Pro tip to all upcoming defendants:
Donât try to throw your minions under the bus.
Ainât no buses there for you. Mueller has repossessed them.
And to top it off, most of the charges on the indictment are easy to prove. Not did you act knowingly and in bad faith, but simply did you register as a foreign agent or did you notify the government of a foreign bank account. Manafort and Gates are fucked so many ways.
Just like Mail Fraud: Lawyer Fraud.
Muellerâs team knows what they are doing.
Whatever happens with Trump, Manafort appears to be well and truly fucked.
Unless he has the goods on Trump, (and/or numerous members of Trumpâs inner circle) in which case he might at least avoid a long prison term, by cutting a deal with Mueller.
Or, theoretically, he might get pardoned by Trump. At this point that seems legally possible, because the current charges donât implicate Trump himself.
But even if he were to get pardoned, Iâm guessing some of these charges may be prosecutable at the state level, where Trump has no pardon power.
If thatâs the case, Manafort might be better off without the pardon. A federal minimum-security facility like the the âClub Fedâ in Danbury CT (where many white collar criminals end up), may start looking like a pretty decent option to him, when compared to a New York state penitentiary.
So, this should scare the living SHIT out of Trump who has made a career of hiding his illegal acts in Attorney-Client privilege.
Mueller is using every tool in his toolshed and busting the A-T Privilege totally exposes EVERYTHING these treasonous assholes have done, and open the Attorney to criminal charges too! (one more person to Flip!)
The FCPA is his most powerful tool for this has he IS using it.
Laurenzaâs counsel sent a letter to Mueller
Thus earning Melissa a coveted MAGA hat.
Manafort is in his late 60âs so, if he gets a 25-year sentence (minimum for âConspiracyâ) he will die in prison.
He should think long and hard about that.
Spiro Agnewâs lawyer claims that isnât necessarily a problem â that he could take the Fifth in that case:
Mueller and his team are really covering all of the bases with their procedures; showing that a client lied to the lawyer should put every person who is in the Trump orbit on edge, because if they have also been caught lying to their lawyers Mueller will be able to show it. The case against Manafort and Gates appears to be really tightâŚthe question is if either of them know anything about Trump that they can use to get out from under the charges with a lenient plea. Though, I have a feeling that they are going to stick to their stories and arenât willing to help Mueller (at least not yet), and who knows what other charges Mueller has in store for them.
The people being investigated should compare with Papadopoulus, who admitted to what he did and just got a relatively minor chargeâŚMueller is showing that people who cooperate and are (eventually) honest will get leniency, but if they donât he will hammer them. If I was in the Trump orbit and hadnât done anything wrong, Iâd be tempted to go to Mueller voluntarily and tell everything I knew, just to get in front of any possible guilt by association splashing on me.
And, you just know this is only the first stepâŚMueller is being strategic in what he has released, heâs trying to push for cooperation and show that there are real crimes being investigated. Depending on the reaction he gets from the possible targets, things may start to move a lot faster, especially if it seems like Trump will try to undercut the investigation. Mueller is definitely a patriot, and he wonât stop until heâs wrung every criminal indictment he can out of thisâŚthe real question I have is how many people just fall on their swords to save Trump, and if thatâs enough to keep him from being swept up in it. I suspect a lot will stupidly try to save Trump, but with the Papadopoulos statement including that Trump was involved in a meeting discussing Russian cooperation in the very first conviction, it seems likely that Trump will get nailed too.
And then beings the Constitutional crisis, and we find out how many Republicans are beholden to party more than country (and before you say all of them remember Mueller is a Republican).
My impression is that Mueller has a lot more dirt on Manafort than what was in the indictments uncovered yesterday, particularly around the central question of whether the Trump campaign colluded with Putin and the Russian spy agencies to interfere/hack our election. As it is now, Manafort is being charged with very serious crimes but other, even more serious charges are still out there, waiting to be brought forward. Issuing a pardon for Manafort doesnât do the President any good right now - indictments against Manafort that directly implicate the Presidentâs campaign could still be brought forward later*. The President is boxed in - if he grants a pardon, Manafort would be compelled to testify on the ongoing investigation, further strengthening the case against the President. If he doesnât issue a pardon, Mueller can apply even more pressure on Manafort to cooperate before new charges are added to the current indictments.
*unless it is a âblanketâ pardon, which would in effect be an admission by the President that all these charges against the President are true and that he is fully compromised as our Commander in Chief.
Manafort can take the fifth all he wants, and that may help Trump, but it doesnât protect Manafort from being prosecuted in state court if heâs pardoned by Trump.
The fifth is just protection against being compelled to testify against yourself. And it looks like Mueller doesnât need Manafortâs testimony, nor much in the way of testimony by anyone else, to nail Manafort on the charges that were filed last week. He appears to have Manafort (and Gates) dead to rights based on documents.
So, while that maneuvering could help Trump, Manafortâs still up shitâs creek as far as I can tell.
ft. leavenworth is in kansas. traitors donât do time at club fed.
But on top of all of that, âI beg your pardon Governor Cuomoâ doesnât have same ring that âI beg your pardon O Great Orange Oneâ does (and wonât have anywhere near the same effect either). Manafort and Gates are well and truly, and deservedly, screwed.
(The special counsel would later call the think tank, the European Centre for a Modern Ukraine, a âmouth pieceâ for the political party, in the Manafort-Gates indictment.)
Just like The Heritage FoundationâŚ
A question; will Laurenzaâs lawyers need lawyers? Asking for a friend.
They might, but theyâre going to have trouble finding them because People Familar are speculating that the lawyerâs lawyers might needâŚ
Like Chinese boxes, or Russian dolls.
What I read elsewhere (maybe Renato Mariotti) is that Manafort is completely fucked, and will die in prison. That is, unless he is pardoned.
Remember, itâs highly probable that these are not the only charges Manafort will face. Muellerâs message is that Manafort is irrevocably cooked nowâso donât wait to start cooperating.
Manafort
And
Gates
Arrested.