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Michael Cohen Live Testimony House Oversight Committee

Michael Cohen Testifies Before House Oversight Committee

#MichaelCohenTestimony #MichaelCohen

Michael Cohen, President Trump’s former lawyer, testified before the House Oversight and Reform Committee about various investigations relative to the 2016 Trump presidential campaign.

A STORY OF REDEMPTION

Michael Cohen protected the president for 10 years. He says Republicans are lying to protect the President and themselves, like he did.

Doesn’t matter if he lied before …
RICO Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act
IRS convicted Capone of tax evasion and sentenced him to 11 years in a federal prison.
Eliot Ness’s legacy remains that of a pioneer in law enforcement who successfully combated organized crime.

https://www.c-span.org/video/?458125-1/michael-cohen-testifies-house-oversight-committee

Program ID:
458125-1
Category:
House Committee
Location:
2154, Rayburn House Office Building, Washington, District of Columbia, United States
First Aired:
Feb 27, 2019 | 9:47am EST | C-SPAN 3
Last Aired:
Feb 28, 2019 | 2:00am EST | C-SPAN 1

Airing Details

  • Feb 27, 2019 | 9:47am EST | C-SPAN 3
  • Feb 27, 2019 | 9:59am EST | C-SPAN 3
  • Feb 27, 2019 | 8:00pm EST | C-SPAN 1
  • Feb 28, 2019 | 2:00am EST | C-SPAN 1

SEARCH TRANSCRIPT  TEXT

► Representative JIM COOPER  2:06:28

►Allen Weisselberg

► IVANKA TRUMP

► DONALD TRUMP JR

► WIKILEAKS

► ASSANGE

► RUSSIAN HACKS

► JARED KUSHNER

► RUSSIAN

►TRUMP TOWER

► MOSCOW

► ROGER STONE

► FREE AGENT

► SPECIAL COUNCIL OFFICE

► WIKI LEAKS  29:25 STONE WAS TALKING WITH JULIAN ASSANGE ABOUT A WIKILEAKS DROP ON DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL COMMITTEE EMAILS. I WILL EXPLAIN EACH IN A FEW MOMENTS. I AM…

► BILLY BUSH TAPE

► COLLUDE

► WINNING

► FOREIGN POWER

► RUSSIANS

► WASSERMAN SCHULTZ

► WIRED MONEY 1:24:06
AMMENDED FINANCIAL RETURN FORM
CATCH AND KILL, DAVID PECKER, BARRY LEVINE, AMI

► nine thousand 9000 lies

► TRUMP TAXES

► GERALD CONNOLLY

► RICO

► INDIVIDUAL NUMBER 1

►  JAY SEKULOW
MAY 16 2017 EMAIL HAND OFF MEETING

► WITCH HUNT

► SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK

► DAVID PECKER

► RECORDINGS

  • 11/14/2010 MICHAEL COHEN STARTED TRUMP’S RUN FOR PRESIDENT IN
    Safe to open 2010 ShouldTrumpRun [d0t] com
    Safe to open 2011 
    Safe to open 2012
  • Michael Cohen’s bombshell testimony accuses President Trump of being a racist, a conman and a cheat
  • Described being present for June 2016 conversation between Trump and Roger Stone where longtime adviser described illicit contact with WikiLeaks 
  • Claimed he witnessed chat between president and Don Jr. that he believes is proof Trump knew about infamous Trump Tower meeting with Russians 
  • Says Trump ‘lied’ about Moscow Trump Tower negotiations
  • Trump responded that Cohen was ‘lying in order to reduce his prison time’  
  • Cohen reveals $35,000 check Trump signed during his presidency as says was reimbursement for hush money payments to Stormy Daniels, Karen McDougal 
  • Second check signed by Donald Trump Jr. and Trump Organization’s CFO
  • A Trump Organization official says Don Jr. was not aware when he signed it that it was part of a plan to reimburse Cohen 
  • Copies of three years of Trump financial statements furnished to Deutsche Bank, presumably to justify ability to repay major loans
  • Hearing got off to a rocky start when Republicans tried to delay it because Cohen violated rules by not sending his written testimony 24 hours in advance
  • Ranking Republican claimed Cohen lawyer Lanny Davis, a former Bill Clinton attorney, ‘orchestrated’ the hearing and persuaded Democrats to hold it

