DOJ Sues Manafort Over Alleged Foreign Cash Stash - TPM – Talking Points Memo

It’s not like the ostrich jacket wasn’t embarrassing enough

8 Likes

Is it pertinent to point out that the DOJ started this under Trump?

2 Likes

I’m also guessing that the former AG Don the Cons lawyer Billy Barr gave implicit orders not to mess with any associates of the Orange POS. There is a new sheriff in town.

6 Likes

That form is exceptionally annoying to fill in. Both spouses need to file a separate copy of the form and repeat all the joint accounts and then list each spouse’s solo accounts, even if you file your taxes jointly. So if you each have a retirement account you each have to file the form. The form wants not only all your accounts, but the highest balance in each over the course of the last year. It’s filed separately from your taxes, in a separate, even more useless than usual government portal (I think this may have been fixed in the last five years), according to different deadlines, and you can’t get an extension.

For ordinary people living an ordinary life overseas - local checking account, local savings account, two retirement accounts, maybe a cd or two for your emergency fund- the form is really onerous.

Damn straight high-flying money launderers should be held to account.

14 Likes

Filing one form sure seems onerous. Especially if you have to do it on time, every year. And your spouse has to do it? That’s too much!!!
Free Manafort!!!

You can mock all you want, that form is a genuine pain in the ass. But I file it, on time, every year.

If Manafort didn’t or made “inadvertent mistakes” then the feds should go after him for every nickel, otherwise why make me go through the rigamarole of determining that the highest balance in my checking account last year was $534.12

8 Likes

I agree an enormous pain. It harasses normal, tax-paying expats because it’s trying to catch tax cheats. So, if they catch a tax cheat, them damn well ought to confiscate his money.

I had a ruble account I abandoned because the amount in it wasn’t worth the bother of closing it. I worried that I’d get in trouble over it. For some years, I included it with a balance of $2.

5 Likes

Add in, if your accounts are in a volatile currency, to figure out the highest balance, you need to multiply by the exchange rate in the day. All for an account you keep minimum amount of money in because of exchange rate losses.

6 Likes

Yes, the treasury department is …vague … in it’s guidance about what degree of precision is expected when calculating the highest balance for each account

4 Likes

There’s that stupid grin again. There’s something about Manafort.

1 Like

He was quite willing to pay pennies on the dollar. Or in rubles. Does that count?

What makes you think they missed it?

3 Likes

I take it this offense doesn’t fall under the pardon? I thought I remembered that the pardon applied to anything that happened prior to the pardon date.

2 Likes

He and Stone, ol pals from Nixon days, are the only two that are pure, flat-out psychopaths. I mean for real, not just in the “you’re an asshole” sense.

6 Likes

No, as far as Repugs are considered, it’s seen as highly impertinent.

1 Like

Yeah, whatever.

2 Likes

DOCS (formerly DOJ) Depart of Civil Suits
Wake me when a case is criminal, not civil. Manafort is a made man. Just stop with the kabuki- it’s unseemly at this point.

Lawyers for Bad Guys Always Lie (cont.):

1 / “Nonetheless, the Government insisted on filing this suit simply to embarrass Mr. Manafort.”
An ostrich leather jacket proves PM cannot be embarrassed.

2 / "He has tried for months to resolve this civil matter.”
Yet he hid the loot offshore, doesn’t pay his taxes, and had several passports.

8 Likes

Please tell me this in no way covered by Trump’s pardon.
I’d like to see Manafort trot out the wheelchair for one more stab at pathos.

2 Likes

Well, that’s what I’d wondered, upthread.

I guess we’ll have to stay tuned. I don’t hear TFG making any accusations of violating the pardon, so maybe it really doesn’t apply?

1 Like