US Politics December 2018: ~very legal and very cool~

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President Trump has agreed to shut down his embattled personal charity and give away its remaining funds amid allegations that he used it for his personal and political benefit, the New York attorney general announced Tuesday.

New York Attorney General Barbara Underwood announced that the Donald J. Trump Foundation is dissolving as her office pursues its lawsuit against the charity, Trump and his three eldest children.

good morning1

Lol

he really is facing unprecedented legal "exposure" for a president right now, on so many different fronts. it feels like at any moment the house of cards could come down. but yet, we will continue like this for months and months to come.

I assume dissolving the “charity” doesnt stop the lawsuit from moving forward...?

Jerome Corsi blocked me on Twitter :(

Yeah, I don't think it works like that. If you're caught doing something criminal and stop doing that criminal thing, it's not like it wipes the slate clean.

xpost

Yeah, it's like that time I used that shell company to launder money for years and then quickly shut it down when it seemed like the authorities were starting to catch on and yet I'm still currently posting from federal prison. So unfair!

I stopped doing it, guys! I stopped!

Can Trump be dissolved next?

if you dissolve a company, then technically nothing that company did ever happened, that's the law iirc

The phrase "impotent rage" comes to mind...

The settlement with Underwood’s office represents a concession by Trump to a state investigation he decried as a partisan attack. The case is one of numerous legal inquiries into Trump organizations that have proliferated during his White House tenure.

"Settlement" implies the matter will be closed...?

Yeah idgi

A good day to be David Fahrenthold.

Is the settlement that he has to shut it down and pay penalties and admit guilt?

They are demanding 2.8 million, penalties, and none of the Trump family can serve on any other New York boards.

by the way, autocorrect tried to change family can serve to family cancer, which would have worked even better.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-agrees-to-shut-down-his-charity-amid-allegations-he-used-it-for-personal-and-political-benefit/2018/12/18/dd3f5030-021b-11e9-9122-82e98f91ee6f_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.2160579457e9

The largest donation in the foundation’s history — a $264,231 gift to the Central Park Conservancy in 1989 — appeared to benefit Trump’s business: it paid to restore a fountain outside Trump’s Plaza Hotel. The smallest, a $7 foundation gift to the Boy Scouts that same year, appeared to benefit Trump’s family. It matched the amount required to enroll a boy in the Scouts the year that his son Donald Trump Jr. was 11.

imagine the grift infiltrating every single aspect of your daily life

it’s easy if you try

*waits for renato mariotti to tell us what this means*

*Mariotti instead shills his podcast where it will be discussed ~1h50m in*

Man oh man, the Flynn sentencing is hilarious.

Judge essentially forces Flynn to admit in court that he's claiming no misconduct, that he was aware lying to the FBI was a crime, then this

Judge Sullivan: Is Mr. Flynn still cooperating?

Gov: It “remains a possibility” that he’s still cooperating.

— Ryan J. Reilly (@ryanjreilly) December 18, 2018

Gov says the decision to proceed to sentencing is based on the totality of Flynn's assistance. Has already provided “vast majority” of his potential cooperation. Highlights indictment unsealed yesterday against Flynn’s business partner.

— Ryan J. Reilly (@ryanjreilly) December 18, 2018

Judge Sullivan: So Flynn could’ve also been charged in that indictment unsealed in Virginia yesterday, right? Gov: Yes.

Judge Sullivan: “Exposure to Mr. Flynn would have been significant?” Gov: Yes.

— Ryan J. Reilly (@ryanjreilly) December 18, 2018

Judge Sullivan: “I’m not hiding my disgust, my distain for this criminal offense.”

Says he can’t guarantee he’s going to avoid incarceration. Gives Flynn yet another opportunity to speak with his lawyers.

— Ryan J. Reilly (@ryanjreilly) December 18, 2018

he's pretty fucked but I'm sure the OSC is anxious about their key witness being fuckin pissed at them for this whole thing blowing up. in spite of the fact that flynn is there for, you know, crimes. many crimes.

What this all really feels like is the unwinding of a pyramid scheme, the last days of Bernie Madoff. Not just the foundation but everything, he got away with so many things for so long it's like he forgot he was actually a con man.

xpost -- not unrelated, I think.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/mueller-ready-to-pounce-on-trumpworld-concessions-to-moscow

Whomp whomp

FLYNN LAWYER NOW SEEKS TO DELAY SENTENCING.

— Ryan J. Reilly (@ryanjreilly) December 18, 2018

This:

BREAKING: Flynn's attorneys say they are now taking the judge up on his offer to delay today's sentencing because he's still cooperating with prosecutors.

— Steven Portnoy (@stevenportnoy) December 18, 2018

...makes sense given other commentary I've seen, plus an observation from the SCO prosecutor earlier.

Wants a sentencing delay to get the "last modicum" of cooperation benefit from EDVA case.

