L'Affair Kavanaugh continues to rage across the political landscape right now, but let's not forget why Trump needs Brett Kavanaugh on the Supreme Court ASAP: as the deciding vote to shield Trump from the consequences of the Mueller probe.
As former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen continues to cooperate with the Mueller probe as part of his August plea deal, details are starting to leak out about Donald Trump's personal involvement in the efforts to obstruct justice through the hush money payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels about her alleged affair with Trump, and the subsequent cover-up of that arrangement.
Now we find out today from the Wall Street Journal that Trump not only knew about the hush money and the cover-up, but that Trump personally directed Cohen and his son Eric Trump to handle the legal action against Daniels.
President Trump personally directed an effort in February to stop Stormy Daniels from publicly describing an alleged sexual encounter with Mr. Trump, people familiar with the events say.
In a phone call, Mr. Trump instructed his then-lawyer Michael Cohen to seek a restraining order against the former adult-film actress, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, through a confidential arbitration proceeding, one of the people said. Messrs. Trump and Cohen had learned shortly before that Ms. Clifford was considering giving a media interview about her alleged relationship with Mr. Trump, despite having signed an October 2016 nondisclosure agreement.
Mr. Trump told Mr. Cohen to coordinate the legal response with Eric Trump, one of the president’s sons, and another outside lawyer who had represented Mr. Trump and the Trump Organization in other matters, the people said. Eric Trump, who is running the company with his brother in Mr. Trump’s absence, then tasked a Trump Organization staff attorney in California with signing off on the arbitration paperwork, these people said.
Direct involvement of the president and his son in the effort to silence Ms. Clifford hasn’t previously been reported. The accounts of that effort recently provided to The Wall Street Journal suggest that the president’s ties to his company continued into this year and contradict public statements made at the time by the Trump Organization, the White House and Mr. Cohen.
The White House referred a request for comment to the president’s outside counsel. Jay Sekulow, a lawyer for Mr. Trump, declined to comment. A person close to the situation said Eric Trump had acted as the president’s son and not in his role as a company executive. The Trump Organization declined to comment. Lanny Davis, a lawyer for Mr. Cohen, declined to comment.
In March, the Trump Organization denied any role in the arbitration, saying its lawyer assisted in her “individual capacity.” At the same time, the White House issued blanket denials when asked about a hush payment to Ms. Clifford and directed questions to Mr. Cohen, who had called the deal a private transaction between himself and the former adult-film star. Mr. Trump has denied any sexual encounter with Ms. Clifford.
Trump not only lied about Daniels, he personally directed his son and the Trump Organization to handle the dirty work.
And Mueller knows all about it.
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