Oh:
Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort has agreed to cooperate with the Justice Department, including in special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.
Manafort pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy against the US and one count of conspiracy to obstruct justice due to attempts to tamper with witnesses, according to a court filing Friday.
Prosecutor Andrew Weissmann told the judge Manafort’s plea agreement is a “cooperation agreement,” and other charges will be dropped at sentencing at “or at the agreement of successful cooperation.”
Manafort had proffered information to the government already, Weissmann said in a federal court in a Washington, DC.
That’s right, Manafort is already squealing. Hopefully the Feds are keeping him in a Polonium resistant cell until Cheeto Benito is perpwalked, tried, and thrown into prison.
geg6
I’m loving today’s early Friday news dump, I have to say.
ruemara
There’s gonna be a tweetstorm to match the hurricane levels, isn’t there? Sheesh. Just arrest the traitor already.
Elizabelle
I would like to see Giuliani lose his law license, in the not too distant future.
Does having a law license allow you to lie as fulsomely as he does?
Corner Stone
I just hope Manafort has some dirt on Ivanka. She’s dirty AF, and has been running in circles Paulie would know something about.
Ridnik Chrome
I’m loving the headline on this post.
JPL
Which witch will be next to drop? Bring me Roger Stone.
Smedley Darlington Mingobat (formerly Mumphrey, et al.)
Maybe I’m too cynical, but I don’t see how anything worthwhile is going to come of this deal. Manafort will lie and weasel and try to ooze his way out of any trouble. It’s what he does. I’d love to be shown up here, but it’s hard for me to see how this will lead to much.
debit
Man, Infrastructure Week is awesome.
debit
@Smedley Darlington Mingobat (formerly Mumphrey, et al.): If he does lie, it’s another felony. I don’t think he’s THAT stupid.
Gelfling 545
@Smedley Darlington Mingobat (formerly Mumphrey, et al.): He might be able to do that if he were the only witness but he testifies knowing others have testified before him.
Immanentize
@debit: @Smedley Darlington Mingobat (formerly Mumphrey, et al.):
Look, In order to get this deal, Manafort has already told the prosecutors everything. Probably first in writing (a proffer) then in person, questioned by the FBI. It is over.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Smedley Darlington Mingobat (formerly Mumphrey, et al.): The judge can impose additional penalties for non-cooperation. His life will become very unpleasant if he doesn’t cooperate fully.
Smedley Darlington Mingobat (formerly Mumphrey, et al.)
@debit: Objection! Assumes facts not in evidence!
rikyrah
THIS MUTHAPHUCKA!!
Smedley Darlington Mingobat (formerly Mumphrey, et al.)
@Immanentize:
Well, I hope you’re right. Only this is a guy who thought he could get away with witness tampering, so I’ll wait to see what he hands over. I just have a tough time believing he’s going to do anything helpful.
hueyplong
I am at a loss as to why posters here worry so often about Mueller and his crew being taken for rubes.
Immanentize
@Smedley Darlington Mingobat (formerly Mumphrey, et al.):
From TPM
debit
@Immanentize: You have made me so happy.
Immanentize
@hueyplong: I know — I don’t get it. Stockholm syndrome, I suspect.
OzarkHillbilly
@Elizabelle: He is zealously representing his client. As long as he doesn’t lie in a courtroom, it’s all good.
Corner Stone
@Smedley Darlington Mingobat (formerly Mumphrey, et al.): Why would Manafort sign the deal, give up the juice and then weasel on the follow through? He’s already consigned himself that it’s over and all his assets are of the forfeitured variety now. His wife hates him, his daughter changed her last name, Trump is about to coffee boy his ass, and Vlad probably laughs at the idea Paulie has anything on him that matters.
ChrisS
Meuller’s investigation again turns up no wrongdoing by the president so sayeth Rudy … so, if these crimes have nothing to do with Trump, why all the hubbub, bub?
Ridnik Chrome
@JPL: Stone would be nice, but what I really want to see is Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell being perp-walked. Both of those fuckers knew exactly what Trump and his pals were doing, and kept quiet so they could get their tax cuts and their wingnut Supreme Court justice. They should both be wearing irons and busting rocks.
OzarkHillbilly
@Smedley Darlington Mingobat (formerly Mumphrey, et al.): And then he will go to prison for the rest of his unnatural life. He doesn’t know what Mueller knows. If he lies and gets caught, and he most assuredly will because Mueller knows more than anyone can imagine, it’s sayonara.
Smedley Darlington Mingobat (formerly Mumphrey, et al.)
@hueyplong:
I don’t think Mueller or his people are being taken for rubes. I only think Manafort will do all he can to keep from telling anything to anybody. I know that can lead to the deal being pulled out from under his ass, but I don’t know if he’s smart enough to know that. Going by what I’ve seen of the guy, I find it hard to believe he can get his own shoes on without help.
kindness
Guillotine time yet??? I used to think the French went overboard during their revolution but now I’m questioning that thought.
