses. Mr. Hunter was the second Republican congressman to be federally charged in just three weeks and, taken together with the Cohen and Manafort felonies, some Republicans thought the misdeeds carried a stench reminiscent of the 2006 elections, when Democrats last reclaimed control of Congress.

“Today’s events are a bombshell, and if nothing shakes them loose from their purposeful inertia, the electorate will do so,” Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, one of Mr. Trump’s most outspoken Democratic critics, said of the Republicans.

Get politics and Washington news updates via Facebook, Twitter and the Morning Briefing newsletter.

Read More | https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/22/us/politics/trump-cohen-impeachment.html | https://www.nytimes.com/by/nicholas-fandos, http://www.nytimes.com/by/jonathan-martin

Nature With Cohen Implicating Trump, a Presidency’s Fate Rests With Congress, in 2018-08-22 13:44:12

#Nature of Business in the Current Market

[internetbasic9]

Nature With Cohen Implicating Trump, a Presidency’s Fate Rests With Congress

Nature With Cohen Implicating Trump, a Presidency’s Fate Rests With Congress Nature With Cohen Implicating Trump, a Presidency’s Fate Rests With Congress https://ift.tt/2OU0mpQ

Nature

The former personal lawyer to President Trump pleaded guilty to campaign finance violations, as well as multiple counts of tax evasion and bank fraud.Published OnAug. 21, 2018CreditImage by Andres Kudacki for The New York Times

WASHINGTON — As he pleaded guilty in a Manhattan courthouse on Tuesday to violating federal campaign finance laws, Michael D. Cohen, President Trump’s longtime fixer, put his future in the hands of the American legal system.

But the fate of Mr. Trump, the man who Mr. Cohen said directed him to break the law by making payments to a pornographic film actress and a former Playboy model, rests, in all likelihood, in the political arena and in the halls of Congress.

At least for now, the Republican Party continues to stand by the president. But with only weeks until the midterm elections, the question will soon be put before voters, who will decide whether to hand Congress — and the power of investigation, subpoenas and, possibly, impeachment — to the Democrats.

After Mr. Cohen’s pleas and a guilty verdict, minutes later, in the bank and tax fraud case against Mr. Trump’s former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, Democrats wasted no time in demanding a congressional investigation into the Cohen affair and warned of an increasingly dangerous threat to the rule of law.

“This is getting deeper and deeper, and it’s going to get more and more serious,” said Representative Jerrold Nadler of New York, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee. Asked about the potential for an impeachment inquiry, Mr. Nadler said he wanted to see more evidence.

Image

Representative Jerrold Nadler of New York, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, in June in Washington. “This is getting deeper and deeper, and it’s going to get more and more serious,” he said.CreditJ. Scott Applewhite/Associated Press

“We need to see what Mueller comes up with,” he said, referring to Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel investigating the Trump campaign’s ties to Russia and whether Mr. Trump obstructed justice. “We may get there.”

Senator Ron Wyden, Democrat of Oregon, broached the charged phrase “high crimes and misdemeanors,” the Constitution’s threshold for impeachment.

But lawmakers in Mr. Trump’s party, who have repeatedly brushed away concerns about Mr. Trump’s own legal exposure, seemed unperturbed. With the House away from Washington for the month and senators sick of the drama emanating from Mr. Trump’s orbit, few openly rose to Mr. Trump’s defense. Those who did said the threat was elsewhere.

“Campaign finance violations — I don’t know what will come from that, but the thing that will hurt the president the most is if, in fact, his campaign did coordinate with a foreign government like Russia. Anything short of that is probably going to fall into partisan camps,” Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, told reporters. As a House member, Mr. Graham helped prosecute the impeachment of President Bill Clinton two decades ago.

Senator John Cornyn of Texas, the No. 2 Senate Republican, repeatedly stepped around questions from reporters about the implications of Mr. Cohen’s pleas. He observed instead that independent counsel investigations often tended veer away from their origins.

“I have no idea about what the facts are surrounding his guilty plea other than the fact that none of it has anything to do with the Russia investigation,” Mr. Cornyn said. “I would make the same observation with regard to Mr. Manafort.”

Image

Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, on Tuesday in Washington. “Campaign finance violations — I don’t know what will come from that, but the thing that will hurt the president the most is if, in fact, his campaign did coordinate with a foreign government like Russia,” he said.CreditErin Schaff for The New York Times

Aides to Speaker Paul D. Ryan, Republican of Wisconsin, said Mr. Ryan was “aware of Mr. Cohen’s guilty plea to these serious charges” but would wait for more information to comment further. Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky and the majority leader, said nothing publicly.

