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Donald Trump Gave Russia Leverage Over His Presidency

SonOfDaedalus

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The big deal that the "Well, it's not illegal" crowd is missing is that maybe lying to the American people is not illegal but doing so gave Vladamir Putin leverage on our president because Putin had the power to destroy Trump at any time.

That he lied has long been clear—all sorts of people with whom he dealt had extensive, well-documented dealings with Russia and Russians. But additional evidence that he lied was revealed Thursday during an appearance in federal court by his former attorney Michael Cohen, who admitted that he negotiated on Trump’s behalf to build a skyscraper in Moscow; that his efforts lasted until at least June 2016; that he briefed Trump and members of Trump’s family about the matter; and that he later lied to Congress, to avoid contradicting Trump’s political message.

Consider the implications. At the very beginning of Trump’s presidency, as soon as he lied in that press conference, Vladimir Putin and Russian intelligence possessed the ability to unmask Trump as a liar to the American public, revealing damaging information to Congress and the public about which they had previously been ignorant. BuzzFeed’s account of the negotiations involving a potential Trump Tower in Moscow hints at the wealth of documentary evidence that the Russians would possess to back up their claims.

Donald Trump Gave Russia Leverage Over His Presidency
 
Look! It's the new pee pee tape:roll:
 
Only one problem...

Trump didn't lie.

Moving on...
The Op is ridiculous as are the other offerings from what I consider just internet partisan spam from the same OP author.
 
Only one problem...

Trump didn't lie.

Moving on...

Cohen pleaded guilty to lying. Cohen only said exactly what Trump was saying.

The Moscow tower would have been Trump's biggest business deal in his entire career. When Trump became president he openly claimed he had no business with Russia and his lawyer Cohen lied to Congress about the extent of his business.

Lying to the American people is fine with you. I get that. But Putin knew the truth. Putin had the power to expose Trump and release documents proving Trump was lying. Putin had to power to destroy Trump's political career.

Now we know for a fact that Putin had information to blackmail Trump. Now we know why Trump was always kissing Putin's ass.

Trump should resign or he should be removed. He endangered national security. He is compromised.
 
The Op is ridiculous as are the other offerings from what I consider just internet partisan spam from the same OP author.

Are you saying that Trump did not lie? Are you saying that Putin did not know the truth?

Let's reason together. Make your case.
 
Look! It's the new pee pee tape:roll:

Putin didn't need a pee pee tape. Trump, by lying about his involvement with Russia, gave Putin kompromat.

This is very serious. Don't you care about your country? Is your loyalty to this man greater than your loyalty to our country?

You cannot deny that Putin had compromising information on Trump.
 
Only one problem...

Trump didn't lie.

Moving on...

But isn't there documented and incontrovertible proof that he did?

“I do have a relationship and I can tell you that he’s very interested in what we’re doing here today. He’s probably very interested in what you and I are saying today, and I’m sure he’s going to be seeing it in some form, but I do have a relationship with him and I think it’s very interesting to see what’s happened.” Donald J. Trump - November 2013

"I own Miss Universe, I was in Russia, I was in Moscow recently and I spoke, indirectly and directly, with President Putin, who could not have been nicer, and we had a tremendous success." Donald J. Trump - May 27 2014


“I never met Putin, I don’t know who Putin is. He said one nice thing about me. He said I’m a genius. I said, ‘Thank you very much’ to the newspaper, and that was the end of it. I never met Putin. Never spoken to him. I don’t know anything about him other than he will respect me.” Donald J. Trump - July 2016

"I have no relationship with him. I don’t — I’ve never met him." Donald J. Trump - July 2016


How do you gel these facts with your assertion?
 
Here's a great piece about how significant this is.

Remember that when you get a security clearance, one of the most important thing they care about is any kind of secret you have. Why? Because if you have secrets, foreign intelligence can blackmail you. You are compromised.

Here the President of the United States was and probably still is compromised.

Cohen’s Plea Suggests Russians Held ‘Kompromat’ on Trump
 
The big deal that the "Well, it's not illegal" crowd is missing is that maybe lying to the American people is not illegal but doing so gave Vladamir Putin leverage on our president because Putin had the power to destroy Trump at any time.




Donald Trump Gave Russia Leverage Over His Presidency
Putin would need to have more than just embarrassing info on Trump to gain any influence, IMO. Trump has wallowed in a fantasy world of his lies for his entire life and is impervious to simple public embarrassment/humiliation. For Putin to have leverage on Trump he must have evidence of illegal activity. Trump definitely looked pretty wound up yesterday when he rambled in about Cohen’s plea appearance. Hopefully the public will be told of Mueller’s report.
 
