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Nolte: Manafort Deal Looks Like Good News for Trump, Terrible News for Democrats


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2018 Sep 20, 7:11pm   2,658 views  24 comments

by WillPowers   ➕follow (3)   💰tip   ignore  

Ken Vogel, a Democrat-reporter at the New York Times, has been forced to report that powerful Democrats linked to Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama might be in the Mueller crosshairs.

Kenneth P. Vogel

@kenvogel

MORE BAD NEWS FOR PODESTA, MERCURY & SKADDEN: As part of MANAFORT’s plea deal, he agrees to testify before all grand juries in DC and "elsewhere.” The inquiries into @PodestaGroup, Mercury & @SkaddenArps are being run out of the Southern District of New York.

https://www.breitbart.com/big-journalism/2018/09/15/nolte-manafort-deal-looks-like-good-news-for-trump-terrible-news-for-democrats/

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1   bob2356   2018 Sep 20, 7:55pm  

WillPowers says
Ken Vogel, a Democrat-reporter at the New York Times, has been forced to report that powerful Democrats linked to Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama might be in the Mueller crosshairs.


BLOCKBUSTER BLOCKBUSTER BLOCKBUSTER It's the big one.
2   bob2356   2018 Sep 20, 8:16pm  

WillPowers says
MORE BAD NEWS FOR PODESTA, MERCURY & SKADDEN: As part of MANAFORT’s plea deal, he agrees to testify before all grand juries in DC and "elsewhere.” The inquiries into @PodestaGroup, Mercury & @SkaddenArps are being run out of the Southern District of New York.


Where did vogel say democrat? I'm not seeing it. Can you point it out? . I guess you didn't get the memo that the mercury group ( former rep. Vin Weber (R-Minn.)) is a republican lobbying firm. They all knew that European Centre for a Modern Ukraine (ECFMU) was a front for Yanukovych and Putin. The emails that have come out show the lobbyists in the groups laughing and making jokes about it.

How does breitbart know that Mueller has zippo? Did Mueller call breitbart up and tell them?
3   socal2   2018 Sep 20, 8:34pm  

bob2356 says
Where did vogel say democrat? I'm not seeing it. Can you point it out?


Really?

Tony Podesta's brother (John) was Bill Clinton's chief of staff and and campaign chair for Hillary Clinton's 2016 run.

Greg Craig was Bill Clinton's and Obama's White House council.

I think Manafort is certainly guilty of tax evasion. But if he is also going to be charged basically as a spy for failing to register as a foreign lobbyist, then so should these Clinton connected guys.
4   LeonDurham   2018 Sep 21, 4:58am  

Is this when it gets real??!!??
5   anonymous   2019 Feb 15, 5:04pm  

Mueller's office seeks prison sentence of 20 -24 years for ex-Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort

WASHINGTON – Russia special counsel Robert Mueller asked a federal judge on Friday to send former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort to prison for between 20 and 24 years for his conviction on multiple financial fraud charges.

Prosecutors also urged a federal judge in Virginia to move forward with the sentencing, which could amount to a life term for the 69-year-old Manafort who less than three years ago presided over President Donald Trump's nomination at the 2016 Republican National Convention.

"Manafort acted for more than a decade as if he were above the law, and deprived the federal government and various financial institutions of millions of dollars," prosecutors wrote in a court filing Friday night, adding that they agreed with a pre-sentence report filed by federal probation authorities. "The sentence here should reflect the seriousness of these crimes, and serve to both deter Manafort and others from engaging in such conduct."

Prosecutors also indicated that Manafort should be held liable for restitution and forfeited properties totaling up to nearly $30 million.

Manafort's sentencing had been on hold while prosecutors and his lawyers argued over whether he violated an agreement to assist in the continuing investigation into the Kremlin's interference in the 2016 election. Earlier this week, a federal judge in Washington concluded that Manafort had lied repeatedly to prosecutors, and upended his plea agreement in a related case there.

Manafort could have been eligible for a lesser sentence had he fulfilled his obligation to assist investigators.

Despite his convictions, Trump has lauded Manafort for his refusal "to break." The president, however, has not indicated whether he would issue a pardon for his one-time campaign chief. One of Mueller's prosecutors, Andrew Weissmann, told a judge this month that one of the reasons Manafort might have lied after promising to cooperate was to "augment his chances for a pardon."

In the Friday night court filing, prosecutors asserted that Manafort chose his course of conduct to "maintain his extravagant lifestyle, at the expense of various financial institutions."

"Manafort chose to do this for no other reason than greed, evidencing his belief that the law does not apply to him," the court documents stated.

"Manafort’s age does not eliminate the risk of recidivism he poses—particularly given that his pattern of criminal activity has occurred over more than a decade," prosecutors said. "Manafort’s misconduct continued as recently as October 2018 when he repeatedly and intentionally lied to the government during proffer sessions and the grand jury" after entering into the plea agreement with the government.