The Moar You Know
@rikyrah: Rick Scott just shed another human skin and will have to hide a few days until his new one firms up. I’m sure he’s fucking pissed about that tweet.
Chip Daniels
It does sound like those oligarchs are a much bigger issue for Mana fort than anything Trump related.
If he has already ratted on them, no pardon can help him.
Smedley Darlington Mingobat (formerly Mumphrey, et al.)
@Corner Stone:
Well, I’m going to go with, because he’s a colossal, titanic dumbfuck. I haven’t seen anything from this guy to lead me to believe he has more sense than your everyday bookend.
FlyingToaster
@hueyplong: @Immanentize:
Actually, it’s because against all rational notions, Trump is President of the United States.
So all rational notions have to be discounted, because we clearly live in the bizarro universe.
I’m sure that every damn thing is backed up to an offsite server, and when/if the Tangerine Toad tries to fire the entire DOJ, will be start being dribbled to states’ Attorneys General and WaPo. Want to stop the investigation from interfering with the election? Keep them on the payroll.
Cheryl Rofer
Manafort’s statement said something about wanting to keep his family safe and secure.
It looked for a while like he was expecting a pardon from The Big Guy that would make everything all right, and he wouldn’t have to rat out his Russian connections. I wonder how much the Skripal poisonings got to him. Or this latest activist poisoned in Moscow. Certainly Trump sent his best regards when Cohen flipped and Manafort held firm. But Mueller has more sources than Manafort and certainly has information on Russian activities that will eventually come out. That could look to Putin and the GRU like Manafort had given up that information, even if he hadn’t. Several lower-level witnesses who testified to the grand jury have come out saying “Mueller knows everything.”
Then, too, The Big Guy is capricious and has been showing signs of stress. Or did Manafort become convinced that The Big Guy won’t be able to pardon from prison. I wouldn’t count on Trump to send a “Good Luck” card.
I’m guessing it’s some combination of all this, perhaps with a few other things thrown in, that convinced Manafort to flip. I wonder if Mueller promised him a witness protection plan for his family.
feebog
@Smedley Darlington Mingobat (formerly Mumphrey, et al.):
I said it in an earlier thread, but I’ll repeat it here. Rick Gates. Mueller already has 90% of what Manafort has to offer through Gates. As Immanitize already pointed out, Manafort has already made his proffer, so he has already colored in the remaining 10%. Manafort is corroborating Gates’ information and adding details Gates may not of known. IMHO Manafort’s cooperation is the last piece of the puzzle Mueller is going to get, because Trumpov is surely not going to sit down for an interview. The only question left is whether to issue Trumpov an subpoena, and I think Mueller may decide against it as it will mean months of litigation before it goes to the Supreme Court.
patrick II
@Elizabelle:
Hannity and Limbaugh lie just as much, if not more, without a law license. I think law license is not the deciding factor but being a Republican does.
He’ll lose his license if he is convicted of a felony. It has not been on the national news front burner, but Mueller is investigating the activities of the NY FBI office during the election and Giuliani was most like involved, and he is most probably in other illegal activities as he was pretty high up in the Trump election team. He is lying like crazy to save his own ass by trying to shut down the Mueller investigation, but that seems less and less likely.
Emerald
@Ridnik Chrome: This. How did McConnell know that the next president would be a Republican? He had to know, or he wouldn’t have refused Merrick Garland for a whole year. First time in American history.
He knew. He also threatened Obama when Obama wanted to make the Russian interference public during the election.
He’s up to his eyes in it.
James E Powell
@hueyplong:
That’s quite the exaggeration. People worry, but they don’t consider Mueller rubes. From the Bush/Cheney Junta through the 2008 financial collapse, we learned that a lot of what evil people do is legal or almost impossible to prosecute.
Smedley Darlington Mingobat (formerly Mumphrey, et al.)
@Elizabelle:
So when and where will the get-together be?
TenguPhule
Russians Planned Attack on Lab Testing Salisbury Nerve Agent, Swiss Say
/Warning, FTFNYT link.
Russians rushing everywhere these days.
Aleta
Said to be a new filing in United States v. Manafort: Plea Agreement. (Roddick Falkner had hidden around 222,000 in cash on May ’18 trip from IND to Houston; seized after tip off.)
https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/4883372-Plea-Agreement.html
trollhattan
@patrick II:
“Love” how Rudy flounces from camera to camera acting like an official somethingorother when he’s just a freelancing lawyer. Is he even on Trump’s payroll or just doing pro bono yelling for the orange one?
Why do they keep booking him?*
*Extend question to anybody booking Ken Starr.
Cheryl Rofer
TenguPhule
@kindness:
Almost. The clock is 2 minutes to midnight.
Smedley Darlington Mingobat (formerly Mumphrey, et al.)
@Aleta:
Jesús Marimba, Roddick Falkner? There are too fucking many characters in this dumbass movie.
