Our long national Infrastructure Week is coming to an end.
It’s all over but the womping.
They’re going to need a bigger umbrella.
One of the witches goes to trial. Just wondering how many more witches they’ll find and what type of spells did they use?
U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis at a hearing Monday morning said he would unseal the documents that would reveal the identities of the immunized witnesses.
I feel like making some popcorn.
Why does Manafort want to delay? He’s currently in prison, which is where he’ll be after the trial…what’s the difference?
Wow!
Paulie’s got little time left to make a deal, not looking likely.
So when will we hear who the 5 immunized folks are? Pretty curious.
From what I gather, 2 of them are his crooked bankers who set up the loans that effectively laundered the money…
the judge in the case ordered the testimony of five witnesses granted immunity by special Counsel Robert Mueller’s team.
What does that mean exactly? He’s asking for paperwork that summarizes what each person will say and who that person is? A list of names that will be made public? Testimony that they gave in Grand Jury proceedings and then he’ll reveal the names, but not the testimony itself? I’m confused.
Doesn’t matter — Mueller uses spellcheck.
I suspect (but do not know) that
- these witnesses would normally be charged for the same crimes as Manafort or even as co-defendants
- but conviction of Manafort takes priority as leverage in pursuit of slam-dunk case against Benedict Donald
- the grant of immunity is therefore also to immunize these witnesses from a Trump pardon as much as it is immunity from criminal prosecution
Just speculation: IANAL and, occasional weakness aside, do try not to play one online.
I think it means that their testimony in open court would normally be self incriminatory but the grant of immunity allows them to confess to criminal acts without legal consequence. While putting Manafort down for a long long time. Time to roll over, paulie if you can.
Good question. First speculation is there is some grand target date for something to occur but Mueller as well as others are moving faster than thought. Couple that last thought with a dawning understanding that the players were not as invisible as they thought.
Well that’s gonna be special!
His two daughters?
I expect most of these witnesses to be names we don’t know but people who were in unique positions to observe Manfort’s fraudulent ways and who ay have helped him, wittingly or unwittingly. Obviously the big names would be political advisors like Tad Devine or Tony Podesta. Devine being brought on as a witness would be damaging to Bernie Sanders’ chances of doing much in the Democratic primary. The taint of association with the Russia scandal would cause a lot of voters to want to look somewhere else and not relive 2016. There’s little chance he could do any better African American voters than he did in '16. His female supporters in particular would likely drop off and go to other candidates. His minority millennial support would also likely drop off. He would have to try to take advantage of a split field.
I’m hoping, when their identities are revealed, that Mueller makes arrangements for their security.
It’s not that kind of trial. This is about documents, forms, written evidence. It’s not that weighted as to personal testimony. It’s not a ‘collusion’ trial.