The real DOJ corruption scandal at the heart of Trump's criminal trial in New York

Justice Department rules say, for better or worse, that presidents cannot be

criminal

ly charged while serving as president, but if federal prosecutors had determined that Trump had committed these crimes with Michael Cohen right, nothing would stop them from impeaching Trump for those crimes. By the time he became a private citizen again and the head of the US attorney's office that did this investigation that brought this case, he says that the Trump guys at the US Department of Justice played with this case, played with this investigation on Trump's behalf to make sure that sdny would never and could never determine that Donald Trump committed these federal crimes.

This is not something we had to worry about happening. This happened and the whistleblower in this was the guy who ran the US Attorney's office who was made fun of. I was in a position to learn another revelation from Berman's book: When Michael Cohen pleaded guilty, Trump's justice department had sdny prosecutors remove tons of references to Trump in his court documents and, yes, the big damning document he They finally presented it contained that key. that Cohen acted in coordination with and at the direction of an individual, but Jeff Burman says the document his office had planned to present was much more explicit about Trump and Trump's involvement in Cohen's crimes.

What they meant was that Trump acted in concert. Apparently, when Trump's justice department saw that they were furious and coordinated with Cohen, they had them reduce this court filing from 40 pages to 21 pages and had them remove all of the most damning findings about Trump to protect Trump from this federal

scandal

. investigation when they were finished, the final document no longer said that Michael Cohen had committed his crime acting in concert and coordination with Trump with one individual, but rather the final document said that Michael Cohen acted in concert and coordination with one or more members of the Trump campaign one or more members of the Trump campaign were Trump, but Justice Department officials in Washington, Trump appointees, had prosecutors eliminate that.

Jeff Burman also says he was ordered by Trump's justice department to investigate prominent Democrats at Trump's behest. including John Krey Burman says he was told just before the 2018 midterm elections that his office should file charges against a Democratic lawyer who had been President Obama's White House counsel. Burman's office investigated and decided that not only had the Obama White House Counsel done nothing to warrant being prosecuted, he had actually done nothing at all, he was innocent of what he was accused of here after Burman refused. to file those charges, Trump's attorney general, Bill Bar, then tried to pressure him to resign, even issuing a press release late at night. in June 2020 claiming that Jeff Burman had resigned Jeff Burman had not resigned and said so, he refused to go and did so in part because he had just seen what had happened at another major US law firm after a full takeover there by Trump's justice. department it was in the DC US attorney's office where these schemes went even further, but in the DC US attorney's office he had managed to expose the US attorney there and instead install their own people that the US attorney's office in DC immediately acted to drop the charges and undo the guilty plea of ​​Trump's National Security Adviser, Mike Flynn, acted to undo the recommended sentence for Trump adviser Roger Stone, who had just been convicted of multiple felonies.

This was the same US attorney's office that also bowed to pressure to file charges against Obama's white president. The House of Representatives Council after Burman refused to do so because there was no case there. Jeffrey Burman saw what had happened at the dcus prosecutor's office and didn't want to let the same thing happen at sdny, so Jeffrey Burman fought the bar and issues this press release. saying Burman has resigned Burman releases statement saying oh no I haven't and there was this dramatic 48 hours where Burman twice refused to resign refused to allow his office to be taken over by Trump's attorney general and finally Trump fired Jeffrey Burman and The victory that Burman had by fighting so hard and making so much noise is that after he was fired he made sure that his deputy, a normal prosecutor, was promoted to take his place instead of Bill Bar simply sending Trump guys to take over, like he did in DC, but this is a very bad black mark on the record of the US justice department and the result of all this was, you know, a drama terrible and terrifying.

Revelations about the justice department under President Trump, but a federal

criminal

investigation was also diverted. and delayed and manipulated the federal criminal investigation into the crimes for which Michael Cohen went to prison. And here's a key point: it wasn't just the federal criminal investigation because while all of this was happening at the federal level, the investigation into Michael Cohen, the attempted investigation of people beyond Cohen who participated in those same crimes. Trump, the revelation of Trump's personal guilt for these crimes. Trump's justice department, while all this was happening, hunkered down and put the brakes on the whole thing, a corrupt federal justice system.

