Now. There isn’t a lot super interesting here. But instead I want to ask, how the hell does Buzzfeed have these and why?
These were reconstructed by the FBI so this has to be a leak. But the question is, was it leaked by the FBI (unlikely)? The judge (improbable)? Or Cohen(most likely but WHY)?
You refer to the FBI. I agree the FBI as an organization wouldn’t authorize such a leak, but it isn’t a stretch to believe a Trump hater in the FBI might have leaked the documents.
That might be believable if there was something super incriminating in them.
There isn’t.
This is a nothingburger leaked by Cohen.
I find this release disturbing.
The “leaks” we’ve further south in the investigation headed up by Mueller have all been plausibly ascribed to anyone with knowledge of the matters at hand and not on the investigating team. For example, the questions that Mueller allegedly wanted to ask Trump, which were characterized in the media as some sort of work product from the Special Counsel, when they actually ended up being prep material produced by Trump’s attorneys after conversations with the Special Counsel.
This, however, is source evidence. It would have had to come either from Cohen’s team, or from someone on Trump’s team who had access to it during the time when the common defense agreement was in force, or from federal sources in the Southern District of New York.
I don’t think so. Cohen is not in a good position to be biting the hand that feeds him. More likely is someone on Trump’s side who was privy to it by virtue of the time when Trump and Cohen had a mutual defense agreement (which should be expiring in a few days). Or, maybe, SDNY. I really, really hope it’s not the latter.
I’m going with Trump’s team.
Makes sense.
My money is on the Trump legal team yet again. Just like was the case with the Mueller questions.
I’d assume that by leaking this, it can further a narrative that there is nothing incriminating to be found in the Cohen documents that were seized. Should charges come down the road, they will point to this as some sort of proof of malfeasance by LEO’s and Prosecutors. They will trash and seek to destroy every last bit of our Law Enforcement institutions to protect the Master.
I agree, these documents came out way too fast after the Cohen interview.
I’m leaning that way, too. Though I was initially pretty concerned. A simple assessment of who benefits from the release points to most likely candidate.
Good point!
Exactly. And there is really only one potential beneficiary of this. Cohen is in too risky of a position. With the scrutiny on SDNY investigators and Prosecutors, I have a hard time believing any of them would risk prison to leak this nothingburger. It came from Team Trump.
Yep, exactly. Process of elimination. And history of this exact behavior.