Untouchable President / Vice president policy
MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow argues the ‘shaky policy’ that presidents can’t be indicted was crafted with dubious origins

Maddow also interviewed J.T. Smith, who worked in the Justice Department when that reasoning was crafted who said:

“Its purpose was to allow indictment and removal of Agnew and not to serve as the ‘last word’ on indictability of the president.”  He added: “It would be timely and appropriate for the Justice Department and Robert Mueller to reconsider the shaky policy regarding indictability of a sitting president first formulated 45 years ago.” 

Maddow did note that the policy has since been revisited and reaffirmed, but she argued that its dubious beginnings and lack of constitutional foundations make it ripe for review.

Trump, Russia and a Shadowy Business Partnership An insider describes the Bayrock Group, its links to the Trump family and its mysterious access to funds. It isn’t pretty.
https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2017-06-21/trump-russia-and-those-shadowy-sater-deals-at-bayrock

Who Is Manafort’s Russian Associate in the Crosshairs of the Mueller Probe?
Paul Manafort lied to prosecutors about his meetings with Russian political operative Konstantin Kilimnik during and after the 2016 campaign. WSJ’s Shelby Holliday explains what we know about Manafort’s Russian associate.

Mueller’s Findings: Why DOJ Non-Disclosure Policy and Grand Jury Secrecy May Not Apply.
As the Watergate scandal deepened in November 1973, President Richard Nixon declared: “People have got to know whether or not their President is a crook.” Nixon was right. As John Dingell wrote in his deathbed farewell letter to the American people, in our system of government U.S. officials do not “have” power, but instead “hold” power in trust for the electorate they serve. Whatever Special Counsel Robert Mueller finds, the American people, and their congressional representatives, have a right to know whether they can continue to entrust President Donald Trump with the power of the presidency.

Russian Mafia and the Kremlin convicted Russian mobster Felix Saider had an office on the 26th floor the same floor as  Trumps office.
Washington Post reported  convicted Russian mobster Felix Saider was a Senior adviser to Trump and he didn’t pay rent for the office. President Trump lied under oath. Trump organization files with Felix  Sater and the BayRock organization is in a box offsight.
The Nation
Trump was directly involved with negotiating Trump Tower in Russia.
95 million dollars came in by wire.

FBI’s War Crimes Unit on the Chopping Block

A special unit within the Federal Bureau of Investigation that handles war crimes may be shut down imminently, according to officials familiar with the administration’s decision-making process.
They investigate PUBLIC CORRUPTION Kleptocracy
Kleptocracy is a form of political corruption in which the ruling government seeks personal gain and status at the expense of the governed, literally meaning “the rule by thieves.”

Robert Mercer The Reclusive Hedge-Fund Tycoon Behind the Trump Presidency How Robert Mercer exploited America’s populist insurgency. Mercer is the co-C.E.O. of Renaissance Technologies, which is among the most profitable hedge funds in the country.
1998 satire “Bulworth.” In that film, a kamikaze candidate abandons the usual talking points and excoriates both the major political parties and the media; voters love his unconventionality, and he becomes improbably popular. If the plot sounds familiar, there’s a reason: in recent years, Caddell has offered political advice to Trump. Caddell shared the research he did for Mercer with Trump and others in the campaign, including Bannon, with whom he has partnered on numerous projects. In 2012, Caddell gave a speech at a conference sponsored by Accuracy in Media, a conservative watchdog group, in which he called the media “the enemy of the American people.”

Robert Mercer, whose spending assisted Donald Trump’s election win, used tax haven of Bermuda to avoid US taxes

Mark Twain Knows What Putin Really Wants

What Putin Really Wants Russia’s strongman president has many Americans convinced of his manipulative genius. He’s really just a gambler who won big.

