A few weeks ago, Trump called Manafort a "brave man" because he didn't cooperate with federal investigators, but today Manafort flipped.
Does President Unindicted Co-conspirator still think he's brave?
This is a big deal!
WASHINGTON ― Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort pleaded guilty on Friday to two charges involving a wide range of criminal conduct as part of a plea deal and has agreed to cooperate with the special counsel probe being led by Robert Mueller. President Donald Trump has previously discussed pardoning Manafort with his attorneys, but an agreement to cooperate with Mueller’s team could put a potential pardon in jeopardy.
Trump had previously stated his distaste for “flipping” and said it “almost ought to be” illegal. Manafort, 69, appeared Friday in federal court in Washington, where he pleaded guilty to conspiracy against the United States and conspiracy to obstruct justice. The first charge covers a lot of criminal activity, including money laundering, tax fraud, failing to file reports about his foreign bank accounts, failing to register as a foreign agent and lying to the government.
Manafort was found guilty on eight counts last month following a separate federal trial in Northern Virginia and still faced 10 additional counts there in addition to the charges he faced in Washington. The 10 counts in Virginia will be dropped as part of Manafort’s plea deal.
The plea deal states that Manafort “shall cooperate fully, truthfully, completely, and forthrightly with the Government and other law enforcement authorities identified by the Government in any and all matters as to which the Government deems the cooperation relevant.”
5 comments:
I think it is going to be hard for Trump to square his view that Manafort is a good person, yet Cohen is not. Both have flipped, to shave years off their prison terms.
What Mueller has done is dig, scratch and claw into the lives of those two guys, and others, to find where they've broken the law, and then use that leverage to find out what has happened inside the Trump campaign regarding any potential collusion with Russia.
We may still find out that the Trump Campaign did nothing wrong. I doubt it, but it is possible and in the US, you're innocent until proven guilty.
It's interesting to watch. If not for a myriad of demonstratively false statements from Trump, Sessions, Trump Jr and other members of this Admin's inner circle, we may never have got to this point. But here we are and each of the guys pleading guilty to crimes has only one person to blame, President Trump. Because the never surrender, never give an inch, always point people the other way hoping they'll eventually just give up, all emanates from him.
Their prison sentences... days, weeks, months and years in cells away from their families are because Trump is a person who only cares about himself.
Family values, winning and "Making America Great Again" indeed.
We;re about to find out why Lord Dampnut thinks plea deals should be illegal.
But none of the charges Manafort plead to have anything to do with tRump-Russia collusion. If he didn't plead to it, he doesn't have to talk about it. Or that's the belief among tRumpers, apparently.
Dave: "I doubt it, but it is possible and in the US, you're innocent until proven guilty."
That is true in a court of law ONLY. In the court of public opinion, citizens can decide for themselves if they think a person is innocent or guilty, because public opinion is not legal evidence. Example, the TrumpCultists believed Hillary Clinton was guilty of something, anything, everything. The BENGHAZI! hearings found her innocent of any deliberate wrong doing -- mistakes, probably, but the Bush Administration lost American lives in embassy and consulate killings. Tragedies, but not criminal. That didn't stop the TrumpCultists from their belief of Hillary's guilt.
Ducky Yes we are. And that can't happen soon enough. This is exactly what Bannon feared.
Dervish, Yeah. The T-Cultist, like their idol, keep telling themselves that. It's rather dear, isn't it.
The fact that Manafort is given a plea deal on charges not related directly to the collusion investigation implies that he has information "of interest" to Mueller.
This really doesn't look good for tRump. I hope there are procedures in place to deal with his breakdown.
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