“Poison the jury pool?”
Better keep an eye on your own pool, Paulie …
Hopefully it will all be over with this guy soon. The cognitive dissonance is getting old. It’s black. No, it’s white. It’s day. No, it’s night. It’s up. No, it’s really down. I’m pretty sure i don’t believe this guy. I’ll be glad when justice validates that.
Duuude!
Trump isn’t going to pardon you.
Considering two of the people Manafort contacted outed him as attempting to perjure their testimony, I, as a non-lawyer, think he’s in dire straits here.
very interesting. I would have expected some type of factual submission. Putin’s right hand man basically admits the truth of the allegations, but claims their is not enough evidence its tampering. But the response conflates the issue of proof of the crime vs what behavior is incompatible with pre-trial release.
The judge knows that the Prosecution did not put forward all of their evidence, and this is a second strike for sone ot be punk-boy who violated an order not to try the case in the media by penning an ed-op that he had someone else publish in the hill. (another poster noted that there were also issues with the honesty of the value of property put up as bond, but I’m not so sure what the Judge eventually thought about that). But having admitted that he was reaching out to what were clearly witnesses, in what the witnesses say was an effort to get them to lie ought to be enough to land Manifort in jail until he decides to cooperate… That is what this all about…
That is a carefully crafted non-denial.
Ha ha ha ha ha. Getting your story straight with your co-conspirators might match what you’ve already said, but, if one of them rolls on you, dude, you’ve just freacking confessed to witness tampering. It is as if Manafucked’s Manafort’s lawyers were reading impaired.
No shit, did he really deny it?
I suggest you get your wife (soon to be ex) to buy you a whole bunch of soap on a rope…
Trust me, you will soon be thanking me for this sage advice…
BTW, I am starting to believe that Manafort was doing his own private collusion for profit independent of Donnie Jr. and the rest of the other grifters…
The Russians had to avoid tripping over each other between all their lines of attack…
Mueller is trying cut a Trumpian knot of twisted putrefaction…
This is what I can’t decide on: 1) Trump knew what he was doing vis-a-vis the Russian influence, or 2) Trump is the dumbest puppet in Putin’s puppet show.
He was warned by the FBI that foreigners would try to influence, worn their way into his campaign. Or Trump is an empty suit and likes to perform for suitable reward$.
Seriously watch this Maddow piece:
"Nah, yer honor, hows was I s’posed to know the prosecutor was gonna call Vinnie? Iz only callin him 'bout dat guy we chilled over in Europe. Yeah, dats it, I mean how would I know Mueller would call him?
Manafort’s response to the motion leaves Mueller a huge opportunity to knock it out of the park. Mueller’s motion relies on the texts and some somewhat inconclusive communications, and only identifies persons who were involved without providing any actual “evidence” of what was or wasn’t said during the brief conversations.
Manafort’s lawyers have jumped on this alleged vagueness to assert that the amount of information in the few texts etc are too inconclusive and don’t provide sufficient evidence of corrupt intent. They then STUPIDLY accuse Mueller of not providing enough information of what was actually said and FAULT Mueller for not inclduing any declarations from the persons indicating anything specific that would show the kind of activities that constitue witness tampering. They then go through each of the cases cited by Mueller and review the specific kinds of facts that supported witness tampering claims in those cases and repeat that no such evidence exists here.
As a former DOJ attorney (albeit not in the criminal division ) the first thing that jumped out at me was that Mueller may have set the trap and Manafort’s lawyers just took the bait. Why? If I recall (and I’ve been retired for twenty years and no longer practicing law) but the Motion Mueller filed was the minimum amount needed to create “probable cause” . . . . Manafort’s lawyers said not enough is shown to prove the matter, because no Declarations etc of persons have been provided and we can’t assume from the inconclusive texts thjat Manafort was saying or doing anything other than what he is not barred from doing . . . Contact people and espouse his views of his case to his acquantiances.
What happens now if I recall is that Mueller will file the government’s REPLY to the Manafort response. Am I correct in remembering that the genesis of how Mueller KNEW about the contacts were the witnesses apparently CONTACTED Mueller to advise him of the contact because they didn’t feel comfortable. Who wants to bet against Mueller not having set this up? The Motion only needs to show “probable cause” (low standard). It doesn’t have to show the EVIDENCE that proves “beyond a reasonable doubt” at trial.
Manafort’s lawyers have just opened the door wide open for Mueller to say “you want proof? You want proof? I got your Declarations from witnesses right here.” The witnesses called Mueller to report the contacts. Does Manafort really believe Mueller doesn’t have full startements from the people who would be happy to do anything to get away from this toxic crook. Manafort was lured into exposing his entire defense, AND in setting out the types of “facts” that could be viewed as tampering (and they’re pretty tame statements that nevertheless show “corrupt intent”). I’ll bet my house on it: Mueller’s reply will be a bunch of Declarations with statements at least as clear as the ones Manafort’s lawyers just quoted as showing “corrupt intent”. And Manafort will be toast. AND Mueller will argue that since the witness tampering has now been proven with “evidence” that even the defendant agrees on as showing corrupt intent (as opposed to just enough probable cause to take the issue to trial) revoking the bail and having him in jail from the day of the hearing June 15.
Thast’s my prediction. Mueller has got this. Manafort is toast on this issue at least.
I just have to say… what’s up with the weird photo of Manafort? It’s like he’s preparing to lift off and float away. Just needs the Mary Poppins umbrella.
It holds your attention for a moment, at least. Like he’s showing off his ballet moves for the paparazzi. I’d say 99.9 percent of these perp-walk photos are boring and predictable, so if you get one that’s odd you might as well run it.
“… there is no reason to believe that the latest charge has somehow increased the risk of flight in this case.”
I get that this is a motion for a bail hearing, but I think Manafort’s crack team missed the point here. It’s the continued law-breaking by your scofflaw client, not the likelihood that he’s going to flee to Russia, that’s going to land him in the slammer.
Sort of. Manafort was working off a huge debt to his Russian overlords. That is why he begged for the job, and took it with no salary.
Of course, someone like Manafort is going to look for ways to line his pockets, even while working off a debt.
I still believe Manafort was the main coordinator with Russia, and essentially put most of the other players into their positions. His ties to Russia became exposed, so it became too risky to keep him in his position, so he resigned…but continued to have weekly if not daily contact with the campaign and transition team. As a result of his resignation, however, Russia continued to advance down other avenues within the Trump team. The goal was too great, and there were too far down the road in implementation to allow the resignation of Manafort, to curtail the operation.
@lastroth Trump knew what was going on, there should be very little doubt. He was informed about the Trump Tower meeting before hand and immediately afterwards. Being the dufus he is, he broadcast that knowledge to the world repeatedly. He may not have known what Manafort was doing to line Manafort’s pockets…and not getting to wet his own beak may have played into Manafort resigning. But its just as likely that Manafort was simply too exposed.
Paulie Carpets’ been hit with so many indictments each containing allegations that need sweeping somewhere, his attorneys are working carpets per diem.