I’ve been in a holding pattern today, just in case the jury in the Manafort trial completed their work and delivered their verdicts. I guess that isn’t going to happen on a timetable that is convenient for me. So, instead of commenting on the outcome of that trial, I’ll just remind you that however bad you think Manafort is, he’s actually worse.
There’s an interesting aspect to the White House spin on this trial that doesn’t get enough attention. In the part of the Steele Dossier that discusses the firing of Paul Manafort, it is noted that Corey Lewandowski truly hated the man and played a role in his demise. And that can’t be ignored when considering the following, but it’s still worth noting that this was published at all.
On December 4, 2017, Politico Magazine published an advanced excerpt of the forthcoming book Let Trump Be Trump, co-written by Lewandoski and David Bossie. It described how candidate Trump discovered that Manafort had been receiving off-the-books payments from the pro-Russian Party of Regions and their leader Viktor Yanukovych. It began with Manafort inviting Steve Bannon up to his Trump Tower apartment:
Manafort wanted Steve to look at a transcript of a story, yet another one, that a New York Times reporter had sent to him. Bannon read the first three paragraphs and then looked up him.
“Twelve-point-seven-million-dollar payment from Ukraine?”
“How much of this is true?” Bannon asked.
“It’s all lies,” Manafort said. “My lawyers are fighting it.”
“When are they going to run it?” Bannon asked.
“They’re threatening to publish tomorrow.”
“Does Trump know about this?”
“What’s to know? It’s all lies.”
“But if it’s in the paper someone has to give Trump a heads-up, because if it’s in the paper, it’s reality.”
“It was a long time ago,” he added. “I had expenses.”
Bannon knew what he had in his hand.
It was an explosive, Page One story. And even if the story wasn’t true, it was in the fucking New York Times. At the very least it would leave a mark.
Just as Steve had thought, the story ran the next day, August 15, on Page One, above the fold.
“I’ve got a crook running my campaign,” Trump said when he read it.
This article was published about five weeks after Manafort surrendered to the FBI after having been indicted by a grand jury. At the time, the idea was that Manafort was as guilty as he looked and that he had been fired immediately once Trump realized that he was a crook.
That actually would have been a solid defense. If Trump inadvertently hired someone who was looking to use him as a way to satisfy a debt approaching twenty million dollars to Putin and Russian mafia-connected oligarch Oleg Derispaska, that could have been an innocent mistake. Saying that they fired him as soon as they learned that he was compromised would have been a great way to create some space.
But they didn’t stick to that story, and Trump is out there even today singing the praises of Manafort in a way that should qualify as jury tampering. Now we are supposed to believe that Manafort is a good man who is being railroaded.
I can’t get past this turnaround. The special counsel has a record of Manafort offering Derispaska private briefings on the inside workings of Trump’s campaign and openly wondering if he can use his position to satisfy his enormous debt. Trump should be completely outraged. Trump’s supporters should be braying for blood.
But they are not. They are defending Manafort and arguing that all the charges are old, trumped up, and have nothing to do with Russian collusion. They could have blamed almost everything on Manafort and instead they’re turning him into a martyr.
This behavior makes absolutely no sense if Manafort was a rogue operator. Apparently, he wasn’t a rogue operator. Either that, or he simply knows too much for them to risk him becoming a cooperating witness.
Lewandowski said that Trump was outraged to learn he had a crook running his campaign. Somewhere along the way, he forgot to stay outraged.
Still expecting the behavior of someone suffering from Narcissistic Personality Disorder to make sense, I see. DT can not not lie. It’s how he survives. Call someone a crook today, and the very best people tomorrow. It’s all based on what he needs at any given moment, and how he can keep from feeling shame. He has no other drivers. None of it makes sense to the rest of us. It totally makes sense to him. He doesn’t remember what he said from one minute to the next.
One of my favorite Trump interivew clips is that bit where he’s piously making a big deal of “I don’t lie” (the superimposed title over the excerpt, when used on other broadcasts, was “TRUMP: ‘I DON’T LIE'”). He went on to say that he “actually” gets himself in trouble for telling the truth so much.
That persistent lying is an expression of his paranoia. If you do not trust people, the truth becomes a thing that can be used against you…thus ya lie. The donald is like a kid who gets caught with cookie crumbs all over his shirt. When asked if he got a cookie out of the cookie jar he states no.
Even a broken clock is right twice a day.
OTOH
It takes one to know one, Donald.
Seriously, do yourself a favor and read the pinned thread on twitter for @HoarseWisperer. He has had years of experience dealing with NPD. He gets what is going on.
I’m not sure I believe that was Trump’s comment. He doesn’t care that someone who works for him or especially with him is a crook until it becomes inconvenient for him. He waited three weeks to fire Flynn, and then I think only when stories about Sally Yates having warned the White House about Flynn’s exposure to blackmail starting being published. It seems to me it’s just as likely that Lewandoski or Bossie or Bannon made it up after the fact so it would appear that Trump was outraged and fired Manafort for that reason. My understanding is that Trump had routine contact with Manafort after he left the campaign, and Gates was in the inner circle much longer. But, with problematic stories about Manafort on the front pages, he had to be “fired,” and in telling the story months later, at a time when more was coming out implicating the campaign and Trump himself in conspiracy with Russia to defraud the United States, the retroactive explanation became Manafort had to have been “fired” because Trump had been outraged by a “crook running [his] campaign.”
Cover story made up after the fact.
So plausible, Ockham tells me it’s the best bet.
Well, Trump did fire Manafort very fast.
It’s obviously more complicated. Whatever Trump said or didn’t say (Maybe he said, “Uh … yeah”), at the time Bannon & Lewandowski prevailed. But they are both long since gone.
So I think Booman’s thesis makes sense. This is not about some “whim” of Trump’s. It is something substantial, and the likelihood is that Mueller has the goods. That’s why the Trump machine is trying harder than ever to discredit Mueller. But I think they’re just burning rubber (except with their zombie base.)
Any story that relies on Gruppenfuhrer Bannon for its accuracy is by definition dubious. As though Trumper would think any type of million dollar grifting was a “crime”. Or even know what was criminal about it.
Der Trumper prefaces most comments on Moscow Manafort with “he worked for me for a very short time…[insert lie here]”. Can no reporter ask, “why did he only work for you for such a short time?”
The Trumper brain trust can’t really figure out a coherent strategy for describing the felonious Manafort. He’s either a crook (which once again shows Trumper’s colossal bad judgment on every hire) or he’s part of the already-proven collusion operation (which, um, also don’t look too good…) So they have had to settle on “he’s a very good person!”, which makes no sense but protects the lawbreaking Trumper, which is the only goal of their continual scrambling.
And of course Der Trumper never spoke with his campaign manager in any event, ha-ha. Too busy! Too little time!
Trump calling Manafort a crook was game. Which explains why he’s defending him now.
Both Trump and Manafort are crooks, both of them having fed from the same trough. Trump might likely be in the same position as Manafort, with Russian mobsters on his back were it not for the fact that he’s had something to offer, i.e. money laundering, and now the Presidency.
BREAKING: Manafort guilty on eight counts, mistrial on other ten.