Ex-President Donald Trump

Well I guess I'll just have to disagree with a lot of you guys (and disagreement is fine!)

If someone were to ask me "Do you feel there is just too much empathy and tolerance in today's society?" my answer would unequivocally be no. I think we're heading in a dangerous direction, where two groups of Americans hate each other and view the other as "the enemy," with little interest in understanding or liking one another.

This doesn't mean I'm endorsing the "law and order" approach -- where, as MLK said, white moderates valued order more than justice for their black brothers. Far from it. I'm saying we need to walk and chew gum at the same time: we need to disagree with white, male conservatives, and condemn their wrongness, while simultaneously reaching out and trying to understand their point of view. Or, as MLK also said, "We must love our white brothers, no matter what they do to us. We must make them know that we love them. Jesus still cries out in words that echo across the centuries: "Love your enemies; bless them that curse you; pray for them that despitefully use you." This is what we must live by. "

 

The problem isn't with people needing to show empathy, understanding and tolerance towards white male conservatives and other like minded individuals. The problem is that they don't believe that they need to do the same. Their whole approach is only to preserve and spread their narrow world view and values. They have no interest in empathy & tolerance for anything or anyone outside their bubble.

 

Sure, feel free to disagree all you want.

The lack of love doesn't automatically imply hate. I have nothing to gain by loving my enemies. No thanks. I owe them nothing.

 

I thought Dotard's supporters were supposed to be bad asses anyway. They been assaulting people every since the man started running for office. A bunch of wanna be tough guys. They need my sympathy for what reason?

 

Anybody who foolishly thought that the mainstream media was genuine about taking down President Trump instead of them using his presidency as a ratings-grab, should look at this stupid AF Stormy Daniels controversy/scandal.


Do y'all actually give a fucc that Trump who has been a famous celeb for decades, cheated on his eastern European mail order bride 3rd Wife (That the public has seen nude) with some no-name pronstar?

 

That's not what the controversy is about.
If Trump paid Stormy Daniels out of his presidential campaign fund to sign a non-disclosure agreement, that's illegal.
A similar thing happened to Democratic front runner John Edwards in 2008.
Campaign funds have to be used for your campaign, not paying off women to shut up.

No one thinks Trump is going to be impeached for trying to hide an affair with a porn star, it's more of a cumulative thing with Trump. The guy is a consummate con man who preys on the ignorant and simple minded, and now the media has finally decided to vet him the way they should have in 2016.

Trump and his family are using the WH to make back room deals and promote Trump Inc. That's impeachable by itself, without discussing the Russia collusion angle.


If you think character matters for a POTUS, and I dare anyone to say it doesn't after watching Trump in office for almost a year and a half, the Stormy Daniels affair is just another example that Trump is too crass and messy to be living in the WH.

What would have happened to BHO if we found out half the shit we're learning about Trump??

Even Dubya couldn't have gotten away with the bullshit Trump is getting a pass on.

Trump doesn't understand there are rules you have to follow as POTUS, you can't just function the way you did when you were a NY real estate developer who was willing to make deals with the devil if it put a few more million in his bank account.

 

This is one of the most tone deaf things I've ever read. Let me be clear I'm not attacking you but do you have any idea how insensitive a statement like this is?
Lets replace the term black people with women, would be we expect women to have exceptional compassion for their abusers and those who would hold them back from equity within the society they help built and maintain?
How would you suggest someone like us reach out to people who fundamentally believe we are lesser, people who actively construct and support our destruction?
We are literally the only demographic in the history of this country and perhaps the world who are expected to forgive and forget all atrocities done to us even when those said atrocities are still occurring. No one would dare fix their mouth to tell Jews to forgive Nazis and figure out equal ground, no one tells the Native Americans to forgive and forget, but hey black people understand why agents of your oppression feel the way they do as they hurt and abuse you or are complicit in those actions.
I've said it before and I'll say it again this is a strictly white problem to fix. The majority of white people keep voting in and supporting people who continually vote against your interests. They cut "entitlements" while giving tax breaks to "job creators" who ship and automate jobs while demonizing brown people. Black people do not vote for this kind of thing, in fact we are the demographic that ALWAYS votes for a progressive agenda that benefits EVERYONE. And I completely understand this is definitely not all white people at all but you guys are the ones who are in a position to reach those that we simply can not and will never be able to reach.