In a sign of how cemented both the opposition to and support for Mr. Trump is a year and a half into his presidency, few Republicans believed the double-digit felony count would drastically reshape the political climate. Party strategists largely dismissed Mr. Manafort’s conviction, viewing it as not directly related to Mr. Trump, and said voters had already concluded that the president agreed to pay off the actress, Stephanie Clifford, better known as Stormy Daniels.

“I’d be surprised if it causes anything more than a ripple in the campaign,” said Steven Law, who oversees the Senate Leadership Fund, the “super PAC” aligned with Mr. McConnell.

Part of what the president has going for him is that expectations about his conduct were already low before Tuesday’s split-screen drama, with Democrats believing he is an amoral demagogue and many Republicans seeing him as an unsavory character who has the right policies and, just as important, the right enemies.

“In a normal world, it’s not good,” said Chris Wilson, a Republican pollster. “In today’s political environment, it probably just creates further polarization and political tribalism.”

This is not to say that the president’s approval ratings will not dip slightly or that preferences for a Democratic-controlled Congress will not rise on the news: Many Republicans believe they are already likely to lose control of the House and that such Trump-linked wrongdoing will only further enhance Democrats’ chances for a takeover.

Image

Senator John Cornyn of Texas, the No. 2 Senate Republican, on Tuesday at the Capitol. He repeatedly stepped around questions from reporters about the implications of Mr. Cohen’s pleas.CreditErin Schaff for The New York Times

But given the health of the economy and relative stability abroad, Mr. Trump’s approval ratings are already significantly lower than what virtually any other president would be enjoying at this moment of his administration. And if there is one predictable element of this otherwise unpredictable presidency, it is that some new story will detonate in the days or weeks ahead, pushing the last eruption off the home page and television chyron.

That fact was both a tonic to Republicans on Tuesday and a reason for concern. While suggesting that the Manafort and Cohen felonies were merely this week’s version of the Omarosa tapes — the latest ephemeral drama to grip Washington but barely faze voters — Republican officials were also apprehensive about what more Mr. Cohen may reveal on his way to a likely prison sentence.

And even more worrisome to Republicans is what damage Mr. Trump may do to himself. If the president is seen as thwarting Mr. Mueller’s investigation, either by terminating the special counsel or pardoning allies who are implicated, it would create a far more serious upheaval and force Republican lawmakers into a confrontation they have long avoided.

“Of course you can imagine the president doing things that would be counterproductive,” said Senator Bill Cassidy, Republican of Louisiana, before adding with evident hope in his voice, “But you also could imagine the president saying something but never acting on it, just venting.”

Privately, Democrats speculated that the guilty pleas and decisions stacking up around Mr. Trump would fuel a message that Republicans controlling all levers of Washington were woefully corrupt.

Their case got another boost only hours later when a federal grand jury indicted Representative Duncan Hunter of California on charges that he spent tens of thousands of dollars in campaign funds on personal expenses. Mr. Hunter was the second Republican congressman to be federally charged in just three weeks and, taken together with the Cohen and Manafort felonies, some Republicans thought the misdeeds carried a stench reminiscent of the 2006 elections, when Democrats last reclaimed control of Congress.

“Today’s events are a bombshell, and if nothing shakes them loose from their purposeful inertia, the electorate will do so,” Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, one of Mr. Trump’s most outspoken Democratic critics, said of the Republicans.

Get politics and Washington news updates via Facebook, Twitter and the Morning Briefing newsletter.

Read More | https://ift.tt/2LfVclK | https://ift.tt/2o1EAVQ, https://ift.tt/2fjtBV6

Nature With Cohen Implicating Trump, a Presidency’s Fate Rests With Congress, in 2018-08-22 13:44:12

#Nature of Business in the Current Market

[internetbetterforall]

Nature With Cohen Implicating Trump, a Presidency’s Fate Rests With Congress

Nature With Cohen Implicating Trump, a Presidency’s Fate Rests With Congress Nature With Cohen Implicating Trump, a Presidency’s Fate Rests With Congress http://www.nature-business.com/nature-with-cohen-implicating-trump-a-presidencys-fate-rests-with-congress/

Nature

The former personal lawyer to President Trump pleaded guilty to campaign finance violations, as well as multiple counts of tax evasion and bank fraud.Published OnAug. 21, 2018CreditImage by Andres Kudacki for The New York Times

WASHINGTON — As he pleaded guilty in a Manhattan courthouse on Tuesday to violating federal campaign finance laws, Michael D. Cohen, President Trump’s longtime fixer, put his future in the hands of the American legal system.

But the fate of Mr. Trump, the man who Mr. Cohen said directed him to break the law by making payments to a pornographic film actress and a former Playboy model, rests, in all likelihood, in the political arena and in the halls of Congress.

