Discussion: Manafort Judge Puts Kibosh On Talk Of Affairs At Trial

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22

Logically but not in how a jury is likely to assess what some one has done. Without showing the extreme need for money or love of pricey items, the jury is apt to disbelieve that any one would take those kinds of chances to get money.

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I think @dave48 knows that. The question is not whether he worked for a foreign dictator; the question is whether he registered as the law requires.

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Agreed. I also think that Manafort’s lavish lifestyle is less relevant to the issues in this trial than to the previous one. The fact that he was living large and beyond his means goes directly to the issues in bank and tax fraud; particularly motive. Failure to register as a foreign agent, maybe not so much – although it may have a bearing on money laundering if it was done to enrich Manafort.

Overall, seems like Judge Berman Jackson is fair and ain’t gonna take no bullshit, but ain’t gonna give any either, very unlike the previous judge.

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Motive.

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Oh, please. That theoretically correct construct has no grounding in the real world. Because people conceal their work for liberal democracies all the time. Not.

C’mon, liberal democracies don’t need PR and lobbying firms in the US. They have embassies and good will and don’t need to ooze around to the backdoors and smokey rooms. And even if, for some reason, they did want to lobby (like, say, for a transborder project of some kind) you only don’t do a FARA registration if you’re ashamed of the client or think publically identifying the client, and the fact that he has agents working the pols, makes it harder for you to get results. Which only happens when your client is an odious shitpile of a regime.

And, just as importantly as a legal matter, the fact that the client is one you’re ashamed of or think so unsavory that disclosure undermines the mission is relevant to establishing intent in the face of the “I didn’t know I was lobbying” or “I forgot” defenses.

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I “liked” that before I clicked to see who you were responding to, because I didn’t even need to know what the question was to know that was the right answer in this case.

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