TenguPhule
Kushner Says Punishing Palestinians Won’t Hurt Chance for Peace Deal
Is Jared Kushner the second stupidest man on earth?
trollhattan
@Emerald:
I like how you’ve broken that down, and I would LOVE to see Turtle used for a vat of turtle soup. He needs to be taken down to the ankles so the senate can function again.
J R in WV
@The Moar You Know: \
Just more proof that Republicans have no heart, just a tiny evil shiny black stone in their chests. Ed Rollins is one of the more evil ones, to be sure. I’m not sure if that makes the stone bigger, or smaller…
ByRookorbyCrook
Mueller knows. This plea deal means he has corroboration to bring forth things he knows but cannot take to trial. Manafort was looking at going to prison for the rest of his (short?) life and losing everything he owned and continued investigation while in prison dodging Bratva. With the plea deal, Manafort goes to prison for most of the rest of his (short?) life and loses all he owns, but he doesn’t need to keep digging his hole deeper.
TenguPhule
@Smedley Darlington Mingobat (formerly Mumphrey, et al.):
Just wait till Hugh E. Rection turns up.
Aleta
@Aleta: @Smedley Darlington Mingobat (formerly Mumphrey, et al.): Correction, I misspelled his name.
Roddrick Faulkner
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@The Moar You Know:
This dick apparently doesn’t know that Puerto Ricans from Puerto Rico are American citizens. And because Democrats have been trying to court PRs that means Trump is right that the death toll is wrong? How exactly? How is Trump right “at the end of the day”, Rollins?
Mike in DC
This will play out slowly at first, then pick up steam going into next year. Indictment of a sitting president falls into the “too much to hope for ” category, but I expect by the time Mueller issues his report, 60% of the electorate will have concluded that Trump is guilty AF. And the Republicans in the Senate will be well aware of that.
TenguPhule
@J R in WV:
Depends if you believe its a fundamental question of volume or density.
TenguPhule
@Mike in DC:
And we’ll have to fight a war to get rid of the other 40%.
danielx
@JPL:
Bring me the head of Roger Stone.
TenguPhule
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
To be fair, his life may be over if he does and they don’t secure him properly.
это курам на смех
A trial for the shitgibbon? Maybe. But it’s guaranteed to be hung because of the inevitable cult member(s) on the jury.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@TenguPhule:
A
Or, y’know we could just outvote them. I think it would sweeter for them to realize they aren’t the majority in the most final way possible; losing an election.
TenguPhule
@danielx:
The rest of him is optional.
NY Robbin
@Corner Stone:
Come and sit by me.
TenguPhule
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??:
2008. We did. They got worse.
OzarkHillbilly
@feebog:
Donny jr, Jared, Ivanka….
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@TenguPhule:
I was thinking more along the lines of them losing several elections for the next 20 years
TenguPhule
@Smedley Darlington Mingobat (formerly Mumphrey, et al.):
Manafort just become target #1 for every professional assassin and hitman in the region.Seeing who tries to kill him is going to be so educational for Mueller.
Emma
@TenguPhule: Well played!
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@OzarkHillbilly: Slabhead Donnie’s cooperation will be unintentional. I’d bet if I could that is already has been.
TenguPhule
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??:
Nobody ever went broke overestimating the stupidity of the American public.
TenguPhule
@Emerald:
Actually they were planning to never let Hillary Clinton nominate a SC justice either as long as Rs controlled the Senate.
Elizabelle
DC Meetup folks: we have a venue: two of them, actually. Saturday, September 15: 7:00ish (or earlier) to …? Drinks, and then trouping further up Rockville Pike to a tasty Chinese dinner.
Dinner after, a few miles up the road:
I’ll send Anne Laurie the info for an updated DC thread.
Here’s more info, added to the earlier meetup thread, comment 12.
Could use a headcount — let us know if you’re coming! The more the merrier, of course …
veniceriley
Not happy until people in the family and/or the white house are frogmarched to prison in cuffs.
Mike in NC
@TenguPhule: Jared is confident peace in the Middle East is just around the corner, as in 245 years away.
Jeffro
@JPL:
I think it’s great that Stone – as far as I’m aware – hasn’t even been talked to yet by Mueller & Co. It’s going to be just BOOM, here are the charges and here’s your cell, you scum.
Ridnik Chrome
@TenguPhule: I’m not looking forward to seeing how the GOP will top the Orange Fool in 2024. Maybe they’ll nominate a chimpanzee.
TenguPhule
People are horrified by an Amazon patent that puts workers in cages — but an Amazon exec said even ‘bad ideas’ get submitted
Warning, not the Onion.
Yes folks, Amazon was literally going to have their employees working in high tech cages.
TenguPhule
@Ridnik Chrome:
The unholy zombie love child of Dick Cheney and Nancy Reagan.
Jeffro
@feebog:
Yup. I think Mueller’s going to just tell Trumpov’s lawyers, “He talks and talks quickly – in person or in writing, but under oath either way – or everything I have on standby drops tomorrow morning”
Smedley Darlington Mingobat (formerly Mumphrey, et al.)
