Michael Cohen reportedly breaks his silence, takes shot at Rudy Giuliani – ThinkProgress

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Rudy Giuliani, as part of a media blitz that began Wednesday night, has created a new narrative around the payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels from Trump’s longtime personal attorney Michael Cohen.

Giuliani claims that Trump, over the course of 2017, repaid Cohen for the $130,000 he sent to Stormy Daniels in 2016 as part of a hush money agreement struck just before the election. And yet Giuliani also claims Trump just found out that he reimbursed Cohen for the money a few days ago. It was Giuliani himself, according to this new narrative, who informed Trump.

Giuliani said he made @realDonaldTrump aware of paperwork that showed payments were actually reimbursements for Stormy. Trump replied: ‘Oh my goodness, I guess that's what it was for,’” Giuliani said.

— Kristen Welker (@kwelkernbc) May 4, 2018

This story is hard to believe. Michael Cohen himself, according to someone who spoke to Cohen directly, says not to believe it.

Donny Deutsch, an advertising executive who has known Cohen and Trump for years, revealed on MSNBC that he had a conversation with Cohen on Thursday. According to Deutsch, in that conversation Cohen said that the narrative Giuliani had constructed around the Stormy Daniels payment was false.

“I spoke with Michael Cohen yesterday, and his [comment] about Giuliani was that he doesn’t know what he’s talking about. He also said that, ‘Look, there are two people that know exactly what happened — myself and the president, and you’ll be hearing my side of the story,’” Deutsch said.

Deutsch described Cohen as “very frustrated” with Giuliani’s attempt to spin the facts.

Cohen is currently the target of a federal investigation in the Southern District of New York. His office, home, and hotel room were raided by the FBI on April 9. Based on the threshold of evidence needed to get authorization for such a raid, Cohen is in grave risk of being indicted.

There is reportedly concern among the Trump camp that Cohen will “flip” — provide damaging information about Trump to prosecutors in exchange for more lenient treatment. Cohen’s conversation with Deutsch yesterday, as reported, is unlikely to alleviate these fears.

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NFL cheerleaders reportedly had to pose topless, escort men out to a nightclub – ThinkProgress

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Cheerleaders for Washington, D.C.’s NFL franchise were required to pose nude and escort male fans out to a nightclub, according to a report Wednesday in The New York Times.

A number of cheerleaders told the Times that they had been required to pose topless or only wearing body paint for a calendar shoot on a 2013 trip to Costa Rica, and that a group of all male sponsors and FedExField suite holders were there to watch the photo shoot.

After a 14-hour day of unpaid work shooting for the calendar and practices, some of the women were told they had been “chosen” by men to be their escorts to a nightclub that night. When they were told to get ready, some reportedly broke down and cried.

“They weren’t putting a gun to our heads, but it was mandatory for us to go,” one of the cheerleaders told the Times. “We weren’t asked, we were told. Other girls were devastated because we knew exactly what she was doing.”

While they weren’t told to have sex with the men, the women said they felt they were being “pimped out.” One woman expressed concern that that type of requirement would continue until something devastating happened.

“It’s just not right to send cheerleaders out with strange men when some of the girls clearly don’t want to go,” she told the Times. “But unfortunately, I feel like it won’t change until something terrible happens, like a girl is assaulted in some way, or raped. I think teams will start paying attention to this only when it’s too late.”

The story also details a “hot or not” game people can play to rate the looks of the cheerleaders on the Washington NFL team’s website and the types of questions the women have been asked in online video interviews, including, “Describe your perfect date” and “What’s the first thing you notice about a man?”

Stephanie Jojokian, the longtime director and choreographer for the cheerleaders, denied that the women were required to escort the men who had chosen them out for the night.

“I was not forcing anyone to go at all,” Ms. Jojokian said. “I’m the mama bear, and I really look out for everybody, not just the cheerleaders. It’s a big family. We respect each other and our craft. It’s such a supportive environment for these ladies.”

Wednesday’s report in the Times is just the latest in a line of stories about the mistreatment of NFL cheerleaders. In recent years, cheerleaders for the Oakland Raiders, Cincinnati Bengals, Buffalo Bills, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and New York Jets have all filed suits fighting to be paid minimum wage — yes, you read that right — for their work.

Last year, ABC News reported that a group of former cheerleaders filed a proposed class action lawsuit against the NFL. The league and the 26 teams who have cheerleaders, they said, “actively conspired to underpay them and keep them from negotiating better salaries.”

In March, The New York Times published a report detailing the way NFL teams control the lives of their cheerleaders, including forcing them to leave restaurants, parties, or other events if a player is present.

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Fake antifa posts reportedly tricked police into massive show of force for neo-Nazi rally – ThinkProgress

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One of the big questions hanging over last month’s neo-Nazi rally in the small town of Newnan, Georgia centers on the outsized police presence that showed up to keep tabs on the event.

Why did hundreds of heavily armed police — numbering some 700, according to an estimate from Slate — show up in force for a paltry turnout of a few dozen white supremacists, going so far as to swing their guns at counter-protesters? Why did police act like they expected thousands more people, who could potentially incite violence, to arrive?

Thanks to a public records request, we may finally have an answer — and one that doesn’t reflect well on local authorities.

So #Newnan is a town of 38,000 and their police look like this today pic.twitter.com/zX54ATnCgH

— Christopher Mathias (@letsgomathias) April 21, 2018

Emails obtained by Unicorn Riot  —  a self-described “decentralized… non-profit media organization” — revealed that officials from the Coweta County Sheriff’s Office shared a Facebook post with one another in the lead-up to the rally claiming that counter-protesters in Newnan had dotted the city with stockpiles of “urine, feces, cans of peper spray or wasp spray, [and] ball bats,” among other weapons.

The post estimated that upwards of 13,000 white supremacists and counter-protests may show up, and claimed that people “will be targeted if [they] wear any clothing supporting trump [sic], America, or anything that leans to the right.”

Lieutenant Colonel Tony Grant, who forwarded the Facebook post to the rest of the higher-ups at the Coweta County Sheriff department, wrote, “Don’t guess these folks have heard of TEAM COWETA!!!!!”

There was one major problem, though: The Facebook post the Coweta County Sheriff’s officers shared with one another appears not to be from any reputable information source, but from the Facebook account of Clay Perry, a self-described “patriot” who said he’s “read [antifa] propaganda for a while now.”

One commenter on Perry’s wrote, “Left alone the Nazis would march right through town and out the other side. Antifa will bring the violence.” Added another who shared the post, “George Soros invading Newnan, Ga!!”

However, a stray Facebook post from a self-described “patriot” doesn’t appear to be the only bit of social media flotsam that informed local authorities’ massive security presence. Unicorn Riot pointed to another Facebook post shared by the city from an account called Valdosta Antifa. The post pledged that 10,000 antifa activists would show up at the rally — there to erect “status of Pauly Shore” and “to turn the fricken [sic] frogs gay.”

The post, as it is, is clearly satirical. (As the post closed, “You know, Valdosta Antifa is really just three kids in a trench coat and fake mustache right?”) It is unclear why the city cited the post in a request for information about security preparations.

Newnan Police Chief Douglas “Buster” Meadows did not return ThinkProgress’ request for comment.

Fake antifa posts have, of course, fooled others. But the local officials tasked with keeping Newnan safe appear to be the first police and security officers so clearly fooled by fake antifa material, and to have that fake material inform their own security decisions.

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