Trump directed Michael Cohen to lie to Congress about proposed Moscow project

[SummerMadness]

Trump directed Michael Cohen to lie to Congress about proposed Moscow project

President Donald Trump personally directed his longtime former attorney Michael Cohen to lie to Congress about the Moscow Trump Tower project, two federal law enforcement officials involved in an investigation of the matter told BuzzFeed.

The law enforcement officials told BuzzFeed that Trump directed Cohen to claim negotiations to build a Trump Tower in Moscow ended months earlier than they actually did. The law enforcement sources told BuzzFeed that Cohen confirmed to special counsel Robert Mueller's team that Trump issued the order to lie to Congress.

 

[SkyWriting]

Trump directed Michael Cohen to lie to Congress about proposed Moscow project

Trump has a long history of Re-directed Reality.
It's part of his success story.

 

[disciple Clint]

Trump directed Michael Cohen to lie to Congress about proposed Moscow project

Why would Trump instruct someone to tell a lie about a fact that was not a threat of any kind to Trump. Trump as a private citizen could negotiate as many deals as he wanted to negotiate, in any country he wanted to consider for investment. he was still a private business man at the time these negations were conducted and he abandoned them prior to becoming POTUS. So why would he instruct anyone to tell a useless lie knowing full well that instructing someone to lie to congress would be a violation of the law and an obstruction of justice. Trump may be many things but he is not stupid.

 

[Bobber]

I'm certainly not quick to believe this happened. Did Cohen confirm this to Muller. He may have went along with a story line they created him to say but if all this becomes merely hearsay it'd be one man's word against another. Of course we know whose word the mainstream media will go with. My reason for not believing this isn't due to blind trust towards Trump...not at all! It's just reading from others who have told they've been pressured to say lies about Trump makes me not easy to believe anything. Even look at this headline....."Trump directed Cohen to lie to congress...." Doesn't even leave any room for maybe he didn't do it but it's just reported as fact. What evidence does Cohen have except his own words? We'll see how it plays out.

 

[Kentonio]

Trump may be many things but he is not stupid.

I hate to break this to you, but...

 

[hislegacy]

From the link:

CNN has not corroborated the BuzzFeed report.

another unconfirmed report and people are taking it at face value. LOL CNN at its best.

 

[AvilaSurfer]

Buzzfeed? Seriously?

 

[SummerMadness]

From the link:

CNN has not corroborated the BuzzFeed report.

another unconfirmed report and people are taking it at face value. LOL CNN at its best.

Buzzfeed? Seriously?

Attack the source, just like attacking the Steele dossier, with many things it verified: The Steele Dossier: A Retrospective

 

[camille70]

I had posted this in another thread, but I'll put it here, too.

The special counsel’s office learned about Trump’s directive for Cohen to lie to Congress through interviews with multiple witnesses from the Trump Organization and internal company emails, text messages, and a cache of other documents. Cohen then acknowledged those instructions during his interviews with that office.

President Trump Directed His Attorney Michael Cohen To Lie To Congress About The Moscow Tower Project

Maddow Blog on Twitter

 

[hislegacy]

Attack the source, just like attacking the Steele dossier, with many things it verified: The Steele Dossier: A Retrospective

Oh, then can I quote Breitbart and you will accept it verbatim? Because checking the source (where the report comes from), isn't necessary.

 

[whatbogsends]

Why would Trump instruct someone to tell a lie about a fact that was not a threat of any kind to Trump. Trump as a private citizen could negotiate as many deals as he wanted to negotiate, in any country he wanted to consider for investment. he was still a private business man at the time these negations were conducted and he abandoned them prior to becoming POTUS. So why would he instruct anyone to tell a useless lie knowing full well that instructing someone to lie to congress would be a violation of the law and an obstruction of justice. Trump may be many things but he is not stupid.

If Trump truly believed he was allowed to negotiate any deals he wanted, why did he repeatedly insist he had no business relationships or projects in Russia, when those claims were hard and fast lies?

 

[JohnHarthover]

Why would Trump instruct someone to tell a lie about a fact that was not a threat of any kind to Trump. Trump as a private citizen could negotiate as many deals as he wanted to negotiate, in any country he wanted to consider for investment. he was still a private business man at the time these negations were conducted and he abandoned them prior to becoming POTUS. So why would he instruct anyone to tell a useless lie knowing full well that instructing someone to lie to congress would be a violation of the law and an obstruction of justice. Trump may be many things but he is not stupid.