@Ridnik Chrome:
Maybe they’ll nominate Richard Spencer, or whatever his name is. Or one of the other nazis. Really, where else do they have to go from here?
TenguPhule
Your daily reminder that the Nazis are still holding children in concentration camps in the USA
Victor Matheson
@Emerald: No, this conspiracy thinking is silly. McConnell was just making a bet that he won on. Figure by blocking Garland he had a 20-30% chance of getting Gorsuch or his ilk instead (a massive, massive improvement from a Republican standpoint instead) and a 70-80% chance of getting Garland or a Hilary replacement that wasn’t likely to be that much worse for Republicans than Garland. That was a bet worth taking. Massive potential upside with minimal downside (I mean except for destroying democracy…)
Plus, McConnell figured (correctly, in hindsight) that holding out on the Supreme Court would motivate more fundamentalists to vote Republican than it would motivate others to vote against the Republicans. Obama (incorrectly) figured that nominating an obviously moderate candidate would shame Republicans into voting.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@TenguPhule:
The AI ethics researchers even described the patent:
“Unevenly distributed dystopian regime”. Yeah, that sounds like our world, alright. I’m totally stealing that phrase.
OzarkHillbilly
@TenguPhule: That is not quite as bad as it sounds. A buddy of mine worked at American Can Company in south St Louis (late 60s/early 70s) He was literally handcuffed to his press for 8 hrs a day. The thing was the cuffs made it impossible for his hands to get into the press, so yeah, a safety measure. Still a horrific image and no way one should have to live.
germy
He told her she was too old to be on his network. Then he stuck his tongue down her throat.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@Smedley Darlington Mingobat (formerly Mumphrey, et al.):
Three scary words: President Kris Kobach.
Victor Matheson
@TenguPhule: Yeah, this is a good follow up. The Republican wins and they get their choice. The Democrat wins and they still might be able to indefinitely block a new justice.
germy
Inventor
I can’t think of any other reason for him to roll.
Keith P.
@germy: Cagney and Lacy? There was also The Closer, but that was early 2000s, I think.
geg6
@germy:
Gotta admit, I LOLed at that one. Mainly because I think it’s perfectly true.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@Victor Matheson:
Doesn’t matter. This is war. A lie travels around the globe while the truth is putting on its shoes.
TenguPhule
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??:
Boots. For kicking with.
Amir Khalid
@germy:
No punishment is too harsh for a guy who molested Mrs Potts from Beauty And The Beast.
joel hanes
@Immanentize:
I don’t get it
Oh, I think it’s understandable.
it’s fear of being over-optimistic, given the history of past disappointments.
Fitzgerald was no babe in the woods, and yet Fitzmas was a distinct letdown
Keith P.
@Keith P.: Was TJ Hooker in the right timeframe?
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@Keith P.: That was the 80s
germy
@geg6: Julie Chen signed off at the end of “Big Brother” last night as “Julie Chen Moonves”
Barbara
I still agog that Skadden Arps, the law firm that created the report vouching for the fairness of the prosecution of Yulia Tymoshenko at the behest of Manafort for the Ukraine was separately retained by the Ukraine to train and assist prosecutors in the prosecution of Tymoshenko. What a black eye for Skadden.
jonas
@Smedley Darlington Mingobat (formerly Mumphrey, et al.): If he lies, the plea deal is off and goes to prison the rest of his life. I think that will focus his mind a bit…
Shana
@hueyplong: Me too. Mueller seems to be on top of a lot of this from what we can see. Take a look at Seth Abramson’s twitter feed to feel a little comforted.
cwmoss
@TenguPhule: Um, I believe it’s “Hugh G. Rection.”
Gin & Tonic
@Barbara: Please do not write “the Ukraine.” It is just “Ukraine.”
YetAnotherJay formerly (Jay S)
@Barbara: Wasn’t Skadden Arps one of the bad guys in Barbarians at the Gates?
Corner Stone
@Gin & Tonic: I thought the second time was a nice touch.
Barbara
@YetAnotherJay formerly (Jay S): Along with a lot of others, almost certainly, because they are upper echelon corporate counsel in many, many transactions. This kind of work, however, barely qualifies as legal work and is really more like PR or marketing.
RedDirtGirl
@JPL: Have any of you jackals caught the Randy Credico interviews on Ari Melber’s show? I know of him from WBAI in NY, but had never paid him any mind. Known as a “lefty”, he is also a Roger Stone pal. His interviews are bonkers. He is so out of his league. When he gets nervous he starts doing impressions. Crazypants!
Aleta
@Aleta: Btw, There’s no mention of Manafort in that filing, which is for forfeiture. May be linked by mistake?(Linked on twitter by Big Cases Bot and Brad Heath. Still up though)
The defendant in that filing is the $222,200, which is still being held. The filing says the carrier of the money, Roddrick Faulkner, had an arrest record of distributing and possessing marijuana and cocaine. It suggests the money was derived from sale of illicit sub., and that the money was intended to purchase illicit sub.
