Saturday 11 July 2020

Michael Cohen Returned to Jail in Dispute Over Trump Book







Replying to @alllibertynews and 49 others


Methinks Mr Trump and his lawyers have yet to settle with me about the many documents and wiretaps I gave Mr Mueller and his cohorts in 2003 long before I ran for a seat in the 39th Parliament N'esy Pas? 


 scribd.com/doc/265620671/





#nbpoli #cdnpoli



 https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/robert-mueller-roger-stone-russia-investigation-trump-commute-sentence-1.5646624



Robert Mueller defends Russia probe, says Roger Stone 'remains a convicted felon' in op-ed

Washington Post opinion piece comes after Trump commuted sentence of ally



The Associated Press · Posted: Jul 11, 2020 7:01 PM ET



Former U.S. special counsel Robert Mueller testifies before a House intelligence committee hearing in Washington in July 2019. (Leah Millis/Reuters)

Former U.S. special counsel Robert Mueller sharply defended his investigation into ties between Russia and Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign, writing in a newspaper opinion piece Saturday that the probe was of "paramount importance" and asserting that a Trump ally, Roger Stone, "remains a convicted felon, and rightly so" despite the president's decision to commute his prison sentence.

The op-ed in The Washington Post marked Mueller's first public statement on his investigation since his congressional appearance last July. It represented his firmest defence of the two-year probe whose results have come under attack and even been partially undone by the Trump administration, including the president's extraordinary move Friday evening to grant clemency to Stone just days before he was due to report to prison.

Mueller said that though he had intended for his 448-page report on the investigation to speak for itself, he felt compelled to "respond both to broad claims that our investigation was illegitimate and our motives were improper, and to specific claims that Roger Stone was a victim of our office.


"The Russia investigation was of paramount importance. Stone was prosecuted and convicted because he committed federal crimes. He remains a convicted felon, and rightly so," Mueller wrote.

Mueller did not specify who was making the claims, but it appeared to be an obvious reference to Trump, who as recently as Saturday derided the investigation as this "whole political witch hunt and the Mueller scam."



Donald J. Trump

@realDonaldTrump
Roger Stone was targeted by an illegal Witch Hunt that never should have taken place. It is the other side that are criminals, including Biden and Obama, who spied on my campaign - AND GOT CAUGHT!
9:24 AM · Jul 11, 2020


The mere publication of the op-ed was striking in itself for a former FBI director who was tight-lipped during the investigation, refusing to respond to attacks by the president or his allies or to even make public appearances explaining or justifying his work.

In his first public appearance after the conclusion of his investigation, Mueller had said that he had hoped his report would speak for itself. When he later testified to U.S. House of Representatives lawmakers, he was similarly careful not to stray beyond the report's findings or offer new evidence.
But that buttoned-up approach created a void for others, including at the Justice Department, to place their own stamp on his work. Even before the report was released Attorney General William Barr issued a four-page summary document that Mueller said did not adequately capture the gravity of his team's findings.

The op-ed traced the basis for the Stone prosecution, with Mueller recounting how Stone had not only tampered with a witness but also lied repeatedly about his efforts to gain inside information about Democratic emails that Russian intelligence operatives stole and provided to WikiLeaks, which published them in the run-up to the election.


Those efforts, including his discussions with Trump campaign associates about them, cut to the heart of Mueller's mandate to determine whether anyone tied to the campaign co-ordinated with Russia in the hacking or disclosure of the stolen Democratic emails.

WATCH | Trump commutes friend Roger Stone's prison sentence:



Roger Stone was sentenced in February to three years and four months in prison for lying to Congress, witness tampering and obstructing the House investigation into whether the U.S. president's campaign colluded with Russia to win the 2016 election. 4:07

Stone was particularly critical, Mueller writes, because he claimed inside knowledge about WikiLeaks' release of the stolen emails and because he communicated during the campaign with people known to be Russian intelligence officers.

"We did not establish that members of the Trump campaign conspired with the Russian government in its activities," Mueller wrote. "The investigation did, however, establish that the Russian government perceived it would benefit from a Trump presidency and worked to secure that outcome.

It also established that the campaign expected it would benefit electorally from information stolen and released through Russian efforts."



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John Perry
"Robert Mueller defends Russia probe, says Roger Stone 'remains a convicted felon' in op-ed"

Everyone who is speaking honestly about this topic knows you're right Mr. Mueller.
Commuting Stone's sentence is a massive abuse of power.
^ By voting to end the Senate impeachment trial of Trump without calling any witnesses or evidence: 51 Republican Senators betrayed their nation, participated in a cover-up and denied justice to the American people.


David Amos
Content disabled 
Reply to @John Perry: Methinks Mr Trump and his lawyers have yet to settle with me about the many documents and wiretaps I gave Mr Mueller and his cohorts in 2003 long before i ran for a seat in the 39th Parliament N'esy Pas?


Hubert McTavish
Reply to @David Amos:
I once knew a woman named Tory Amos who lived in Livingstones Cove Nova Scotia. She drove a snow plough in the winter and pogey throughout the summer.


David Amos 
Content disabled 
Reply to @Hubert McTavish: We are not related

Trust that the current Chief of the Amos Clan knows who his kin are In fact i am not even related to the Amos dude who wrote the book on the Keiths yet I am related them Methinks everybody knows that because i kept the family motto "Veritas Vincit" out of respect for from whence I came so to speak N'esy Pas?





















Sidney Watts
Looking more like a banana republic every day. 


David Amos
Content disabled 
Reply to @Sidney Watts: Methinks many folks must have found it interesting that a few days before his lawyer pal Michael Cohen was returned to jail in dispute over Trump Book N'esy Pas?


