Morality is not determined by the church you attend nor the faith you embrace. It is determined by the quality of your character and the positive impact you have on those you meet along your journey
President Donald Trump said on Thursday he did not know about a $130,000 payment made to the adult film actress Stormy Daniels for her silence, his first public acknowledgment of the scandal surrounding an alleged sexual affair that has plagued him for months.
"No," Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One when questioned about his knowledge of the payment, which was made by his private attorney Michael Cohen in the month before the 2016 election.
Asked why Cohen made the payment, Trump said: "You'll have to ask Michael Cohen. Michael is my attorney. You'll have to ask Michael."
He said he didn't know where the money came from and ignored a question about whether he set up a fund for Cohen to draw from in making the payment.
I believe this is the first time that Trump has addressed the Stormy Daniels situation directly.
She of course shares the same rarefied space as Vladimir Putin as one of those who must never be criticized by Donald Trump.
I don't know about all of you but I seriously doubt that Michael Cohen made his payment on his own without his client knowing anything about it.
That seems preposterous and would make Michael Cohen one of the biggest schmucks in recent history.
What's more the lawyer for Stormy Daniels is not buying it either.
We very much look forward to testing the truthfulness of Mr. Trump's feigned lack of knowledge concerning the $130k payment as stated on Air Force One. As history teaches us, it is one thing to deceive the press and quite another to do so under oath. #searchforthetruth#basta
Good (actually GREAT) things come to those who wait!!! The strength of our case just went up exponentially. You can't have an agreement when one party claims to know nothing about it. #nodiscipline#thanksforplaying#basta
We know that Avenatti is really looking forward to getting the opportunity to cross examine Donald Trump, and you can bet your ass that if he does he is going to ask him about this money.
In fact only an hour or so after Trump made those remarks to reporters, I saw this:
Michael Avenatti tells @AriMelber that, following Trump's new remarks about Stormy Daniels, he'll be making a petition on Monday to depose Trump.
Trump and McDougal began an affair, which McDougal later memorialized in an eight-page, handwritten document provided to The New Yorker by John Crawford, a friend of McDougal’s. When I showed McDougal the document, she expressed surprise that I had obtained it but confirmed that the handwriting was her own.
The interactions that McDougal outlines in the document share striking similarities with the stories of other women who claim to have had sexual relationships with Trump, or who have accused him of propositioning them for sex or sexually harassing them. McDougal describes their affair as entirely consensual. But her account provides a detailed look at how Trump and his allies used clandestine hotel-room meetings, payoffs, and complex legal agreements to keep affairs—sometimes multiple affairs he carried out simultaneously—out of the press.
On November 4, 2016, four days before the election, the Wall Street Journal reported that American Media, Inc., the publisher of the National Enquirer, had paid a hundred and fifty thousand dollars for exclusive rights to McDougal’s story, which it never ran. Purchasing a story in order to bury it is a practice that many in the tabloid industry call “catch and kill.” This is a favorite tactic of the C.E.O. and chairman of A.M.I., David Pecker, who describes the President as “a personal friend.” As part of the agreement, A.M.I. consented to publish a regular aging-and-fitness column by McDougal. After Trump won the Presidency, however, A.M.I.’s promises largely went unfulfilled, according to McDougal. Last month, the Journal reported that Trump’s personal lawyer had negotiated a separate agreement just before the election with an adult-film actress named Stephanie Clifford, whose screen name is Stormy Daniels, which barred her from discussing her own affair with Trump. Since then, A.M.I. has repeatedly approached McDougal about extending her contract.
McDougal, in her first on-the-record comments about A.M.I.’s handling of her story, declined to discuss the details of her relationship with Trump, for fear of violating the agreement she reached with the company. She did say, however, that she regretted signing the contract. “It took my rights away,” McDougal told me. “At this point I feel I can’t talk about anything without getting into trouble, because I don’t know what I’m allowed to talk about. I’m afraid to even mention his name.”
The article also says that Trump offered to pay McDougal after the first time they had sex (She refused the money.), that the affair lasted nine months, and during that time he flew her around the country, and even introduced her to his family and friends.