 

What the President does has always been newsworthy. There's literally an entire press corp dedicated to following him. I'm not sure how old you are but back in the 90s Bill Clinton's affairs were covered extensively by the media. Trump isn't being treated any differently than any other President in that regard.

 

Black people are the only ones expected to forgive and forget because we are the only ones that are both:
A.) Matriarchal
B.) Practice a western religion

No other group has both of those ingredients together.

Happy to say neither one of those apply to me.

 

To be fair, bodhesatva never said Black people should forgive and forget why many White folk are so prejudiced and hostile towards non-Whites.
However if Black folk thought and felt the way racist Whites did, this country would be in the middle of a full blown bloody race war.

I agree with TDK, racism in America is a White People problem.

We don't have anything to do with it.

 

Either way, black people are the only ones expected to " love our enemies." because no one else does. Its from the same toilet, even if its not the same shit.

 

White people know what they'd be doing if they were in our shoes....that's what scares them.

 

Nailed it! They sure as hell wouldn't love us. They don't even love us now even though we haven't done anything too them. They had 500 years to love us and still don't.

Now we supposed to show sympathy? Lmmfao. Really? For what reason Bodhestva? Because Jesus said so? I'm gonna need a better reason than that. Flame she's kidding us right?

 

Trump's lawyer admits he paid a porn star. Legal questions remain.


By Eli Watkins, CNN
Updated 6:14 PM EST, Wed February 14, 2018

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.cnn...gal/index.html

President Donald Trump's personal attorney Michael Cohen has declared a payment he orchestrated to a porn star to be "lawful," but legal experts say the matter is far from settled.

Cohen said in a statement Tuesday evening that he facilitated a $130,000 payment to Stephanie Clifford, better known as Stormy Daniels, in 2016. His statement followed a legal complaint from the campaign finance watchdog Common Cause, which called for investigations into whether the payment -- reportedly made to stop Clifford from speaking about an alleged affair with Trump in 2006 -- violated campaign finance law.

The statement came as confirmation that the payment had been made, and it added more evidence and scrutiny to the accounts first raised last month in The Wall Street Journal about the alleged affair and payment, which Cohen has denied was linked to an affair. Cohen has said that Trump "vehemently denies" any encounter with Clifford, and Cohen released a statement from Clifford last month denying an affair with Trump.

In Tuesday's statement, Cohen said, "In a private transaction in 2016, I used my own personal funds to facilitate a payment of $130,000 to Ms. Stephanie Clifford. Neither the Trump Organization nor the Trump campaign was a party to the transaction with Ms. Clifford, and neither reimbursed me for the payment, either directly or indirectly. The payment to Ms. Clifford was lawful, and was not a campaign contribution or a campaign expenditure by anyone."

When asked why he made the payment, Cohen told CNN: "Just because something isn't true doesn't mean that it can't cause you harm or damage. I will always protect Mr. Trump."

Campaign Legal Center general counsel Larry Noble, a CNN contributor and former Federal Election Commission general counsel, said one of the top questions now is "Where did the money come from?"

"It's not usual for an attorney representing someone to pay out of his own pocket," Noble said.

Noble, along with Sunlight Foundation executive director John Wonderlich and University of California, Irvine, law professor Rick Hasen, noted in separate interviews that the statement was carefully worded and left open the possibility that Trump had personally reimbursed Cohen or the source of the funding was a third party.

“The biggest point to me is the denial was very specific and leaves open that Donald Trump himself was involved," Wonderlich said.

Hasen, meanwhile, said the key revelation from the statement is Cohen admitting he had facilitated the payment, confirming the news reports.

But he cautioned, "There are questions about who ultimately made the payment."

Campaign finance law requires campaigns to disclose their contributions and limits donors to $2,700 per election. The Common Cause complaint asserts that if the payment to Clifford was done to influence the election, it would be an undisclosed "in-kind" contribution to the campaign, and if not from Trump personally, it would violate not only the disclosure rules but also the donation limit.

Hasen said that in addition to who had made the payment, a key point would be demonstrating whether the payment was campaign-related.

"It turns on the question of motive," Hasen said.

Common Cause maintains that Cohen's statement is an apparent confirmation of him violating campaign finance law because it was an effort to influence the election by keeping Clifford from speaking to the public about the alleged affair, and the organization renewed its calls for the FEC and Justice Department to look into the matter.