Manafort was convicted in August on eight counts of financial fraud following a three-week trial in Alexandria, Virginia. The case was primarily focused on Manafort's extensive consulting work in Ukraine on behalf of its former pro-Russian regime.

A month later, Manafort pleaded guilty to two felony conspiracy charges in a related case as part of his cooperation agreement.

Mueller sought to void that plea deal in November after prosecutors alleged that Manafort had misled them about his interactions with Russian business associate Konstantin Kilimnik, his contacts with Trump's administration and other subjects. Manafort's lawyers argued that his misstatements were unintentional, but U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson largely disagreed.

She ruled that Manafort had lied to prosecutors and the FBI about his interactions with Kilimnik, who prosecutors have said is tied to Russian intelligence. Among the exchanges, prosecutors allege he lied about was having provided polling data to Kilimnik.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2019/02/15/paul-manafort-deserves-prison-sentence-20-years-mueller-says/2881393002/
6   HeadSet   2019 Feb 15, 6:11pm  

But if he is also going to be charged basically as a spy for failing to register as a foreign lobbyist, then so should these Clinton connected guys.

Not going to happen. The whole point of this Mueller thing was to go on the offense to deflect any investigations into Clinton connected people. Mueller will ignore anything that implements Clinton and cronies.
7   marcus   2019 Feb 15, 6:31pm  

HeadSet says
The whole point of this Mueller thing was to go on the offense to deflect any investigations into Clinton connected people


Of course. Everyone knows that.
8   anonymous   2019 Feb 24, 4:00am  

HeadSet says

The whole point of this Mueller thing was to go on the offense to deflect any investigations into Clinton connected people

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Politics politics ct theory 4chan rumor nasty speculation. Thu Dec 20, 2018, 03:59 PM ... Mueller. This one is brand new just alerted to me by RandomPlacebo, that the Mueller investigation is actually running interference for Donald Trump, and that's why it's taking so long. ...

Nothing like getting quality information from a blog on 4Chan

Even more convincing - the fuckwit of the Universe, Alex Jones picked up on it on July 25, 2017

https://www.infowars.com/claim-mueller-actually-going-after-clintons/

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In other news....New York prosecutors are prepared to charge Paul Manafort if he receives a pardon from Trump: report

New York County District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. purportedly readies tax and other charges against Manafort

New York state prosecutors are reportedly preparing to file criminal charges against Paul Manafort, the longtime Republican consultant who spent five months as President Donald Trump's campaign chairman during the 2016 election, in the event that he receives a presidential pardon.

Bloomberg News reported that New York County District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. is ready to file tax and other charges against Manafort.

Manafort was convicted last year on eight counts of bank and fraud tax, and he pleaded guilty to two more charges of conspiracy and lying to the FBI. He is scheduled to be sentenced next month in two separate federal criminal cases, in Virginia and in Washington, for crimes related to foreign lobbying and advising pro-Russian politicians and oligarchs in Ukraine in the years before he joined Trump's presidential campaign.

Prosecutors working for special counsel Robert Mueller, who brought the case against Manafort and is investigating allegations of collusion between Trump's presidential campaign and Russia, recommended that Manafort serve as long as 24.5 years in prison in the Virginia case — essentially a life sentence for the 69-year-old. He is scheduled to be sentenced at a U.S. district court in Virginia on March 8, according to a court filing posted Thursday.

Manafort also awaits a March 13 sentencing date in a separate case brought by Mueller in Washington, where he pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges and charges of lying to federal prosecutors and a grand jury. Mueller's office must submit a sentencing memo recommending a length for Manafort's prison sentence to District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson no later than Friday.

In Virginia, U.S. District Court Judge T.S. Ellis III had scheduled Manafort's sentencing for early February, but the hearing was postponed until attorneys resolved a dispute over whether Manafort had breached his plea deal with Mueller in the Washington case. Jackson ruled last week that Manafort had purposefully lied to the FBI, as well as to Mueller's team, about contacts he had with Trump administration officials and his connections to Russian-linked intelligence officers two months after reaching a plea deal, thus voiding it and allowing Mueller to recommend a harsher sentence.

Lawyers for Manafort claimed in court filings that he did not make "intentional misstatements" and "provided complete and truthful information to the best of his ability" over the course of 12 meetings with government attorneys and federal prosecutors. His defense team also stated that "conditions of Mr. Manafort's confinement have taken a toll on his physical and mental health" and weighed on his "state of mind and on his memory."

Ellis and Jackson, the judges in the Virginia and Washington cases, are likely to determine how Manafort will serve his prison time. Under the original plea deal, Mueller had agreed to recommend that Manafort serve his Washington sentence concurrent with his Virginia sentence. But following Jackson's ruling last week, Mueller may suggest that Manafort serve the sentences consecutively.

