Crime Federal corruption probe into $100 million in Trump inaugural committee funds

[kpt018]

If Trump doesn't get convicted of a crime by the end of his run, he'd go down as the most scrutinized President of all time, by far, and therefore probably the one with the cleanest record.

My understanding is that the prevailing legal opinion is that a sitting president cannot be indicted and the evidence of campaign finance crimes will (or are likely to be) brought against Trump after he leaves office. WR lawyers please correct me if I'm wrong there.

I'm not sure I follow your premise here either. Seems to me that clean presidents are less scrutinized because they're clean and the vetting process was thorough. Criminals tend to draw more scrutiny when they're in the spotlight, right? The problem with Trump is that the GOP allowed him to high jack the party and ultimately beat their preferred candidates in primaries. If they were a strong party and had a spine they would have crushed Trump when they had the chance. I bring this up because it was not always the case and it's not the case with Democrats, so the comparisons aren't good.

I would hope that every US president afterwards is held to the same standard, by the media and U.S. institutions. Probably not, though.

I do agree with this part. The US badly needs reform not only for presidents but for political offices in general.

Bush would definitely be in jail if the media and institutions had been onto him, as they have been all over Trump.

Is your premise that every president is as corrupt as Trump but they're just turning the screws harder on him? What would Bush have gone to jail for if they just looked harder?

 

[tonni]

A politician running on a platform of lies!!!!!!!! Wow we have never seen that before. He is running things like a business man not a politician.

Which is it? Running like a politician or a business man?

 

[Big Nasty Edison]

My understanding is that the prevailing legal opinion is that a sitting president cannot be indicted and the evidence of campaign finance crimes will (or are likely to be) brought against Trump after he leaves office. WR lawyers please correct me if I'm wrong there.

I'm not sure I follow your premise here either. Seems to me that clean presidents are less scrutinized because they're clean and the vetting process was thorough. Criminals tend to draw more scrutiny when they're in the spotlight, right? The problem with Trump is that the GOP allowed him to high jack the party and ultimately beat their preferred candidates in primaries. If they were a strong party and had a spine they would have crushed Trump when they had the chance. I bring this up because it was not always the case and it's not the case with Democrats, so the comparisons aren't good.



I do agree with this part. The US badly needs reform not only for presidents but for political offices in general.


Is your premise that every president is as corrupt as Trump but they're just turning the screws harder on him? What would Bush have gone to jail for if they just looked harder?

The GOP screwed the pooch by letting a dozen loons run in their primary and cannibalize votes from their reasonable candidates like Kasich.

 

[Jack V Savage]

I'm not sure I follow your premise here either. Seems to me that clean presidents are less scrutinized because they're clean and the vetting process was thorough.

Theoretically, if he were more thoroughly vetted than anyone else and came up clean, that would say a lot about how clean he was. But the reality is that he was unusually poorly vetted (and already found to be unusually corrupt) before taking office, and subsequent investigations (that weren't just random but arose out of reasonable cause for suspicion) have already turned up an extremely high amount of corruption, with much more likely to come. So, yeah, TGA is off his rocker here.

 

[kpt018]

The GOP screwed the pooch by letting a dozen loons run in their primary and cannibalize votes from their reasonable candidates like Kasich.

Agreed! Both parties should only allow vetted candidates to run in primaries. It's an utter disaster for the party to nominate someone who later turns out to be a crook.

 

[LangfordBarrow]

This is the transparency of the Democrat party and their supporters.

"very cool."

Sick minds one and all.

What's sick is the criminal mind behind all this.

 

[ultramanhyata]

What a lot of people fail to understand is that the US political system allows incredible leeway for an elected official to be a lying, self-serving, arrogant, mean, treacherous and obscene public servant - without ever breaking any laws.

But even that wide, dishonorable corridor was too narrow for Donald J. Trump. His appetites demanded he engage in actual criminality.

