Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has been caught spreading a dangerous lie about Donald Trump Jr. being part of a “criminal conspiracy.”
“ICYMI: Rep. Khanna got Cohen to testify that Don Jr. is the ‘second executive involved in criminal conspiracy,’” the socialist superstar tweeted on Friday.
ICYMI: Rep. Khanna got Cohen to testify that Don Jr. is the “second executive involved in criminal conspiracy.”
His line of questioning was a very big deal. (He also happens to be a progressive Rep that rejects corporate money!)
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) March 1, 2019
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Breitbart.com reports: But all Ocasio-Cortez is doing here is spreading a lie told by the prison-bound Michael Cohen during his congressional testimony this week.
All of this nonsense surrounds the perfectly legal hush money President Trump paid to porn star Stormy Daniels. She blackmailed the president during the campaign and threatened to go public with the claim the two of them had a one night stand a dozen years ago.
He ended up paying her off, which is not illegal.
On Wednesday, Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) asked Cohen about the money. The exchange went like this:
Mr. Khanna: The criminal charge against you then states that executive one forwarded your invoice to someone referred to as executive two, presumably Donald Trump Jr., who’s signing this check as executive two, correct?
Mr. Cohen: I believe so.
Mr. Khanna: Are you telling us, Mr. Cohen, that the president directed transactions in conspiracy with Allen Weisselberg and his son, Donald Trump Jr., as part of a civil — as part of a criminal conspiracy of financial fraud, is that your testimony today?
Mr. Cohen: Yes.
The only problem is that none of that is true, as the Wall Street Journal made clear on Wednesday:
In the afternoon session, Mr. Cohen identified the president’s son, apparently incorrectly, as an unnamed Trump Organization executive referenced in the charging documents filed against him by federal prosecutors in New York.
The executives were referenced in connection with the plan to reimburse Mr. Cohen for the payment to Stormy Daniels. In the charging document, federal prosecutors said the first executive, Mr. Weisselberg, forwarded an invoice from Mr. Cohen to the second executive, and it was approved.
The Journal has previously identified “Executive-1” as Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg. Mr. Cohen testified today that “Executive-2” in the charging document was Donald Trump Jr.
To sum up: a) Trump Jr. was not identified in the charging document and b) there is no “criminal conspiracy,” as Ocasio-Cortez alleges.
Even after being confronted with the facts, Ocasio-Cortez chose to double down:
How is anything I said a lie? Rep. Khanna did in fact ask Cohen the question, and Cohen implicated the President and his son in criminal conspiracy.
If you take issue with Cohen’s testimony, perhaps that’s a good reason for us to call in further witnesses.
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) March 1, 2019
To begin with, paying off a blackmailing porn star with your own money is not illegal, nor does it prove the two of them slept together. As Cohen mentioned in his testimony, Trump has been forced to pay off liars in the past.
Secondly, keeping a payoff a secret is not a crime.
Most importantly, the worst Trump is guilty of here (and he’s not) is a campaign finance violation. Democrats and Dirty Cops in the Justice Department want us to believe the payoff should have been listed on Trump’s campaign finance reports as a “campaign expense.” Even if that were true (and it’s not), the worse case scenario is the campaign being hit with a fine.
The reason this is not a campaign finance violation is simple: Trump has been paying off this kind of blackmail for decades. Cohen admitted that during his testimony, which means this is not a campaign finance violation because you only have to report something as a campaign expense if that expense is specific to the campaign.
In other words, if you would have incurred this expense if you were not running for office, there is no requirement to report the expense.
If Trump has been making these payoffs going back more than a decade, if there is a pattern of Trump incurring these expenses to protect his reputation, marriage, and private life, then there is no way this is a campaign expense.
Although she has only been in the U.S. House of Representatives a couple of months, Ocasio-Cortez has already been caught deceiving voters on numerous occasions.
