Last night on Ari Melber's show on MSNBC one of Michael Cohen's lawyers brought a copy of the $70,000 check issued on February 14 2017. This is the check Michael Cohen said dt promised him would be coming while he was on his first visit to the WH.
When I looked at the check it suddenly dawned on me that aside from the fact that the check confirms the parameters of the deal it has additional possible ramifications. The first is that it sure looks like dt was at best slow paying Cohen or more likely he was planning on not repaying him just like he allegedly had done with Pecker and his "treasure trove" of information in his safe (listen to audio tape of discussion between dt and Cohen). This is 4 months after the payment was made to Stormy.
The other thing is the implication of the date the check was issued February 14 2017. That date was the day Michael Flynn was fired/resigned. A cynical person might conclude that dt was moving to circle the wagons and that Flynn and the payment to Cohen were the first overt acts of obstruction of justice.
What else happened on Valentines day? That was also the day dt kicked Sessions and Kushner and everyone else out of the room and has his one on one with James Comey.
"Trump allegedly asked everyone to leave so he could have a one-on-one with Comey before bringing up the investigation into disgraced National Security Adviser Michael Flynn and saying "I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go".
"What that phrase, said to Comey by his boss, actually means has critical implications for whether the President obstructed justice by trying to interfere with the Russian meddling investigation."
"Comey's written testimony said that he believed Trump was "requesting that we drop any investigation of Flynn in connection with false statements about his conversations with the Russian ambassador in December."
"He said Thursday that he believed Attorney General Jeff Sessions, and to some extent Trump adviser Jared Kushner, knew that a one-on-one conversation between him and the President could be inappropriate."
https://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/direction-comey-valentine-day-meeting-article-1.3231590%3foutputType=amp
Back to the check. Clearly dt was supposed to have made the first payment in January and didn't because every other check was for the $35,000 amount. The total amount represented not only the Stormy payment plus interest but instead was hidden through an additional cover up as a retainer to Cohen. It included the anticipated federal income and local state taxes as well as a bonus. A lawyer does not get a bonus in addition to a retainer. How does one get a bonus for the future? A retainer is money to reserve the services of a lawyer and to compensate him for not being available to handle the matters of other potential clients. It is like paying a cab to wait for you so they are available when you need them.
Lastly, let's remember the Giuliani Hannity exchange on Fox where Giuliani surprised Hannity by telling him dt had reimbursed Cohen for his payment to Stormy personally. The $70,000 wasn't written from dt's personal account but instead from his revocable trust account that had been established as an alleged blind trust for his boys and his CFO to run the business.
February 14th must have been one hell of a day and dt must have thought he had solved all his problems with the coverup. I will never understand why dt didn't just do pardons for all these people Flynn, junior, Manafort, kushner, the CFO etc claiming Democrats were going to nitpick him to death for things no one else would be prosecuted for like expenditure failures or violation of the Logan act.
Just for fun here is the account at the time Giuliani revealed to Hannity the payments from a CNBC account the night of the revelation.
"Giuliani, a former federal prosecutor and mayor of New York, made the remark on Wednesday night's edition of "Hannity" on Fox News. His statements appear to directly contradict the version of events proffered by both Trump and Cohen about the payment."
"Funneled through a law firm, and the president repaid it," Giuliani told host Sean Hannity."
Snip
"Giuliani reiterated his assertion that it did not amount to a campaign-finance violation – and he shared details of the payments from Trump to Cohen, saying "we have all the documentary proof for it."
"Giuliani told the newspaper that, after the campaign, Trump started paying $35,000 a month out of his "personal family account." Overall, the former mayor told the Times, Trump had paid Cohen $460,000 or $470,000, which included "incidental expenses."
"Giuliani also told the Times that he had spoken with Trump before and after his interview with Hannity. The president and other lawyers on the team knew what he would tell the Fox News host, he added."
So it was not "funneled" through a law firm unless you want to consider Cohen as a law firm because the check was made directly to Cohen and did not contain any notation it was for a retainer.
Then we have Giuliani for some additionally stupid reason say that he had spoken with his client dt and the other lawyers before he spoke on TV. Well that raises the additional concept of Giuliani being a part of the conspiracy himself because he had to know that the facts he was presenting were false because the amount of money greatly exceeded the amount paid Stormy. It was not just a reimbursement.
What is the old saying it was mentioned by a Congressman last week during the Cohen hearing? Oh, yeah, "liar, liar pants on fire".