Fima Shusterman, Cohen's criminal father-in-law that Gaetz and Trump are talking about

[muriel_volestrangler]

Matt Gaetz's references to Cohen's father-in-law need explaining, and that hasn't happened much. He's a figure in New York organised crime; so saying "I know you cheated on his daughter, Cohen" is a highly threatening thing. This isn't about whether he'll get snubbed at the cigar bar; this is about a man involved in organised crime. From the reliable Talking Points Memo:

Fima Shusterman, the father-in-law, is a Ukrainian immigrant who pled guilty to a money-laundering charge in 1993. Law enforcement sources told Seth Hettena they suspected Shusterman had been a silent partner in some of Trump’s ventures years ago. Indeed, Shusterman seems to have been the original connection between the two men.
...

Link to tweet

It’s a quick excursion through Cohen’s various lies and the fact that he’s about to go to jail for those lies. Then at one point Gaetz asks this run of rhetorical questions: “Does he lie to his own family? Does he lie to his financiers? Does he lie to his financiers who are members of his family?”

That’s kind of an oddly specific subset question if you don’t know any context: Does he lie to his financiers who are members of his family? Remember, Shusterman is a conduit for money out of Ukraine and Russia. He pled guilty to a money laundering related crime. All evidence suggests that it was with Shusterman’s money and connections that Cohen built his fortune. That odd last question is obviously a reference to Shusterman.

Now, maybe Gaetz is just a close reader of all the posts I’ve done on this topic. Or, somewhat more likely, maybe he’s just listened very closely to all of Trump’s comments about Shusterman and meshed those with research into Cohen’s financial history in the taxi business, business ventures in Ukraine and other all-cash businesses popular with ex-Soviet emigres in Brooklyn. Certainly possible. But I think there’s a more likely possibility: That Gaetz got this all from Trump himself. Again, they appear to talk all the time and he’s given Gaetz suggestions and goads like this in the past.

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/prime-beta/did-matt-gaetz-get-his-cohen-marching-orders-from-boss-trump

(subscription only link, but it turned up in the general TPM RSS feed)

[Panich52]

1. Just heard the disgusting Trump sychophant apologized and deleted his tweet

Like it hasn't been screenshot numerous times. And like any rational person actually believes the sincerity of his apology.

[George II]

5. I took a screen shot of it the minute I saw it, knowing...

... he'd eventually wind up deleting it. There are probably tens of thousands of screen shots out there.

[moondust]

2. Cohen previously postponed his testimony

after Trump threatened his family. Gaetz may be following the Trump playbook trying to silence him again--maybe permanently this time if he "gets the message."

Speaking of threats, I wonder if Cohen has said anything new about the threat Stormy Daniels claims she received in a parking lot in 2011. Maybe somebody should ask him about it.

"And a guy walked up on me and said to me, 'Leave Trump alone. Forget the story,'" Daniels said. "And then he leaned around and looked at my daughter and said, 'That's a beautiful little girl. It'd be a shame if something happened to her mom.' And then he was gone."

http://www.cnn.com/2018/03/25/politics/60-minutes-stormy-daniels-interview-main/index.html

[Bernardo de La Paz]

3. Gaetz is tRump sycophant. Entirely possible Gaetz prompted by tRump sometime to threaten Cohen. . nt

[FM123]

4. Yes, I think you are right!

[Achilleaze]

7. republican Comrade Dirty Donny* likely gave Gaetz the slime to sling

This has republican Dirty Donny* written all over it.

* aka republican Draft-dodger-in-Chief

[sinkingfeeling]

6. Hey, Matt, does that apply to your king, Don the Con, as well?

[Vinca]

8. It's all a giant spider web of a mafia organization. On the other side you've got Jared's

father who Chris Christie sent to the big house. The one thing they all have in common is Donald Trump.

[True Blue American]

9. Matt Gaetz History

Funny, Matt is calling Cohen a liar while he is defending the worst liar on earth!

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matt_Gaetz#Drunk_driving_arrest_and_speeding_tickets

[PatSeg]

10. Yeah

This guy is hard one to be casting stones. Privileged punk.

[DallasNE]

11. How Does This Help Trump

Cohen was Trump's go to guy to fix (make go away) many unseemly and risky ventures Trump would engage in. The shade Gaetz is throwing here also tars Trump, including exposing Trump as a liar.


And while all of this is going on at home Trump is in Vietnam relying on Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov, rather than his own Secretary of State, to negotiate with North Korea's Kim. Now what could possibly go wrong with that arrangement. The guy is unstable or worse.

[muriel_volestrangler]

12. They want 2 things: first, for Cohen to say as little as possible

because that embarrasses Trump. So Gaetz is saying they know how to turn the connected Shusterman against Cohen - which puts Cohen in both financial and physical danger.

Secondly, they want to discredit Cohen as much as possible, so that they can say "he's a huge liar, don't trust anything he says". They need to paint him as some fantasist who is claiming a closer connection to Trump than they want to admit to.