Stormy Daniels Cooperating With Federal Investigators
Stormy Daniels is talking to the Feds
Stormy Daniels, the adult film actress who finds herself in the middle of the latest Donald Trump scandal is apparently cooperating with Federal investigators looking into the $130,000 payment she received from an LLC established by longtime Trump attorney Michael Cohen
Stormy Daniels is cooperating with federal investigators, according to a source familiar with the investigation.
The source said federal investigators are looking into the nondisclosure deal and subsequent payment made by President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, to the porn star who is now suing Trump over the 2016 hush agreement.
The federal probe was described by the source as extensive and aggressive, and a sizable team is working on the effort, the source added.
On Monday, the FBI raided Cohen’s home and office space.
Daniel’s lawyer, Michael Avenatti, tweeted about her cooperation with the FBI on Tuesday, while also making a dig at Cohen referencing the raid.
“My client @stormydaniels and I will fully cooperate with any search for the truth regarding the threats, cover-up and lies concerning the NDA and $130k payment. Unlike others, we don’t require the presence of the fine members of the FBI in order to speak honestly. #basta,” he wrote.
Later Tuesday, Avenatti reiterated his remarks to CNN.
“We were contacted by various attorneys from the government who are looking into this,” he said on CNN’s “Anderson Cooper 360.”
“We’re going to cooperate fully. We’re going to be as user friendly as possible. We’re going to respect the process. We understand the seriousness of this. This took on a whole ‘nother level within the last 48 hours.”
Here’s are the Tweets from Daniel’s attorney:
Due to the FBI raids of Mr. Cohen’s office/home and a subsequent request we received this morning to delay the release of the forensic sketch of the thug that threatened Ms. Clifford to “leave Trump alone”, we will not be releasing the sketch or reward details today. Timing TBD.
— Michael Avenatti (@MichaelAvenatti) April 10, 2018
My client @stormydaniels and I will fully cooperate with any search for the truth regarding the threats, cover-up and lies concerning the NDA and $130k payment. Unlike others, we don’t require the presence of the fine members of the FBI in order to speak honestly. #basta
— Michael Avenatti (@MichaelAvenatti) April 10, 2018
All of this, of course, comes in the wake of the news that the F.B.I. had executed search warrants at the home, office, and hotel room of Michael Cohen, the longtime Trump attorney who is at the center of the October 2016 agreement that Daniels signed to keep silent in exchage for $130,000. The payment was made by a Delaware Limited Liability Company established by Cohen and the money to pay Daniels allegedly came from his pocket with no rembursement from any other parties. That search, of course, has caused Trump to lash out yet again and to reportedly consider firing Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who signed off on the warrant and assigned the matter to the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, a Trump appointee who apparently recused himself from whatever investigation he is carrying out.
Based on reports growing out of the search, it appears that at least part of that investigation is rooted in the payment against Daniels, which could involve potential charges involving the violation of Federal election laws as well as bank fraud, mail fraud, and money laundering. Additionally, Daniels alleged during her 60 Minutes interview that she was approached years prior to that agreement by a person who made physical threats against her if she revealed the details of her affair with Trump. Cohen is also implicated in a payment to Trump’s foundation in exchange for a speech he made to a Ukranian group while he was running for President and is also believed to be at the center of many other Trump business activities, including efforts to build a hotel in Moscow that were in the discussion stage at the same time that Trump was running for President. It’s easy to see, of course, why Daniels would be of interest to investigator with respect to the first issue, and it’s most certainly in her interest to cooperate at this point, although in doing so she could be exposing herself to potential charges depending on whether an how she reported the aforementioned $130,000 on the relevant income tax forms. In any case, Daniels cooperation with investigators essentially guarantees that her story will remain in the public consciousness regardless of how the Federal Judge handling her civil suit rules on the pending motion to compel arbitration. Therefore, any effort to sweep her case under the rug, has failed spectacularly.
The Trump Org was never ready to play in the Big League.
And now they are finding out that petty con tactics that work in the shadows with small contractors and porn-stars on the side don’t work in the Big League.
Damn, I DO hope she had the smarts to declare it as income on her tax forms. That would be hilarious.
I am ashamed of the FBI for many things they did not do and I am ashamed of this too. It seems a waste of taxpayer money to do this. It does nothing for American public. It is something the enquirer would be digging for. It just makes Trump look better in the eyes of the public, because it does show just how biased they are. The FBI has been in scandal after scandal, you think they would try to do something really big to get the country to trust them again.
@barbintheboonies:
Oh we trust the FBI just fine, it’s those rooting for the crooks who do not.
