Paul Manafort is in court right now and the president feels badly about it. The former Trump campaign chairman has already pleaded not-guilty to new charges of witness tampering, and his lawyers are pleading with the judge not to jail him.
Update [2018-6-15 12:59:56 by BooMan]: They were ultimately not successful.
During the hearing, Judge Amy Berman Jackson pressed a prosecutor on Mueller’s team on the question of whether Manafort currently represents a danger to the public.
The prosecutor said that Manafort is a threat because of the likelihood that he will commit new crimes.
However, Manafort’s lawyer scoffed at the idea that he was trying to tamper [with] witness[es].
Berman has yet to rule on the request to revoke Manafort’s bail, which would lead to him being jailed before his trials, or to modify the terms of his release.
Per usual, Trump simply cannot be honest about any of this:
President Donald Trump, while speaking to reporters outside the White House on Friday morning, was asked about Manafort.
“Manafort has nothing to do with our campaign,” Trump said. “I feel a little badly about it.”
“You know, Paul Manafort worked for me for a very short period of time. He worked for Ronald Reagan. He worked for Bob Dole. He worked for many other he worked for me, what, 49 days or something. Very short period of time.”
In fact, Manafort served 144 days as Trump’s presidential campaign chairman. He was hired in late March 2016, and resigned on Aug. 19 of that year.
It’s hard to tell a bigger lie than to claim that your campaign chairman had “nothing to do with” your campaign. But that’s par for the course with this man.
His potentially bigger problem has been reported by Shimon Prokupecz of CNN.
Michael Cohen has indicated to family and friends he is willing to cooperate with federal investigators to alleviate the pressure on himself and his family, according to a source familiar with the matter.
— Shimon Prokupecz (@ShimonPro) June 15, 2018
Could be an exciting weekend.
Many are of the opinion that Mueller doesn’t actually need anything from Manafort. He can already prove that Manafort was working for the Russians and probably that they planted him in the campaign. And Manafort probably didn’t confide in Orange Julius about that. In fact the interpretation that OJ was more of a dupe than a perpetrator is pretty tenable, it seems to me, although of course he did actively work to hide the truth once he became aware of it.
Cohen undoubtedly has a dumptruck full of dirt, although how much of it has to do with Russia and the election is unclear.
The connection to Donny Two-Scoops and Russia goes back to the money laundering that enabled him to build hundreds of millions of dollars worth of commercial real estate using cash he didn’t have. That set him up for blackmail and political extortion, something which continued throughout the campaign and up to the present.
I agree with that, but the question is what Donny had to do actively with the Russian electoral operation. Obviously they’re blackmailing him, now that he’s in office, but that’s a separate question.
Michael Cohen has been representing Trump to the Russians for a long time – Trump Tower Moscow etc. I find it unlikely Cohen can not testify Trump was well informed of Trump’s Russia interactions.
You’re missing the distinction I’m making. Of course he knows about interactions between Dump and Russia. Like I say, he has a dumptruck full of that. The question is whether he has any unique knowledge about the conspiracy to steal the election.
https:/twitter.com/SethAbramson/status/933608762501410816 .
https:
/www.buzzfeed.com/anthonycormier/trump-moscow-micheal-cohen-felix-sater-campaign?utm_term=.uc
VGMKjlZ#.kc1AWyZwp .
http://amp.mcclatchydc.com/news/nation-world/national/article211288014.html
.
They may be blackmailing him, but even without that, I rather think he owes them A LOT of money. Probably both.
Happy Friday!
Trump later today: Michael Cohen? I don’t know who that is.
Reporter: (Explains Cohen’s relationship to Trump)
Trump: Oh him. I haven’t seen or heard from him in many years. He once did something for me, probably more than 20 years ago. I don’t remember what it was.
Reporter: (asks about the Stormy Daniels affair and payment)
Trump: Who’s Stormy Daniels? I never heard of her.
And, on and on it will go like that. Teflon Trump.
Will the pardons come this weekend?
Things being what they are with Trump, “pardon” is just another word for “self-serving obstruction of justice.”
“..49 days or something…”
That’s my new favorite Trump lie.
The old one was “most physically fit President ever”
The view is different in jail, from when you’re on bail.
Perspective is everything in these times.
Katy Tur on MSNBC noted that Trump said at least 19 lies on the WH lawn today and the republicans just don’t seem to care. Whatever happened to truth? This stuff keeps coming every day, no end in site. Seems Obama is the real bad guy here according to the Great Orange.
The republicans don’t care about truth, only power, and lying is the underpinning of how they maintain it.
True that. But you had to hear the Orange One rattle off the lies one right after the other. Really sad part is his base believes it all especially if ,as he notes all the time, Obama did it.
Will they flip? Maybe as the trial date closes in or the money runs out and/or they worry about thirty years behind bars. But then if they talk they may want some protection from the Russian mob.
Good news for Manafort is that the ankle bracelets come off today.
I’m hoping he flips on Roger Stone after he gets some time to himself in a cell. Now that Rudy is babbling about a pardon being on the table I’m thinking that he really might have some good dirt to leverage.
Trump just declared to the press that he really did write the memo on AF1 about the Tower meeting…
. . . ya got yourself there (silver lining from Manafort’s perspective, that is):
Thx, enjoyed that.
I think the Trump perps are afraid of, in priority order:
Under no circumstances do public shaming or sense of letting anyone down enter into it.
I’ll be satisfied with plea deals from Don, Jr , Hope Hicks, and Kushner on the Trump Tower meeting. Money laundering pleas from all the Trump family and Cohen for their real estate deals. And maximum fines for everyone connected with the Trump foundation.
That’s it, but nothing less.
On a different point, I’d like to see the NRA, RNC, and Broidy, Cohen, and Wynn all get slapped on Russian campaign contribution laundering.
Could be that Manafort has some goods on these folks.
Lastly, Stormy gets out of the NDA and Broidy flips on Trump for the pregnant bunny.
You wanna see all that, but only all that, i.e., Trump finishes out his term otherwise unimpeded?
Hey Gatos, good observation. That’s why I think Manafort may be glad he’s in jail.
Speaking of flipping. Here’s a new thought. Thursday’s filing against Trump Foundation by NY AG captured Cory Lewindowsky as someone who was working as Trump’s campaign manager but directed via emails who to write checks to out of the Foundation funds.
He’s now trapped well and good. Trump can’t pardon him with the AG, but probably could with the IRS & FEC criminal charges. But meanwhile, what are the chances that Cory flips on the whole family?