https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-45279047
In the beginning of 2018, Donald Trump's personal lawyer, Michael Cohen's, office was raided by the FBI who seized documents related to the Stormy Daniels affair and discussions between Trump and Cohen about paying off others. This led to Cohen pleading guilty to violating laws during the 2016 presidential election, mainly his handling of payments to different people to stay quiet. The main reason that the payments were seen as illegal was because these payments were undisclosed to the FEC. However, in order for these payments to be required to be reported to the FEC, they would have needed to be made as a attempt to help protect his election name not his personal reputation. If the payments were made to protect Trump's personal name, for example to try and keep his marriage secure, it would not be required to report this to the FEC since it is a personal rather than campaign expense. As the Mueller investigation continues Cohen as agreed to cooperate and testify in exchange for a lighter sentence
1) Do you think that this was more of a personal reputation protection or was it more of an attempt to protect his campaign interests?
2) Do you think that Cohen is cooperating to the extent that he is to try and save himself (or at least reduce his punishment)?
3) Can Trump have charges brought against him right now as president?
Joshua Ishimoto
ReplyDelete1. it is in my opinion that the President was probably motivated to protect has personal reputation more than aid his campaign. However, the two aren't mutually exclusive so both possibilities likely prompted Trump to direct Cohen to pay off these two women. As we have seen with him in the campaign and with him in office, he has no real underlying political ideology other than "self". He is beyond absorbed with his popularity and is motivated by mainly self-interest.
2. Cohen made a critical political calculus here. His two options were to fully cooperate with investigators including Special Counselor Mueller or deny everything in hope of getting a pardon from the President. For whatever reason he chose the former and is cooperating to the fullest extent with federal prosecutors. Remember, that in doing so he is trying to reduce his sentence time as much as possible. His former client is now no longer an ally for he has metaphorically thrown him under the bus in hope of acting in his best interests.
3. Even if it is revealed that Trump knowingly and willingly violated federal campaign finance law, is remains unlikely that he would be indicted. As the President he is immune from any charges. The current interpretation of the Constitution says so and frankly him being indicted for crimes committed before becoming President is something that would initiate a constitutional crisis. Nixon only resigned because he had committed a crime when in office and the charges accumulated into impeachment proceedings. That will not happen here so trump has to leave office in order for charges of any kind to be levied against him.
1) Do you think that this was more of a personal reputation protection or was it more of an attempt to protect his campaign interests?
ReplyDeleteI belive that this was more of a personal reputation protection rather than an attempt to protect his campaign interests. Trump is very focused on himself and his image and is very obsessed with making himself look good in order to gain popularity. While his marriage was definitely a main role that played into this, I don't think it was the most important for Trump. Specifically, I think that his image that would be released to the public was more important to Trump. He is so self absorbed that he didn't want to sacrifice anything that could hurt his image.
2) Do you think that Cohen is cooperating to the extent that he is to try and save himself (or at least reduce his punishment)?
I belive that he is cooperating to the extent of saving himself. He could have easily denied the entire thing, but he didn't. He came forward and is cooperating and testifying in order to get the least amount of punishment. If he denied it and eventually was found guilty, the punishment would be very bad. Denying it could have saved him but it was unsure if the truth would come out or not so he played it safe and came out with the truth early on.
3) Can Trump have charges brought against him right now as president?
I don' think that Trump will have any charges brought against him right now as President. After his presidency, that is a different question but as of right now, he is not going to have any charges brought against him. The fact that he did not disclose his use of money is an issue but even if he did break this campaign finance law, I don't think he will be charged. While he wouldn't be charged, he could be removed from his position of presidency. Also, he wont be indicted because a criminal trial would interfere with the president's individual duties under the Constitution. Once he leaves office, then charges would be able to be made.
-tovia sobel
DeleteJulia Doran
ReplyDelete1. I think that Trump was trying to protect his reputation which in a way supports his campaign, but he was probably thinking about himself. Trump did not want the Stormy situation to get out because it would hurt his reputation. I do not think he cared about his marriage as it is his third marriage and he does not seem to care about his wives as much as he cares about himself.