Association of Chief Information Security Officers, or ARSIB in Russian. Victor Minin, who has close ties to Russian intelligence, runs hacking competitions at universities all over Russia—his way, he says, of preparing future generations.
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2018/01/putins-game/546548/

As Samuel Clemens cultivated his career as a successful writer and lecturer, he became more keenly aware of world politics. His attitude toward Russian monarchy shifted. Although he had devoted little attention to Russian politics between 1867 and 1881, a reading he delivered at the Hartford Monday Evening Club on March 22, 1886 indicates his opinion of the Russian aristocracy changed:

Power, when lodged in the hands of man, means oppression — insures oppression: it means oppression always: … give it to the high priest of the Christian Church in Russia, the Emperor, and with a wave of his hand he will brush a multitude of young men, nursing mothers, gray headed patriarchs, gently young girls, like so many unconsidered flies, into the unimaginable hells of his Siberia, and go blandly to his breakfast, unconscious that he has committed a barbarity …(2).

Clemens’s original manuscript indicates he was much more vehement in his call for assassination of the Czar than his published version. He urges Russian mothers to teach their children:

When you grow up, knife a Romanoff wherever you find him, loyalty to these cobras is treason to the nation; be a patriot, not a prig – set the people free (22).
http://www.twainquotes.com/Revolution/revolution.html#ref22

_____

INFLUENCE OF GEORGE KENNAN

A continued hardening of Clemens’s attitude against the Russian aristocracy, and indeed most of America’s, can be traced to a series of articles commissioned by Richard Watson Gilder, editor of Century Illustrated Monthly Magazine.
http://www.twainquotes.com/Revolution/revolution.html

Boston Daily Globe, December 25, 1890, p. 3 CHRISTMAS GREETINGS … Mark Twain It is my heart-warm and world-embracing Christmas hope and aspiration that all of us, the high, the low, the rich, the poor, the admired, the despised, the loved, the hated, the civilized, the savage, may eventually be gathered together in a heaven of everlasting rest and peace and bliss, escape [sic] the inventor of the telephone. MARK TWAIN. Hartford, Dec. 23

http://www.twainquotes.com/Revolution/DarkestRussiaPosterLOC.jpg

Arizona State University: Fighting fake photos, one social stream at a time. “In 1855, an English photographer named Roger Fenton traveled to Crimea to document the war there. British troops dubbed one spot on the Sevastopol peninsula the ‘valley of death’ because it was under constant shelling. Fenton photographed the spot, a shallow defile littered with cannonballs. The photo (above), titled ‘Valley of the Shadow of Death,’ became famous as one of the first and most well-known images of war. The problem is it’s faked.”

#Loophole that allows @jeffBezos #Amazon get away with NO #TAXES

Jeff Bezos 2018 Richest billionaire on the list

Jeff Bezos  – Amazon –  $112 billion doesn’t pay taxes

https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2018/03/06/jeff-bezos-unseats-bill-gates-forbes-2018-richest-billionaires-list/398877002/

and he uses Philanthropy for more tax write offs.

Davos 2019: Historian Rutger Bregman berates billionaires at World Economic Forum over tax avoidance

Trump tax cuts to surge debt past 90% of GDP by 2024, says IMF report

Why This ‘Patriotic’ Millionaire Wants to Raise Taxes on the Rich | NowThis

BUSINESS, BANKS, POLITICIANS HAVE BUILT A 170 BILLION DOLLAR TAX HAVEN

Historian Rutger Bregman
Industry had to “stop talking about philanthropy and start talking about taxes”, he said, and cited the high tax regime of 1950s America as an example to disprove arguments by business people at Davos such as Michael Dell that economies with high personal taxation could not succeed. “That’s it,” he says. “Taxes, taxes, taxes. All the rest is bullshit in my opinion.”
Winnie Byanyima, an Oxfam executive director, took up the fight and said high employment was not a good thing in itself because many people found themselves in exploitative work. She cited the example of poultry workers in the US who had to wear nappies (diapers) because they were not allowed toilet breaks.
“That’s not a dignified job,” she said. “those are the jobs we’ve been told about, that globalisation is bringing jobs. The quality of the jobs matter. In many countries workers no longer have a voice.
Addressing Goldman, she said: “You’re counting the wrong things. You’re not counting dignity of people. You’re counting exploited people.”
Billions of dollars were leaked by tax avoidance every year which should instead be going to alleviate poverty in the developing world, she added.
#Davos
#WorldEconomicForum
#RutgerBregman

