Day 559 Wednesday August 1, 2018 1,019 Days to Go
As the noose tightens the flailing intensifies
Paul Manafort’s first trial has begun. The prosecution’s case is rock solid. He’s charged 18 times: money laundering, tax fraud, bank fraud, failure to register as a foreign agent, and obstruction of justice.
He’s got another trial after this, in state court.
If he’s convicted on any one of these charges he is looking at ten years in jail. It is likely that he’ll be found guilty of all the charges. Many say Trump will pardon him, but that won’t get him out of the state charges. Mueller has wisely only brought a minimum number of charges (and they are substantial!). If Trump pardons Manafort, New York State can try him for other crimes.
There’s been several interesting developments on the fringes of the case. The president and his sycophants have been screaming “No Collusion!” They changed their tune as soon as the Manafort trial started to “Collusion is not a crime!” Rudy Giuliani has now said there was an earlier meeting before the famous “Trump Tower meeting” to discuss what they wanted to do in the big meeting. He also said the earlier meeting didn’t take place. Don Jr has said the actual meeting was a nothing burger. Trump Sr has said he knew nothing about the meeting before it took place and didn’t learn about it until much later.
Why the change in attitude about the collusion point and why bring up a second meeting that they said didn’t take place? Why indeed. Most legal minds speculate that the reason is due to the start of the Manafort trial. When a trial starts the defense gets to see all the evidence against their client. The star witness in this case is Rick Gates, Manafort’s aid and later business partner. Apparently, the prosecution has to show everything Rick Gates said to them, even if it isn’t really relevant to the trial.
The betting is that Rick Gates mentioned the earlier meeting and Rudy and Fox are now out there trying to “get ahead of the story” with the claim that there was an earlier meeting, but it was no meeting. They are also throwing in the “collusion is not a crime” bit, too. Okay, let’s clear up the collusion thing. It is a crime. It’s called “conspiracy” in the criminal code. No, the word “collusion” does not appear in the criminal code, and as one legal expert mentioned yesterday neither does “bank heist” but “bank robbery” does – same difference.
What’s the defense trying to claim? The other guy did it, the underling, Rick Gates. Most legal experts say this defense rarely if ever works. In this case there are a whole string of shell companies set up around the world with Manafort’s signature on the paperwork. He claims Gates did it, and or it’s not his fault because this is the way his benefactors wanted to pay him.
I call this a three pronged defense of: “The dog ate my homework”, “I was just following orders”, and “The other guy did it.” None of these are winning strategies.
Bye bye Paulie, Bye bye.
Oh yes, there is a White House memo that was written before the famous Trump Tower meeting that mentions Trump Sr being informed of the meeting. The one he claimed to not know anything about. That’ll be a crime.
1,019 Days to Go
PS Time for self reflection – at Bonampak
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