Its weird how much he tries to distance himself from Russia in situations like these, but then he will go and do something like endanger national security to have a sideline chat with Putin at a major conference with Putin's translator as the only witness. If he cared about America, Trump would come clean on everything so that the Russians do not have leverage over him.

The truth is that everything seems pretty reasonable if you assume Trump was a Russian candidate from the start. I mean there are other possibilities that are similarly likely, but all the evidence does fit with this story: The Russians wanted to sow discord in the US and its NATO allies to give it more breathing room and to delegitimize democracy to some extent. They had some stuff on Trump and he maybe owed them some money. They encourage him to run on a nationalist platform to help further propagate their efforts to divide America on the basis of race. He ends up doing better than expected, so they put more resources into the effort. They get him to help on Ukraine, "adoption", Syria and NATO. Everything that he is done fits that pattern. There are of course other stories that are also sort of reasonable, but that story fits. We will see.

 

[FenderTL5]

If Trump truly believed he was allowed to negotiate any deals he wanted, why did he repeatedly insist he had no business relationships or projects in Russia, when those claims were hard and fast lies?

I don't know the answer to your question. However, one thing we can be certain of; we have a president who, more times than not, chooses to lie first then walk back the lie as the truth is made available. This seems to be his M.O. from the severe to the mundane.

 

[USincognito]

It's just reading from others who have told they've been pressured to say lies about Trump....

Like who?

 

[super animator]

If Trump truly believed he was allowed to negotiate any deals he wanted, why did he repeatedly insist he had no business relationships or projects in Russia, when those claims were hard and fast lies?

Because he's a serial narcissistic.

 

[GlabrousDory4]

Why would Trump instruct someone to tell a lie about a fact that was not a threat of any kind to Trump. Trump as a private citizen could negotiate as many deals as he wanted to negotiate, in any country he wanted to consider for investment.

In politics it is often a truism that the appearance of conflict of interest is just as bad as an actual conflict of interest. IF Trump went to a known hostile foreign dictator with significant training in taking advantage of people he revealed his "weakness" to said dictator. That would make it completely reasonable for this dictator to try to leverage that against Trump.

This is how we know Trump doesn't know how to make a deal. He shows his hand.

NOW, Trump is president and he's had the Russia cloud hanging over him from the beginning. Why WOULDN'T he hope that any appearance of compromise would "disappear"?

he was still a private business man at the time these negations were conducted and he abandoned them prior to becoming POTUS. So why would he instruct anyone to tell a useless lie knowing full well that instructing someone to lie to congress would be a violation of the law and an obstruction of justice. Trump may be many things but he is not stupid.

Respectfully I disagree. Trump is clearly among the least intelligent people on the political scene. Why would he show his hand at the beginning of a negotiation?

 

[Sparagmos]

I'm certainly not quick to believe this happened. Did Cohen confirm this to Muller. He may have went along with a story line they created him to say but if all this becomes merely hearsay it'd be one man's word against another. Of course we know whose word the mainstream media will go with. My reason for not believing this isn't due to blind trust towards Trump...not at all! It's just reading from others who have told they've been pressured to say lies about Trump makes me not easy to believe anything. Even look at this headline....."Trump directed Cohen to lie to congress...." Doesn't even leave any room for maybe he didn't do it but it's just reported as fact. What evidence does Cohen have except his own words? We'll see how it plays out.

The report states that they have corroborating documents, emails, and texts, and that they heard this first from Trump organization employees, then asked Cohen about it. If the buzzfeed story is true, and they do have all of that evidence, it is damning. We’ll know soon, because Congress is investigating.

 

[Sparagmos]

From the link:

CNN has not corroborated the BuzzFeed report.

another unconfirmed report and people are taking it at face value. LOL CNN at its best.

Congress is looking into corroborating the report. If I were you I’d prepare to admit the report is true. Buzzfeed must be pretty confident in their sources to say that there is corroborating evidence, and had to know that their report would spur further investigation. So I’m doubtful they just made up such a serious allegation.

 

[evoeth]

From the link:

CNN has not corroborated the BuzzFeed report.

another unconfirmed report and people are taking it at face value. LOL CNN at its best.

You keep saying this and it keeps out not working in your favor.

 

[Ada Lovelace]

Presidential Historian: First Impeachment Article Against Nixon Was 'Obstruction By Directing Others To Lie'