Cranky judge? How quaint…do your job or retire…has been a turd in the punch bowl since the very outset of the trial.
Hate to see what would replace him considering our current situation.
So, ummmm, yeah, that “dismissal without prejudice” is a pretty big freaking tell. If Donald Trump does not wind up being Our Supreme, Beloved, Urine-Stain for Life, the rule of law is going to crush everyone in his orbit. All of them, and there’s not a lot they can do to stop it, regardless of how cranky any particular judge may be.
So the judge is ok with 10 counts to be dismissed without prejudice vs a guilty plea because he is cranky. Tells you all you need to know about the judge caring about the rule of law.
“The government prefers to have the disposition of those counts deferred to the time of sentencing or the successful completion of the defendant’s cooperation, as agreed to in the parties’ plea agreement…"
I guess that’s what television and film dialog means by, “Never pay the hooker in advance.”
Mueller, in his thoughts, thinks.
These assholes have no idea what is coming the friday after the election.
I can only hope my premonition comes true. lol
Dear Judge Ellis:
Whatever. We’ve got work to do.
It is highly unusual for an oligarch-backed slimeball who lives on “blood money” according to his family to volunteer to run a presidential campaign for free, yet here we are.
This was always Mueller’s plan. His intent was to drop those charges at sentencing if Manafort gave full cooperation.
The EDVa’s rocket docket mindset is a cancer that affects the mindset of everyone in the system. When it gets to the brain of a judge with robitis, there’s a synergistic effect that magnifies assholery.
The catch is that if you dismiss them without prejudice, you have to refile them before the statute of limitations expires and in the EDVa, you can’t just sit on them.
Mueller seems to be aware of all the legal implications.
Dismissal without prejudice gives Ellis a face-saving way out. Instead of the charge being pending until full cooperation is ensured, the charge is in abeyance but can be reinstated almost instantly.
It’s a little like the negligible difference between “Fix this problem with my purchase and I won’t ask for a refund” and “Fix this problem with my purchase or else I’ll tell the credit card company to process a chargeback.”
I have no doubt. I’m just explaining why he didn’t want to do it unless he had to in case there might be some here who didn’t know.
And we appreciate it! And all the insights you and other lawyers have offered through this saga.
Thanks.
Those of us who are not lawyers always appreciate the translation of legal-speak and the implications of various obscure-sounding filings.
Manafort, wasn’t he in the news a couple years ago? Or so it seems since it’s been one crisis after another.
Wonder how he’s liking jail? Hope he’s settling in.
It is interesting though. The whole reason the charges had to proceed in EDVa was that Manafort and his team refused to waive Venue in the D.C. case and have both cases consolidated. They got their Republican Activist Judge and took their best shot and lost. Now the Judge is endangering their cooperation. They might want to revisit the Venue issue. If they can still. I have no idea if they can and am not going to llok it up. Let one of the lawyers here opine.
X2 that. For us geeks, it’s sad that we’re no longer the desired specialists, but you folks are doing the FSM’s work - thank you!