@barbintheboonies:
I see. The fact that Trump fcked a porn star while married and then had her threatened, and then paid her off, and then threatened to sue her if she broke the NDA, while lying at every stage, that just makes you like Trump more. Because you’re a big fan of men who screw around on their wives. Got it.
Exhibit A for the charge that this is a cult of personality and that Trump supporters have abandoned all their core beliefs and turned to idolatry.
@barbintheboonies:
Seriously, you have no idea the scope of the investigation or what evidence the FBI already has, but this extraordinary raid would not have happened without much much more being investigated than bimbo payoffs.
@barbintheboonies:
Odd of you to be so dismissive, considering Trump himself is freaking out and bouncing off the walls, with good cause considering his main fixer Michael Cohen basically constitutes the Rosetta Stone, the Keys to the Kingdom.
I wonder if any of the women supporting Trump on this are doing so because their own husbands have cheated on them and they’ve resigned themselves to it because they don’t have the money to leave. Hey, if ALL men cheat on their wives, including important ones like the POTUS, that just makes what my own husband did on me…normal, innit it?
(Nope, lady–sorry. You’re still a chump. Most men do NOT cheat on their wives, and you’ve turned yourself into a doormat.)
@barbintheboonies:
It would seem to me that if President Dennison is involved in bank fraud, or wire fraud, it’s…as you say…something really big.
I do not agree with Trump all the time, but I find it strange most of you here find any reason just to bring him down. How come you supported Bill Clinton and bashed everyone especially you Michael for just getting a blow job. He lied about it but for most people including myself we did not give a damn.
@grumpy realist:
The cheating is a side issue at best.
We’re talking about likely campaign finance violations, fraud, making criminal threats, etc. All done by order of the most powerful individual in the nation.
That’s what matters; and why barbintheboonies’ comment that the investigation is “a waste of taxpayer money” that does “nothing for the American public” is so incredibly sad.
“Yeah, let’s have the President of the United States be a criminal goon. No biggie. I like him even more now!”
@grumpy realist: Like Hillary Clinton who you supported as a potential POTUS.
@drj: Then why was it not important enough to release Hillary Clinton’s E mails and things that may have been more damaging than this issue. A lot bigger crimes were committed by the Clintons and their foundation oozes corruption. That is the sad thing here, all of us are sad, we just cannot help ourselves by calling out wrongs and acknowledging what is right when someone on the other side of the fence does it. Who wins when we are all should be for the good of everyone in this country.
I wonder with all the serial affairs whether there’s a small legion of Trump bastards lurking somewhere.
@Kathy: With his money they would be some lucky little bastards
@grumpy realist:
This was income to her in 2017. Her tax deadline for that year is just coming up. There is no way she is not reporting it. The bigger question is whether Cohen reported it – bet he didn’t ask for her social security number or a 1099.
@barbintheboonies:
Except that you can’t name any “bigger crime” that actually happened.
This makes no sense. Clinton caught flak for not being careful enough with her email server. The fact that she didn’t release her emails is emphatically not a scandal (because secretaries of state shouldn’t do that, for obvious reasons). Either you made this up or someone fed you nonsense. I’m betting on the latter.
@Joe: Oh, the image you bring up with the 1099-MISC is PRICELESS….
(Bows head in honoring you.)
@drj: You never named any either that is why the FBI is investigating, but when many have called for investigating the Clintons all they get is silence . So why not the outrage there? I could careless how this goes down with Trump If he did something wrong okay do what you want with him. I just want the truth on all the swamp people. Right and Left and in between.
@barbintheboonies:
This is why we can’t have good things. Barb, I suspect you are trying to defend Trump based on what you’ve heard on Fox News, or on what the Fox News whirlpool repeat (Drudge, Breitbart, etc). Barb, it’s always a bad idea to get your news from television (they spend something like 50 to 1 on video versus actual reporting) but it’s even worse when that television is Fox News. Because they are not a real news source. They are a mindless propaganda machine owned by a foreigner who doesn’t give a sh*t about America. And because you get your news from them you don’t even seem to remember that CLINTON’S F’ING EMAILS WERE RELEASED! They were analyzed and discussed for months! I guess the latest fantasy that some Fox News pundit is spewing is that never happened, or maybe they just don’t remember themselves and can’t be bothered to check because they know that their viewers don’t care about whether something is actually true or not.
Barb, Fox News is not your friend. They don’t respect their audience enough to make their propaganda pass the sniff test. Repeating stuff you heard there just makes you look clueless.
This proves that Stormy Clifford has more brains than Trump and Cohen put together, or at the least access to better lawyers.
