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FBI believed Trump was closely involved in hush-money scheme, unsealed documents show

Jul 18th 2019

The FBI believed then-candidate Donald Trump was closely involved in a scheme to hide hush-money payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels, who claimed an affair with Trump, court documents from the closed campaign finance case against former Trump-fixer Michael Cohen show.

The documents, released Thursday, describe a "series of calls, text messages, and emails" between Cohen, Trump, Trump campaign aide Hope Hicks, Keith Davidson — an attorney for the woman, porn star Stormy Daniels — and David Pecker, an executive of the company that published the National Enquirer. "I have learned that in the days following the Access Hollywood video, Cohen exchanged a series of calls, text messages and emails with Keith Davidson, who was then Clifford's attorney, David Pecker and Dylan Howard of American Media, Inc. ("AMI"), the publisher of the National Enquirer, Trump, and Hope Hicks, who was then press secretary for Trump's presidential campaign," an FBI agent investigating the matter wrote in the released documents. "Based on the timing of these calls, and the content of the text messages and emails, I believe that at least some of these communications concerned the need to prevent Clifford from going public, particularly in the wake of the Access Hollywood story," the agent added.

Daniels' legal name is Stephanie Clifford.

The unsealed documents say that Hicks called Cohen on the night of Oct. 8, 2016 at 7:20 p.m — the first time she had called him in weeks — and that Trump joined the call seconds later. The conversation lasted four minutes. Hicks and Cohen spoke privately after Trump left the call and, after that, Cohen called Pecker. Moments after that conversation ended, Cohen received a phone call from Dylan Howard, the chief content officer of American Media. After that call, Cohen rang Hicks back, ended that call, and then took a call from Pecker. At 8:03 p.m., according to the unsealed court documents, Cohen called Trump. They spoke for eight minutes.

The FBI agent wrote in the document that the information was learned from a review of telephone records and under warrants to obtain Cohen's emails.

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by Anonymousreply 14July 21, 2019 9:14 PM
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by Anonymousreply 1July 18, 2019 11:47 PM

Why can’t we arrest this jackass?

by Anonymousreply 2July 19, 2019 12:49 AM

Duh. But Americans don't understand campaign finance violations, and his loons don't care about locker-room shenanigans with whores, which is what this boils down to, for simpletons.

by Anonymousreply 3July 19, 2019 12:51 AM

Michael Cohen released a new statement today saying he was ordered by Trump to make the hush money payment:

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by Anonymousreply 4July 19, 2019 2:30 AM

R4 Thanks for posting that.

by Anonymousreply 5July 21, 2019 7:53 PM

The FBI believes what is perfectly obvious.

by Anonymousreply 6July 21, 2019 8:01 PM

R6, I know. We can see with our own eyes!

by Anonymousreply 7July 21, 2019 8:04 PM

Duh!

by Anonymousreply 8July 21, 2019 8:24 PM

Same with conspiracy with Russians. They might not be able to prove it beyond a shadow of a doubt, but it’s as clear as day. Shake a Trump tree, and a Russian falls out of it.

by Anonymousreply 9July 21, 2019 8:28 PM

Of course he did. It's been obvious for quite some time. That and a whole lot more. There is quite likely sufficient evidence to charge and convict him once he is out of office. Let's hope that the next administration has the guts and fortitude to bring this criminal to justice -- in spite of the fact that over the course of 230 years and 44 prior chief executives, we have never done that before.

by Anonymousreply 10July 21, 2019 8:33 PM

We've never had a president like this before, R10.

by Anonymousreply 11July 21, 2019 8:45 PM

I think if he loses the election he will be off to Moscow on a private plane or somewhere else that won't extradite him. He won't stick around to be convicted. Unless Putin doesn't want him. Plus, once he's in Moscow, he can have a convenient (to Putin) "heart attack", although he could be kept alive to be the leader of the deplorables in absentia, which will be almost as disruptive as having him here in US. I just don't see how he sticks around for even a second.

by Anonymousreply 12July 21, 2019 8:52 PM

I agree he will leave. Russia or Israel. If he goes to Russia, I think he will abandon his cult. Or they, him.

by Anonymousreply 13July 21, 2019 8:56 PM

[quote] We've never had a president like this before

Oh, I know. I just don't want people to say that once he's out of office we should put his crimes behind us and not do anything about all of them. I want this traitorous felon to rot and die in prison.

We let Bu$h and Cheney off. No repeat here for this miserable excuse for a human being.

by Anonymousreply 14July 21, 2019 9:14 PM
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