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More and more evidence has come to light which proves that illegal activities are in good part responsible for Trump's election, and - therefore - his defeat of Hillary Clinton and the Democrats in 2016. Such action would certainly fall under the U.S. Constitution's grounds for impeachment; they being "treason, bribery, and other high crimes and misdemeanors." The latest in Trump's bag of lies and deceit comes from a story published by The Wall Street Journal on January 17th, 2019, which states that in 2015, Michael Cohen - Trump's former lawyer and self-proclaimed "fixer" - paid a technology firm thousands of dollars to rig polls for then-candidate Donald Trump. Cohen responded to The Wall Street Journal's reporting by tweeting, "As for the @WSJ article on poll rigging, what I did was at the direction of and for the sole benefit of @realDonaldTrump @POTUS. I truly regret my blind loyalty to a man who doesn't deserve it."
"Deep Throat" (who we now know was the late Associate F.B.I. Director Mark Felt), is thought by most Americans to have told The Washington Post's Bob Woodward during the Watergate days to "follow the money." But that was only a line in the script of the 1976 blockbuster motion picture, All The President's Men. Americans have attributed the statement to "Deep Throat," but in reality the phrase was only part of a scene between Hal Holbrook, who portrayed "Deep Throat" in the film, and Robert Redford, who appeared as Bob Woodward. Having "Deep Throat" tell Woodward to "follow the money" was a creative move by screenwriter William Goldman. The words are not mentioned in the non-fiction book that preceded the movie, nor is it noted in any documentation of the Watergate scandal. Nevertheless, information which the real "Deep Throat" (Mark Felt) provided was critical to the stories being written by Woodward and his then-reporting partner Carl Bernstein, which ultimately led to the resignation of President Richard Nixon on August 9th, 1974.
Fast forward to today and the phrase "follow the money" is applicable. The Wall Street Journal says that sometime in early 2015 the owner of RedFinch Solutions - John Gauger - arrived at Trump Tower to collect $50,000 for work that his tech company performed for Michael Cohen on behalf of Donald Trump. According to The Journal's report, the task at hand was for RedFinch Solutions to influence the online polls of CNBC and the Drudge Report. Whether the effort by the technology business was successful or not is irrelevant. The intent was to carry out an act of fraud...and Cohen claims that he was under orders by Trump to commit such a felony, which legal scholars state also violates the federal campaign finance law.
The Wall Street Journal reports that Gauger claims he never received the entire sum of 50-thousand bucks. Instead - according to The Journal - Cohen paid the tech company boss a total of between $12,000 and $13,000, and that the money was given to Gauger as cash in a blue Walmart bag. Cohen, however, says that's not true. Trump's former attorney told The Wall Street Journal that he paid Gauger by check, not in cash.
To top off this scandal, The Wall Street Journal reports that even though Cohen never paid Gauger his entire fee for the dirty deed, Cohen - in 2017 - according to The Journal, was given the full 50-grand by Trump. So Cohen paid twelve or thirteen thousand dollars to Gauger, but he allegedly told Trump that he laid out fifty thousand from his own pocket to pay for the crime they committed. Hey, crooks are like "birds of a feather." They "flock together."
Let's remember that Michael Cohen - on August 21st, 2018 - implicated Donald Trump in a pair of felonies when Cohen testified under oath in federal court that the hush money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels and to Playboy Playmate Karen McDougal were all part of a scheme that was "coordinated" and "directed" by Trump. Federal prosecutors for the Southern District of New York - in filings that were released on December 7th, 2018 - also implicated Trump in those two felonies. Prosecutors say Trump "directed" Michael Cohen to pay $130,000 to Daniels - whose real name is Stephanie Clifford - and $150,000 to McDougal so that the women would keep their lips zipped about alleged sexual flings with Trump. The feds filing spells it out clearly. "With respect to both payments, he (Cohen) acted in coordination with and at the direction of Individual-1." Individual-1 is Donald Trump. Prosecutors say the payments were illegal corporate donations to Trump's presidential campaign. But Trump denies it all and claims he did not direct Cohen to commit any violations of law. However, at his sentencing on December 12th, Cohen also testified that in addition to himself, Trump was a willing participant in a meeting with David Pecker. Pecker's company - American Media Inc. - publishes the National Enquirer, and it was Pecker who actually made the $150,000 payment to McDougal. Plus, when the tabloid tossed the McDougal story into the trash bin, federal law considers that an "in-kind" contribution. If prosecutors - along with United States District Court Judge William Pauley - didn't have credible evidence, beyond Cohen's sworn testimony - that Cohen was telling the truth, they would not have implicated Trump in felonies, which the prosecutors have done in court documents. Cohen was sentenced to three yeas in prison for arranging the illegal payments to Daniels and McDougal, along with tax evasion, lying to Congress, and other charges. The money to the two women was intended - according to Cohen - to silence them because news of their alleged affairs with Trump could have influenced the outcome of the election, which is a violation of the federal campaign finance law. Donald Trump has never acknowledged his sexual flings with Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal, and he has called Michael Cohen "a liar." But the cherry on top of this scandalous sundae is yet to come. Before Cohen is placed behind bars, he is scheduled to testify before Congress in February. And I think, at that point, Donald Trump will be thrown so far under the bus that his presidency will be even closer to ending.
And that's The Controversy for today.
I'm Gary B. Duglin.
"We'll talk again."
The Controversy is a publication of GBD Productions. Founder and Editor-In-Chief of The Controversy is Gary B. Duglin.
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Photo credits: Olivier Douliery/Pool/Getty (Donald Trump #1) and Getty Images (Donald Trump #2)
Copyright 2019 Gary B. Duglin and TheControversy.net. All Rights Reserved.
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