At least for now, the Republican Party continues to stand by the president. But with only weeks until the midterm elections, the question will soon be put before voters, who will decide whether to hand Congress — and the power of investigation, subpoenas and, possibly, impeachment — to the Democrats.

After Mr. Cohen’s pleas and a guilty verdict, minutes later, in the bank and tax fraud case against Mr. Trump’s former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, Democrats wasted no time in demanding a congressional investigation into the Cohen affair and warned of an increasingly dangerous threat to the rule of law.

“This is getting deeper and deeper, and it’s going to get more and more serious,” said Representative Jerrold Nadler of New York, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee. Asked about the potential for an impeachment inquiry, Mr. Nadler said he wanted to see more evidence.

Image

Representative Jerrold Nadler of New York, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, in June in Washington. “This is getting deeper and deeper, and it’s going to get more and more serious,” he said.CreditJ. Scott Applewhite/Associated Press

“We need to see what Mueller comes up with,” he said, referring to Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel investigating the Trump campaign’s ties to Russia and whether Mr. Trump obstructed justice. “We may get there.”

Senator Ron Wyden, Democrat of Oregon, broached the charged phrase “high crimes and misdemeanors,” the Constitution’s threshold for impeachment.

But lawmakers in Mr. Trump’s party, who have repeatedly brushed away concerns about Mr. Trump’s own legal exposure, seemed unperturbed. With the House away from Washington for the month and senators sick of the drama emanating from Mr. Trump’s orbit, few openly rose to Mr. Trump’s defense. Those who did said the threat was elsewhere.

“Campaign finance violations — I don’t know what will come from that, but the thing that will hurt the president the most is if, in fact, his campaign did coordinate with a foreign government like Russia. Anything short of that is probably going to fall into partisan camps,” Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, told reporters. As a House member, Mr. Graham helped prosecute the impeachment of President Bill Clinton two decades ago.

Senator John Cornyn of Texas, the No. 2 Senate Republican, repeatedly stepped around questions from reporters about the implications of Mr. Cohen’s pleas. He observed instead that independent counsel investigations often tended veer away from their origins.

“I have no idea about what the facts are surrounding his guilty plea other than the fact that none of it has anything to do with the Russia investigation,” Mr. Cornyn said. “I would make the same observation with regard to Mr. Manafort.”

Image

Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, on Tuesday in Washington. “Campaign finance violations — I don’t know what will come from that, but the thing that will hurt the president the most is if, in fact, his campaign did coordinate with a foreign government like Russia,” he said.CreditErin Schaff for The New York Times

Aides to Speaker Paul D. Ryan, Republican of Wisconsin, said Mr. Ryan was “aware of Mr. Cohen’s guilty plea to these serious charges” but would wait for more information to comment further. Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky and the majority leader, said nothing publicly.

In a sign of how cemented both the opposition to and support for Mr. Trump is a year and a half into his presidency, few Republicans believed the double-digit felony count would drastically reshape the political climate. Party strategists largely dismissed Mr. Manafort’s conviction, viewing it as not directly related to Mr. Trump, and said voters had already concluded that the president agreed to pay off the actress, Stephanie Clifford, better known as Stormy Daniels.

“I’d be surprised if it causes anything more than a ripple in the campaign,” said Steven Law, who oversees the Senate Leadership Fund, the “super PAC” aligned with Mr. McConnell.

Part of what the president has going for him is that expectations about his conduct were already low before Tuesday’s split-screen drama, with Democrats believing he is an amoral demagogue and many Republicans seeing him as an unsavory character who has the right policies and, just as important, the right enemies.

“In a normal world, it’s not good,” said Chris Wilson, a Republican pollster. “In today’s political environment, it probably just creates further polarization and political tribalism.”

This is not to say that the president’s approval ratings will not dip slightly or that preferences for a Democratic-controlled Congress will not rise on the news: Many Republicans believe they are already likely to lose control of the House and that such Trump-linked wrongdoing will only further enhance Democrats’ chances for a takeover.

Image

Senator John Cornyn of Texas, the No. 2 Senate Republican, on Tuesday at the Capitol. He repeatedly stepped around questions from reporters about the implications of Mr. Cohen’s pleas.CreditErin Schaff for The New York Times

But given the health of the economy and relative stability abroad, Mr. Trump’s approval ratings are already significantly lower than what virtually any other president would be enjoying at this moment of his administration. And if there is one predictable element of this otherwise unpredictable presidency, it is that some new story will detonate in the days or weeks ahead, pushing the last eruption off the home page and television chyron.

That fact was both a tonic to Republicans on Tuesday and a reason for concern. While suggesting that the Manafort and Cohen felonies were merely this week’s version of the Omarosa tapes — the latest ephemeral drama to grip Washington but barely faze voters — Republican officials were also apprehensive about what more Mr. Cohen may reveal on his way to a likely prison sentence.

