https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2018/04/19/trumps-lawyer-cohen-drops-libel-suit-against-buzzfeed-and-fusion-gps.html
Cohen's days are numbered and then he will flip quicker than a flame broiled hamburger at Burgerking. The guy is scum and bad news. No wonder he works for Trump. I'm sure we will soon be hearing from Trump and his enablers that Cohen was just a coffee boy and that Trump hardly knew the guy, lol.
There are now several NY state and other state prosecutions that will be coming down if he doesn't flip. Ooops, Trump can't pardon for a state crime. Was listening to some NY lawyer on the radio say that Cohen would be lucky to get less than a decade if NY goes hard at him.
It's a race between Manafort and Cohen to see who spends the rest of their life hold up in the Ecuadorian Embassy.
Can't be pardoned for state crimes, only federal... both these guys are getting grabbed by the balls in NY State so far.
When you accept a pardon you are admitting guilt to the charges you have been pardoned for. As soon as Trump pardons them they would be called to testify to the grand jury. First question they would be asked is, "did anyone promise you a pardon from the president if you refused to take a plea deal?" If they answer yes that is obstruction of justice. If they answer no and it is proven that they lie then that is perjury. If they refuse to answer that is contempt of court and they will be held in jail until answering. Also Mueller isn't going to charge them with everything he can. He will leave some things out. That way if Trump pardons them he turns over the uncharged cases to state courts to prosecute. An interesting side note to all of this is those were Trump's attorneys sitting with Cohen in court on Monday and Hannity's name got disclosed. That can't continue to happen if Cohen is charged. Cohen will have to hire his own attorneys but if he's charged with banking crimes he won't have any money. Trump with all his money is having a difficult time finding lawyers to hire on the same level as Mueller's team, imagine what kind of legal help Cohen will be able to hire with no money. Cohen, if charged, will be in an extremely difficult position.
Do you really think anybody will actually care if they admit guilt, if there are no consequences? I don't think shame for ethics violations is still a thing in the current political climate.
Admitting guilt is huge. "No collusion!" "No collusion!" "No collusion!" "Yes, I colluded." or "Yes, I laundered money." Once Mueller proves either of those two things everything starts falling into racketeering. With racketeering the government can seize Trump Tower and all other Trump properties. With racketeering you don't need to prove that Trump did anything, only that he sits at the head of the criminal conspiracy. Trump can't pardon his top lieutenants and then claim he didn't know what they were doing. Well he can, but that doesn't really help him.
I don't think the base cares, and clearly the Congress doesn't appear to care. Aside from that, can a sitting president be indicted on Federal racketeering charges? I'd say it's pretty unlikely. The only thing that could happen is a "blue wave" turning over the congress this fall and impeachment proceedings, and even then I am very skeptical that a Democratic Congress is going to risk political capital going after him, unless there is some clear mandate in the polling. As for state charges for surrogates? Yeah, maybe that's a concern, but I'll believe it when I see it.