"A presidential pardon would not protect Manafort from state-filed criminal charges," Bloomberg News reported. "The longtime Republican operative could be sentenced to two or more decades in prison under federal sentencing guidelines."

Last November, Trump, speaking of a pardon for Manafort, said he "wouldn't take it off the table." At the time, Democratic Rep. Jerry Nadler of New York, the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, warned Trump that "even dangling a pardon" for Manafort "would fortify a claim or charge of obstruction of justice."

https://www.salon.com/2019/02/22/new-york-prosecutors-are-prepared-to-charge-paul-manafort-if-he-receives-a-pardon-from-trump-report/
9   WillPowers   2019 Feb 24, 6:17pm  

Kakistocracy says
Mueller's office seeks prison sentence of 20 -24 years for ex-Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort


This article misses the point: This was a process crime, committed years before he even started working for Trump and in no way proves collusion or anything close to it. Process crimes for lying to Congress, when Comey admittedly lied too, but did he get indicted? The indictments of Roger Stone and Flynn were process crimes, or bullshit charges that he obstructed justice, having nothing to do with Russian collusion and were committed after the 2016 election, and yet the article you quoted in full apparently, makes no mention of this. It's almost like the writer wants to leave in the readers mind the impression this somehow indicts Trump.

What HOGWASH

Will Powers
11   anonymous   2019 Mar 8, 5:02am  

The Judge Who Let Manafort Off Easy With 47 Months

It is striking that a judge just sentenced Paul Manafort, a major target of the Mueller investigation, to only 47 months in prison. The Sentencing Guidelines justified a sentence well above fifteen years. It was all-important that Manafort, who had been the head of the Trump presidential campaign, receive a strong sentence.

This was partly for the general reason in sentencing, to send the message to potential malefactors of the consequences. But, it was also needed to persuade Manafort to tell Mueller (and, eventually, in some forum, the public) the truth about President Trump and Russia.

Instead, this weak sentence sends these kind of messages of a conservative judge: it is not so bad to use Republican connections to cash in with Putin’s allies; Trump’s campaign manager is worthy of much, much more respect than in the Sentencing Guidelines; Mueller’s quest for the Russia connection deserves little help, and some messages.

Senior U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis was nominated to the bench in 1987 by President Ronald Reagan, who of course favored very conservative picks. Before then, he had worked since 1970 for Hunton and Williams, a very well known, quite conservative, Richmond firm.

President Reagan nominated Judge Ellis to the Eastern District of Virginia. Presidents have a special reason to want to stack that particular court with strong conservatives. The Pentagon and the CIA are in that district. There is a great desire among conservatives to stack that district court to handle the cases that concern national security brought in that district, including espionage cases.

Take a comparison of the Manafort case with another prosecution of a political figure, a black Democratic Congressman from a black district in Louisiana named William J. Jefferson. (I was a peripheral observer of that case. The FBI had raided Jefferson’s Congressional office and carried off his computer hard drive. The Judiciary Committee held a hearing on the violation of Congressional independence by that raid, and I was the principal witness (because I knew the established limits on prosecution tactics as a former House General Counsel and I was now a professor.))

Jefferson’s case was basically bribery. It was nationally famous because agents raiding his house found cash in the freezer.

Manafort may have gotten off easy with four years, but Ellis threw the book at Jefferson. In 2009 Ellis sentenced Jefferson to 13 years, the longest sentence of any Congressman to that date. (After further twists and turns Ellis let off Jefferson in December 2017 for five years time served.) It seems that while Judge Ellis can sympathize with Manafort, the Republican presidential campaign manager, he did not sympathize with Jefferson.

Everything now depends on the sentence Manafort receives in his other case, and whether it is consecutive or concurrent. Imagine the relief for Trump if it is a sentence no longer than 47 months and it runs concurrently. If Manafort had gotten (or still gets) a sentence of more than 15 years, Trump would face the problem of pardoning Manafort to prevent him from experiencing great pressure to cooperate with Mueller.

The press and public have been waiting for the first use of the pardon power as a major statement about Trump.

Now, Trump might just get off and not need to display the pardon weapon. Trump should say "Thank you, Judge Ellis."

https://www.forbes.com/sites/charlestiefer/2019/03/07/the-judge-who-let-manafort-off-easy-with-47-months-is-an-arch-conservative/#4f63122b5256
12   Shaman   2019 Mar 8, 5:59am  

So you feel that outright bribery of an elected Congressman, successfully thwarting the will of the people with blatant corruption is worse than tax evasion?
Because that’s what Manafort plead guilty to: tax evasion. It had nothing to do with Mueller or RUSSIANCOLLUSIONZOMG!!!! Both men received similar sentences, but Jefferson’s crime seemed more grievous to our union than cheating on taxes.