— Andrew Prokop (@awprokop) December 18, 2018

Flynn's lawyers hearing the judge loud and clear, scrambling for way out.https://t.co/tOSb7yOldP

— BigCrimeHat (@Popehat) December 18, 2018

A status report on whether Flynn is ready for sentencing will be due by March 13 at noon

— Zoe Tillman (@ZoeTillman) December 18, 2018

Works to Mueller's advantage, right? Flynn's gonna need to cooperate and cooperate and cooperate, or he's looking down the barrel of an angry judge.

Pretty much, yes. Also, the attempt to claim misconduct/manipulation is now a played card and taken back in court. Further thoughts:

Re Flynn's delay: Note Kelner just took responsibility for that clear fuck-up on claiming he wasn't warned about lying. One reason Flynn wanted sentencing now was so he could go back to sleazy influence peddling so he could pay his legal fees.

— emptywheel (@emptywheel) December 18, 2018

It's not clear what Flynn stands to gain delaying sentencing -- it's not even clear EDVA *wants* him to testify in that case.

It's POSSIBLE however, he has something else he thinks he can give Mueller.

Or, maybe they just figure a stall might delay long enough for pardon.

— emptywheel (@emptywheel) December 18, 2018

I seriously hope that this train wreck wasn't a complete surprise to General Flynn -- that SOMEBODY warned him that it might go this way, and that the signs were that the judge was mad. A client getting blindsided because nobody told him the truth is unacceptable.

— BigCrimeHat (@Popehat) December 18, 2018

If you're caught doing something criminal and stop doing that criminal thing, it's not like it wipes the slate clean.

Prosecutors have a lot of latitude for wiping slates clean and they use it in widely varying ways and for varying reasons, including their perception of the politics involved.

Can Trump be dissolved next?

Sullivan also asked a prosecutor with the special counsel’s office whether Flynn could be charged with “treason.”

damn, son

treason has a very specific definition and I don't think it applies if we're not actually at war with anyone

that said Flynn is absolutely a traitor to this nation and it sucks that he's gonna get like, a quarter of the jail time as a poor dude with 1/8 oz of marijuana

well fwiw the special counsel agrees w you and said no, treason was not a likely charge

nonetheless it's striking that the judge even suggested it. Flynn is not gonna get leniency from this guy.

LOCK HIM UP

Because I don't watch Fox, my first exposure to Flynn was him going all crazy-red-race screaming "Lock her up" at the convention. I thought he was deranged and ridiculous, but of course at the time I had no thought that Trump would get elected so Flynn just seemed like a bottom-feeder weirdo with anger issues. What a time it has been.

Just rewatched and ok he wasn't exactly screaming. Still.

Walt Jr. is almost assuredly rethinking his nickname rn.

should have gone with Fletch

good guy Michael Flynn:

"This is Islamism, it is a vicious cancer inside the body of 1.7 billion people on this planet and it has to be excised."

- August 2016

I've posted this like twice but I haven't forgotten this NPR interview that came out right after Flynn was named as NatSec Advisor

INSKEEP: Which is interesting because one of the jobs of a national security adviser, of course, is to keep things orderly and make sure that the president gets information in an orderly fashion. Any sense of what he was like as a manager?

CHAYES: Orderly, he was not.

(LAUGHTER)

INSKEEP: No? You're saying that - what do you mean by that?

CHAYES: Anything but. I mean, remember Linus in the Snoopy and the Charlie Brown cartoons? Something like that.

INSKEEP: I'll give - do you mean to say Pig-Pen?

CHAYES: The one - Pig-Pen, Pig-Pen (laughter). right.

INSKEEP: OK, the kid who was a little dirty, OK. So you're saying that things were a little chaotic around General Flynn. But you found this guy to be extraordinarily enthusiastic.

Let me ask another thing - because of some of General Flyn statements about Muslims, people are going to be asked if he is prejudiced in some way. There you are with him in Afghanistan. He's with American troops, few of whom would be Muslim. He's in an overwhelmingly Muslim country. How did he handle that?

CHAYES: I never found him in his personal dealings to be prejudiced, either in terms of religion, race or, in particular, gender. I mean, interestingly, the intelligence community within the Army is one of the ones where women really can rise to the top. And Flynn always surrounded himself with women and often said, look, it's just - diversity isn't even an issue because there's too much talent. I can't afford to lose the potential talent. So on a personal level, I never saw him behave in discriminatory ways.

INSKEEP: In just a few seconds, as someone who knows General Flynn, when you heard news of his selection, were you reassured, happy, disturbed, troubled, many questions - how would you phrase it?

CHAYES: My heart sank.

INSKEEP: Really? Why?

CHAYES: Everything I just said. The NSA is an institution that, first of all, has to keep the trains running. That's the first job of the national security adviser - is to make that National Security Council run.

INSKEEP: OK.

CHAYES: Flynn can't make anything run.

https://www.npr.org/2016/11/18/502568434/trump-offers-key-posts-to-sen-sessions-rep-pompeo-retired-lt-gen-flynn

I bet Flynn wishes he ran.

imagine being so dumb that you all but commit treason by accident and then blithely admit to it