McDougal's account essentially reinforces the story that Stormy Daniels told before Trump's attorney bought her silence, and the others that have been talked about for years.
Donald Trump's actions essentially scream about his innate insecurities, though to be honest we already knew that by the fact that he names every damn thing he touches after himself.
However these numerous sexual encounters also clearly gave the Russians plenty of kompromat to use against Trump, and we know by the fact that he worked so hard to keep them quiet, that it would be very effective in buying his cooperation.
So I ask again, does the president of the United States have a security clearance that allows him to do his job?
Vice President Mike Pence says reports that an adult film star had an alleged affair with President Trump are "baseless allegations."
Pence spoke to The Associated Press during a visit to Jerusalem on Monday. He said he was "not going to comment on the latest baseless allegations against the president."
I'm sorry what was I thinking? Has Mike Pence's wife read him the In Touch article while Pence gripped a Bible and muttered "Away with thee Satan" over and over again, yet?
And does he also know that Trump's attorney opened an LLC specifically to funnel money to Daniels in order to buy her silence right before the election?
Because once you know all that, it makes it VERY hard to call these allegations "baseless."
There are enough facts available for a watchdog group to feel they have sufficient evidence to launch a complaint with the federal elections committee that the payment to Daniels violated campaign finance law.
But clearly Pence is not going to let a little thing like facts stand in the way of his adoration of Donald Trump.
In that same interview, Pence also defended Mr. Trump over his disparaging comments about immigrants from Africa and Haiti.
Pence told the AP that he "knows the president's heart." He says Mr. Trump is determined to implement a merit-based system that encourages immigration by those who will "contribute to a growing American economy and thriving communities" and one that does not take into account the immigrants' "race or creed."
Once again that is an absolute denial of what Trump has tweeted, stated publicly, or been quoted as saying in behind door meetings.
Besides it is too late for Pence's revisionist history, the American people already know exactly what is in Donald Trump's heart.
Stormy Daniels: “We had really good banter. He told me once that I was someone to be reckoned with, beautiful and smart just like his daughter.”
Yes that, big dollops of McDonalds saturated fats, and overriding racism. Those are the things inside Donald Trump's heart.
As it turns out there was a reporter from Slate working on the story about Trump and Daniels before the election.
Jacob Weisberg did not post that story because he did not feel he had enough corroboration to write it with confidence that it could stand up to scrutiny.
Daniels, whose given name is Stephanie Clifford, did indeed have a story about Trump, which she related to me in a series of phone conversations and text exchanges that took place between August and October of 2016.
Daniels told me she’d gone to Trump’s hotel room after meeting him at a celebrity golf tournament in Nevada in 2006. There they’d begun a sexual relationship, which continued for nearly a year. They’d met in New York and more than once in Los Angeles. In early 2007, Trump had invited her to a party to promote Trump Vodka, where she was photographed. He’d also invited her to his Miss USA pageant that year.
In our conversations, Daniels said she was holding back on the juiciest details, such as her ability to describe things about Trump that only someone who had seen him naked would know. She intimated that her view of his sexual skill was at odds with the remark attributed to Marla Maples.
You may remember that Maples reported that it was "The Best Sex" she had ever had.
You know just like Trump is the least racist person you have ever met, the best businessman in history, and the healthiest person to ever occupy the White House.
Weisberg sort of glossed over the more prurient details and instead focused on what was then a pending financial agreement between the lawyers for Donald Trump and Stormy Daniels' attorney:
Daniels said that, through intermediaries, she and Trump had worked out an agreement for the presidential candidate to pay her a six-figure sum to keep quiet. More specifically, she said her lawyer Keith Davidson, a Beverly Hills–based attorney who specializes in claims against celebrities, had worked out the terms with Trump’s lawyer Michael Cohen.