@barbintheboonies :
I’ve pointed this out to every pro-Trumper that posts here: another’s sins do not absolve your own. For all your Whataboutism, you are completely willing to give your guy a pass on major crimes just because someone you don’t like isn’t in jail. You do realize that game can go on for a *long* time if you keep kicking goalposts – after all, why should Hillary be in jail when Powell and most of GWB’s staff is not?
You don’t care about trust, the law or any kind of respect. All you see is Trump being “punished” for his sins and not justice being served. I’m sorry the guy you put your hopes on turned out to be an obivious crook. I’m sorry you bought the MAGA crap about how it would fix your dying town and now you’re reflexively defending the person you think is your last hope. Maybe next time, try to pick a less moronic conman, OK? If you got a smarter one, he wouldn’t have left a trail of bread crumbs a mile wide for the cops to find his shady deals…..
@drj @MarkedMan :
She’s getting her FOX talking points mixed up: #ReleasetheMemo and But But Hillary’s Emails!!!
But hey, since they’re all mass-generated from a one-size-fits-all outrage machine, you can forgive her for not have the deets straight. Facts are fake news anyways – what’s important is feeling aggrieved that Liberals Are Getting Away With Something and Conservatives Are Being Persecuted
@barbintheboonies: And you’re still supporting Trump. In spite of the fact that he’s a lying, cheating adulterer.
Who’s worse, the individual who supports the wronged wife or the individual who supports the cheater?
Look Barb, this is not a minor thing. If Trump knew about this NDA and participated in its negotiation, which is overwhelmingly likely, we’re now talking about a conspiracy to violate federal election laws. Wire, mail and bank fraud in furtherance of the same.
Federal felonies. Prison. It’s a tad worse than you’re making it out to be.
I say that as someone who thinks Clinton never should have been asked about marital indiscretions in the first place, but also someone who feels that he was rightly impeached for lying under oath, so don’t even go there.
As for Hillary, I’m still waiting waiting for someone to pony up a cogent argument regarding which specific federal statutes she violated, and how. I’ve been waiting for that for a long time now (and I know why I’ll never get it …)
You need to understand that Cohen stands a very good chance of spending time in a federal prison unless he cuts a deal to avoid prosecution / accept probation in exchange for throwing his client under the bus. Trump as well since this was prior to his inauguration and doesn’t implicate executive privilege. This is not a minor thing we’re talking about here.
@barbintheboonies:
Her emails were released.
Such as?
Again, such as? I’m an attorney and a former federal prosecutor. I assure you that I’ll understand any legal argument you choose to make.
I’m just not hearing one. I’m hearing rumor and innuendo, so make your case.
@HarvardLaw92:
I saw a comment from an FBI agent that, in a long career, he had only seen a few cases of a search warrant used on a lawyer. Every time, no exceptions, the lawyer wound up in jail.
Normally, the kind of lawyer that search warrants get used on are mob lawyers. Which fits, considering Trump’s ties to organized crime.
@Charon:
I agree, with the caveat that I expect that this is intended to motivate Cohen to cut a deal in exchange for throwing Trump under the bus. Prosecuting Cohen alone gets them nothing. Turning him into another Blutrich gets them the keys to the safe and hands them Trump – all of his shit, not just this NDA thing – on a platter ready to be cooked.
In keeping with the mob theme, this is akin to flipping the consigliere. They pierce privilege up in NY and convince Cohen to flip, then that’s the ballgame. It’ll flow back to Bob’s investigation as applicable, as well as the NY State AG, and Trump will be done. The whole rotten edifice will come down.
@HarvardLaw92:
I agree that the intent is to get Cohen to rat out Trump. What I wonder is to what extent Cohen is willing to sacrifice himself and his future. Cohen has said publicly several times that his raison d’etre is to be Trump’s fixer, but at what point does self-preservation step in and take over?
@CSK:
Cohen has no future. His law license is on its deathbed, and they will prosecute him, vigorously, if he decides not to cooperate. Some people you flip with kindness or appeals to decency; others you flip through fear and an interest in self-preservation. Cohen will be the latter. He’s a shitty lawyer, but he’s street smart enough to know when the game is over. For him, it’s over. His choices now are all related to how hard the landing will be.
@CSK: One of the articles I read postulated that Cohen was pulling the nicely-nicely trick with the feds as a delaying tactic, just holding on until Trump could pardon him and fire everyone carrying out the investigation. (“with one bound, our hero leaps free…”)
However–if the material has handed up in the hands of the guys in NY State, this tactic’s probably off the table. Trump can’t do anything against Cohen’s getting into the claws of the state prosecutors, no?
