Cuomo's Right: New York's Not Great.

On August 15th (15/8/18) New York State Democrat Governor Andrew Cuomo made comments as he signed a bill into law.

He mocked President Donald Trump's 2016 campaign slogan; "Make America Great Again." By declaring that America has never been great.

Yesterday (21/8/18) evening we got a clear lesson in why, if you live in New York, you would think all of America was some Third World, failed state.

The Democrat Deputy States Attorney for South New York Robert Khuzami announced a plea agreement he had announced with Michael Cohen. Formally President Trump's personal attorney.

Cohen's guilty plea related to five counts of personal income tax fraud. One count of making a false statements to obtain credit (for a Taxi cab business). Two counts of making or arranging for excessive donations to be made to political campaign.

Details of these charges were only made public yesterday evening. So like most people I am still trying to detail the exact nature of the offences. Along with any evidence prosecutors may be using to justify them.

However from what I know about Michael Cohen it seems likely that he is guilty of the first six counts. Relating to personal tax fraud and making false statements to obtain credit.

It does though seem highly unlikely that the remaining two counts relating to campaign financing could have existed. Let alone that Cohen is guilty of them.

Individually each of these eight counts are significant. Collectively they carry a maximum sentence of 65 years in prison. Which is significantly more than the 3 to 5 years Cohen has agreed to under the plea deal.

The first six counts relating to tax and credit fraud also carry with them a significant penalty. In the form of asset forfeiture.

Even without proving them to be the proceed of crime this allows prosecutors to seize the assets of the individual along with the assets of the individuals immediate family such as spouse and children. Effectively bankrupting the entire family.

Clearly what prosecutors have done in this case is promise Cohen not to use asset forfeiture in the first six counts. In return for Cohen also offering a false guilty plea to the last two counts and making false statements to implicate President Trump.

If Cohen were to reject the deal and go to trial he would almost certainly be completely cleared on the counts relating to campaign financing.

However prosecutors would only need to to secure a conviction on one of the other counts to invoke asset forfeiture to bankrupt the entire Cohen family.

The tax fraud counts are extremely easy to secure a conviction on.

Prosecutors simply need to demonstrate a single error on any one of Cohen's tax returns over a period between 2012 and 2016. If all Americans tax returns were subjected to this level of scrutiny then it is likely that most of them could be convicted of some sort of tax fraud.

The count relating to making false statements to obtain credit is even easier to secure a conviction on. All prosecutors need to do is demonstrate a claim made on a form to be untrue. Something which is extremely easy to do when trying to estimate the profits of a business over the period of a loan.

Under this level of intimidation it is hardly surprising that Cohen has decided to enter two false guilty pleas. However it is really surprising that the Judge has allowed the prosecutor to get away with this sort of corrupt practice and accept the plea deal.

To secure a conviction on either of the two campaign financing counts prosecutors would have to prove that electability is the sole and only reason why Cohen would have paid Stormy Daniels to keep quiet.

I can certainly think of quite a few other reasons why a married man would want to keep claims of an affair quiet. Particularly when those claims are false, salacious and likely to be discussed in front of the man's 11 year old child.

I think what is telling about the case is that it was initially investigated by the Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller. However rather than seeing anything Cohen could offer in terms of prosecuting Trump Mueller dumped the case on New York's State's Attorney's office.

As part of the plea deal New York's State's Attorney have not sought, let alone compelled, Cohen's further cooperation against Trump. They know that such corrupt practice leading to two false convictions would only harm any wider case.

All they're interested in is the headlines created by Cohen's false guilty pleas. They think this will be enough to win their Democrat Party votes against Trump's Republican Party in the upcoming November mid-term elections.

One of the most blatant and serious violations of the Hatch Act ever seen.

I should also point of that here in Britain we have just received a sharp lesson in Stormy Daniels and her integrity.

There is a show called; "Celebrity Big Brother." This involves celebrities being put into a house together and forced to perform tasks over the course of around a month. All while being filmed for our entertainment.

The current season which launched on August (16/8/18) is built entirely around the premise that Stormy Daniels would be amongst the cast. In fact the full title of the season is; "Celebrity Big Brother: The Eye of the Storm."

The house is built to resemble the US Presidential White House. The first task involves one of the housemates being designated; "President of the House." This President of the House has then been trying to get the other housemates to build a wall around the house in order to protect it from immigrants.

Knowing how integral she was to this season Stormy Daniels turned up on the launch day and refused to participate unless her appearance fee was tripled.

The show producers were not going to be shaken down in this way so refused. This prompted Stormy Daniels and her lawyer Michael Avenatti to make all sort of false and libellous claims against the producers.

Including that the producers has initially sent her a false contract saying she had would only need to appear for a single day rather than a full season. That the producers had asked Stormy Daniels to adopt a persona for the entertainment show and she had refused on moral grounds.

The most ridiculous claim being that the producers threatened to harm Stormy Daniels if she didn't immediately leave the country after refusing to participate in the show.

The Celebrity Big Brother producers had of course sponsored a work visa for Stormy Daniels on the basis that she would be working for them on the show. With Stormy Daniels quitting that job the visa instantly became invalid.

As sponsors of the visa the shows producers would be committing a host of immigration offences if Stormy Daniels had remained in the country. Particularly if she worked illegally.

It goes without saying though that Andrew Cuomo's brother, CNN host Chris Cuomo has been trying to put a very different spin on things.

15:55 on 22/8/18 (UK date).