Trump's lawyers fail to follow through on threats to Comey

[DonViejo]

Source: Yahoo News




Michael Isikoff
Chief Investigative Correspondent
Yahoo NewsJune 28, 2017

President Trump’s lawyers, after rethinking their legal strategy, have shelved plans for now to file complaints accusing former FBI director James Comey of leaking confidential information about his conversations with the president, according to two sources familiar with the lawyers’ plans.

The decision to back away from repeated public threats to launch an all out legal assault on Comey reflects a significant tactical retreat for Trump’s legal team. It was prompted by concerns that such a move might antagonize special counsel Robert Mueller as he gears up for his investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election and possible ties to Trump’s presidential campaign, the sources said.

The public attacks on Comey began after the ex-FBI director’s testimony on June 8 that he authorized a friend to share with reporters portions of a memo with his account of a White House meeting at which President Trump allegedly asked him to go easy on former national security advisor Michael Flynn. The next day, Marc E. Kasowitz, the president’s chief lawyer, accused the former FBI Director of “unilaterally and surreptitiously” making “unauthorized disclosures to the press of privileged communications with the president.”

“We will leave it to the appropriate authorities to determine whether these leaks should be investigated along with all the others being investigated,” Kasowitz said in a statement he read to the news media at the National Press Club.

Read more: https://www.yahoo.com/news/trumps-lawyers-fail-follow-threats-comey-165240367.html

[calimary]

1. Well how 'bout that. Ol' Michael Isikoff is actually investigating something of SUBSTANCE.

Couldn't get his nose off that stained blue dress to save his life. OH MAN was he obsessed.

At least with this, he's digging into something serious, legitimate, and powerfully significant.

[Hekate]

2. KnR

[underpants]

3. Well...WE COULD'VE!!!

We just didn't want to.

[forgotmylogin]

6. That's Pmurt's modus operandi.

He's all good when a thing is impossible instead to insist he "chose not to, but could if he decided to."

[Princess Turandot]

4. Jay Sekulow may have had a heart-to-heart talk with Kasowitz...

telling him that the public bluster, near-defamation and counter-suit gambits that Trump so loved in his business activities will not help him in the current situation, no matter how much Trump wants to respond that way. That in fact, his histrionics/impulsiveness may well hurt him. And that threatening federal witnesses is pretty fucking stupid.

Sekulow's place in the pantheon of the religious right notwithstanding, he's an experienced attorney who has argued before SCOTUS around a dozen times, succeeding in several instances. Also, his lack of a prior relationship with Trump likely makes him more objective than Kasowitz, who has been doing Trump's bidding for a long time now.

[BumRushDaShow]

5. But then how long will Sekulow last

given his lack of relationship in the TFEE and the orange one's insistence on what he thinks "works"?

[hatrack]

8. To say nothing of revelations of his sweet, abiding love for fat 501 (c) (3) cash and loans?

EDIT

In addition to using tens of millions of dollars in donations to pay Sekulow, his wife, his sons, his brother, his sister-in-law, his niece and nephew and their firms, Case has also been used to provide a series of unusual loans and property deals to the Sekulow family.

Attorneys and other experts specialising in nonprofit law said the Sekulows risked violating a federal law against nonprofits paying excessive benefits to the people responsible for running them. Sekulow declined to detail how he ensured the payments were reasonable.

“This is all highly unusual, and it gives an appearance of conflicts of interest that any nonprofit should want to avoid,” said Daniel Borochoff, the president of CharityWatch, a Chicago-based group that monitors nonprofits.

EDIT

For years, the nonprofits have made a notable amount of payments to Sekulow and his family, which were first reported by Law.com. Since 2000, a law firm co-owned by Sekulow, the Constitutional Litigation and Advocacy Group, has been paid more than $25m by the nonprofits for legal services. During the same period, Sekulow’s company Regency Productions, which produces his talk radio show, was paid $11.3m for production services. Sekulow also personally received other compensation totalling $3.3m. Pam Sekulow, his wife, has been paid more than $1.2m in compensation for serving as treasurer and secretary of Case.

EDIT

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/jun/27/trump-lawyer-jay-sekulow-donations

[BumRushDaShow]

10. Would be interesting to see who wins

the battle of who can scam who the most - Drumpf vs Sekulow.

[Xolodno]

7. Maybe there are tapes...

...and that might get out.

[Gothmog]

9. Comey did not do anything wrong-

[Grins]

11. Best line in the post....

“We will leave it to the appropriate authorities to determine whether these leaks should be investigated ALONG WITH ALL THE OTHERS being investigated,” Kasowitz said.

Yes; with ALL the others....

Drip...drip...drip....

[Blue_Tires]

12. I'm old enough to remember when

Trump lawyers swore up and down they'd prove that three million people voted illegally... Remember that? Seems like five years ago, now..

[lark]

13. BS threats are don the cons regular modus operandi.

Intimidate, bully and bribe is all he does, he's not a negotiator in any true sense of the word. His use of these have often gotten him what he wants in the world of real estate, but it's a total failure in the world of politics, as is he.

[tazkcmo]

14. Hogwash!!!

" It was prompted by concerns that such a move might antagonize special counsel Robert Mueller as he gears up for his investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election and possible ties to Trump’s presidential campaign..."

Or maybe because they knew they would lose and would result in light being shined where Shit Gibbon needs darkness.