2. I think Cohen is trying to save himself. I think he realized that the rest of the government may be able to help him more than Trump, and that he realized Trump cares too much about himself to protect Cohen. Cohen realized that it would be better for him to come clean now and get a reduced punishment than continuing with Trump and being thrown under the bus by him later and getting a worse punishment.
3. I do not think Trump will be charged because he is the President and the precedent is that the President cannot be indicted. I think that Trump will do his best to make sure that he cannot be charged even after his presidency.
Julia Maxwell
ReplyDelete1.I believe that Trump was trying to protect his campaign interests, rather than the interest of his personal life. Trump had already had a number of scandals that were released during the campaign, and he did not want another one to come out a ruin any reputation that he had left and the chances to get elected as the president of the United States.
2.I think that Cohen is trying to save himself. There is probably many pieces of evidence that could hold him accountable, so there is no use in denying the allegations. Cohen wants to limit his sentence as much as possible and keep himself from getting into more trouble than he is already in.
3.I think that president Trump will not have any charges brought against him because he is the president and a president has never been indicted before because it would interfere with their duties for his position in the government. It is not even a definite thing that Trump did violate campaign finance laws, so they have no secure evidence to hold him accountable.
1. I think it was a mix of both. The information being leaked would have damaged his personal life and his campaign interests. It would negatively affect his reputation, which will have an effect on his chances of being elected for President. Since information like this can ruin his marriage, it cannot be assumed that he intended to hide the information to protect his election name.
ReplyDelete2. I believe Cohen is cooperating to save himself. By admitting to the accusations, he is able to get a smaller prison sentence. If he denies it, but then evidence comes up that proves he is guilty, his sentence would be worse because he lied. So, while Cohen could have took the chance of maybe not getting caught, the risk of there being actual evidence against him was too high for him to try and lie.
3. The Justice Department has long said that sitting presidents cannot be indicted because "the indictment or criminal prosecution of a sitting president would unconstitutionally undermine the capacity of the executive branch to perform its constitutionally assigned functions," according to Randolph Moss. In addition, since the crime was committed before he became President, people might protest against it being used against him now.
AJ Wright
ReplyDelete1- The payment to stormy Daniels was 100% about protecting the rump campaign and not trump personally. Coverage of trump at the time was very negative (trump was caught bragging about his position of power allowing him to get away with sexually assaulting women) and the revelation that Trump was unfaithful to his wife would've driven another news cycle that was very anti-trump. To cover for this, trump (probably) illegally paid Daniels to help keep his campaign together.
2- Nobody cooperates with Law enforcement out of the goodness of the heart, Cohen's cooperation with the FBI/Muller is defiantly to protect himself. That isn't necessarily a bad thing however, Cohen claims are one of many incriminating pieces of evidence against trump and there is no evidence to support the idea that Cohen is making stuff up to try and save himself.
3- It is currently unclear weather or not you can indict a sitting president. The answer is most likely No, the idea being that a president is too busy running the country to try and deal with a criminal investigation. In theory, if it is obvious a president committed serious crimes then congress would move to impeach, but since politics are so polar right now, the odds of republicans every moving their feet on impeachment is practically zero. So that's why it's such a talking point now, because if congress won't punish a president facing a mountain of evidence he is a criminal, will Muller have to try and charge trump himself.
1. I think the payment to Stormy Daniels was left undisclosed in order to protect the Trump's reputation for his campaign. If he had disclosed that he was using campaign financing to pay off women he had affairs with, he would have lost a large number of supports and votes for his presidency. Keeping the payments a secret kept his public image intact and left his voters thinking they were supporting a trustworthy candidate. Therefore, I definitely think Trump's secret payments were to keep the public from seeing his many, many mistakes and to protect his campaign.
ReplyDelete2. I think Cohen is cooperating in order to get the least amount of punishment possible. His other option was to deny the charges completely, but I think his hope is that if he cooperates fully, his punishment will be lessened. His cooperation is additionally giving up information about Trump's possible inner workings and secrecies, which could help him if he is not making this information up.