And even more worrisome to Republicans is what damage Mr. Trump may do to himself. If the president is seen as thwarting Mr. Mueller’s investigation, either by terminating the special counsel or pardoning allies who are implicated, it would create a far more serious upheaval and force Republican lawmakers into a confrontation they have long avoided.

“Of course you can imagine the president doing things that would be counterproductive,” said Senator Bill Cassidy, Republican of Louisiana, before adding with evident hope in his voice, “But you also could imagine the president saying something but never acting on it, just venting.”

Privately, Democrats speculated that the guilty pleas and decisions stacking up around Mr. Trump would fuel a message that Republicans controlling all levers of Washington were woefully corrupt.

Their case got another boost only hours later when a federal grand jury indicted Representative Duncan Hunter of California on charges that he spent tens of thousands of dollars in campaign funds on personal expenses. Mr. Hunter was the second Republican congressman to be federally charged in just three weeks and, taken together with the Cohen and Manafort felonies, some Republicans thought the misdeeds carried a stench reminiscent of the 2006 elections, when Democrats last reclaimed control of Congress.

“Today’s events are a bombshell, and if nothing shakes them loose from their purposeful inertia, the electorate will do so,” Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, one of Mr. Trump’s most outspoken Democratic critics, said of the Republicans.

Get politics and Washington news updates via Facebook, Twitter and the Morning Briefing newsletter.

Read More | https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/22/us/politics/trump-cohen-impeachment.html | https://www.nytimes.com/by/nicholas-fandos, http://www.nytimes.com/by/jonathan-martin

Nature With Cohen Implicating Trump, a Presidency’s Fate Rests With Congress, in 2018-08-22 13:44:12

#Nature of Business in the Current Market

[blogparadiseisland]

Nature With Cohen Implicating Trump, a Presidency’s Fate Rests With Congress

Nature With Cohen Implicating Trump, a Presidency’s Fate Rests With Congress Nature With Cohen Implicating Trump, a Presidency’s Fate Rests With Congress http://www.nature-business.com/nature-with-cohen-implicating-trump-a-presidencys-fate-rests-with-congress/

Nature

The former personal lawyer to President Trump pleaded guilty to campaign finance violations, as well as multiple counts of tax evasion and bank fraud.Published OnAug. 21, 2018CreditImage by Andres Kudacki for The New York Times

WASHINGTON — As he pleaded guilty in a Manhattan courthouse on Tuesday to violating federal campaign finance laws, Michael D. Cohen, President Trump’s longtime fixer, put his future in the hands of the American legal system.

But the fate of Mr. Trump, the man who Mr. Cohen said directed him to break the law by making payments to a pornographic film actress and a former Playboy model, rests, in all likelihood, in the political arena and in the halls of Congress.

At least for now, the Republican Party continues to stand by the president. But with only weeks until the midterm elections, the question will soon be put before voters, who will decide whether to hand Congress — and the power of investigation, subpoenas and, possibly, impeachment — to the Democrats.

After Mr. Cohen’s pleas and a guilty verdict, minutes later, in the bank and tax fraud case against Mr. Trump’s former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, Democrats wasted no time in demanding a congressional investigation into the Cohen affair and warned of an increasingly dangerous threat to the rule of law.

“This is getting deeper and deeper, and it’s going to get more and more serious,” said Representative Jerrold Nadler of New York, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee. Asked about the potential for an impeachment inquiry, Mr. Nadler said he wanted to see more evidence.

Image

Representative Jerrold Nadler of New York, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, in June in Washington. “This is getting deeper and deeper, and it’s going to get more and more serious,” he said.CreditJ. Scott Applewhite/Associated Press

“We need to see what Mueller comes up with,” he said, referring to Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel investigating the Trump campaign’s ties to Russia and whether Mr. Trump obstructed justice. “We may get there.”

Senator Ron Wyden, Democrat of Oregon, broached the charged phrase “high crimes and misdemeanors,” the Constitution’s threshold for impeachment.

But lawmakers in Mr. Trump’s party, who have repeatedly brushed away concerns about Mr. Trump’s own legal exposure, seemed unperturbed. With the House away from Washington for the month and senators sick of the drama emanating from Mr. Trump’s orbit, few openly rose to Mr. Trump’s defense. Those who did said the threat was elsewhere.

“Campaign finance violations — I don’t know what will come from that, but the thing that will hurt the president the most is if, in fact, his campaign did coordinate with a foreign government like Russia. Anything short of that is probably going to fall into partisan camps,” Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, told reporters. As a House member, Mr. Graham helped prosecute the impeachment of President Bill Clinton two decades ago.

