Shocking Patterns of Illegality

Sentencing Cinema:  Yesterday, was supposed to be sentencing day for former national security advisor Michael Flynn. He was hoping to get off with a slap on the wrist in exchange for pleading guilty to lying, a realistic expectation given that Special Counsel Mueller’s team had recommended leniency.  Unfortunately for Flynn things didn’t work out as planned.  Judge Emmet Sullivan made it clear that he was less than pleased with Flynn and his attorney’s shenanigans.  He was particularly enraged by their claims that Flynn had been bamboozled into lying to the FBI so he began the sentencing hearing by asking Flynn whether he stood by his guilty plea, Flynn said he did and also confirmed that he hadn’t needed a lawyer to know that lying to the FBI was against the law.  By having Flynn admit that he was fully aware of the consequences of lying to the FBI and that he had been treated appropriately by the FBI, Judge Sullivan sent a strong statement to conspiracy theorists everywhere, including the crowd at Fox and the White House, all of whom had convinced themselves that Flynn was going to pull his guilty plea and/or the judge would toss it out due to FBI “malfeasance” that he was wasn’t buying into their nonsense. Judge Sullivan, who unlike the rest of us, has seen the unredacted version of Mueller’s sentencing report, is fully aware of all of the crimes that Flynn has committed.  To say that he was displeased by Flynn’s criminality and pre-sentencing antics would be an understatement.  He told Flynn that “arguably you sold your country out” and said the he couldn’t “hide my disgust, my disdain” for his criminal offenses.  At one point he even implied that Flynn had put the interests of Turkey and Russia ahead of the US and therefore had committed treason, though he walked that back later.  Then, after saying that though he would take Flynn’s service to the country and his cooperation into account, he would also factor in aggravating factors in deciding his sentence, he asked Flynn if he wanted to postpone the sentencing so that he could get “full credit for his cooperation,” the judge’s way of saying that if he were to sentence Flynn now, he’d be inclined to give him some time in the slammer but if Flynn continues to cooperate and stops with the “I was mistreated nonsense,” he’d be more likely to let him off with that highly coveted slap on the wrist.  Flynn wisely opted for a delay and as a result his sentencing was pushed off for 90 days.  Trump who had wished “nice guy” Flynn good luck earlier in the morning couldn’t have been all that pleased with the way the hearing ended.  The same can be said of Fox’s “Judge” Jeanine Pirro who had railed against the FBI and it’s treatment of Flynn while at the same time expressing her confidence that the wise and competent Judge Sullivan would throw the case out altogether.  Oops, so much for her judicial judgement.  Curiously, we still don’t know why Flynn lied about his meetings with Russia Ambassador Kislyak in the first place or why Trump still thinks he’s such a nice guy.    

Trump Piggy Bank:  Last year the Washington Post reported that the Trump Foundation wasn’t all that charitable, unless of course you consider a $7 payment to the Boy Scouts a significant act of charity.  For the most part the Foundation’s money which mostly came from outside donors was used to pay off legal settlements for Trump’s private business and for making illegal political donations to the Trump campaign and to politicians like Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi who after receiving her “gift” almost immediately dropped the state’s participation in a lawsuit against Trump University, the scam school that did little more than bilk people out of their money.  Barbara Underwood, New York State’s Acting Attorney General accused the foundation of “functioning as little more than a checkbook to serve Mr. Trump’s business and political interests,” and of engaging in a “shocking pattern of illegality.” Yesterday the Foundation agreed to dissolve and give away its remaining $1.7 million of assets under court supervision.  In addition to shuttering the foundation, the Attorney General’s office is pursuing a lawsuit that would bar Trump, Don Jr, Ivanka and Eric from serving on the board of other charitable institutions for ten years and is also seeking payment of millions in restitution  and penalties. Think about it, Underwood doesn’t trust Trump to run a two bit charity, but he still gets to run the country and Ivanka still gets to run around pretending to be his important aide. Notably Underwood’s investigation benefited bigly from assistance from Trump’s CFO Allen Weisselberg, who together with the Trump kids was on the Foundation’s board, although unlike the kids, he didn’t know he was on the board in part because the Foundation never had any board meetings.  Anyway, the cooperative Weisselberg continues to serve as the Trump business CFO.  Awkward.

Other News:  Trump and Congress are still trying to come to terms on a funding accord to avoid a partial government shutdown on Friday.  Trump has signaled that he might give up on his demand to get $5 billion in wall funding included in any funding resolution.  According to Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who held a rare but incredibly brief news conference yesterday, Trump has asked cabinet members to check their coffers for any extra cash; apparently he hopes to divert money that would otherwise go to military spending, food programs or other such things to the wall, a strategy that might not be all that legal, or ever get implemented but would allow Trump to declare victory. At the press conference which took place after Judge Sullivan lambasted Flynn and knocked down the unsubstantiated claims that he had been inappropriately treated by the FBI, Sanders stuck with the Flynn as victim assertion because she’s Sarah and that’s what she does.  She also refused to answer any questions about the Trump Foundation.  In other news, Arizona’s  Senator Jon Kyl who stepped in to fill the John McCain slot is, as expected, stepping down.  Arizona’s Governor Ducey announced that he is appointing Martha McSally, who recently lost her bid to fill the seat of retiring  Senator Jeff Flake to Democrat Kyrsten Sinema, to replace Kyl until 2020, the end of the McCain term.  His announcement wasn’t all that surprising since, as intended, McSally’s way too cute November “golden retriever” concession speech was an effective pitch for the job.  Ducey plans to hold off McSally’s swearing in until January allowing Sinema who actually earned her seat the old fashioned way to assume the senior senator position.  Lastly, yesterday we learned that the secret case percolating through the courts, the one that was thought to be related to a possible Trump or Pence subpoena has nothing to do with either of them, instead it appears to be a subpoena for some financial records from a sovereign government owned corporation.  Tea leaf readers, who haven’t been all that right so far, think that the corporation is mostly likely a Chinese, Russian, or Saudi owned bank.  In any case the courts have ruled in Mueller’s favor, he will be getting that subpoena and maybe, just maybe some interesting Trump or Kushner bank records are on their way.