However, it is unclear what the FEC or Justice Department might do. The FEC commissioners must vote to open an investigation, and given the partisan breakdown of the committee and its recent voting pattern, Noble predicted last month that it would likely opt not to investigate. He said Wednesday that the statement from Cohen could give commissioners who were leaning against investigating "something to latch onto," but he warned it was not a sure thing they would not vote to investigate.

Hasen said that while it is "unclear" what the agency might do, "not only is the FEC divided, it is also shorthanded."

Click Above Link For Full Story

Stormy Daniels
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Stormy Daniels claims she’s free to talk about Trump, after payment admission

White House, FOX News
February 15th, 2018

https://www.google.com/amp/www.foxne...ssion.amp.html

Stormy Daniels, the adult film star who was paid $130,000 by an attorney for President Trump, is apparently ready to bare all about an alleged tryst with the president after her manager suggested she was released from a non-disclosure agreement.

Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, made the announcement via her manager after Trump lawyer Michael Cohen admitted to making the payment. Cohen said the payment was lawful and not a campaign contribution or campaign expenditure “by anyone.”

“Neither the Trump Organization nor the Trump campaign was a party to the transaction with Ms. Clifford, and neither reimbursed me for the payment, either directly or indirectly,” the statement read.

According to The Wall Street Journal, which first reported the payment in January, Clifford began talking with ABC News in the fall of 2016 for a story involving an alleged relationship with Trump, but reached a $130,000 deal a month before the election, which prevented her from going public.

But now Daniels believes that Cohen’s statement, along with another from Cohen that Daniels is pushing a book proposal, violated a non-disclosure agreement.

“Everything is off now, and Stormy is going to tell her story,” manager Gina Rodriguez said.

The claim centers around an alleged meeting between the two at a celebrity golfing tournament in Nevada in 2006. Daniels has claimed that they had sex there and then carried on a yearslong platonic relationship.

Cohen has said Trump vehemently denies the affair. A recent statement attributed to Daniels also denied the encounter, though she later seemed to challenge whether the statement originated from her.

The actress first detailed her account of an alleged extramarital affair with Trump in 2011 in the celebrity website The Dirty, and it was picked up before the 2016 election by The Smoking Gun.

In Touch Weekly published a 2011 interview last month in which the actress — whom the magazine said passed a polygraph exam — said the two had sex on one occasion and described subsequent in-person meetings, phone calls and discussions about a possible TV appearance.

 

Stormy Daniels sues Trump over alleged affair and 'hush' agreement

By Sophie Tatum, CNN
Updated 11:17 PM EST, Tue March 06, 2018

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.cnn...uit/index.html

A new lawsuit filed by the porn star known as Stormy Daniels claims President Donald Trump never signed a hush agreement regarding an alleged sexual encounter between the two and therefore the agreement is void.

According to the legal complaint filed in California state court and tweeted out by her lawyer on Tuesday, Trump's personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, signed the document on behalf of the President instead.

The porn star, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, claims in the lawsuit to have had an affair with Trump several years prior to his presidency. However, the lawsuit claims that when he was running for office and multiple women were coming forward to share stories of their own alleged encounters with the then-Republican presidential candidate, Cohen intervened in an attempt to keep Clifford from coming forward as well.

“Despite Mr. Trump's failure to sign the Hush Agreement, Mr. Cohen proceeded to cause $130,000.00 to be wired to the trust account of Ms. Clifford's attorney. He did so even though there was no legal agreement and thus no written nondisclosure agreement whereby Ms. Clifford was restricted from disclosing the truth about Mr. Trump," the document states.

The lawsuit says Cohen has continued his attempts at silencing Clifford -- including as recently as February 27, 2018.

“To be clear, the attempts to intimidate Ms. Clifford into silence and 'shut her up' in order to 'protect Mr. Trump' continue unabated," the lawsuit states. "For example, only days ago on or about February 27, 2018, Mr. Trump's attorney Mr. Cohen surreptitiously initiated a bogus arbitration proceeding against Ms. Clifford in Los Angeles. Remarkably, he did so without even providing Ms. Clifford with notice of the proceeding and basic due process."

A defense lawyer representing Cohen did not respond to requests for comment Tuesday.

