It is not every day that a president’s former campaign manager and another campaign worker are indicted on felony charges. In fact the last time it happened was 1974, when Nixon’s campaign manager John Mitchell was indicted. Trump’s claims that “this is years ago, before Paul Manafort was part of the Trump campaign,” aren’t true. The indictment says that the money laundering and conspiracy for which Manafort and his associate Rick Gates are being charged continued “through at least 2016” — i.e., through the period, from March 29 to August 19, 2016, when Manafort was working for Trump. Gates remained at the campaign even after Manafort was ousted.Lawfare's analysis is worth reading. So is Popehat's.
As much as Trump's iterations of Baghdad Bob are going to be everywhere saying "Manafort, who" and "who's Papadopoulos", others have been noting that Trump prominently mentioned that Papadopoulos was part of his foreign policy team. Manafort ran Trump's campaign for three months (including when Trump was nominated) and was also the "chief strategist".
Think about that for a minute. One of Trump's foreign policy advisors was an alleged Russian operative. His campaign manager was an allged unregistered foreign agent and a money-launderer.
Will Manafort flip on Trump? Well, a couple of the counts would, if Manafort was convicted, lead to asset forfeiture. Hell, given that the DoJ is all about civil asset forfeiture, Mueller might be able to grab Manafort's shit, now. Roll over on Trump or lose everything he owns--- that's a hell of a conundrum for Manafort.
5 comments:
So I was reading the indictment and when I got to the asset forfeiture part, started grinning big. These right wing asshats are all about asset forfeiture when it's *other* people whose assets are getting forfeited. Let's see how they like being on the receiving end for a change!
12 counts. Granted, half of them are FARA paperwork violations, but the remainder -- money laundering, conspiracy against the US, lying to the FBI -- are enough for some real time in the graybar hotel, and I ain't talkin' the Martha Stewart memorial suite either.
Graybar hotel? I like the "Office Space" description better.
That forfeiture section might be a warning to everyone else to cooperate or face the consequences. But I read it too, and it does sound brutal.
-Doug in Oakland
Yes to everything you've said with this addition...where oh where is General Flynn AND his son?
I don't think any of these guys want be errrrahh afraid to reach for the soap in a -5 star shithole!
Flynn has dropped below the radar. That suggests, at least to me, that he is cooperating with Mueller.
But I don't do criminal law, let alone federal stuff. So my opinion is worth the pixel count.
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