“Seems like an OK guy to me,” D. tRump.
If this is a plea deal without cooperation, we’re just going to have to trust that Mueller knows what he’s doing. I’ll do my disgusted howling in private.
The real question is, Will he cooperate with the special counsel’s investigation of Russian election interference?
Without cooperation this is just meant to keep the trial out of the news in exchange for a pardon.
This is the first thing Manafort has done that makes sense to me. If you are convinced you will be pardoned, why would you exhaust what resources you have remaining in trial?
So what happens to the forfeited assets post pardon?
More than a few people are perturbed Manafort may avoid cooperating with Mueller in exchange for this plea deal. However, his home, offices and storage lockers were essentially emptied of everything that wasn’t a piece of furniture or a kitchen appliance. Every scrap of paper, every gigabyte of electronic communication, photos, computers, phones. Everything. All that Mueller may lack are Manafort’s recountings of firsthand verbal communications with Trump and others, and he likely has even those from other witnesses. He probably has corraborating evidence from others to make up for what little Manafort managed to successfully burn, erase, lose or hide.
I wouldn’t worry too much Manafort’s failure to officially turn on Trump adversely affects any case Mueller may be building against Trump.
"Manafort had reached a plea deal with Manafort " that must have been an interesting discussion
If that’s an abbreviated version of what Manafort is going to plead guilty to, he’s pleading to a whole lot.
A couple more questions about pardons:
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does a pardon expunge the allocution in a guilty plea, where someone has gone on record saying they did whatever it was? Wouldn’t they then effectively have committed perjury?
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The constitution say crimes against the US, so is civil forfeiture affected as well?
Guess we’ll find out real soon if it’s flipping or waiting for a pardon. Talking Heads seem to think it’s setting up a pardon.
He’s pleading to the witness tampering, too, as well as all the laundering and tax evasion charges. This is one ugly indictment; they aren’t giving him much of a deal… which suggests he isn’t making himself useful.
So, to reinforce, Trump’s campaign manager -the architect of his successful campaign for President -is a convicted felon who just pled guilty on additional charges. And not just that, he’s been shown conclusively to have had very close personal and financial relationships with the very enemies of our country that interfered in our elections, and that he certainly leveraged for his chosen candidate’s advantage. I really hope the average American out there let’s that sink in.
I’m gonna laugh my ass off when Trump doesn’t pardon him.
" filed a superseding information against Paul Manafort, signaling the imminent announcement of a plea deal "
Oh good, the article header had me thinking someone climbed to a church steeple and lit a lamp or chose between black smoke versus white smoke or something along those lines.
Why would the special counsel allow a plea deal without cooperation in return? What do the American people get from doing this except a greater likelihood that this investigation will fail to expose the full truth, full justice will not be served and criminal acts that destroy the fabric of the country will be allowed to continue as long as the GOP is served by them.
Wow. This is signed by Bobby Three Sticks, himself. And there’s a loooooong list of assets they are taking away from Mr. Manafort. Even if he gets pardoned… he’s never going to have real money again; that’s just over.
As well they shouldn’t give him much of a deal.
Here is my read: A plea deal is logical because of the following factors:
- Trump’s attorneys realized that Trump and the GOP overall would suffer further damage with the wall-to-wall coverage of a second criminal trial.
- Manifort realizes that he has zero chance of beating the new charges so why underwrite his lawyers second homes. (Question: How does he pay his legal bills?)
- Trump has promised to pardon him after the mid-terms so he has no need to flip
- He is a walking danger to very powerful people so he might feel safer checking into Club Fed for a while if he gets a say where and under what conditions.
- The government prefers to accept plea a please to converse resources and to avoid the risk of a nullification verdict.
The last reason makes it logical to negotiate a plea deal. But without cooperation so that he has some chance of not being rubbed out.
I think that is a pretty good read.
Editor: eeks! Look at the first sentence of the article.