Senator John Cornyn of Texas, the No. 2 Senate Republican, repeatedly stepped around questions from reporters about the implications of Mr. Cohen’s pleas. He observed instead that independent counsel investigations often tended veer away from their origins.

“I have no idea about what the facts are surrounding his guilty plea other than the fact that none of it has anything to do with the Russia investigation,” Mr. Cornyn said. “I would make the same observation with regard to Mr. Manafort.”

Image

Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, on Tuesday in Washington. “Campaign finance violations — I don’t know what will come from that, but the thing that will hurt the president the most is if, in fact, his campaign did coordinate with a foreign government like Russia,” he said.CreditErin Schaff for The New York Times

Aides to Speaker Paul D. Ryan, Republican of Wisconsin, said Mr. Ryan was “aware of Mr. Cohen’s guilty plea to these serious charges” but would wait for more information to comment further. Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky and the majority leader, said nothing publicly.

In a sign of how cemented both the opposition to and support for Mr. Trump is a year and a half into his presidency, few Republicans believed the double-digit felony count would drastically reshape the political climate. Party strategists largely dismissed Mr. Manafort’s conviction, viewing it as not directly related to Mr. Trump, and said voters had already concluded that the president agreed to pay off the actress, Stephanie Clifford, better known as Stormy Daniels.

“I’d be surprised if it causes anything more than a ripple in the campaign,” said Steven Law, who oversees the Senate Leadership Fund, the “super PAC” aligned with Mr. McConnell.

Part of what the president has going for him is that expectations about his conduct were already low before Tuesday’s split-screen drama, with Democrats believing he is an amoral demagogue and many Republicans seeing him as an unsavory character who has the right policies and, just as important, the right enemies.

“In a normal world, it’s not good,” said Chris Wilson, a Republican pollster. “In today’s political environment, it probably just creates further polarization and political tribalism.”

This is not to say that the president’s approval ratings will not dip slightly or that preferences for a Democratic-controlled Congress will not rise on the news: Many Republicans believe they are already likely to lose control of the House and that such Trump-linked wrongdoing will only further enhance Democrats’ chances for a takeover.

Image

Senator John Cornyn of Texas, the No. 2 Senate Republican, on Tuesday at the Capitol. He repeatedly stepped around questions from reporters about the implications of Mr. Cohen’s pleas.CreditErin Schaff for The New York Times

But given the health of the economy and relative stability abroad, Mr. Trump’s approval ratings are already significantly lower than what virtually any other president would be enjoying at this moment of his administration. And if there is one predictable element of this otherwise unpredictable presidency, it is that some new story will detonate in the days or weeks ahead, pushing the last eruption off the home page and television chyron.

That fact was both a tonic to Republicans on Tuesday and a reason for concern. While suggesting that the Manafort and Cohen felonies were merely this week’s version of the Omarosa tapes — the latest ephemeral drama to grip Washington but barely faze voters — Republican officials were also apprehensive about what more Mr. Cohen may reveal on his way to a likely prison sentence.

And even more worrisome to Republicans is what damage Mr. Trump may do to himself. If the president is seen as thwarting Mr. Mueller’s investigation, either by terminating the special counsel or pardoning allies who are implicated, it would create a far more serious upheaval and force Republican lawmakers into a confrontation they have long avoided.

“Of course you can imagine the president doing things that would be counterproductive,” said Senator Bill Cassidy, Republican of Louisiana, before adding with evident hope in his voice, “But you also could imagine the president saying something but never acting on it, just venting.”

Privately, Democrats speculated that the guilty pleas and decisions stacking up around Mr. Trump would fuel a message that Republicans controlling all levers of Washington were woefully corrupt.

Their case got another boost only hours later when a federal grand jury indicted Representative Duncan Hunter of California on charges that he spent tens of thousands of dollars in campaign funds on personal expenses. Mr. Hunter was the second Republican congressman to be federally charged in just three weeks and, taken together with the Cohen and Manafort felonies, some Republicans thought the misdeeds carried a stench reminiscent of the 2006 elections, when Democrats last reclaimed control of Congress.

“Today’s events are a bombshell, and if nothing shakes them loose from their purposeful inertia, the electorate will do so,” Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, one of Mr. Trump’s most outspoken Democratic critics, said of the Republicans.

Get politics and Washington news updates via Facebook, Twitter and the Morning Briefing newsletter.

