The use of a pejorative term like “oligarch” is just laying the foundation for an appeal from a conviction. The facts should speak for themselves, and should not need the embellishment of such words as “oligarch,” however well founded.
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Or “persons on the sanctions list”?
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By doing this, Judge Ellis has indeed firmly planted in the jury’s mind that a. Russian oligarch’s are nasty people and b. Manafort hangs with oligarchs. He’s made a mess of it. Without his interference, each member of the jury would make the connection on their own, or maybe not.
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Oligarch is perfectly descriptive, appropriate and well understood. Calling them robber barons would also be truthful, but much more pejorative.
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I agree. As you say, the facts speak for themselves, so the trial can be conducted without the embellishment of any words at all, however well-founded they may be.
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I believe this discussion was outside the jury’s hearing.
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Ellis ordered the government to file briefs to defend the use of the term, which he said was “pejorative.”
No, “oligarch” is not pejorative, any more than “Reagan appointee” is.
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I do find this worrisome, because to me it betrays a rather large misunderstanding about what the word ‘oligarch’ means in this context. It’s not simply ‘perjorative.’ Nor is it simply an English word. “Oligarkh” / oligarch is the word that Russians use to describe not simply wealthy people, but specifically people whose wealth is both stratospheric and linked to their direct connection to a power structure, which means, anymore, Putin. In other words, it’s not just saying, this dude is a plutocrat–a proverbial ‘Rockefeller’ – or this dude is a bad rich guy. It’s a term that connotes the specific combination of wealth and political corruption.
Not to use ‘oligarch’ in this context in effect launders who these people are seen to be (and who they demonstrably are, in that their deep wealth and deep political corruption is often well documented). This sounds like the action of a judge who either doesn’t get that or is so worried about the feelings of wealthy people here in the US he’s willing to somehow ignore it.
Either way, that’s a problem because the whole case against Manafort isn’t just that he was associating with shady people but rather that he was working for and with people known to be power brokers of political corruption with direct ties to the Putin government. That context is very relevant here, and inventing euphemisms for people like Oleg Deripaska (‘a businessman from Donetsk who has done well’) doesn’t communicate that to the jury or (in point of fact) to the judge.
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Thanks. it wasn’t clear from the article.
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Excuse me ? For a me ‘Oligarch’ just implies a person with immensely more wealth and influence, than I can dream of… I’m sure the typical Trump voter sees them as role models…
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I disagree with this, for reasons stated below. “Oligarch” is not merely perjorative. It has substantive content in the Russian context. They use the word in that world to refer not merely to rich people, but to people whose money is directly linked to their connection to either criminal organizations (in the 1990s) or Putin’s power structure (today). The word connotes a baked-in connection between money and power and corruption that people need to know about.
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Well, believe it or not, I think you’re right.
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Ah, I didn’t know, the jura was Russian. My apologies…
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[quote=“sniffit, post:16, topic:75512”]
Paul was just doing some run-of-the-mill honest business with people he totally believed to be nothing but honest, normal blokes who had no demonstrable connections to insane wealth and power in the Russian political stratosphere or motives to hire a guy to do dirty work for them. Just basic Average Joes hiring another basic Averge Joe to do some legitimate public relations work and lobbying.
[/quote]I hired the same kind of guy when I ran for the School Board.
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Perhaps it would be good idea, then, to avoid the shock of spoken words, to conduct the trial using semaphore flags, or an Aldis lamp.
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Smoke signals.
Manafort still has money to burn.
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“Interpretive Dance !”
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Webster- An Oligarch is a member or supporter of an oligarchy, which is defined as a government in which a small group exercises control especially for corrupt and selfish purposes. e.g. a military oligarchy was established in the country; also : a group exercising such control An oligarchy ruled the nation.
So instead of saying oligarch, just say " a member of a government in which a small group exercises control, especially for corrupt and selfish purposes." and use the entire phrase every time. The jury will get the picture.
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I am hoping that this is being done just to shut down an obvious avenue for appeal. I wonder what the briefs for and against will look like, and whether they have to be vetted for factual content.
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[quote=“ralph_vonholst, post:35, topic:75512”]
Perhaps it would be good idea, then, to avoid the shock of spoken words, to conduct the trial using semaphore flags, or an Aldis lamp.
[/quote]
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