I have previously written how Trump personal counsel Michael Cohen has left himself utterly exposed ethically in his effort to protect the President from the brewing scandal involving porn star Stormy Daniels. Cohen has struggled to deny any connection of the payoff to Daniels to the President or Trump organization. It is for that reason that a new document released by Daniels’ counsel (and my former research assistant) Michael Avenatti is so curious. The arbitration documents include the listing of Trump Organization Vice President and lawyer Jill A. Martin. Martin is listed as counsel for Essential Consultants LLC, a shell Delaware company formed by Cohen to help disguise the payment of the $130,000 to Daniels (whose legal name is Stephanie Clifford). The arbitration documents in Orange County, California were signed on February 22 — less than a month ago. It is bizarre that, given the huge effort to insulate Trump and his organization from this payment, Martin would effectively intervene in this way.
In signing, she broke down the carefully constructed political and legal wall between Daniels and the company. Martin reportedly send an email insisting that she facilitated the filing “in her individual capacity” to bridge the gap for a New York lawyer to be approved for practice in California.
It appears to be a reference to a pro hac vice motion for permission to practice as an attorney from outside of the bar. It is a simple filing that I have used many times and something that can be handled by any attorney of good standing. I cannot imagine why Cohen and Martin would destroy their carefully separated structure for such a minor role. They could have easily hired a California attorney for little cost in fulfilling this role.
Martin is one of the last people who should have contemplated involvement in any capacity in these proceedings. Martin, 38, is a vice president and assistant general counsel at the Trump Organization based in Los Angeles. She used the address of the Trump Organization’s Trump National Golf Club in Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif. She signed the filing on behalf of “EC, LLC,” an acronym for Essential Consultants.
In his prior statement, Cohen went to great lengths to maintain this separation:
“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.”
So there were Roosevelt,Eisenhower,Kennedy,Clinton and now they want to add another who was an admirer of women. The vindictiveness of his haters is unreal. More time for much more important issues is a priority over this hyper witch hunt.
I cannot imagine why Cohen and Martin would destroy their carefully separated structure….
You can’t?? Here are some possible reasons: incompetence, panic, consciousness of guilt, they think they’re above the law and won’t get caught, they’re so exhausted trying to cover for Chump that they’re giving up.
We could posit Turley’s imagination is stunted. But, his posts are abundant in creative false equivalencies.
Pretty sure the issue is where the money came from. But other than that, it’s no big deal.
Be very careful when you talk about “Gagging” a porn star. I have seen videos where Stormy was gagged, literally, over her own volition, and they were very disgusting!
Then you shouldn’t be watching 🙂
That was disgusting!
And such small portions!
Coming sooner. The Socialist Party Platform Suspends, Botox and injected plastic
Coming from the left it could be more properly entitled
No Harm No Fould
When this is all the left has to offer the nation is safer with ANYONE else. Up, down, back, front.
No harm no foul
but certainly
foul’d
I am not sure why this is important, except that Trump was involved.
More for the Daily Tatler.
Trumpster porked her. So what? How many men would have refused to pork Marilyn Monroe if she asked? How many men would have paid Marilyn for a roll in the hay? I would not put any stock or credit into a man who had the chance to pork Marilyn and refused for some marital reason. Jeso. We need a Marilyn in every White House or Black House or house of ill repute. Now. Does Stormy meet the same standards looks wise as Marilyn? Close. Trump was not even President then.
We have to ask: who is he porking now?
Is it our business? No. The thing speaks for itself. My thing thinks for itself. Your thing thinks for itself. Res ipsa loquitar and res matters. The name of this blog ought to be Pork Em If Ya Gottem.
Not to mention the nations 60% divorce rate and other ‘social’ progress made by the sociologists and other such non producers
no harm no foul.
Say what you will about Trump– and, of course, I know that it is coming–but, you have got to admit that Trump–unlike the Kennedy boys, of yesteryear, who simply had their mistresses and pregnant whores, who started to get too noisy. . .too inconvenient. . .too pushy. . .too threatening and too demanding, either die from accidental drug overdoses or plunges into icy water, while strapped into vehicles–to his credit, has not prevented this broken down porn star from attempting to capture her 15 minutes of fame. He may not like her diversion. . .her attempt to interefere with his presidency. . .her desire to further her career and noteriety at his expense, but, Stormy is, by all accounts, alive and well and bouncing around. . .yes, bouncing around. . .happy and healthy, I assume, except for all of the incurable STDs that she has accumulated over the decades and percolating in her body. She is unafraid to make the talk show circuit. Unafraid to claim an affair with the President. Now, compare and contrast her, and her freedom to speak about her relationship with Trump, with all of the other women, habitually used, mistreated and abused by the Kennedy boys. . .who were either threatened to remain silent or were found dead, due to drug overdoses or fateful plunges into bodies of water. Compare and contrast Stormy with the myriad of women, raped and abused by Billy Boy Clinton. . .women who were threatened with harm if they ever spoke of the abuse and attacks. . .women who were silenced by various threats to buy their silence. Of course, the typical excuse will be. . .but. . .but. . .but. . .that was decades ago. Think about it–Stormy feels free enough and safe enough to speak. Her miserable and pathetic life is not at risk. Those abused and attacked by the Kennedys and Clinton–and, yes, there are some still on this side of the daisies–value their lives and their safety too much to come out of hiding and speak up. Stormy is speaking because she has no fear. . .only the misguided hope that she can advance her career from her alleged tryst with Trump. Anyone, daring to do the same, with the Kennedys or Clinton would be swimming with the fishies.
Above: In which bam bam praises Trump for declining to cause the death of Stormy Daniels under suspicious circumstances.