Read More | https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/22/us/politics/trump-cohen-impeachment.html | https://www.nytimes.com/by/nicholas-fandos, http://www.nytimes.com/by/jonathan-martin

Nature With Cohen Implicating Trump, a Presidency’s Fate Rests With Congress, in 2018-08-22 13:44:12

#Nature of Business in the Current Market

[algarithmblognumber]

Nature With Cohen Implicating Trump, a Presidency’s Fate Rests With Congress

Nature With Cohen Implicating Trump, a Presidency’s Fate Rests With Congress Nature With Cohen Implicating Trump, a Presidency’s Fate Rests With Congress http://www.nature-business.com/nature-with-cohen-implicating-trump-a-presidencys-fate-rests-with-congress/

Nature

The former personal lawyer to President Trump pleaded guilty to campaign finance violations, as well as multiple counts of tax evasion and bank fraud.Published OnAug. 21, 2018CreditImage by Andres Kudacki for The New York Times

WASHINGTON — As he pleaded guilty in a Manhattan courthouse on Tuesday to violating federal campaign finance laws, Michael D. Cohen, President Trump’s longtime fixer, put his future in the hands of the American legal system.

But the fate of Mr. Trump, the man who Mr. Cohen said directed him to break the law by making payments to a pornographic film actress and a former Playboy model, rests, in all likelihood, in the political arena and in the halls of Congress.

At least for now, the Republican Party continues to stand by the president. But with only weeks until the midterm elections, the question will soon be put before voters, who will decide whether to hand Congress — and the power of investigation, subpoenas and, possibly, impeachment — to the Democrats.

After Mr. Cohen’s pleas and a guilty verdict, minutes later, in the bank and tax fraud case against Mr. Trump’s former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, Democrats wasted no time in demanding a congressional investigation into the Cohen affair and warned of an increasingly dangerous threat to the rule of law.

“This is getting deeper and deeper, and it’s going to get more and more serious,” said Representative Jerrold Nadler of New York, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee. Asked about the potential for an impeachment inquiry, Mr. Nadler said he wanted to see more evidence.

Image

Representative Jerrold Nadler of New York, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, in June in Washington. “This is getting deeper and deeper, and it’s going to get more and more serious,” he said.CreditJ. Scott Applewhite/Associated Press

“We need to see what Mueller comes up with,” he said, referring to Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel investigating the Trump campaign’s ties to Russia and whether Mr. Trump obstructed justice. “We may get there.”

Senator Ron Wyden, Democrat of Oregon, broached the charged phrase “high crimes and misdemeanors,” the Constitution’s threshold for impeachment.

But lawmakers in Mr. Trump’s party, who have repeatedly brushed away concerns about Mr. Trump’s own legal exposure, seemed unperturbed. With the House away from Washington for the month and senators sick of the drama emanating from Mr. Trump’s orbit, few openly rose to Mr. Trump’s defense. Those who did said the threat was elsewhere.

“Campaign finance violations — I don’t know what will come from that, but the thing that will hurt the president the most is if, in fact, his campaign did coordinate with a foreign government like Russia. Anything short of that is probably going to fall into partisan camps,” Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, told reporters. As a House member, Mr. Graham helped prosecute the impeachment of President Bill Clinton two decades ago.

Senator John Cornyn of Texas, the No. 2 Senate Republican, repeatedly stepped around questions from reporters about the implications of Mr. Cohen’s pleas. He observed instead that independent counsel investigations often tended veer away from their origins.

“I have no idea about what the facts are surrounding his guilty plea other than the fact that none of it has anything to do with the Russia investigation,” Mr. Cornyn said. “I would make the same observation with regard to Mr. Manafort.”

Image

Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, on Tuesday in Washington. “Campaign finance violations — I don’t know what will come from that, but the thing that will hurt the president the most is if, in fact, his campaign did coordinate with a foreign government like Russia,” he said.CreditErin Schaff for The New York Times

Aides to Speaker Paul D. Ryan, Republican of Wisconsin, said Mr. Ryan was “aware of Mr. Cohen’s guilty plea to these serious charges” but would wait for more information to comment further. Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky and the majority leader, said nothing publicly.

In a sign of how cemented both the opposition to and support for Mr. Trump is a year and a half into his presidency, few Republicans believed the double-digit felony count would drastically reshape the political climate. Party strategists largely dismissed Mr. Manafort’s conviction, viewing it as not directly related to Mr. Trump, and said voters had already concluded that the president agreed to pay off the actress, Stephanie Clifford, better known as Stormy Daniels.

“I’d be surprised if it causes anything more than a ripple in the campaign,” said Steven Law, who oversees the Senate Leadership Fund, the “super PAC” aligned with Mr. McConnell.

Part of what the president has going for him is that expectations about his conduct were already low before Tuesday’s split-screen drama, with Democrats believing he is an amoral demagogue and many Republicans seeing him as an unsavory character who has the right policies and, just as important, the right enemies.