Daniels told me that agreement involved a complicated arrangement to shield the real names of the parties. She texted me an unsigned two-page document spelling out this arrangement, the title of which was “Exhibit ‘A’ to the Confidential Settlement Agreement and Release: Assignment of Copyright and Non-Disparagement Agreement.”*
The document she texted me indicated that in the main agreement—a document I never saw—“Stephanie Gregory Clifford aka Stormy Daniels is referred to by the pseudonym ‘Peggy Peterson,’ and ___________ is referred to by the pseudonym ‘David Dennison.’ ”
The document Daniels sent me included two additional pseudonyms, “David Delucia” and “RCI,” but did not indicate which person and/or entity those pseudonyms referred to. Another provision in the document I saw stated that only Daniels’ lawyer Keith Davidson and a lawyer for the other party would be allowed to retain copies of the side-letter agreement identifying the parties by their actual names.
About a week before the election Daniels stopped responding to texts and emails, likely due to the fact that she had reached that financial agreement which the Wall Street Journal reported on recently.
Now it is very unlikely that this story by Weisberg would have changed the outcome of the election, because let's face it unless this was gay sex, or sex with a black person, Trump's deplorables would not be bothered in the least.
However, as has been pointed out by a number of commentators, this story would have DESTROYED the candidacy of any other politician that we can think of, and that right there tells us just how far away from our moral center we have drifted since Donald Trump rode down that escalator to announce his candidacy.
In Touch got even more information about this fling from Daniels back in 2011. Here is their story:
Stormy told In Touch, “[The sex] was textbook generic,” while discussing the fling they had less than four months after Donald’s wife, Melania, gave birth to their son, Barron. “I actually don’t even know why I did it, but I do remember while we were having sex, I was like, ‘Please, don’t try to pay me.’”
At one point, Stormy told In Touch, she excused herself to go to the bathroom. “When I came out, he was sitting on the bed and he was like, ‘Come here.’ And I was like, ‘Ugh, here we go.’ And we started kissing.” After having sex, Stormy said, “We hung out for a little while and he just kept saying, ‘I’m gonna call you, I’m gonna call you. I have to see you again. You’re amazing. We have to get you on The Apprentice.’”
Of course Trump never did get Daniels that gig on "The Apprentice" or kept any other promises that he made to her.
However he DID pay her off, which is why she is denying all of this now.
On a final note the fellow adult film star that Stormy Daniels invited to a threesome with Donald Trump appeared on the Megyn Kelly show to tell her side of things.
I do not typically post video of Kelly's show, but I think you will like this.
“Picture this: Donald Trump chasing me around the bedroom in his tighty whities isn’t something you forget.”
And now none of us will be able to forget it, or that such an embarrassing POS is occupying the People's House.
President Donald Trump's longtime attorney denied that Trump had a sexual encounter with a porn star after a report by The Wall Street Journal on Friday alleged the lawyer helped facilitate a six-figure payment to the actress in October 2016 in exchange for her silence.
Michael Cohen, Trump's personal attorney, said the President "vehemently denies" the encounter, but did not address the alleged payment in a statement to CNN.
The story, which cites people familiar with the matter, says Cohen arranged a $130,000 payment to Stephanie Clifford -- whose stage name is "Stormy Daniels" -- a month ahead of the election. Cohen denies the sexual encounter took place.
"These rumors have circulated time and again since 2011," Cohen said in a statement to CNN. "President Trump once again vehemently denies any such occurrence as has Ms. Daniels." Cohen, once one of Trump's most trusted aides, is no longer in regular contact with Trump -- a distance forced by the Russia investigations, in which Cohen has been entangled.
A White House official said in a statement: "These are old, recycled reports, which were published and strongly denied prior to the election."
I am kind of irritated with myself because I actually typed up more than half of a post on this story yesterday, but then thought that I had already written one about it right before the election, so I deleted it.
However I actually got this story confused with the story about the former Playboy model Karen McDougal, which I really did write about in October 2016.
In that post McDougal was paid by the National Enquirer to write a story about her affair, that apparently they then killed in order to protect Trump.
You can understand my confusion.
However this Stormy Daniels story is a new one, and according to author Michael Wolff, probably just another one of many.
Steve Bannon, President Donald Trump's former top strategist, alleged in journalist Michael Wolff's tell-all book about the Trump White House that the president's longtime attorney, Marc Kasowitz, "took care" of 100 women during the presidential campaign.