“The vast majority of Americans for years and years now … including Fox News viewers and including Republicans are in favor of higher taxes on the rich — higher inheritance taxes, higher top marginal tax rates, higher wealth taxes — it’s all really mainstream,” Bregman said. “But no one’s saying that at Davos just as no one’s saying that on Fox News. And the explanation for that’s quite simple, it’s that most of the people in Davos, as well as most of the people on this channel, have been bought by the billionaire class. You’re not meant to say these things.”

1993  politician paid policy initiative to constrain CEO pay was actually a loophole to not pay taxes.

1993, Bill Clinton and congressional Democrats tried to stop the growing pay inequality of Reagan-era America — Section 162(m) of the US Tax Code.

“Revenue that is paid out to employees as salaries and benefits is not profits, and thus doesn’t get taxed. But section 162(m) created an exception to that rule — any salary of over $1 million paid to top executives would not be deductible for tax purposes.

This was supposed to stop  outrageous 1% executive compensation packages.

Except there was an exception to the exception

compensation that took the form of stock options or stock grants would still be deductible and

the loophole incentivize companies to use a lot of stock-based compensation for their executives.

WHAT STOCK BYBACK ACTUALLY MEANS

A company like AMAZON could give stock-based compensation by taking money out of Jeff Bezos’ bank account and  using it to buy back shares on the open market and pay his executives with shares but no… that would involve using his real money.

Any company,  just churns out shares of their  stock anytime it wants to, kind of like an ICO of some cryptocurrency. This costs Amazon shareholders (or holders of andy crypto) where creating new shares  devalues the existing ones, but it doesn’t really cost the company anything at all.

What a game!

This policy loop hole allowed AMAZON to get away with NO  corporate income tax in 2018 despite the huge surge in profits.

AMAZON got away without paying any tax by giving executives stock-based compensation packages  and the

Securities and Exchange Commission form 10(k) shows it recorded about $1 billion in deductions for stock-based compensation

eliminating what would otherwise have been a non-zero tax liability.

and

  1. research and development tax credit
  2. Trump tax bill included a temporary provision allowing companies to take a 100 percent tax deduction for investment in equipment.

  3. 2018 is the fact that companies can deduct the cost of stock-based compensation from their taxable earnings even though it doesn’t actually cost companies any money to hand out shares of their own stock to employees. The more your share price rises, the bigger the deduction for handing out shares.

see

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► Nicholas C. Zakas on Twitter:
“Mom: Dad said you invented a thing? ESLint?
Me: Yes.
Mom: What is it?
Me: It finds and fixes problems in JavaScript.
Mom: Huh. Do people use it?
Me: Basically everyone writing JS.
Mom: How much did you make on it?
Me: Nothing.
Mom: I don’t understand your industry.
Me: Me either.”

► Open Collective @opencollect
Organizing the Internet generation, one community at a time.

► Elsevier journal editors resign, start rival open-access journal

► Bryce Weiner “The true financial power of cryptocurrencies aren’t in the limited supplies which drive market volatility, but in the ability to mint your own money. That’s what “being your own bank” really means.”

► Hacker Fantastic “2,982 bitcoin miners exposed to the Internet, have factory default credentials of “root/root” and an insecure unsigned firmware update process… this is going to end in tears

► Wikipedia’s Larry Sanger Joins Blockchain Startup to Disrupt His Own Creation

► World War II’s Best Codebreaker Was a Woman Elizebeth Smith Friedman

►Shodan is the world’s first search engine for Internet-connected device  Antminer

►  Tim Bray · Google Memory Loss is ongoing – google isn’t coughing it up anymore / they don’t waste their effort going back to get what you are looking for – this has become the worst search engine to use.