May be unrelated:
Coincidentally, on August 18 a 34-year-old Indianapolis resident named Roddrick Faulkner Sr. was shot an killed at a concert there.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@TenguPhule: What? You don’t want the Nixon tat?
Calouste
@Barbara: Convicted felon Alex van der Zwaan worked for Skadden Arps. I assume a few of the partners there are, uh, weighing their options.
debit
@Calouste: Ah hah, connection made! Very interesting.
Barbara
@Calouste: van der Zwaan is the son in law of a Russian oligarch. And he supervised the fairness report.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@RedDirtGirl: I’d never heard of him before he turned up on Melber’s show, but it sometimes feels almost like exploitation. There’s a lot of loopy people caught up in this (Carter Page, Roger Stone), but that guy…. Unless he’s playing a part a la Vinnie The Chin Gigante
clay
@Cheryl Rofer: I was wondering about that: “remain safe”.
How likely is the following scenario? What if the intelligence community picked up some solid intel that Manafort and/or his family was under threat? What if they passed that intel to Mueller, who then showed it to Manafort and his lawyers? Wouldn’t that explain why Paulie finally flipped?
Luthe
@Keith P.: The Closer got rolled over into Major Crimes which was also a female led cop show (canceled last year, alas).
Cermet
@ByRookorbyCrook: The deal makes good sense to Manafort – he gets ten years, clears away all other possible prosecutions (if he is honest), and with time served and good behavior out in five or so. Further, the issue for his family is over and he has a good chance to get another tens years outside jail. Hell, he might even be able to start his business up – amerikan voters will quickly forget all this and vote the thugs back in making Manafort employable again.
zhena gogolia
@Immanentize:
I think it’s the continuing trauma of the Nov. 2016 election results.
Cheryl Rofer
@clay: My guess is that it’s not simply one thing, as I implied in my comment above. Manafort is wrapped up in at least three major varieties of wrongdoing: money laundering, conspiracy against the United States, and obstruction of justice. He made the bad judgment to throw his lot in with a group of people who are happy to help their enemies and their families die painfully. Now it’s all coming out, and Manafort knows that the folks he’s been playing footsie with are not amused. Looks like he had some hope of a Trump pardon for a while, but, as I said, I wouldn’t relay on that if I were in his place. He’s also running out of money to pay for legal defense.
Bad place to be in. Too bad he didn’t think of that earlier.
Edited to fix a couple of things.
jonas
Who knows, but it looks to me like Mueller probably has everything he needs to wrap up the Russian collusion investigation now. If he still insists on getting Trump to testify, it will be about the Comey firing/obstruction stuff, and he probably has everything he needs there, too, between the WH lawyers and Trump’s own stupid tweets and televised interviews. The question is, when does he drop the report? If it’s right before the midterms, of course Republicans will freak the F out like never before, confirming that’s it’s been a partisan witch hunt all along, etc., etc. And if there’s indictable stuff in there, then Ryan is presented with the decision of having to empanel an impeachment committee. But then Republicans also have something to motivate their voters — “If you don’t keep us in the majority, Trump’s gone and so are all your hopes and dreams of owning the libs.”
JR
Georges Danton (sic)
Emerald
@Victor Matheson: Nah, I’m sticking with my conspiracy theory. Usually conspiracy theories are nutzoid, but this time there really was an actual conspiracy. We know the Russians ran it, and we’re 99% sure Trump was in on it. We also know that the NRA was getting $$$ from the Russians.
Not too much of a stretch to include McConnell.
zhena gogolia
@germy:
OMG, it’s Janet Gaynor / Judy Garland in A Star Is Born! Mrs. Norman Maine!
zhena gogolia
@Corner Stone:
Is she trolling G&T?
Jeffro
here is some funny for y’all: the current headline at Fox News dot com is FLORENCE TURNS FATAL: MOM, BABY BECOME FIRST DEATHS
Ok, I get it, Florence is big news. But surely Manafort flipping on Trumpov is #2, right?
Nope.
Not even close.
Here’s the next several stories, proceeding down from that Florence headline
#2: Weatherman evacuates mid-report as Florence strikes
#3: Twitter boss admits that conservatives who work for him are scared to come out.
#4: Man convicted of poisoning bald eagles
(not making this up! Continuing on…)
#5: Ex-Disney princess convicted of aiding beau in bizarre double murder
Those are all with pics. The ‘below-the-fold’ section continues with much smaller pictures…
#6: Benson calls out Kamala Harris, Hillary Clinton for attempted debunked smear of Kavanaugh
#7: The Kavanaugh allegations: what could they mean for the court confirmation process?
Continuing on…
#8: New York Times admits creating ‘unfair impression’ about Nikki Haley’s $52K drapes in her Manhattan apartment
It isn’t until you get to
#9: Ex-Manager’s plea deal means up to 10 years, full cooperation with Mueller
NUMBER NINE. Wowzers!
Gin & Tonic
@Cheryl Rofer: I am convinced he’s running out of (or has run out of) clean money to pay his lawyers, but still has plenty stashed away in Cyprus or somewhere, which his lawyers are not stupid enough to accept as payment for services. But assuming he can get out of the big house with some time left on the clock, he’ll be looking for ways to launder that.