“In a normal world, it’s not good,” said Chris Wilson, a Republican pollster. “In today’s political environment, it probably just creates further polarization and political tribalism.”

This is not to say that the president’s approval ratings will not dip slightly or that preferences for a Democratic-controlled Congress will not rise on the news: Many Republicans believe they are already likely to lose control of the House and that such Trump-linked wrongdoing will only further enhance Democrats’ chances for a takeover.

Image

Senator John Cornyn of Texas, the No. 2 Senate Republican, on Tuesday at the Capitol. He repeatedly stepped around questions from reporters about the implications of Mr. Cohen’s pleas.CreditErin Schaff for The New York Times

But given the health of the economy and relative stability abroad, Mr. Trump’s approval ratings are already significantly lower than what virtually any other president would be enjoying at this moment of his administration. And if there is one predictable element of this otherwise unpredictable presidency, it is that some new story will detonate in the days or weeks ahead, pushing the last eruption off the home page and television chyron.

That fact was both a tonic to Republicans on Tuesday and a reason for concern. While suggesting that the Manafort and Cohen felonies were merely this week’s version of the Omarosa tapes — the latest ephemeral drama to grip Washington but barely faze voters — Republican officials were also apprehensive about what more Mr. Cohen may reveal on his way to a likely prison sentence.

And even more worrisome to Republicans is what damage Mr. Trump may do to himself. If the president is seen as thwarting Mr. Mueller’s investigation, either by terminating the special counsel or pardoning allies who are implicated, it would create a far more serious upheaval and force Republican lawmakers into a confrontation they have long avoided.

“Of course you can imagine the president doing things that would be counterproductive,” said Senator Bill Cassidy, Republican of Louisiana, before adding with evident hope in his voice, “But you also could imagine the president saying something but never acting on it, just venting.”

Privately, Democrats speculated that the guilty pleas and decisions stacking up around Mr. Trump would fuel a message that Republicans controlling all levers of Washington were woefully corrupt.

Their case got another boost only hours later when a federal grand jury indicted Representative Duncan Hunter of California on charges that he spent tens of thousands of dollars in campaign funds on personal expenses. Mr. Hunter was the second Republican congressman to be federally charged in just three weeks and, taken together with the Cohen and Manafort felonies, some Republicans thought the misdeeds carried a stench reminiscent of the 2006 elections, when Democrats last reclaimed control of Congress.

“Today’s events are a bombshell, and if nothing shakes them loose from their purposeful inertia, the electorate will do so,” Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, one of Mr. Trump’s most outspoken Democratic critics, said of the Republicans.

Get politics and Washington news updates via Facebook, Twitter and the Morning Briefing newsletter.

Read More | https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/22/us/politics/trump-cohen-impeachment.html | https://www.nytimes.com/by/nicholas-fandos, http://www.nytimes.com/by/jonathan-martin

Nature With Cohen Implicating Trump, a Presidency’s Fate Rests With Congress, in 2018-08-22 13:44:12

#Nature of Business in the Current Market

[newssplashy]

World: Lawyer for porn actress sought help from top democratic donors

WASHINGTON — Michael Avenatti, the lawyer for Stephanie Clifford, the pornographic film actress who says she had a sexual encounter with President Donald Trump, has sought help for his legal battle against Trump from leading Democratic operatives.

Avenatti contacted an official in the network of liberal groups led by David Brock, while someone associated with Avenatti’s law firm was in touch with two people connected to major Democratic donors, according to people familiar with the conversations.

But the discussions do not appear to have led to any financial help for the high-profile legal and public relations fight being waged by Avenatti and Clifford, whose stage name is Stormy Daniels.

Brock’s groups decided not to donate to the efforts because they saw little value in spending money on a legal fight that was largely being waged in the news media, especially given Avenatti’s penchant for attracting press coverage, according to two Democratic political operatives familiar with the discussions.

It was not clear why the other interactions did not lead to donations or other assistance.

The solicitations call into question Avenatti’s insistence that he and Clifford have never actively sought to raise money from major political donors because “we will not allow this to be politicized.”

In an interview Thursday, Avenatti reiterated that “this isn’t about politics.”

“I can’t tell you the name of every person that I have spoken to, or not spoken to, over the last three months,” he said, “but what I can tell you is that we have not taken any political-associated dollars from anyone on the right or anyone on the left. Period.”

Avenatti, who has become a hero on the left for his brash condemnations of Trump and his allies, has a background on the periphery of Democratic politics.

In his website biography, he notes that during college and law school he worked at a political consulting firm run by Rahm Emanuel, now the mayor of Chicago, and boasts that he worked on more than 150 campaigns in 42 states, although he said on Thursday that about 50 of the campaigns on which he worked were for Republicans.