Oh and make no mistake, if Manafort actually had something on Trump, he would be serving NO time as Mueller’s Target was always the POTUS, whether or not he did anything illegal.
13   anonymous   2019 Mar 8, 8:37am  

Quigley says
So you feel


Much thanks for proving beyond any shadow of a doubt my comments from the other day.

Comment #10. Thread - https://patrick.net/post/1322853/2019-03-05-does-social-status-still-matter-at-a-certain-age
14   Tenpoundbass   2019 Mar 8, 9:18am  

The thing is the Judges that are willing to sign off on the Corrupt illegal bidding of the Never Trump Sedicious Traitors.
Are the ones that will carry the ramifications for the longest in their careers.
The DOJ, FBI, NSA, CIA hacks and the Muller Mafia Thugs, will go on other jobs where their antics will only benefit them. Their future employers will be happy to hire first Class Creeps like those Sorry Mother Fuckers.

But these Judges, 10 to 20 years down the road when their names come up for a SCOTUS nomination that's when this whole Never Trump episode will come into light.
They were the ones that put the final rubber stamp on it. That Scotus vetting process will expose so much criminality that there will be no way an Activist Judge, a Judge with Partisan henchman for a corrupt potlical machine to do their bidding will make it to SCOTUS.

More over I think they are starting to fear what Barr does over the next year or so. I bet Strzok, Paige, and the FISA judges end up taking the wrap for everything. From Loreta Lynch Bill Clinton tarmac meeting, to the Hillary Email Server, to the handling of Bengahzi.

That's why Flynn's judge didn't want any of Muellers shit sandwich he was cooking up. Flynn is going to be back before him sometime this month. And I bet he postpones again, because there still isn't any resolution to the direction Nero's thumb goes on the fate of Trump. These guys want a solid Thumbs down and Trump's head under the executioners axe. That's not what they are getting. You don't want to be on the Shitty side of Trump turning it all around.

You watch what happens to Amy Berman Jackson Stone's judge, and the Judge that is going to sentence Manafort next month in the DC court.

Watch how bad she fucks up her career. She wont be able to get a job at a Titty bar as a one eyed bitch that brings ice from the back to fill up the ice bins.

That Cunt will belong in prison before this is over, disbarred and ran out of Washington.
15   Ceffer   2019 Mar 8, 9:56am  

Does Manafort's shorter sentence mean that Trump only has to pardon him a little rather than a lot?
16   Tenpoundbass   2019 Mar 8, 10:20am  

Take this to the bank!

Manfort and Flynn get's exonerated the same way they got convicted. Through a process crime. Which will make their conviction illegal.
I've said there are some Partisan Hack Black Robe Activists that end up in jail.
17   MisdemeanorRebel   2019 Mar 8, 11:34am  

Ceffer says
Does Manafort's shorter sentence mean that Trump only has to pardon him a little rather than a lot?

Given the unprecedented solitary confinement for a non-violent, first-time criminal after his arrest, along with the 3AM raids, I think a pardon to time served is just fine.
18   anonymous   2019 Mar 8, 11:37am  

MisterLearnToCode says
I think a pardon to time served is just fine.


Exactly, that is what I was actually expecting plus a public apology on behalf of the citizens of this country delivered by Pence or Potus expressing deep felt remorse for inconveniencing his life and awarding damages as well and full restitution of any items forfeited.
19   MisdemeanorRebel   2019 Mar 8, 11:38am  

Million dollar tax dodges are prosecuted all the time. I assure you that not only is 3-4 years very normal - sometimes less after sentencing for good behavior - but almost none of them are raided repeatedly at 3AM nor put in solitary confinement as first time white collar non-violent defendants.

Mueller wants most of his data locked away because I'm sure a lot of it deals with the other Ukrainian Oligarch lobbyist, Podesta.

Who has shut down his lobbying office, restated his earnings to be several times their original reported amount, and has hidden away from the Media and Political Life for 2 years now.
20   anonymous   2019 Mar 8, 11:42am  

We have the best judiciary money can buy - just like our government.

One set of rules for the well off and well connected and a totally different set for the less well off and poorly connected.
21   RWSGFY   2019 Mar 8, 11:45am  

Kakistocracy says
We have the best judiciary money can buy - just like our government.


True: Russia is a proper corrupt shithole in this regard.
22   MisdemeanorRebel   2019 Mar 8, 12:00pm  

Kakistocracy says
We have the best judiciary money can buy - just like our government.

One set of rules for the well off and well connected and a totally different set for the less well off and poorly connected.


And a very politicized Prosecutorial System.

Kamala Harris can also speak to that.
23   anonymous   2019 Mar 12, 9:36am  

The higher the cost of the suit worn to the sentencing, the lower the amount of time spent behind bars.
24   anonymous   2019 Mar 17, 5:44am  

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