Discussion: Gates Begins Testimony Against 'Brilliant' Ex-Boss Manafort

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Organized crime. We believe.

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Well now Rick, you think about that. Basically he brilliantly consulted himself into jail for a hundred million years with his brilliance.

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"Manafort, Gates said, was probably the ā€˜most politically brilliant strategist Iā€™ve ever worked with.ā€™ "

And you have worked with exactly how many strageists, Mr. Gates?

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What is Ellisā€™ game here?

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Thatā€™s it, butter him up before chopping off his legs in a single swing.

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Thatā€™s my beef.

These genetically-superior, captains of American industry, titans of the world, truly in the realm of the godsā€¦ are so freaking stupid.

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Itā€™s my understanding that Cypriot bank accounts are the financial equivalent of putting on a burglarā€™s mask and walking around on tiptoe with a window jimmy in your hand. It sends a clear message and the message isnā€™t good.

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lolā€¦ you DO get around!

So, Manifort, Trump, and the entire ā€œfamilyā€ will fight John Q. Public tooth-and-nail over every last thingā€¦ but heyā€¦ this Ukrainian businessman suggests Bank of WhoGivesAShit in Cyprus, and Manifort walks right over there???

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Manafort [is] ā€œone of the most politically brilliant strategists Iā€™ve ever worked with.ā€
Thatā€™s for sure. Without Manafort there wouldnā€™t be a President Trump.

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ā€œGates Begins Testimony Against ā€˜Brilliantā€™ Ex-Boss Manafort.ā€

Well, there goes Gatesā€™ credibilityā€¦

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Please God, let Wilbur Ross"s name come up in the context of banking in Cyprus
.

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Manifort is up to his keister in crime, and Trump is way, way, way worse.

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Just spitballinā€™ here, but that bank in Cyprus ā€“ Iā€™m gonna guess it couldnā€™t possibly have been this one?

Trumpā€™s commerce secretary oversaw Russia deal while at Bank of Cyprus

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ā€œā€¦scolded prosecutors for certain topics of inquiryā€

Sorry but the more I read about this trial, the more Ellis comes across as a partisan asshole.

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Gates also mentioned one of recent employers, President Donald Trump, though he did not use his name.
ā€œI worked for one of the presidential candidates most recently,ā€ Gates said while providing biographical details to the courtroom.

This sounds similar to the footnoting of Trumpā€™s campaign in Carter Pageā€™s FISA warrant application. Will Devin Nunes now issue a memo complaining about this egregious lack of transparency?

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Youā€™ve got to have a 6th sense about who you canā€™t say ā€˜noā€™ to-

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Possibly, itā€™s to make any verdict/sentence potentially against PManafart beyond any reasonable ā€œoverturnā€ decision by one of the repugnican hack-judges further up the appeal process chain?

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His guy is in the White House, and Putinā€™s multi-pronged grab for Ukraine proceeds. Itā€™s hard to argue with results.

Working for evil people isnā€™t even the thing thatā€™s going to bring Manafort down. Itā€™s the fiscal shenanigans he got up to at home. If heā€™d been honest about his backers and finances (Occupation: Chairman of the Joint Henchmen of Staff), and been willing to ā€œtighten his beltā€ (as his party moralistically prattles on about when they occasionally skim too much from the GDP) in these times which were predictably lean, heā€™d be fine.

ETA: This is actually the part that I find scary. It turns out that being an evil bastard isnā€™t against the law, nor is supporting evil bastards or preventing the downfall of evil bastards. The only real purchase the forces of justice have is that evil bastards often cut corners for the sake of expedience, and sometimes there is enough evidence of it to put them on trial.

Al Capone was put away for tax evasion. In a civilized society, he would have been put away for ordering the deaths of his competitors and pursuers, for bribing law enforcement, and for operating myriad protection rackets and the like.

Our laws arenā€™t toothless. But the powerful have removed all the canines because that would interfere with their perennial plans to entrench their power. Itā€™s not their fault that sometimes they get caught up with the rest of us on our way to be ground down by the molars in the back.

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I understand the prosecution intends to call Mayor McCheese and Grimace as material witnesses to that.

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