 

[Staph infection]

Why cant both be wrong? You cant excuse breaking the law by saying hey everyone else does it, so its OK. As a parent I would never use that strategy on my kids.
Money needs to get out of politics.
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news...-personal-spending-senate-20181206-story.html
Rick Scott has spent 150 million of his own money to win 2 governors races and one Senate race. Dude has spent 150 million of his own money for about 1+ million in total salary. I get some of it is ego driven but ask yourself why spend so much for such little pay. Don't give me serving the country bullshit.
The money these guys spend comes with strings. If I give a Senator 1 million, and I own a corporation, you damn well better believe, if I say jump that Senator should ask how high.
If the law I ask him to pass, fucks every other American then so be it.
The Don of the Trump Crime Family broke the law, so he should pay the price. I don't care what letter is after his name. Excuse shitty behavior of a politician just because they are on your team, is ruining this once great country.

It is all wrong, these presidential elections do not give us any worthwhile candidates. We get stuck voting for the lesser of the two evils. We have to decide who will screw us over the least. We are getting screwed no matter what but I would rather two inches in my butt instead of eight inches.

I live in Florida and that Rick Scott got elected as governor was a damn shame and in the senate race he was terrible but for my vote Nelson was a worse choice. Again I had no candidate that was worth it so I had to choose who was going to screw me less.

 

[LangfordBarrow]

I wouldn’t be surprised at all to hear this is how Devos got her position.

I believe her brother might also have been his back channel to ME countries so there's that.

 

[LangfordBarrow]

A politician running on a platform of lies!!!!!!!! Wow we have never seen that before. He is running things like a corrupt business man not a politician.

FIFY

 

[LangfordBarrow]

If Trump doesn't get convicted of a crime by the end of his run, he'd go down as the most scrutinized President of all time, by far, and therefore probably the one with the cleanest record.

I would hope that every US president afterwards is held to the same standard, by the media and U.S. institutions. Probably not, though.

Bush would definitely be in jail if the media and institutions had been onto him, as they have been all over Trump.

Probably Cheney.

 

[LangfordBarrow]

He should have done it the right way and started a foundation that he could funnel cash through. He went the crooked businessman route instead of going the crooked politician route.

Except his own foundation is under investigation...
https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&sou...aw3t-8Jm4Go38ZW135Ej1uiM&ust=1544900124288260

 

[TheGreatA]

My understanding is that the prevailing legal opinion is that a sitting president cannot be indicted and the evidence of campaign finance crimes will (or are likely to be) brought against Trump after he leaves office. WR lawyers please correct me if I'm wrong there.

I'm not sure I follow your premise here either. Seems to me that clean presidents are less scrutinized because they're clean and the vetting process was thorough. Criminals tend to draw more scrutiny when they're in the spotlight, right? The problem with Trump is that the GOP allowed him to high jack the party and ultimately beat their preferred candidates in primaries. If they were a strong party and had a spine they would have crushed Trump when they had the chance. I bring this up because it was not always the case and it's not the case with Democrats, so the comparisons aren't good.

I seriously doubt there was ever truly a case of a "clean President". I would reckon that Obama, when elected, was about the closest that you could get. Not so much while he was President, though, he did plenty of questionable stuff (for example intentionally pushing false narratives to the public).

Is your premise that every president is as corrupt as Trump but they're just turning the screws harder on him? What would Bush have gone to jail for if they just looked harder?

Illegal war declared on false premises.

 

[TheGreatA]

Probably Cheney.

The puck should stop at the President, not his cronies, even if the President himself was a crony, as he was in Bush Jr's case.

This whole idea of "fall-men" taking the hit would be as bullshit in Bush Jr's case, as it is in Trump's case.

 

[kpt018]

I seriously doubt there was ever truly a case of a "clean President". I would reckon that Obama, when elected, was about the closest that you could get. Not so much while he was President, though, he did plenty of questionable stuff (for example intentionally pushing false narratives to the public).



Illegal war declared on false premises.

There is a gigantic gap between Trumps corruption, which is actually unprecedented and someone like Bush. You’re attributing differences to simply not being scrutinized enough and quite frankly that’s crazy. Did you see what happened to Hillary for example? I know you’re not an American so I’m not sure how close you follow this stuff but you’re way off here.

