“I actually can’t imagine anyone in their right mind lying to Mueller”.
trump will lie his ass off. when confronted, he’ll just say he dropped a Not.
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What are the odds of an incoming Manafort pardon? Does Donny have the clackers to do it from the middle of his maelstrom?
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Does not work that way under oath.
You don’t get a redo. Plus they ask every question numerous times from slightly different angles.
This isn’t a FOX interview we are talking about here.
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Wow, five people he‘s willing to let off the hook to get at their testimony. Must be some testimony.
Or he‘s using this all to get Manafort to flip after all. The suspense must be killing Manafort. If He thinks he’s facing life anyway, he just might throw in the towel and spill the beans.
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One has to admire Mueller’s ability to keep his focus and not be thrown off by the madness of current events. He is certainly a pro. That is part of what keeps me hopeful that we might eventually get to the bottom of this mess, and maybe even find a way out. (With any luck, that way out includes jail time for Trump, and a bunch of his willing minions.)
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Even if Spankee did consider this, I am sure his lawyers have explained to him that means that Manafort could be compelled someday to testify against him without pleading the Fifth. Spankee may not understand much, but he does get self-preservation.
No way in hell would he risk that. Same with Michael Cohen. He’s not going to get a pardon either. At least not as long as there’s the slightest chance they’ll get Spankee on something someday.
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Gates is ineligible.
(1) That former employee who opened the storage locker has to be a great immunity candidate. Non-controversial recipient of immunity who probably committed some crimes aiding/ abetting – he’s the first pick off the board in a Fantasy Manafort Witness League.
(2) The ex son-in-law (Manafort and he operated a small real estate ponzi scheme together because of course they did) probably fits the bill. I think he’s been charged in unrelated matters, but someone might correct me on this thread.
(3) JD Gordon is my sleeper pick. He could be coming back out of the woodwork at some point with immunity (unless I lost track of him and he’s hosting something on Fox News in primetime). Gordon and Manafort are connected by the RNC platform change (Crimea). Gordon accidentally started speaking freely around February/ March 2017 (right after Sessions recused himself) for five minutes, and Manafort is tied to the actual act that Gordon was talking about.
I have no idea whom #4 and #5 could be (and wouldn’t bet a lot of money that I’m 2-3 or 3-3 above).
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Pretty low. Far more likely trump gives manafort a commutation after conviction and sentencing. A commutation leaves in place 5th amendment rights. Also, a pardon before the midterms will hammer trump’s approval ratings.
So if manafort is convicted he’ll have to stay in jail until at least mid november. I think some of baghdad rudy’s song and dance was trying to communicate that.
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How about the guy who moved Manafort’s swimming pool? Obviously, it was to hide a body. You hadn’t thought of that, had you?
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I hadn’t. That’s why it’s so hard, Brancusi – Manafort’s such a weirdo who paraded around his laundered funds from getting paid by some of the worst people in the world for decades and is so in the habit of brazenly committing crimes out in the open that he hasn’t been able to stop since house arrest and then jail. I completely forgot that he had his pool moved. Thank you. It also could be the accountant who received the PDF that Gates had to PDF because Manafort can’t PDF. It could be a Us or Brazilian government employee with visibility into the 500 phantom laptops that Manafort sold his phantom Brazilian shell company.
When Chazz Palminteri is starring in the fifth season of the hit HBO show, Manafort, I guess we won’t be speculating wildly about this question.
Actually, I’d bet on 1+ bank employees that are from either Stephen Calk’s Federal Savings Bank in Chicago or Cyprus. (The latter has to be less expected, but it would be fantastic because of the scalability to other interesting characters in this orbit.)
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I really hope Mueller’s case against Trump doesn’t depend on Manafort. Manafort might hold out forever – who knows what kinds of awful shit he’s done so far in his career as Political Operative to the Monsters of the Modern Western World?
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I doubt that it depends on it —- although the case against Beavis and Butthead just might hinge on Manafort singing.
And I would dearly love to see those two go down too. Not as much as Daddy, but not too far behind.
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I don’t think stone gets immunity. Plea deal at best for him.
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Though with the Butina indictment, the Don Jr./Torshin angle comes into play, so they may get him without Manafort. And Cohen/Trump Org./Eric seems a plausible course as well for the other one.
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Judge Ellis denies Manafort request to move EDVA trial to Roanoke. Sorry Paulie, not your week. Or month, year, rest of life, whatever.
(no comments link on the article)
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Agreed – both because of his prominence and because of his utility. Stone’s help would be much broader than Manafort.
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Javanka may be 2 of them. Very Shakespearean.
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If you read the article, none of the five are known to the public.
“The five individuals identified in the motions at issue are third parties who have not been charged in this matter, and who have not been identified publicly with the case,” Mueller said in the court document. “Disclosing the motions would reveal those individuals’ involvement in the investigation and the trial, thereby creating the risk of their undue harassment. Such concern potentially would be heightened by the additional revelation that they have invoked their privilege against self-incrimination and may be granted immunity from the use against them of any compelled testimony.”
He also raised the concern that “the witnesses’ invocation of their privilege against self-incrimination and the Court’s subsequent grant of immunity could lead to reputational harm for the witnesses.”
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