House Democrats plan to shift their focus this fall to President Trump’s alleged role in the hush money scheme that led to the imprisonment of his former lawyer, the Washington Post reported.
As early as October, the House Judiciary Committee intends to hold hearings and call in witnesses involved in the scheme to keep both porn actress Stormy Daniels and Playboy model Karen McDougal quiet about alleged affairs with Trump ahead of the 2016 election. According to people familiar with the plans who spoke to the Post, Democrats on the panel believe there is enough proof from special counsel Robert Mueller’s findings to name Trump as co-conspirator in the case that put Michael Cohen in prison for campaign finance violations. He’s currently serving a three-year sentence for the hush payment ordeal, as well as for other financial wrongdoing and lying to Congress.
Democrats will reportedly point their laser focus on Trump’s involvement in the whole ordeal and they plan to dig into whether they can charge Trump if it weren’t for the Justice Department’s rule that prevents the indictment of a sitting president.
The panel also wants to know if there were any efforts by Trump or his allies to obstruct Mueller’s probe into this specific matter.
David Pecker, the chairman and CEO of American Media Inc., which owns the National Enquirer, will reportedly be asked to come in as a potential witness. The National Enquirer tabloid admitted in Mueller’s probe that it bought the rights to McDougal’s life story, allegedly to silence her claims of an extensive affair with Trump.
Not that I have any real expectations that anything will come of this, but it doesn’t really matter: it can’t hurt to keep banging the “unindicted co-conspirator” drum over the next few months.
At least this is one instance of Trump’s criminality where Democrats won’t need to go to court to force witnesses to offer testimony. Hopefully, this can get some public attention while the subpoenas in more important matters wind their way through court.
Sounds to me like they’re just pushing the dotard to start making even crazier moves and statements than he is already.
OK, so I get that they’re making the cynical calculation that Americans will pay more attention to Sex and Money than anything else, but this is the most superficial of all the things he’s done to damage American democracy. Does this have to be the “laser” focus? Couldn’t it be the hyped version while the rest is going on at the steady pace that will reveal his true nature?
Trump informs the House Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal are not going to testify or provide any documents in their possession. End of story. It’s worked on almost every request of others up to now, there’s no reason to think it won’t continue to work. Pelosi folds.