NBC News first reported on Clifford's complaint against Trump.

Just weeks before the 2016 election, Cohen reportedly created a private LLC to pay off Clifford, The Wall Street Journal reported in January.

Last month, Cohen admitted to making a payment to Clifford, writing in a statement: "Neither the Trump Organization nor the Trump campaign was a party to the transaction with Ms. Clifford, and neither reimbursed me for the payment, either directly or indirectly."

The lawsuit says Cohen's February statement was issued "without any consent by Ms. Clifford, thus evidencing Mr. Cohen's apparent position (at least in that context) that no binding agreement was in place."

Following initial reports that Cohen had made the payment, he said in a statement that Trump "vehemently denies" any encounter between the two.

 

Stormy Daniels' attorney says Trump knew about hush money paid to porn star

David Jackson, USA TODAY
3 minutes ago

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.usa.../amp/402455002

WASHINGTON — The attorney for porn actress Stormy Daniels said Wednesday that President Trump knew about hush money paid right before the 2016 election to keep her silence about their sexual relationship.

“There's no question the president knew about it at the time," attorney Michael Avenatti said on NBC's Today show.
Avenatti also questioned claims by Trump attorney Michael Cohen that he paid Daniels from his own account, and suggested the money may have come from Trump himself.

“The idea that an attorney would go off on his own, without his client's knowledge and engage in this type of negotiation and enter into this type of agreement, quite honestly I think is ludicrous," Avenatti said.

The attorney spoke the morning after Daniels sued Trump in Los Angeles Superior Court, saying a non-disclosure agreement about their "intimate" relationship is invalid because the then-New York businessman never signed it.

Daniels at one time denied receiving $130,000 in hush money; her lawyer called that a "false statement" during his NBC interview, and said his client had been forced to sign the non-disclosure agreement.

Claiming his client is prepared to return the money, Avenatti said that Cohen, Trump's lawyer, "demanded she sign that statement. And as alleged in the complaint, we believe that it was done through force and intimidation.”

 

Trump upset with Sanders over Stormy Daniels response

By Jim Acosta and Veronica Stracqualursi, CNN
Updated 9:37 AM EST, Thu March 08, 2018

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.cnn...els/index.html

President Donald Trump is upset with White House press secretary Sarah Sanders over her responses Wednesday regarding his alleged affair with porn star Stormy Daniels, a source close to the White House tells CNN.

Daniels, whose legal name is Stephanie Clifford, filed suit against Trump this week alleging he hadn't signed a nondisclosure agreement that would have prevented her from discussing their alleged sexual affair.

On Wednesday, Sanders told reporters that the arbitration was won "in the President's favor." The statement is an admission that the nondisclosure agreement exists, and that it directly involves the President. It is the first time the White House has admitted the President was involved in any way with Daniels.

“POTUS is very unhappy," the source said. "Sarah gave the Stormy Daniels storyline steroids yesterday."

This week's developments are the latest installment in a continuing controversy for the White House involving Daniels, and a distraction from Trump's attempted rollout of tariffs on steel and aluminum imports.

Just weeks before the 2016 election,Trump's legal counsel Michael Cohen paid Daniels $130,000 of his own money, which he admitted to in February. Cohen has said the President "vehemently denies" any sexual encounter between the two.

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What We Learned From Porn Star Stormy Daniels’s Lawsuit Against President Trump

By Margaret Hartmann @MargHartmann
March 7th, 2018

https://www.google.com/amp/amp.nymag...nst-trump.html

If Stormy Daniels’s 5,000-word In Touch interview about her alleged affair with Donald Trump left you wanting more, you’re in luck. If, on the other hand, you happen to be Trump’s longtime attorney Michael Cohen, you might be wondering if you’re cursed.

The adult film star filed a civil suit against the president in Los Angeles Superior Court on Tuesday, alleging that since Trump never signed the nondisclosure agreement their lawyers set up weeks before the 2016 election, their “hush agreement” is null and void.

Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, also alleges that when the story went public in January, Cohen used “intimidation and coercive tactics” to force her to sign a false statement denying that she had an affair with Trump.