Michael Cohen Returned to Jail in Dispute Over Trump Book

President Trump’s former personal lawyer balked at signing an agreement not to publish a book while serving his sentence at home, his legal adviser said

By Maggie Haberman, William K. Rashbaum and Nicole Hong
Credit...Justin Lane/EPA, via Shutterstock



Michael D. Cohen, President Trump’s onetime lawyer and fixer, was in good spirits on Thursday when he arrived at a Manhattan federal courthouse, where he expected to complete routine paperwork related to his home confinement amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Mr. Cohen, who was released from prison in May on a medical furlough, was stunned when probation officers asked him to sign a document that would have barred him from speaking to reporters or publishing a book during the rest of his sentence, his legal adviser said.

Mr. Cohen, believing the agreement violated his First Amendment rights, refused to sign it, the adviser, Lanny Davis, said. Less than two hours later, federal marshals stepped out of an elevator with handcuffs and took Mr. Cohen back into custody.

Mr. Cohen’s return to jail was the latest twist in a case whose dizzying ups and downs have prolonged the legal woes of a man who once said he would take a bullet for Mr. Trump and later implicated the president in federal crimes.




Continue reading the main story
In a statement, the federal Bureau of Prisons said that Mr. Cohen had been returned to jail after he “refused the conditions of his home confinement.”

As a federal inmate, the bureau said in a separate statement, Mr. Cohen must comply with bureau policies, including requirements that he consent to electronic monitoring and obtain approval for any media interviews. 

Last week, Mr. Cohen said on Twitter that he anticipated releasing a book in late September. Mr. Davis said on Thursday that the book was ready for publication and would recount Mr. Cohen’s experiences working for Mr. Trump for years. 




Mr. Cohen testified before Congress last year that he had previously turned down a deal worth around $750,000 to sell a book about his time working for Mr. Trump that was tentatively titled, “Trump Revolution, From the Tower to the White House, Understanding Donald J. Trump.”




Continue reading the main story
As part of his home confinement, probation officers asked Mr. Cohen on Thursday to agree to eight conditions, including “no engagement of any kind with the media, including print, TV, film, books, or any other form of media/news,” according to a copy of the document obtained by The New York Times.

The purpose of the prohibition, the document said, was to “avoid glamorizing or bringing publicity to your status as a sentenced inmate serving a custodial term in the community.”

Mr. Cohen pointed out to the officers that he had spoken to reporters while he was in prison, Mr. Davis said. 

After Mr. Cohen refused to sign the agreement, the probation officers said they would try to work out a resolution, Mr. Davis said. 

Mr. Cohen and another of his lawyers, Jeffrey Levine, waited about 90 minutes, Mr. Davis said. Three federal marshals then arrived and, without warning, began to take Mr. Cohen into custody.

“He had the rug pulled out from under him,” Mr. Levine said in an interview.

At that point, Mr. Davis said, Mr. Cohen relented and agreed to sign the document to avoid returning to jail. The marshals continued to take him into custody anyway, Mr. Davis said, with one of them saying, “It’s out of our hands.” 

A spokesman for the U.S. Marshals Service did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Mr. Cohen was brought to a federal detention facility in the city, according to two people briefed on his legal status.




Continue reading the main story
Mr. Cohen, who pleaded guilty in 2018 to campaign finance violations and other crimes, was released from federal prison on May 20 on a medical furlough and allowed to return to his home. He had asked to be released because, he said, he had medical conditions that might be worsened by the virus’s spread in prison.

It was expected that after finishing the medical furlough, he would serve the balance of his sentence under home confinement, abiding by a strict set of rules. But a final decision on that had not been made, officials said.

Before his release, Mr. Cohen had been serving a three-year sentence at a minimum-security camp next to a federal prison and detention center in Otisville, N.Y., about 75 miles northwest of New York City. He was scheduled to complete his sentence in November 2021, according to the prisons bureau.

The federal crimes that Mr. Cohen pleaded guilty to were connected to a scheme to pay hush money to two women — a former adult film actress and a former Playboy model — who claimed they had affairs with Mr. Trump before he was president. 

During his guilty plea in August 2018, Mr. Cohen pointed the finger at the president, telling the court that Mr. Trump had directed him to make the hush payments for the purpose of influencing the 2016 election. Mr. Trump has denied the allegations.

During his furlough from prison, Mr. Cohen was photographed on July 2 having dinner at a sidewalk table outside Le Bilboquet, a French restaurant near his Park Avenue apartment, according to The New York Post, which published the photograph.

The authorities did not contact Mr. Cohen after the episode and he did not believe it violated the terms of his release, Mr. Davis said.

Ben Protess and Benjamin Weiser contributed reporting.




Maggie Haberman is a White House correspondent. She joined The Times in 2015 as a campaign correspondent and was part of a team that won a Pulitzer Prize in 2018 for reporting on President Trump’s advisers and their connections to Russia. @maggieNYT
 
William K. Rashbaum is a senior writer on the Metro desk, where he covers political and municipal corruption, courts, terrorism and broader law enforcement topics. He was a part of the team awarded the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for breaking news. @WRashbaum • Facebook
 
Nicole Hong covers law enforcement and courts in New York. She previously worked at The Wall Street Journal, where she was part of a team that won the 2019 Pulitzer Prize in National Reporting for stories about secret payoffs made on Donald Trump's behalf to two women.

A version of this article appears in print on , Section A, Page 23 of the New York edition with the headline: Trump Fixer Back in Jail After Clash Over Publishing Book.
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