Truer words were never spoken
(Finally honesty)
Subject: AP
FACT CHECK (via MSN News):
“Trump and a tale of 2 sheets of paper”
TRUMP: “I don't do
cover-ups.” — Rose Garden remarks to reporters (Wednesday, May 22)
THE FACTS:
Federal prosecutors may not agree with that assertion, which he made in
response to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's accusation that the president was
engaged in a cover-up. Trump spoke after breaking off an infrastructure meeting
when Pelosi and Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) came to the White House for it.
Prosecutors'
court filings in December said Trump directed his former personal lawyer,
Michael Cohen, to make payments to buy the silence of porn actress Stormy
Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal during the 2016 presidential
campaign. Both women alleged they had extramarital affairs with Trump, which
the White House denies.
The DOJ says
the hush money payments were unreported campaign contributions meant to influence
the outcome of the election. That assertion makes the payments subject to
campaign finance laws, which restrict how much people can donate to a campaign
and bar corporations from making direct contributions. Michael Cohen, who
pleaded guilty last year to campaign finance crimes in connection with those
payments, had previously implicated Trump. The department's filings backed up
Cohen's claims.
I say: You, Mr. Trump said the payments
were “a simple private transaction, not a
campaign contribution.”
The Mueller
report found that Trump dictated his son’s misleading statement about a June
2016 meeting at Trump Tower to cloak its purpose.
The Mueller
report said Trump learned in summer of 2017 that the news media planned to
report on the meeting at Trump Tower between senior campaign officials and
Russians offering derogatory information (dirt on) / about Hillary Clinton.
Trump
directed aides not to disclose the emails setting up the meeting. Before the
emails became public, the president also edited a press statement for Donald
Trump Jr. by deleting a line that acknowledged that the meeting was "with
an individual who (Trump Jr.) was told might have information helpful to the
campaign" and instead said only that the meeting was about adoptions.
Those two
episodes are among the 10 identified by the Mueller investigation of possible
obstruction of justice by Trump. Mueller said in his report that he could not
conclusively determine that Trump had committed a crime or that he hadn't.
TRUMP: “ILLEGAL Witch
Hunt.” — Tweet Wednesday (May 22).
THE FACTS:
Trump is wrong to suggest, as he has done before, that the FBI acted illegally
by investigating him. The FBI does not
need to know if or have evidence that a crime occurred before the bureau begins
an investigation.
Many
investigations that are properly conducted ultimately don't find evidence of
any crime. The FBI is empowered to open an investigation if there's information
it has received or uncovered that leads the bureau to think it might encounter
a crime.
Apart from
that, the investigation into the Trump campaign was initially a
counterintelligence investigation rather than a strictly criminal one, as
agents sought to understand whether and why Russia was meddling in the 2016
election.
TRUMP: “The greatest
Hoax in American History.” — Tweet
Wednesday (May 22).
THE FACTS: A
two-year investigation that produced guilty pleas, convictions and criminal
charges against Russian intelligence officers and others with ties to the
Kremlin, as well as Trump associates, is
not a hoax.
Mueller
charged 34 people, including the president's former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, his first national
security adviser, Michael Flynn, and
three Russian companies.
Twenty-five
Russians were indicted on charges related to election interference, accused
either of hacking Democratic email accounts during the campaign or of
orchestrating a social media campaign that spread disinformation on the
Internet.
Five Trump
aides pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate with Mueller, and a sixth,
longtime confidant Roger Stone, is awaiting trial on charges he lied to
Congress and engaged in witness tampering.
Mueller's
report concluded that Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election
was “sweeping and systematic.”
Ultimately,
Mueller did not find a criminal conspiracy between Russia and the Trump
campaign.
But the
special counsel didn't render judgment on whether Trump obstructed justice,
saying his investigators found evidence on both sides.
My 2 cents: Those three above are important – many
other items follow in this fine AP rundown. Check it out. So typical of Trump:
Half-truths, or outright lie, followed by denial and little or no substance.
That is his who he is, his M.O. and who he always has
been: A conniving con man with super skills to BS people and sound convincing when
he is the opposite.
It’s relatively easy to measure Trump: Just go the
exact opposite of what he says. It’s not so much that his followers simply believe
and trust him.
It’s more like they “want
to, or have to believe and trust him in order to protect the GOP brand at all
costs.”
Thanks for stopping by.
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