At some point, Manafort and Trump were at cross-purposes
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You nailed it. No matter what he says while heās trying to convince them to ānot rat him outā, theyāre all going to transmogrify into ālosersā for getting caught and heāll shun them.
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So if he does pardon Junior and Kushner, could the case still be made that itās obstruction and thus the pardons might not āholdā?
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Throw away the key! Throw away the key!
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The issue of dangling pardons is an interesting one. There is a point where Manafort made an aggressive proffer and then walked it back in key respects. He walked it back in order to sanitize the connection to Kilimnick and to people in the WH. Who or what prompted him to make this rather abrupt change? Was it always in his mind? Did making the plea deal put him on the radar and get him the attention of the Trumper WH and they used back channels to advise him? Were they too afraid to give him attention while he was on trial but became more desperate once he became a cooperative witness? Given how protective the SCO attorneys appeared to be of the defense attorneys, I wonder if defense counsel is cooperating with the SCO a bit here and letting them know who Manafort has been speaking to. My instinct tells me this all flows up to Rudy somehow. Itās a strategic move to get distance from key witnesses and associations. Rudy operates at the nexus of law and politics and understands both even if he behaves crudely.
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Of course they are at cross-purposes, each is trying to save his own ass and neither is loyal to anyone else.
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Knows his audience.
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This is the first time that Mueller has said expressly what is clearly going on. But Manafort bet on the wrong horse. There is IMHO no way that Trump is going to commit an oven and shut case of obstruction of justice by pardoning someone who has lied to investigators to protect Trump. . Trump can get away with the offer as Republicans have made clear in not stopping the Twitter offers, but if a pay-off actually happened, there would be (Trump has been told) serious consequences. That kind of a quid pro quo would be too much for some republicans (or at least Trump believes). But Trump is only in it for himself, and Manafort just got conned by Don the Con.
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Could Mr. X be either Michael Cohen or Michael Flynn? Havenāt they both been talking to the FBI?
The key line is āsave the candidateā. Is that intended to be a candidate for political office, or a candidate for a political appointment to a job? Whatever it was itās something that the FBI thought was shady and DOJ has an investigation into it.
Iām not sure who that could be. Cohen might be a good candidate.
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Lock them BOTH up!
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Could Manafort be probing to find out what the SCO knows? He already knows heās going down that steel bar highway, so could this strategy be a tease to ascertain SCOās own approach?
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bribes and threats of witnesses are the very definition of witness tampering. Which is one of the most grave types of obstruction. The sentencing for it is steep.
And a pardon is probably more coveted than money.
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Then he is one stupid bastard if he thought Trump was ever going to pardon him, the pardons are reserved for Ivanka
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The SCO suspects this.
Greg Andres (SCO): āJudge, throughout the interviews with Mr. Manafort and some of the issues we discuss today, you see that he constantly either minimizes the information he has about the administration or any contact with the administration. So there is an issue whether or not during his cooperation heās communicating with ________________, or providing information about the questions or other things that are happening and special counselās investigation, whether heās sharing that with other people.ā pp. 126-127.
They didnāt share what they knew. He made a proffer that checked out with evidence they already had. He then walked it back and got caught. He could just share what they were probing and report back the questions that were asked. This seems to be the standard operating procedure for the Trumpers which are then relayed to the Media and spun, which is why we have so many garbage stories out there where people need to read with a discerning eye to find the truth of the matter.
Basically, I think Manafort was essentially dealt with at a distance while he was on trial, but after the plea deal the WH reached out through intermediaries and he thought he had an angle to play. He has no angle to play. Heās just headed to jail. The SCO wants nothing to do with him. He sat there for the entire 4 hour hearing. What was going through his head? The only thing that would give his life meaning at this point would be to divulge the full truth through his lawyers to the SCO. They may or may not use it, but a full confession would do him a world of good. There is absolutely no way he is getting a pardon after that transcript release.
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I know this will cut both ways, but t rumpp is full of ignorance, in spades.
However, my bet is that he knew full well what Manafort was doing with respect to Ukraine, ergo Russia, but that collusion wasnāt his top priority. T rumpp wanted his hotel in Moscow! In t rumppās mind, whatever it took to get that contract with Vlad to build that hotel was alright by him. I seriously doubt that t rumpp personally coordinated every level of collusion throughout his campaign, but he was using his campaign, and is using the office of POTUS to further his end-game of building that hotel. Was he involved in any of what his lackeyās were doing with Ukraine and Russia? Only insomuch as he was aware, and was perfectly fine with every bit of it, as long as it got his deal with Putin done. T rumpp certainly would not let that level of collusion escape his attention precisely because he wanted credit from Putin for making everything happen. He knew! Everything!
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I donāt follow. Could you elaborate?
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So another @$$hole that believed Trump promises and now is finding himself holding the bagā¦ if itās any consolation for Manafort, the Midwest of full of guys on the same boat.
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Too true, but Manafort is likely learning a lesson that we all need to acknowledge; that Donald Trump cannot be trusted in any manner, or for any reason.
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