Jeffro
@Gin & Tonic: I think he has some stashed, and I think the SC’s office is letting him keep a few assets as well. But he will be nearly 80 by the time he gets out.
The real estate forfeitures sure send a powerful message to, um, someone though don’t they?
Joe Falco
The only good thing I can say for Manafort is that he seemingly doesn’t want his family thrown under the bus unlike Duncan Hunter, but that’s a low bar for common decency.
Cheryl Rofer
@clay: Popehat says something similar to what I’m saying.
Rand Careaga
@TenguPhule:
Yeah, and while we open the windows to let all that perfume and incense waft outdoors from those fulsome eulogies for Senator Maverick, we’d do well to remember this:
(spits)
Cheryl Rofer
@Gin & Tonic: Entirely possible, but the feds and his friends further east will be watching him closely.
Barbara
@jonas: Only the most ardent Trump supporters will be motivated to support him if there are credible allegations he committed a crime or actually colluded with or enabled interference by Russia.
The Moar You Know
@Emerald: Possible but unlikely. I read that he’d stated off the record that they were fully prepared to never allow Hillary a Supreme Court confirmation if she won.
Which is pretty believable. If you’re going to break the norms, don’t do it half-assed.
Jeffro
@Jeffro: Note also Kamala getting lumped in with Hillary Clinton, ahead of Hillary Clinton! Hey GOP, scared of talent and backbone for 2020?
NotMax
Rarely brought up is how phenomenally squeaky clean Mueller must be, so much so that the Republican smear machine hasn’t dredged up anything with which to personally tar/impugn him.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
checking in sporadically with MSNBC, it sounds like trump has neither tweeted nor spoken to any press all day? what time is the Hannity show? Shit should start flying around then
JWL
If I were Trump, at this point I’d just lawyer up and spend the rest of my life on a golf course, trusting I could run out the clock before spending a day in prison. My last tweet would definitely read: “Thee-a-thee-a-thee-a, THAT’S ALL, SUCKERS”, with a graphic of a smiling Porky Pig attached.
Barbara
@Gin & Tonic: I think the strategy all along (if you can call it that) was to be acquitted in the first trial. They weren’t even trying to prepare for the second trial, which was set to start next week and was pushed back a little bit. The sticking point to a plea has always been cooperation and somehow his lawyers finally convinced him that no one gets a plea deal without agreeing to cooperate, or other events spurred him to cooperate. You can plead guilty to the charges but you won’t get anything for that other than the judge’s gratitude for freeing up her schedule for the next trial.
The other reason I think this was the strategy is that they refused to waive jurisdictional issues for the first trial, and required Mueller to bring that case in Virginia. Why on earth would you force yourself to prepare for two separate complex trials no more than three months apart, in some cases using the exact same evidence and documents?
raven
@NotMax: I’m surprised they haven’t dug up some brain dead jar head to swift his ass.
L85NJGT
Ed Rollins is still alive?
The Moar You Know
@Rand Careaga: Ahh, thank you. I wasn’t imagining that.
TenguPhule
@JWL:
it would definitely be a last tweet. Though probably not as intended.
TenguPhule
@Barbara:
The problem is that’s pretty much all that’s left now.
The Midnight Lurker
And where is Mike Pence in all of this? Has he given a statement? Aren’t he and Manafort best of buds?
trollhattan
@Jeffro:
That’s not mere burying the lede, that’s burying it then layering several yards of concrete atop the corpse.
Speaking of corpses, this will surprise roughly zero people.
The Devil’s weed? Merciful heavens, that would explain everything. When do the seven stolen assault rifles suddenly appear in his hall closet?
Patricia Kayden
Manafort is losing a lot of money in his deal with Mueller. Good.
P.S. I thought Rudy had claimed that it was illegal for Mueller to continue with the investigation within 60 days of an election. LOL.
TenguPhule
@Gin & Tonic:
I dunno, we keep stumbling over a who’s who of amazingly stupid lawyers on their side time and again.
Gin & Tonic
@Barbara: Or they thought they’d bought a juror who in the end didn’t stay bought.
Cheryl Rofer
@The Midnight Lurker: Manafort recommended Pence for the VP job.
TenguPhule
@The Midnight Lurker:
Pence claims he was only drinking a lot of coffee.
zhena gogolia
@raven:
Me too. A person at the Hartford Courant when I called to complain about a “political” cartoon that showed Mueller cooking up false charges on Trump, when I said RM was a man of lifelong integrity, said, “Well, that’s what we thought about the NY Attorney General a little while ago!”
TriassicSands
@Elizabelle:
Well, there would be some pleasure in seeing him lose his license (being disbarred would be even better), but it would also be great to see him keep giving incompetent legal advice to The Victim-in-Chief. Given the inequities of the legal system, there is some weird justice in seeing a rich person represented by an utterly inept lawyer.