Might that be the highest praise that bam bam can give to Trump these days? So be it. Why it was just yesterday that Mespo727272 claimed that bam bam is a thought-provoking person. Moreover, on that same day–yesterday–none other than bam bam herself proclaimed the it takes a BS artist to know a BS artist. Hey! bam bam. I’m on to you. And so is everybody else on the blawg.
I doubt it’s the highest but it is the most accurate one can offer to a political system that has little else to offer and yet wants to replace a Constitutional Republic with …. what? Nothing.
Awhile ago, the constitutional republic was replaced with oligarchy. You can read the irrefutable evidence compiled by Princeton Prof. Martin Gilen. This blog’s readers skim through your comments, Aarethun, so take time to inform yourself about Gilen’s research.
The U.S. oligarchy has the anachronistic free speech, which Turley focuses on protecting, as a singular underpinning of political freedom. …wait, I misspoke, Turley protects free speech of oligarch spokespersons and white supremacists (possibly, one and the same), religion (internationally) but, of labor, not so much.
L4D:
“Moreover, on that same day–yesterday–none other than bam bam herself proclaimed the it takes a BS artist to know a BS artist. Hey! bam bam. I’m on to you.”
**********************
Congratulations on the self-awareness. Catharsis is good for the soul. Now on to the higher power and step 2 for you.
Try to read and comprehend. . .no praise for Trump for refraining to cause harm to anyone. . .simply an observation that those, who are supported and bolstered by throngs of mobsters and underworld characters, never need deal with the likes of pests, like Stormy. Pests, like Stormy, are silenced by the mobsters and underworld players who have too much to lose if their guy goes down. I suspect that such a concept is far too complicated for you, but others get it. Maybe, if you left the house once in a while, detaching yourself from the computer, you would understand the world outside of your basement?
Excellent point BB. I’ve heard Trump has “mafia links” – if so why haven’t they arranged for Stormy’s demise? Trump has certainly been involved in extra marital affairs – none of which I care about FWIW – but he is not linked to deaths. Unlike the Clintons where the death count ranges from AK to DC to NY to FL and probably even beyond.
What with all her experience, it is probably pretty hard to gag Stormy. . .
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
Lol!
Squeak strikes again so now the fight between claiming victory in a race yet to be called is vying with porn as a reason to vote for us as the foreign ideologists expose thier major reasons to exist.
and it took a conservative Marine to save their bacon while Lopez Castro has now declared Lamb’s stated value … mostly having nothing to do with the left , are now magically their corps values
Values of a corpse
No harm no foul
except the odor
Touche’
Easy to find on the internet!
Maybe there is an aspect here I am missing, but I fail to see why this is national story. Trump has cheated on everyone before, and this happened before he was President. This is no more news than Trump sending an offensive Tweet. This one of his character flaws that has already been well established.
I do not consider paying off a past mistress to avoid yet another marital breakdown relevant.
What is it with prominent people and infidelity? Even Martin Luther King, Jr, and JFK all cheated repeatedly on their wives. Is loyalty too much to ask?
Of course, Trump had better take care he doesn’t fall into Bill Clinton’s trap and lie about it under oath. Granted, Clinton was being investigated for sexual harassment, and Monica Lewinsky’s story came out in the process.
If Trump cheated on his wife, then he was wrong, utterly and completely. He needs to stop breaking up his own marriages and disrupting his children’s homes. Find another outlet. Stormy Daniels was also wrong for knowingly sleeping with a married man, feigning interest in him for the chance of career advancement, allegedly accepting a payout for a NDA, and then breaking that NDA and going public while she claims she did, no she didn’t, yes she did, no she didn’t, YES, this time she really means she did have an affair with Trump. She should repay the money plus damages. Also, anyone contemplating having an affair with her, or other porn stars in the future, be advised that she will sleep with you and then try to ruin you over it…for money. Let that be a lesson to any cheaters out there.
Let me clarify – I do not think that it is relevant to his Presidency. It is of course, a common interest story that will get a lot of miles…kind of like Stormy.
Or like Monica Lewinsky. Remember Linda Tripp???
Coming soon to bookstore near you, “The Art of the Deal: Volume Two,” by Stormy Daniels.
“while she claims she did, no she didn’t, yes she did, no she didn’t, YES,”
No.
Don’t.
No, Don’t. Stop.
No, don’t stop. Don’t stop.
LOL. Maybe this was just her staying in character.
I think they are feverishly trying to tie that tryst to the Trump election funding.
With a little hop, skip and a jump, and some logical jujitsu, they are trying to say that hushing up the Stormy was in furtherance of getting Trump elected, insofar that her tell-all account would ruin his chances of getting elected.
So, the legal prosecutorial logic goes — they were paying her to hush up in order to receive a thing of value related to the election campaign, i.e. not spilling the beans on something everyone already knows, that Trump, like most presidents, had an elicit affair with some sexy trollop, thus damaging his campaign’s efforts to get him elected.
So, the legal logic further goes, by paying her in order to receive something of value in relation to the campaign, they had to essentially spill the beans themselves by being required to list that payment as a campaign expenditure, as campaign finance laws would otherwise require.
So, by not disclosing the non-disclosure agreement and payments therein, they broke FEC law, and thus Trump is a bad guy who doesn’t deserve to be president.
Thank you, Gary. That clarifies things.
If paying a mistress to keep her from angrily spilling the beans and ruining your marriage right before an election is campaign finance fraud, then I imagine most politicians in the Beltway will be in the prison yard.
I am not excusing adultery. It’s dishonorable, and way too many husbands and wives engage in it. If you want to act single, then be single. However, that said, everyone already knows that he cheated on his ex-wives before. Barring catharsis or disfunction, past behavior predicts future.