The department acted to protect the president despite the conclusions of the law, in fact, while that was happening at the federal level around the Cohen case, it had the effect of hindering a possible state prosecution, also because New York prosecutors and the Manhattan District Attorney's Office were also interested. in the investigation and potentially in the prosecution of these crimes that had taken place after all of these crimes had occurred in their city, but the feds were right that this was supposedly their case and they asked the state prosecutors to hold off while they continued with their federal case on this matter.

What is learned, however, is that the federal case was not happening, but rather was delayed, diverted, perverted, and ultimately stopped by Trump appointees at the U.S. Department of Justice, so state prosecutors They're sitting around wasting tons of time waiting for the feds to supposedly finish this. investigation, which is an investigation that is not actually being carried out due to

corruption

, months after Cohen's guilty plea, federal prosecutors quietly noted in a court filing that the investigation was over and that no one except Michael Cohen, would be federally indicted, was literally two weeks later. two weeks after that quiet admission by the feds that state prosecutors began issuing subpoenas for their own investigation, so if you're wondering why alleged crimes that occurred in 2016 are only coming to

trial

now, well, a One of the reasons is that Donald Trump The justice department managed to delay and ultimately hinder the federal investigation into the alleged crimes for which Donald Trump is now effectively facing

trial

in New York state and, in fact, that effort Trump's justice department's success in stopping any federal investigation into Trump or any charges against him.

We can see the legacy of that successful

corruption

, that successful corruption of the case, we can see its legacy in the way that the Manhattan district attorney has had to present this case because one of the most uncomfortable parts of this case that is now being trying in New York is that a crime is described here that the right people who criticize this case have never actually been charged with, which is often one of the main issues they will take, a crime is described here, but if that crime is such, how could it be so why was he never accused?

The New York district attorney's case against Donald Trump says these false business records Trump created in his

real

estate business just as he disguised these hush money refunds to Michael Cohen as falsified legal fees. Business records are not just a misdemeanor, they are a felony because they were fraudulently created to conceal another crime. What is the other crime? Well, the district attorney has described what he believes the other crimes are. One of the other crimes involved is the federal government. campaign fight Financial violation that prosecutors say Michael Cohen committed with Donald Trump is an inconvenience to this case that that federal crime was never charged against Donald Trump, it was only charged against Michael Cohen, true, but the reason why that crime Trump was never charged, well, it seems to be because the federal investigation into Trump's guilt in this matter was perverted in Trump's name by Trump appointees, so it's kind of a big open wound sitting right in the middle. center of this trial, is a constant reminder that it is crazy that only Michael Cohen and no one else paid a price for this criminal scheme.

It is also a constant reminder of something more and something bigger than this case. It's a big flashing warning light about what we, as a country, should expect. a second Trump presidency, you know how terrifying it is to think of Bill Bar doing this with ongoing investigations, supposedly with cases that have already been accepted with sentences that have already been recommended by the justice department after conviction for him get in there and get there and just break up all those cases in Trump's name because Trump told him that they could do some of that and they would very much like to do a lot more than they could change the life of any citizen in this country at their whim. of Donald Trump, we don't talk enough about what Trump managed to do to the US Department of Justice when he was president, he fired our lawyers, he got investigations into him and his allies suspended, he got the case against his disgraced National Security Advisor.

Even though he had already pleaded guilty, he managed to get Roger Stone's sentencing recommendation reduced after Stone's multiple convictions. He got the justice department to investigate and even prosecute prominent Democrats he didn't like, even when there was no case that things were worse. that whatever Richard Nixon did, and it was pretty bad on that front, is possibly the worst thing any modern president has done to the US justice department, to the rule of law in this country, it's the kind of

scandal

that we should keep at the forefront. of mind every day as he tries to return to the White House right now is absolutely the plan of where they would begin to try to complete the unfinished business of the first term if Donald Trump returns to the White House, that is where this case comes from the right , the todreas case imaginable, comes from the grossest and pettiest personal failings, while also revealing a huge and serious problem for this country that we have not yet considered a central problem for our protection of the rule of law a central failure of the state of law that not enough people have gotten in trouble for yet Hello everyone, MSNBC has a new and improved app.

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