Keith P.
@trollhattan: IIRC Dallas adopted cite-and-release (almost decriminalization) some time last year.
raven
They’re fishin on the Avalon Pier!
TriassicSands
@trollhattan:
You mean they haven’t found a Koran. That’s not possible.
Elizabelle
@Smedley Darlington Mingobat (formerly Mumphrey, et al.):
Hoping you can come! Bring the kidz to the SPX, although I think some may be for mature audiences!
Elizabelle
@raven: Has anyone ever figured out if fish get stressed by hurricanes? Or do they just know to stay in deeper water?
Are the shorebirds back yet?
TenguPhule
@TriassicSands:
Considering he was a devout Christian, that would be good for a laugh.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Cheryl Rofer: Manafort teamed up with Jared and Ivanka to ankle out Chris Christie, IIRC, and all three were big Flynn boosters, too. Curious, that.
Someone on my TeeVee was saying the other day that Jared and his business dealings are a real sore spot with trump. Not surprising, but interesting. Was it Rachel Maddow and Old Man Woodward?
TenguPhule
@Elizabelle:
The smart ones flee to deeper waters.
The Darwin awards wash up to someone’s front door.
jonas
@TriassicSands: I don’t think Giuliani is a “legal adviser” in the sense that he gives Trump actual, professional legal advice. His job is to go on Fox and other networks and spew a Gish Gallop of bullshit discrediting the Mueller probe so that when Mueller finally issues his report, Trump’s fan base feels safe disregarding it as a bunch of “fake news” and the House — if it’s still in GOP hands, feels safe not having to take up impeachment because there “are so many questions out there” about the legitimacy of the special counsel’s report.
*That’s* his job.
Jeffro
@The Midnight Lurker: yeah, where is Pence? Please let him be “shocked, shocked that there’s
gamblingtreason going on in this establishment!”TriassicSands
@zhena gogolia:
Yeah, well, if someone else who was once considered honest turns out not to be, then the obvious thing to do is to consider every honest person a crook until such time as they can prove they’re not crooks. That makes sensen’t.
Mandalay
@rikyrah:
Muthaphucka Rollins has a track record of racism going back a long way. From 1994:
Jeffro
@trollhattan: the blowback on this smear campaign should be quite intense and rightfully so. Who. The Fuck. Cares. if the guy had any weed anywhere in his own place? He was in his own place!
TriassicSands
@jonas:
You’re probably right. The guy is so loathesome, I don’t pay any attention to him at all. I keep hoping for an alien abduction or a rogue meteorite. Or something.
raven
@Elizabelle: There are birds on the pier. Don’t mention Plovers to old timers on the OBX!
The Midnight Lurker
@Cheryl Rofer: I smell Putin! Didn’t Tillerson get the nod as SoS instead of Romney because of a bunch of Russian bots?
NotMax
@Elizabelle
Here’s some info:
During a Hurricane, What Happens Underwater?
p.a.
@JWL:
Can one self-nominate for the 25th Amendment?
TriassicSands
@TenguPhule:
It’s a well-known fact that Muslims (you know, like Obama) often use Christianity as a front. I thought everyone knew that.
raven
Anti Audubon Sticker OBX
The Midnight Lurker
@TenguPhule: ‘Mother’ lets Mike drink coffee? I don’t think so.
Elizabelle
@raven: Who’s having a problem with plovers? LOL.
raven
TenguPhule
@The Midnight Lurker:
Decaf, two sugars, no cream.
TenguPhule
@p.a.:
Or Self-select for a Darwin Award.
raven
@Elizabelle: They are no native to the OBX but they have this program where they shut the ramps (cuts in the dunes for vehicles) and close the beach if there is any sign of a nest. Most of the OBX were given to the Feds by the local people and they do not cotton to that shit.
NotMax
@TenguPhule
Sanka on holidays, otherwise Postum.
;)
Elizabelle
@raven: Oh no. Save the sea turtles. Like they don’t have enough problems, with oceans full of plastic.
Zinsky
Weighing in late here, but I have to commend Mr. Cole for this post – Bravo! If my count is accurate – including the very pregnant, prefatory “Oh:” – in 28 words you have made the definitive commentary on Paul Manafort’s turnabout in defending the vile Mr. Trump. The title line is precious too…
raven
@Elizabelle: Turtles I get.
The Moar You Know
@trollhattan: They also imaged his computer, claiming it would help them establish who he was going to meet – because he left his door open, you see. I used to do that work. It is not cheap. They are pulling out all the stops to protect this cop and you really gotta wonder why.
They are looking for anything to smear the shit out of this guy with, because the reality of the situation is that there are only two possibilities: she was walking, talking, blackout drunk, or she didn’t want anyone to know she was hooking up with a black dude and terminated that relationship with extreme prejudice. I personally am going with “wasted cop” because of her mugshot – no one in their twenties should look that bad, but that she parked her car on his floor and not hers lends credence to option two.