Following reports that Cohen arranged a payment of $130,000 to Clifford just days before the 2016 election, the lawyer said he paid her out of his own pocket, and wasn’t reimbursed by the Trump Organization or the Trump campaign. Cohen refused to say why he paid Clifford, or whether Trump paid him back through his personal funds. Yesterday The Wall Street Journal reported that Cohen put up the money because he couldn’t get in touch with Trump during the final days of the campaign, and he complained to others that he hadn’t been reimbursed. It’s not clear if Clifford would give back the $130,000 if the contract is voided.

On Tuesday Clifford’s attorney, Michael Avenatti, tweeted out the full complaint, which includes the “hush agreement” she signed in October 2016. Here’s what we learned:

• Clifford stands by the story she told journalists prior to signing the nondisclosure agreement: She began an “intimate relationship” with Trump in the summer of 2006 in Lake Tahoe, and the affair continued into 2007. It included at least one “meeting” with Trump in a bungalow at the Beverly Hills Hotel.

• Clifford started shopping her story to media outlets after the release of the Access Hollywood tape. The suit says that after learning this, Trump and Cohen “aggressively sought to silence Ms. Clifford as part of an effort to avoid her telling the truth, thus helping to ensure he won the presidential election.” Later it notes that Trump had to be aware of what Cohen was doing — if not, the attorney “flagrantly violated his ethical obligations and most basic rules governing his license to practice law.”

This framing is relevant to complaints a government watchdog group filed with the Federal Election Commission and Justice Department over the $130,000 payment. If Cohen intended to silence Clifford to aid Trump politically (rather than, say, keeping the affair from Melania Trump), that could violate campaign finance laws. Even if the payment came from Trump, he might have failed to properly disclose it.

• As previously reported, Cohen set up Essential Consultants LLC on October 17, 2016, for the sole purpose of paying Clifford. In the hush agreement she was referred to as “Peggy Peterson” and Trump was called “David Dennison.”

• Clifford and Cohen signed the contract, but Trump never did. The suit alleges that he “purposely did not sign the agreement so he could later, if need be, publicly disavow any knowledge” of the agreement or Clifford.

It may not matter that Trump didn’t sign the contract, but the court could decide the agreement is unenforceable for other reasons, like being wildly unfair.

• Clifford alleges that in addition to bullying her into signing a false statement denying the affair in January 2018, a month later Cohen issued a public statement denying the existence of the hush agreement, without her consent. The suit argues that even if the hush agreement was valid without Trump’s signature, Cohen voided it when he made multiple statements to the media.

• The suit says Cohen continued pressuring Clifford in recent days by initiating a “bogus arbitration proceeding” against her in L.A., without providing her “with notice of the proceeding and basic due process.”

• The hush agreement says Clifford has “confidential information” related to Trump, which includes “information, certain still images and/or text messages.”

•The agreement says Clifford alleges that she’s been “damaged” by Trump, including “proximately causing injury to her person and other related claims.” Clifford has said the affair was consensual, and it’s not clear what this refers to.

Trump alleges that Clifford harmed him with her threat of “selling, transferring, licensing, publicly disseminating and/or exploiting the Images and/or Property and/or other Confidential Information.” Clifford is supposed to turn over any of Trump’s “tangible property” and “permanently delete any electronic copies that can not be transferred.”

• The agreement says that if Clifford violates the agreement, she must pay Trump $1 million for each breach.

 

Anderson Cooper interviews Stormy Daniels for '60 Minutes'

By Brian Stelter March 8, 2018: 6:55 PM ET

http://money.cnn.com/2018/03/08/medi...per/index.html

Anderson Cooper has taped an interview with Stephanie Clifford, the adult film actress known as Stormy Daniels who alleged a sexual relationship with Donald Trump and is now suing the president.

The interview will air on the CBS newsmagazine "60 Minutes," where Cooper is a regular contributor.

But the exact air date is unknown. A source involved in the taping said it will air "on a future episode." A "60 Minutes" spokesman declined to comment.

Cooper interviewed Clifford's lawyer Michael Avenatti on CNN on Wednesday night.
On Thursday afternoon, Avenatti tweeted a picture of himself with Clifford and Cooper.

The interview is a big scoop for Cooper and "60 Minutes." "The president and the porn star" has been a top story this week due to allegations that date back to 2006.

Daniels has said she had a consensual relationship with Trump that year.

UPDATE!
Interview Scheduled To Be aired March 25th, 2018​