Discussion: Accountant Testimony Suggests Gates, Manafort Wanted Doctored Docs

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21

I’d be surprised if it goes beyond August.

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“Paying taxes is for losers”, a basic tenet of Trump and even the ‘legitimate’ uber-rich.

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This discussion tells us why Trump is going ape shit. It’s reminding him of what tons of financial info Mueller has on him, maybe even his income taxes.

He has to be thinking, “This is what they’ll do to me”.

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Testimony from Cindy LaPorta, an immunized witness in Paul Manafort’s trial who worked as his tax accountant, suggested that Manafort and Rick Gates requested inappropriate changes to tax documents and doctored letters in order to inflate income on loan applications.

She “suggested”?

Nothing stronger, because she’s “immunized”?

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good analysis: https://www.newyorker.com/news-desk/swamp-chronicles/what-the-paul-manafort-trial-could-tell-us-about-the-mueller-investigation?mbid=nl_Daily%20073118&CNDID=27073343&utm_source=Silverpop&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Daily%20073118&utm_content=&spMailingID=13983184&spUserID=MTMzMTgyODA4NzM3S0&spJobID=1460099573&spReportId=MTQ2MDA5OTU3MwS2

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No, because she can’t speak to their actual intent.

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Woah! Good catch

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29

Three weeks I believe.

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30

How about she “testified”?

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31

Hmmm. As you note, this trial wasn’t supposed to touch on the particulars of the Trump campaign. Maybe this is the prosecution’s way of back-dooring that info into this trial.

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I don’t think that her testimony about the benefits they get from lying (e.g., would get a better rate") is evidence of their actual intent. Intent might be an inference that the jury can draw. I guess you disagree? I’m no expert but think there’s a circle to be closed by the evidence

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The books were cooked? Put a fork in him, Manafort is done.

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34

Just the doc to doctor docs.

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35

So the whole trial should take about 48 minutes.

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36

At some point in the trial I hope to understand what value the clients of Manafort that made it seem like it is reasonable to pay him these insane fees? If he sold them guns, gold bars, diamonds it would make sense, but he sells jaw flapping. How can his flapping jaws and the words coming out be so much more valuable than some post doc Russian studies fellow or even a busboy at a restaurant in Kiev?

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It could be part of a season-long arc…

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Gates and Manafort wanted doctored docs, but whoever doctored the docs was no doc doctorer. He (or she) (okay, it was Gates) was a back-alley coat-hanger wielder, a scraper, and a baby unmaker, an unmacher if you will. And now the patient is bleeding out, and the blood bank is fresh out of the right type, and the bills are piling up, and the piper must be paid, but the rats don’t have the cash and the villagers have washed their hands of the whole shebang.

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39

I’m betting none of the jurors really qualify as his “peers”. If this trial has proved anything, it’s proved that it’s probably a LOT of work to spend ultra-rich amounts of money. And you end up with useless stuff like closets full of clothes you are unlikely to wear more than once or twice, hyper-expensive karaoke systems when you probably can’t sing a lick, and your initial done in landscape art. None of these jurors are in that league or we would have heard about it by now.

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So what if he’s pardoned, tRump can only pardon Federal crimes. It’s my understanding that with a Presidential Pardon you concede your guilt and you are pardoned for the charges. Nothing stops his home state from picking up that fight and I’d bet this trial will provide the discovery to open a slew of state level charges that tRump can not pardon.

Manafort also has a second play-date in court to worry about too. I’m saving up popcorn for that trial because I’m guessing that is where it will get really interesting.