Regardless, dude should not be dead and she straight up fucking murdered him. No matter what the cops find on him or what her condition or situation was. The rest is actually kind of beside the point.
trollhattan
Republicans evidently aren’t burning their Nike stuff sufficiently fast.
The markets have spoken and we’ve been assured they cannot fail.
Mandalay
Jeb! has a complete meltdown, and savages Trump on Twitter with all the ferocity of a wet paper towel:
Incredibly disheartening comments from our President
There are many things to loathe about Trump, but one thing he did really well was to skewer Jeb! as privileged, spineless wimp.
Meanwhile, Jeb! is getting ready to chair a dinner ($10,000 per person minimum) for the racist Ron DeSantis.
Trump is dangerous and incompetent, and he is screwing things up on a massive scale, but every cloud has a silver lining: at least he fucked up Jeb! very badly, and left him cowering and blubbering on the floor with a big piss stain around his crotch.
BruceFromOhio
@Jeffro:
Man, they really had to dig deep for that one. Sucks to be a chyron editor for the propagandists.
Shana
@Amir Khalid: Although the character she played in The Manchurian Candidate would probably have deserved some punishment.
BruceFromOhio
@Cheryl Rofer:
Polonium tea? Of just disappearing completely one day on the way home? I’m thinking the former, the bad guys in this venture seems to like leaving the bodies out in the open for others to find.
Cheryl Rofer
@BruceFromOhio: They seem to be into nervous system poisons lately.
Spaniel
What does Andrew McCarthy going to say now?
hueyplong
Maybe I am conflating Angela Lansbury and Pence, but wasn’t the control agent in The Manchurian Candidate called “Mother?”
jl
Wonder how bad the state charges are, for which Manafort cannot be pardoned by Trump, plays into thie mysterious and mostly hidden dance we’ve seen between Mueller, FBI, NY State. And I read that Mueller and Trump still have some kind of mutual defense agreement. Which might be an obstacle, or an interesting problems to be solved and turned against both Mueller and Trump for the various agencies trying to bring them to justice.
Will be interesting to read the real story some day.
IANAL, but maybe an IAAL can give some insight.
TenguPhule
@jl:
Manafort.
What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?
Et tu Paulie? Et tu? LOL!
jl
@TenguPhule: The Netherlands has played a quiet but crucial role in international IC against Russia. I happened to get in touch with a Dutch computer security expert, on statistics end of it, that I used to work with. He told me the that the Netherlands feels it has some huge scores to settle with Russia on the plane Russia helped shoot down over Ukraine, or nearby. That killed a score of very important Dutch officials and scientists. He said they got a whole cyber warfare effort to to make Vald pay and pay and pay and… I guess that is why they were totally up the Russian cyber warfare effort to point of intercepting keystrokes in real time, and controlling security cameras to ID everyone involved, and intercepting emails the moment they were sent.
I don’t know how much he really knows and how much is BSing, but interesting story if true.
jl
@TenguPhule: Yes, thanks for catching the typo. Manafort and Trump has some kind of mutual defense agreement still in force.
Keith P.
@TenguPhule: Or Mueller…I can hear Seth Meyers’ Giuliani impersonation in my head “Ohhhhh, Rudy, you screwed up big this time. Ohhhhhhh!!!”
ruemara
@Victor Matheson: It’s accurate. McConnell knew what was stolen. The information was disseminated down into other races. It’s not a conspiracy theory.
Formerly disgruntled in Oregon
@TenguPhule: But cream makes it whiter!
smedley the uncertain
@NotMax: …stays underwater.
Ruckus
@это курам на смех:
Could they even find a jury? How many dems would want to sit on that jury for months, what with all the attempts at delay and then have to consider the shitgibbon as not guilty? How many repubs would give any consideration at a guilty plea?
It’s a political trial if there ever is one and given both the stakes and the possibilities I’d imagine that it’s not actually worth it to try him in a court of law. Impeachment or just wait for 2 yrs seems to be the only obvious roads to me. And impeachment is sort of worthless without 2/3 of the senate, and is it like we are going to learn anything new in a trial?
Ruckus
@NotMax:
Well let’s review here.
Mueller is a republican. I know this because for the first 1000 times his name has been mentioned the word republican either just preceded it or just followed.
Mueller has several prominent republicans balls in his pliers. And they know it.
I’d bet they don’t really want to fuck with him a whole lot because he appears to be not easily swayed by anything but facts. Bullshit isn’t part of his thinking. Every time one of them gets caught up in his net, and remember that a number have pled guilty, seemingly without a second thought, that tells them that he knows far more than any one of them does. Even most idiots know not to fuck with some animals. There does however always seem to be a few, and I’d bet they are wondering why they are having a difficult time to find someone to hold their beer.
Normally the guy at the top might be circling the wagons, but that guy is having a harder and harder time finding people who will listen to him and have even a remote possibility of helping him in any way. The stench in DC is getting to be very bad and it only looks like it has one way to go, and that is far worse. If it wasn’t so horrifying from a life standpoint for the rest of us, it would be fun watching the whole thing implode.