Regardless of his intent, Avenatti’s efforts on behalf of Clifford have produced problems for Trump and his allies far beyond her case, which stems from a $130,000 hush payment she received days before the 2016 presidential election from a Delaware-based company that had just been created by Michael Cohen, Trump’s longtime lawyer. The White House and Cohen have denied that Trump and Clifford had a sexual encounter.

A lawsuit brought in March against Trump and Cohen’s company, Essential Consultants LLC, by Avenatti and Clifford to invalidate the nondisclosure agreement led to the revelation that Trump knew about the payment several months before denying knowledge of it, and also the admission that he had reimbursed Cohen for it, raising questions about campaign finance law compliance.

And Avenatti’s release in recent weeks of a detailed — if not entirely accurate — report based on financial records that listed payments to Cohen’s firms led to the revelation that he was using his long association with the president to collect millions of dollars in consulting fees from companies with business before the Trump administration.

Avenatti’s efforts have also fostered a circuslike atmosphere around a criminal inquiry into Cohen in which prosecutors have sought records of payments to Clifford and another woman who alleges she had an affair with Trump, the former Playboy model Karen McDougal.

Avenatti backed off from trying to formally involve himself in that case Wednesday, when he withdrew a motion that would have allowed him to participate in the proceedings after being called out by the federal judge presiding over the case, Kimba Wood. During a hearing on the case, Wood warned Avenatti that he would “not be permitted to use this court as a platform for anything.”

Also during the hearing, Cohen’s lawyers accused Avenatti of “aggrandizement” and acting unethically in releasing his report on Cohen’s finances and claiming that his law firm never represented Clifford.

It was only the latest in a series of testy exchanges between allies of Trump and Avenatti, who appears to relish the conflict and the prospect of getting under his rivals’ skin. He posted a video on Twitter of one of Trump’s lawyers, Rudy Giuliani, in women’s clothing in response to Giuliani’s calling him a “pimp.”

But Avenatti has bristled at questions about his financing, which escalated after Clifford admitted in late April that she was not paying his fees.

Avenatti said on Thursday that Clifford initially paid him a small amount in legal fees but is no longer footing the bill for his services, which he said are being funded entirely by donations made through a crowdfunding website.

More than $527,000 from more than 15,000 donors has been raised on the website, which states that the money will go toward attorney’s fees, arbitration, security expenses, out-of-pocket costs associated with the lawsuit and potential damages if Clifford loses.

But in the days before the website was unveiled, Avenatti called Bradley Beychok, the president of American Bridge, a nonprofit group and super PAC founded by Brock, and suggested that he was seeking to raise as much as $2 million, at least partly from major Democratic donors or groups, according to the two operatives familiar with the discussions.

American Bridge is among a constellation of Brock-backed groups that raised $65 million over the past two years and spent heavily in support of Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign.

In the waning days of the race, American Bridge’s nonprofit arm spent $200,000 on an unsuccessful effort to encourage women to come forward with allegations of sexual misconduct against Trump.

And since Trump became president, Brock’s groups have focused on attacking Trump and his Republican allies, floating the idea of creating a fund to encourage victims to bring forward sexual misconduct claims against Republican politicians.

But American Bridge did not contribute to Avenatti’s efforts, because the group’s leaders concluded it was not a good use of their money, the two Democratic operatives said.

Avenatti was referred to Brock’s groups by Mike Berkowitz, a political adviser who works with Rachel Pritzker, heiress to a Hyatt hotel fortune, and other donors, according to the two Democrats and another person familiar with the sequence of events.

Someone from Avenatti’s firm reached out to Berkowitz seeking assistance for Clifford’s case, but he did not relay the request to Pritzker or any of the other donors with whom he works, and instead recommended that Avenatti reach out to Brock’s groups.

Beychok acknowledged that Avenatti called him in early March but declined to describe their conversation. Brock and Berkowitz declined to comment.

Avenatti said he did not recognize the names of Beychok, Brock and Berkowitz but did not dispute that he or his associates may have reached out to them.

“We’ve contacted people on the right and the left relating to a variety of issues,” he said. “We have not sought any money from anyone on the right or the left.” In fact, he said, he had turned down “big money” from political donors on both sides of the aisle “because we’re not going to have this politicized.”

Susie Tompkins Buell, a prominent Clinton donor who gave $500,000 — later refunded — to the effort funded partly by American Bridgeto coax Trump’s accusers to come forward before the election, said she had not heard from Avenatti.

“I’m not sure I would be interested in supporting” Avenatti’s effort, she said. But she added, “I wish them luck.”

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

KENNETH P. VOGEL © 2018 The New York Times

source http://www.newssplashy.com/2018/06/world-lawyer-for-porn-actress-sought.html

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