3. I think its very unlikely that President Trump could be charged or removed from office for possible FEC violations. Even if plenty of evidence was discovered that proved he was guilty of no disclosing finance transactions to the FEC, the fact that he's already been elected and has been in office for two years would most likely mean he wouldn't be charged. Additionally as president it would be very difficult to condemn the man in charge, and Congress (which is very polarized at the moment) would have to come to an agreement. I think the worst that will happen is that Trump will be charged for a fine by the FEC.
Katherine Mohr
ReplyDelete1) I think that this was more intended to protect his personal reputation protection; however, as campaigns focus so much on candidates' personalities and reputations, his personal reputation is an integral part of his campaign.
2) Yes, I definitely think that he is cooperating in order to try to lessen his punishment, for there is not really any other incentive for him to do so. Denying the charges would have most likely hurt him later on, and his cooperation could reduce his sentence.
3) The Constitution does not make it clear if a President can have charges brought against him while he is in office, and it is extremely unlikely that he will be indicted until after his presidency. So far, no president has been indicted while in office because impeachment is the standard method for dealing with high crimes from the President. Yet, Republicans would not vote to impeach him, so he would not receive the 2/3 Senate vote necessary to be removed from office. It is unclear if a sitting President can be indicted, but due to precedent and the theory that indictment would distract a President from his duties, it is very unlikely he will have charges brought against him in office.
Madison Kong
ReplyDelete1. I think this was about protecting his campaign interests because what media depicts is highly dependent on reputation and personal qualities. The scandals and infidelity would only hurt his personal reputation which in turn would hurt his campaign.
2. I think Cohen was definitely cooperating to lessen his own punishment. If he had denied the charges, the situation would have been worse later on.
3. The precedent indicates that presidents are not charged while they are in office, so I think it's highly unlikely that Trump will be indicted. He will not be impeached either because there would not be enough votes.
I believe it was about protecting his campaign interests. If the scandal was public, many would think twice about voting for the Trump administration. The scandal would affect Trump's credibility as a president, as well as the overall campaign.
ReplyDeleteCohen is definitely cooperating to reduce the repercussions of his actions. There was clear evidence against his actions, and thus if he denied the allegations, the consequences would be much worse.
Well, since Nixon, there is a precedent that a president cannot be charged while in office. It is likely that he would not be impeached as well because there would not be enough votes against him (REP controls Congress).
1. I think it was more about protecting Trump rather than himself. He put himself in risk to keep Trump elected, and it shows how much trust Trump had in Cohen. Obviously Trump would not own up to it because it would be super illegal for him to say that. The scandal would have really hurt his campaign because it would have shown how Trump mistreats women which has kind of already been shown.
ReplyDelete2. I think that he is cooperating so that he would not get into much trouble than he actually already is because violating campaign finance laws are very bad. Stormy Daniels really has come forward and everyone knows about it which shows it would be stupid to deny the allegations.
3. Trump cannot be charged while in office. He would have to be impeached first but it must be a high crime in order for him to be impeached first. Therefore, I do not think that he will be because of the republican government in Congress which shows that he probably will get away with it.
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ReplyDelete1. I think it is definitely both, as they are pretty related. A poor personal reputation would impact his campaign which is run off of his personality and the idea that he is a genuine, honest person with integrity unlike other politicians. It seems as though he would have done this election or no election, which leads me to believe it was more about personal reputation although it was definitely both.
Delete2. It is pretty clear by both the reactions from the political scene as well as simple logic that Cohen is cooperating just to save himself. If he was truly about integrity he would have never done the things he did in the first place, and even if he does feel bad he is only cooperating to reduce his sentencing.
3. Yes, Trump can have charges brought to him. There is no legal precedent proving otherwise, but there is also no telling what would happen if he were to be indicted, so it is a something that remains to be seen.
1) Do you think that this was more of a personal reputation protection or was it more of an attempt to protect his campaign interests?
ReplyDeleteI think it's about protecting Trump more than anything. Trump will deny everything because he's Trump, but he's a loose cannon and will obviously implicate himself, most likely from a tweet.
2) Do you think that Cohen is cooperating to the extent that he is to try and save himself (or at least reduce his punishment)?
Obviously yes, they have something on him and he knows if he doesn't comply he's done for.
3) Can Trump have charges brought against him right now as president?
Most likely, yes.