The fact that this story leaked at all is the equivalent of Mueller grabbing a megaphone and screaming “If you don’t give us what we want, we’ll come to your house and take it.”
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Not necessarily. The agents may have been let in the house by someone else. His teenage son may have been downstairs getting a snack, listening to music or fooling around with his girlfriend. (Note, I am only spitballing here–I don’t know if Manafort has a teenager.) Manafort may be a very sound sleeper. And it may well be that the Post story is wrong on this point. In the context, a no-knock warrant seems highly unlikely.
“The so-called no-knock warrant, which was first reported by The Washington Post, was served at Manafort’s home in Washington’s northern Virginia suburbs on July 26, the day after Manafort met with Senate intelligence committee investigators.”
Business Insider has a similar story up, but I don’t feel like turning off my adblocker to get the link.
Sound sleeper excuse, for instance…still has FBI agents already in the house.
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Perhaps I’m late with this… but has anyone been looking into whether there was a concerted effort by the Trump administration to have everyone leave off foreign contacts? That is, “If everyone “forgets” to list foreign contacts, they can’t very well get rid of all of us.”
Y’all, politics ain’t tiddly winks and it ain’t beanbag. It’s a dirty fucking game, and it requires getting dirty and throwing elbows. We’re not about to win any battles here in regards to the rule of law, due process, or the criminal justice system. That’s not what Blumenthal’s statement is about. Has any Democrat ever in the history of the world been innocent until proven guilty in the eyes of any Republican? No, then stop playing by different rules and expecting to be patted on the head for it. No one respects a punk, political victories aren’t awarded for good behavior. Get em, Blumy!
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And there would be just as many voices from the left screaming “Why don’t Dems get tough?? This is why I can’t be bothered to vote for them!!11!!”
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No, each time someone “forgets” to mention their foreign entanglements, it must be treated as a discrete event, completely unrelated to any other event. This stovepipe mentality is how the MSM agreed to cover the Trump administration’s early scandals, unanimously.
Its only been recently that its dawned on them that these events might actually BE related.
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I don’t know what the significance of this leak is, but turn over the stuff or else seems possible. If Mueller already knows that what he wants exists, fine. You don’t hand it to him, he’ll raid your domiciles.
But for the stuff like DJrs tweet dump, which no one saw coming, I’m not sure what to think. Does fear flush the rats out of the cyber bushes? Are these people under enough surveillance to catch destruction of physical property? Or will this just drive the really valuable vermin deeper underground?
Regardless, if the bedroom door knock, sans front door knock, is an accurate representation of what happened, this is a HUGE shot across the bow for these characters.
No wonder the Orange Idiot has latched onto the threat of nuclear war as a suitable distraction at this point.
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It appears that you have an end in mind and a strategy for achieving it.
Perhaps Blumenthal has a different purpose. And-- no offense-- Blumenthal may be nearly as smart as you.
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I’m positive they took any computers even if they aren’t explicitly mentioned. There is no way they would leave those behind.
I suspect there is at least a FISA warrant for Manafort but I wonder if there is a warrant for his domestic communications as well.
The feds got Al Capone for tax Evasion. our modern Day Capone. Donald Trump. won’t show his Tax Returns. Gee I wonder why? anybody know. ??? lol
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I do hope they seized Manafort’s passport. We wouldn’t want him showing up in Moscow asking for asylum.
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I think we can all agree, this is good news for John McCain! It is not good news for the Vulgar Talking Yam and his gang of criminals, however.
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Midnights raids and no knock warrants are not just bad news for the Trump crew, they are terrible news for the Trump crew.
That’s like a RICO raid.
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Oh, what a tangled web we weave . . . . Bloomberg (via Rawstory) is now reporting that Manafort is the one who alerted the authorities to the June 9, 2016/Trump Jr. meeting with Russian representatives.
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Roger Stone – I know, not a reliable truthteller – said yesterday the agents broke down the front door.
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Agreed. What I have not understood is why Trump thinks these staged debacles he pulls off are helping him in some way. Seems it adds fuel to the “he’s incompetent” fire and Mueller is still turning over rocks. It does helps us to keep from over saturating the news with Russian news. In the long run his distractions are not helping him.
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If you view the tweets as something that does instant harm to Paul (and Donald?), then I agree with you.
If you view the tweets as something that works the refs a bit, and sets the stage for when the indictments come down, then I disagree. There’s going to be a lot of Republican howling and rationalization. The more that the public hears now about how normal indictments are in this case, then the sillier that howling and rationalization will appear. And the more likely the media will be to portray it as silly.
Ultimately we want impeachment to be seen as not an extremist fantasy, but rather as something important that must be done. You have to move press and public opinion from one end-zone to the other somehow. And there are a ton of Republican bullshit-slingers playing defense.
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Exactly, they thought it was just some Russian gangsters doing the money laundering…
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