Putin would need to have more than just embarrassing info on Trump to gain any influence, IMO. Trump has wallowed in a fantasy world of his lies for his entire life and is impervious to simple public embarrassment/humiliation. For Putin to have leverage on Trump he must have evidence of illegal activity. Trump definitely looked pretty wound up yesterday when he rambled in about Cohen’s plea appearance. Hopefully the public will be told of Mueller’s report.

If Putin had gone to press and presented evidence of Trump's attempt to build a tower and evidence that Trump lied to the American people, Trump's presidency would have been destroyed.

Putin could also have destroyed Trump's candidacy at any point.

Something doesn't have to be illegal to be politically damaging. Remember why Flynn was fired? He was fired for lying about his conversation with the Russian ambassador. There was concern that the Russians could use that as leverage.

All government background checks concern themselves with secrets you are hiding that can be used by foreign intelligence against you.
 
If Putin had gone to press and presented evidence of Trump's attempt to build a tower and evidence that Trump lied to the American people, Trump's presidency would have been destroyed.

Putin could also have destroyed Trump's candidacy at any point.

Something doesn't have to be illegal to be politically damaging. Remember why Flynn was fired? He was fired for lying about his conversation with the Russian ambassador. There was concern that the Russians could use that as leverage.

All government background checks concern themselves with secrets you are hiding that can be used by foreign intelligence against you.

If Putin went to the press before Trump was elected it would certainly have ruined Trump. After Trump was in the White House, no.
 
Cohen pleaded guilty to lying. Cohen only said exactly what Trump was saying.

The Moscow tower would have been Trump's biggest business deal in his entire career. When Trump became president he openly claimed he had no business with Russia and his lawyer Cohen lied to Congress about the extent of his business.

Lying to the American people is fine with you. I get that. But Putin knew the truth. Putin had the power to expose Trump and release documents proving Trump was lying. Putin had to power to destroy Trump's political career.

Now we know for a fact that Putin had information to blackmail Trump. Now we know why Trump was always kissing Putin's ass.

Trump should resign or he should be removed. He endangered national security. He is compromised.

Again. Trump didn't lie.

Putin has nothing on Trump.

Moving on...
 
Again. Trump didn't lie.

Putin has nothing on Trump.

Moving on...

So Cohen didn't lie to Congress when he told Congress exactly what Trump said? He pleaded guilty to lying. Why did he plead guilty if it wasn't a lie?!

You've moved on from reality.
 
Again. Trump didn't lie.

Putin has nothing on Trump.

Moving on...

If the facts prove otherwise isn't this a meritless assertion?
 
So Cohen didn't lie to Congress when he told Congress exactly what Trump said? He pleaded guilty to lying. Why did he plead guilty if it wasn't a lie?!

You've moved on from reality.

LOL!!

Who the hell knows WHY Cohen does anything!!

Hell, a little while back he plead guilty to something that wasn't even a crime.
 
So, you're finally admitting that nothing illegal was done but you want an investigation anyway.

A foreign power having compromising information over our president is not worthy of an investigation?

And Cohen lied, that was a crime. Some of the charges against Nixon was that he knowingly allowed people to lie to Congress for him.
 
If Putin went to the press before Trump was elected it would certainly have ruined Trump. After Trump was in the White House, no.

It would have ruined Trump before the election but have no effect after? That makes little sense.
 
Is that like Obama's "I'll have more flexibility..." aside? Sounds exactly the same to me, yet you had no problem with anything the un-qualified little dude said.
The big deal that the "Well, it's not illegal" crowd is missing is that maybe lying to the American people is not illegal but doing so gave Vladamir Putin leverage on our president because Putin had the power to destroy Trump at any time.



Donald Trump Gave Russia Leverage Over His Presidency
 
A foreign power having compromising information over our president is not worthy of an investigation?

And Cohen lied, that was a crime. Some of the charges against Nixon was that he knowingly allowed people to lie to Congress for him.

LOL. The compromising information used to be videos of Trump and golden showers with Russian prostitutes. Now you've moved on to building deals. Why don't you just accuse Trump of burying Jimmy Hoffa in Russia somewhere?
 
So, you're finally admitting that nothing illegal was done but you want an investigation anyway.

Investigations are conducted to determine if something illegal was done. If we knew Donald Trump did something illegal, an investigation would not be necessary.
 
Investigations are conducted to determine if something illegal was done. If we knew Donald Trump did something illegal, an investigation would not be necessary.

Witch hunts are done for political purposes.
 
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