"It wasn't so much a guess as deductive reasoning."
Your reasoning resulted in a correct prediction. At the beginning of the investigation, I suspected President Trump was innocent of all crimes except for technicalities such as failing to disclose a contribution properly. I started to think he was guilty because he kept carrying on about how he was being railroaded and whatever investigators might come up with would be bogus. That's typical behavior of guilty people. He came close to saying he knew his close friends would never rat him out.

It turned out to be an example of how we can't base decision on people acting guilty.

It wasn't so much a guess as deductive reasoning. If there really had been something there, Mueller's team would have indicted someone. As it was, not a single person in the entire debacle was actually brought up on charges even remotely related to "collusion". Almost all of it was related to so-called "process" crimes such as perjury, obstruction of justice or (in the case of Manafort) an existing investigation.

" It's now been leaked that the Mueller report has nothing on Trump. Not a single shred of evidence of "collusion". "
Your guess turned out to be correct.

Yes true, but that statement does not detract from the point.

One can not deny the difference in resources applied to this investigation (with nothing of the original warrants basis found) versus Lerner, Clinton, et al. This is clearly an epic witch hunt. "Oh my god, we have to find something before the next election."

This is the banal line of so many people accused of a crime: They're singling me out. Everybody does it. [Other person] gets away with felonies; they just were never prosecuted and proven.

"actually waiting for some actual evidence to present itself rather than relying on hearsay"
Yes, exactly.

"Even the so-called "racist" comments were a stretch. "
That rang only partly true to me. President Trump says openly racists things to get attention. It took him days to respond to whether he would accept support from hate groups. It does not ring true at all to me that privately he has hardcore racist beliefs. I would be shocked to see evidence of that. He just says whatever gets people worked up, and racism is clearly a subset of things people get upset about.

I think Cohen's statements about having some moral scruples about working with someone so racist are lies. I think he and everyone close to President Trump knows he operates by getting people fired up by intentionally talking about things that hurt people's feelings. I don't believe someone working for him slowly figured that out and became morally outraged.

"I'm not sure exactly what you think [the president] did which was illegal, let alone impeachable."
I have no idea. He just looks guilty, like someone who sees a cop and takes off running away. When questioned, he ran because he knows cops are often crooked. I am a 20-year member of the ACLU. I don't think just running from the cops justifies searching people or presuming they're guilty. In the case of President Trump, I first suspected he was purposely looking guilty for attention. Now I suspect he's guilty of something that many would see as a technicality, like failing to disclose properly some transactions or going overboard recording large personal expenses as business writeoffs.

I'm probably wasting space here just guessing. We have to wait for the facts.

"I think [Cohen's] unwitting admissions did more to exonerate the President than anything to incriminate him."
That was the most damning thing about Cohen's testimony. He rejected some allegations against President Trump. That doesn't mean much, though, because Cohen is smart enough to do that on purpose.

...Cohen is a pragmatist...no consistent philosophical basis...which way is the wind blowing...

I can tell u that being pursued by the legal system isn’t a pretty thing, but I would never help them

We get what we allow. We are at a point that our employees know they can show themselves openly with zero repercussions, or consequence. They are as convinced of their absolute power as they are of our refusal to act.

Everyone is guilty of something if you look closely enough.

The resources applied to Trump are epic.
Hillary is a known felon, but on Clinton Foundation, Uranium One and e-mails got no pursuit.
...the difference illustrates a clear problem, regardless of Trump having boned a cheap hot willing woman, paying for it like Kraft or speeding on the way home.

Of course you have a point, as neither of us has insight what was or wasn't known to Jordan.

I prefer not to assume anything. I never saw anything about this until today and the hearings were last week. If they knew and didn't ask, I would agree with you.

"Take one look at Cohen's face. That inverted smile reveals a deeply unhappy human being on a basic level. Maybe that's why he is a lawyer...."

I second that. Had the same notion.

Not only his smile (if you want to call it that) but his entire body language screamed a desperate man who got ensnared in his own net.

They did not KNOW about it?

It was in the news for God's sake. I assume they read the papers once in a while...

Thank you for your account.

There has been information about that recently, e.g suborning perjury, regarding Mueller's methods.

The problem is that this kind of corruption does not get enough traction. It is in the news (if we are lucky) for a day or two then it is buried under the pile of more manure.

In addition, we get the Chief Justice of the SC who denies that any political bias exists in the Courts.

The problem is so huge that even with a concerted huge effort it'd take years to clean it up. In addition, we have the corrupt GOP (I am not talking of the hopeless Dems) which makes sure no cleanup will ever occur.

Sad to hear you had to go through that, Doc...

Cohen's not worried about money. His co-written book with Stormy that's expected to come out after the Mueller report: Why We Tried to Fuck the President of the United States

And he'll probably sell a million copies alone to TDS Democrats in New York City.

Just for the record, when ever a government prosecutor comes after you it could be considered extortion. They come paid by tax payer money and the mere cost of defending yourself can and does put you in the poor house. I am a staunch believer in the premise of "Looser Pays" any and all legal costs. Come after me with an unlimited tax payer pot behind you and lose then good, pay my attorney's fees and any losses I incurred.

Very interesting, Doc.

"... dismissal of charges against Hillary Clinton is just a small sample of the stinking corruption of our supposedly exemplary justice system." I like to say the Founding Fathers attempted to lay the corner stone of a justice system for the new republic, but today we have a legal system and they are not the same.

If you are referring to Adam Schiff, he is a Democratic Congressman who is famous for making all kinds of wild accusations about Trump and then later being forced to admit that they are nothing but specious and salacious speculation. He sits on one of the Congressional panels who hears from the Mueller investigation and uses that position as a pulpit for self-aggrandizement. His name should be "shill" because he is so desperate for attention he's willing to promote anything to get on TV.

If I were you, I'd recommend actually waiting for some actual evidence to present itself rather than relying on hearsay from the Democrats. They have an ideological axe to grind and are far from objective when it comes to anything involving the President of the United States - including either Obama or Trump. Their recent votes on funding the wall and infanticide demonstrate this in spades.

I think you got that half right. He's definitely telling the Democrats what they want to hear. Not sure what exactly he got "caught" doing other than some self-serving lying... All the rest was innuendo and personal opinion. Even the so-called "racist" comments were a stretch. You would hear far worse in any rap album.

"I used to think President Trump was probably innocent of wrongdoing, except for technicalities like failing to file some form. He looks more guilty to me all the time. It doesn't matter how it looks to me, though; we have to wait for the facts."

While I appreciate that you are going to wait for facts, I'm not sure exactly what you think he did which was illegal, let alone impeachable. It's now been leaked that the Mueller report has nothing on Trump. Not a single shred of evidence of "collusion". And there is nothing illegal about paying off a prostitute - even if you use a lawyer to do it.

One other thing to be careful of: Cohen is not only going to prison for perjury, but he was also disbarred. He also can't be called as a witness in a legal case because of his reliability issues. I'd take anything he said with a horse pill of salt. I think his unwitting admissions did more to exonerate the President than anything to incriminate him.

I wouldn't be surprised but that once his usefulness to the Democrats is over he finds himself at the wrong end of a prison fight and ends up dead. That seems to be the playbook for many on that side of the aisle, just ask all those who associated with the Clintons...

They probably didn't know about it. I can't imagine Jim Jordan knowing about something like that and not nailing not only Comey but Mueller to the wall for it.

What's interesting is that guess who's case is being considered the archetype here? John Edwards! His campaign ACTUALLY gave money to pay off Riley Hunter rather than coming from a private account. Guess what else? Edwards was found NOT GUILTY of campaign finance violations...