 

[TheGreatA]

There is a gigantic gap between Trumps corruption, which is actually unprecedented and someone like Bush. You’re attributing differences to simply not being scrutinized enough and quite frankly that’s crazy. Did you see what happened to Hillary for example? I know you’re not an American so I’m not sure how close you follow this stuff but you’re way off here.

Bush Jr's corruption is gigantic compared to that of Trump. While Trump has gathered menial sums of money due to his connections, and hired questionable people, Bush Jr started an illegal, internationally condemned war which claimed thousands of lives, not only Iraqi lives but American lives.

To anyone outside of American CNN media bubble, this is plain and obvious. Trump's corruption and nepotism, while alarming, has not reached the scale of Bush Jr., not by a long shot. His mistakes have not cost people their lives, in fact America seems to be doing pretty decently under his watch, and they are not directly implicated in a foreign conflict, even if they do pour support to Saudi Arabia and Israel.

American economy bombed under Bush Jr's watch, and he also pulled America to completely unnecessary wars, the ramifications which are felt even today (especially in Europe with the migrants). He was a plague while Trump is at worst, a pest.

 

[kpt018]

Bush Jr's corruption is gigantic compared to that of Trump. While Trump has gathered menial sums of money due to his connections, Bush Jr started an illegal war which claimed thousands of lives, not only Iraqi lives but American lives.

To anyone outside of American CNN media bubble, this is plain and obvious. Trump's corruption and nepotism, while alarming, has not reached the scale of Bush Jr., not by a long shot. His mistakes have not cost people their lives, in fact America seems to be doing pretty decently under his watch.

I agree that the war was a disaster but since I’m not a lawyer I have no idea if it’s actually legal. You’ll hear no argument from me.

Are you not aware of the allegations against Trump? Let’s remember that you said if he’s not indicted (which sitting presidents cannot be indicted) you said he’d be the cleanest in history. That’s absurd.

And we’re talking about corruption, yes? Seems like you’re conflating that with mistakes (albeit very consequential ones).

 

[LangfordBarrow]

The puck should stop at the President, not his cronies, even if the President himself was a crony, as he was in Bush Jr's case.

This whole idea of "fall-men" taking the hit would be as bullshit in Bush Jr's case, as it is in Trump's case.

If we're talking strict moral and ethical bankruptcy the way Trump has exhibited then Cheney would be the better comparison.

 

[LangfordBarrow]

Bush Jr's corruption is gigantic compared to that of Trump. While Trump has gathered menial sums of money due to his connections, and hired questionable people, Bush Jr started an illegal, internationally condemned war which claimed thousands of lives, not only Iraqi lives but American lives.

To anyone outside of American CNN media bubble, this is plain and obvious. Trump's corruption and nepotism, while alarming, has not reached the scale of Bush Jr., not by a long shot. His mistakes have not cost people their lives, in fact America seems to be doing pretty decently under his watch, and they are not directly implicated in a foreign conflict, even if they do pour support to Saudi Arabia and Israel.

American economy bombed under Bush Jr's watch, and he also pulled America to completely unnecessary wars, the ramifications which are felt even today (especially in Europe with the migrants). He was a plague while Trump is at worst, a pest.

 

[TheGreatA]

I agree that the war was a disaster but since I’m not a lawyer I have no idea if it’s actually legal. You’ll hear no argument from me.

Are you not aware of the allegations against Trump? Let’s remember that you said if he’s not indicted (which sitting presidents cannot be indicted) you said he’d be the cleanest in history. That’s absurd.

He can be indicted once he is out of office. If he is not, considering the level of scrutiny that he has been subjected to, it would be fair to say that he probably had the cleanest record of them all.

Nobody's history and records have been dug up to the extent that Trump's have been. He is the first fully "post-modern" President, who has felt the full force of the transparent information era. He cannot even drink a diet Coke, without having a host of analysts picking apart its meaning.

I cannot in good faith say that any of the previous Presidents, beyond perhaps Obama (who was the first to truly feel the effects of internet/new media, etc.) could stand up to the level of scrutiny that Trump has faced. The largely manufactured scandals would have drowned just about anybody.