"Look, Kasowitz has known [Trump] for twenty-five years. Kasowitz has gotten him out of all kinds of jams," Bannon reportedly said. "Kasowitz on the campaign — what did we have, a hundred women? Kasowitz took care of all of them."
This apparently off-hand remark may take on new significance after The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday that another lawyer for the president, Michael Cohen, sent $130,000 to a porn star just weeks before the 2016 presidential election to keep her silent about an alleged 2006 sexual encounter with Trump.
So apparently not only has Trump cheated on his wife Melania, but he has done so constantly.
Some of Trump's supporters have questioned the legitimacy of the Wall Street Journal's reporting, but according to the Daily Beast they have three sources that confirm the account, including one porn star who was invited to a threesome with Trump and Stormy:
According to fellow porn star Alana Evans—who was not only Daniels’ neighbor and close friend at the time, but also happened to be staying in the area—Daniels confided in her that she and Trump were more than just friends.
“It was the second day of our trip, we were in a hotel with a tattoo parlor, and the hotel had huge windows so you could see people outside. When I saw Stormy, I was like WTF? I opened the door, called out to her, and she joined me while [my colleague] got a tattoo,” recalls Evans. “Stormy said she met Donald Trump and then tells me about the golf tournament and how she’s supposed to hang out with him later that night, and she invited me. Stormy said Donald knew exactly who she was and wanted to meet her.”
Later that evening after returning to her hotel room, Evans said Daniels kept calling, asking her to come join the party. But Evans wasn’t interested and made up reasons not to go.
“Stormy calls me four or five times, by the last two phone calls she’s with Donald [Trump] and I can hear him, and he’s talking through the phone to me saying, ‘Oh come on Alana, let’s have some fun! Let’s have some fun! Come to the party, we’re waiting for you.’ And I was like, ‘OMG it’s Donald Trump!’ Men like him scare me because they have so much power and this was way before his presidential nomination. So I bailed on them and turned my phone off.”
Boy you can sure see how Trump managed to attract all of that Evangelical support, can't you?
The website, citing two sources, reported that NBC paid the woman $40,000 to settle her claim against Matthews in 1999. An NBC spokesperson told The Daily Caller the network paid a smaller, unspecified amount as part of a severance package.
The woman complained to executives that Matthews, now 71, had made inappropriate comments to her and made inappropriate jokes about her to others.
An MSNBC spokesman told The Daily Caller that Matthews had been slapped with a formal reprimand at the time the woman made her complaint. The website reported that the network decided that the complaints were "inappropriate and juvenile," but were not intended as propositions.
There is no way that this should be unexpected to people who watch Hardball.
Matthews' often uncomfortable remarks toward female guests has been prominently on display for decades.
Even as a male viewer of the program, I have been creeped out by Tweety more than a few times.
However let's keep in mind that according to this story Matthews was NOT trying to sleep with these women nor using his power to bully them. At least as far as we know right now.
And that should puts him in a separate category than the Roy Moore's or Donald Trump's of this world.
I still think he is going to lose his job however.
Rep. Blake Farenthold used taxpayer money to settle a sexual harassment claim brought by his former spokesman — the only known sitting member of Congress to have used a little-known congressional account to pay an accuser, sources told POLITICO.
Lauren Greene, the Texas Republican’s former communications director, sued her boss in December 2014 over allegations of gender discrimination, sexual harassment and creating a hostile work environment.
Greene claimed in the lawsuit that another Farenthold aide told her the lawmaker had “sexual fantasies” and “wet dreams” about Greene. She also claimed that Farenthold “regularly drank to excess” and told her in February 2014 that he was “estranged from his wife and had not had sex with her in years.”
When she complained about comments Farenthold and a male staffer made to her, Greene said the congressman improperly fired her. She filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in the District of Columbia, but the case was later dropped after both parties reached a private settlement.
No information was ever released on that agreement.
You know if somebody had asked me which sitting politician that I thought was definitely going to be called out during this #MeToo campaign I would not have hesitated for a second in point out Farenthold.
I mean not only is this guy Fifty Shades of Creepy, but he looks like he could not get laid in a whorehouse while wearing a suit made of $100 dollar bills.
Oh, and I also wrote about this case back in 2014.