Also, Trump pardoning Cohen for bank fraud etc. isn’t going to keep him out of hot water with the lawyers ethics boards, is it? Which means no matter which way he hops, Cohen’s balls are in a vice and someone is about to start squeezing.
@grumpy realist: Someone noted, I think on TPM but maybe it was Balloon Juice, that Cohen went from bombastic fireball to butter-wouldn’t-melt. He seems to know he’s in trouble, and he seems to be just a little worried about it, judging by the fact that the hyperbole and misrepresentations have ceased, at least from his corner.
@HarvardLaw92:
Is he smart, or even shrewd, enough to realize that? He doesn’t strike me as one of the brighter stars in the legal firmament. He is, as you have pointed out, much less a lawyer than a bag man. And I’m sure Trump retained him not for his brains, nor his legal expertise (which appears to be minimal), but because he was the only guy Trump could find who was willing to degrade himself in service to Trump.
@CSK:
I’d say so. You don’t employ a bagman for his legal expertise. You employ him based on street smarts and ability to fix things for you. Cohen is indeed an abysmal lawyer, but as far as I can tell he’s been an effective bagman. He’s smart in the way that a capo is smart – he knows how to read which way the wind is blowing and get his boat out of the way.
The one thing that indicates to me that he will eventually cut a deal was his effusive praise of the FBI agents who conducted the raids. He might as well have climbed up on top of Moynihan and waved a flag. He’ll cut a deal, if he hasn’t already started to, and I’m willing to bet it will be a piece of work.
@HarvardLaw92:
I defer to your expertise in this area, and happily confess that I’m eagerly looking forward to Cohen turning on Trump. It should be one of the more entertaining spectacles this year.
@CSK:
Ditto. They are slowly boxing Trump in just like this team did with the Gambinos, building the gallows board by board. Bob is one of the most effective prosecutors I’ve ever met in my life. He’s a born tactician. Every move has a purpose.
Every part of what has played out already has a purpose in his larger plan. They’re pawns being taken off of the board. Of that I’m certain. I’d love to be party to the strategy meetings, but I’m content watching him work his magic (again) from the outside. It will definitely be entertaining.
@HarvardLaw92:
You may or may not know this, but there’s a Boston talk show host and Boston Herald columnist named Howie Carr who’s written a self-published (I think) book entitled What Really Happened: How Donald J. Trump Saved America from Hillary Clinton. He is absolutely bent and determined to find evidence that Robert Mueller, when he was U.S. attorney for Boston, framed some men for murder. So far he hasn’t, but he just knows it’s there, and he’s pleading with his listeners to help him find the smoking gun.
Simple question, BarbIsALoony:
Did Trump cheat on his third wife, while she was home with the newborn, with at least one porn actress?
(Just trying to get a baseline for the distance between barb and reality)
@CSK: @HarvardLaw92: John Oliver has referred to the Trump scandals as “Stupid Watergate.” Under that framework it seems quite likely that Cohen will emerge as Stupid John Dean.
Some great comments from Above The Law:
@CSK:
Carr is a mental patient writing for a former Murdoch rag. The guy is certifiable.
One of the happier days of my life was the day that Ernest Murphy cleaned their clocks for $3.4 million in a libel suit (which they were forced to pay).
It’s been reported in several places that Bannon is back as a Trump advisor and is pitching a plan to fire Mueller, Rosenstein and whoever else it would take to stop the investigation. This highlights something that has been bothering me. Pundits and politicians endlessly warn against Trump taking action against Mueller, but it all presupposes Trump is innocent. But what about in the real world. Trump is obviously guilty of many things, and his campaign (and family) certainly colluded with the Russians at the highest level, based simply on what is in the public record. So, a question to the lawyers out there: Does Trump have anything personally to lose in trying to shut down the investigation? In other words, given that he is guilty, is this his best course of action, however desperate it may be?
@MarkedMan:
Well, we know he’s desperate to keep his tax returns from being made public.
@MarkedMan:
As one of the lawyers out there, I would say that Trump firing Rosenstein throws this back into the political realm, i.e. impeachment, and it remains to be seen whether the Congressional Republicans would follow through on their pretty plain threats in that regard.
There may also be a bigger legal side to this now that SDNY is apparently running a separate investigation that seems to be targeted at Cohen, but could easily come back to Trump. I perceive that this is getting too big even for Trump to fire his way out of without having even the Congressional Republicans say enough! #basta.
Supposedly Cohen is about to plead the Fifth. Avenatti has been trolling those two clownheads, Cohen and Trump, for days and look what pops up.
Avenatti must be in sheer heaven.