Ronan Farrow reports: Missing Files Motivated the Leak of Michael Cohen’s Financial Records

[Anonymous]

https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/missing-files-motivated-the-leak-of-michael-cohens-financial-records

Last week, several news outlets obtained financial records showing that Michael Cohen, President Trump’s personal attorney, had used a shell company to receive payments from various firms with business before the Trump Administration. In the days since, there has been much speculation about who leaked the confidential documents, and the Treasury Department’s inspector general has launched a probe to find the source. That source, a law-enforcement official, is speaking publicly for the first time, to The New Yorker, to explain the motivation: the official had grown alarmed after being unable to find two important reports on Cohen’s financial activity in a government database. The official, worried that the information was being withheld from law enforcement, released the remaining documents.

Still reading to understand how Avenatti got this info. May be someone sent it to him...

[Anonymous]

Someone gots some 'splaining to do. It could be Mnuchin. Whose fingerprints are on this.

Mueller will find out.

[Anonymous]

In the real world IMPOTUS would have resigned a year ago. However we are now occupying tabloid politics LaLa land where reports like this are considered teasers.

[Anonymous]

Trumpsters going to get burned from hiding evidence.

[Anonymous]

The info that was released showed Cohen’s shell company receiving payments of about $1m to sell access to trump. Already the groups that made these payments are cleaning house. The general counsel of Novartis was forced out this week because of this.

Now this new disclosure shows Cohen got an additional $3m in payments.

Crook.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The info that was released showed Cohen’s shell company receiving payments of about $1m to sell access to trump. Already the groups that made these payments are cleaning house. The general counsel of Novartis was forced out this week because of this.

Now this new disclosure shows Cohen got an additional $3m in payments.

Crook.

The $3m is so sensitive that the information is hidden, which is unheard of...

[Anonymous]

Wow. Seriously. Can this story get any stranger?

[Anonymous]

Wow. Nice investigative work, everyone.

[Anonymous]

I’d like to believe that Mueller requested the reports to be hidden due to the explosive information in them. I believe if trump and his mob were behind this they would have deleted all of them not just a couple.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’d like to believe that Mueller requested the reports to be hidden due to the explosive information in them. I believe if trump and his mob were behind this they would have deleted all of them not just a couple.

But then why wasn't the 3rd report hidden?

No, this was incompetently done. Now who does that describe?

[Anonymous]

the SARS weren't deleted - that's dumb. they were probably removed or restricted to prevent leaking. the whistleblower saw the 3rd report that was not restricted yet.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:the SARS weren't deleted - that's dumb. they were probably removed or restricted to prevent leaking. the whistleblower saw the 3rd report that was not restricted yet.

It’s probably in the New Yorker article, but in this Slate article https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/05/whistleblower-leaked-damning-cohen-financial-documents-because-they-were-disappearing-from-government-financial-crimes-database.html?via=homepage_taps_top the whistleblower says that doesn’t happen.

This is a big deal. That you aren’t outraged suggest you’re part of the problem.

[Anonymous]

I read the Slate article and am hoping someone can explain in plain English.
- someone noticed reports were disappearing. Is it like, they saw it in the database one day and went to look the next day and it was gone? But they have no way to prove it was there the day before?
- Shouldn't the bank have a copy of the report? The article says the bank filed the report into the database
- Doesn't the database have an audit trail that would show anything that was removed/deleted?

I guess this whistleblower was trying to call attention but now that that's done, it seems like it shouldn't be too hard to piece together what happened.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I read the Slate article and am hoping someone can explain in plain English.
- someone noticed reports were disappearing. Is it like, they saw it in the database one day and went to look the next day and it was gone? But they have no way to prove it was there the day before?
- Shouldn't the bank have a copy of the report? The article says the bank filed the report into the database
- Doesn't the database have an audit trail that would show anything that was removed/deleted?

I guess this whistleblower was trying to call attention but now that that's done, it seems like it shouldn't be too hard to piece together what happened.

Well yeah, but Mnuchin will be so busy looking for the whistleblower that that won’t happen.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I read the Slate article and am hoping someone can explain in plain English.
- someone noticed reports were disappearing. Is it like, they saw it in the database one day and went to look the next day and it was gone? But they have no way to prove it was there the day before?
- Shouldn't the bank have a copy of the report? The article says the bank filed the report into the database
- Doesn't the database have an audit trail that would show anything that was removed/deleted?

I guess this whistleblower was trying to call attention but now that that's done, it seems like it shouldn't be too hard to piece together what happened.

All good points. The NYer article said the bank wouldn't comment, which of course it would not do because these reports are confidential. Still.... I'm sure the bank has a copy!! They filed it!! And if the bank has a copy, then Mueller has a copy.

Sure is interesting. I think a lot more people are going to lose their jobs when the truth about the other $3 million in payments to Cohen comes out.