Paul Manafort continues to play hardball with Robert Mueller and his people….
It appears that Manafort IS willing to do jail time with the feeling that sometime in the near or far future Donald Trump WILL pardon him….
So Manafort has continued lying to Mueller’s people , while his lawyer has been briefing Trump’s people on the actions of Mueller’s people….
Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort‘s attorney repeatedly spoke with the president’s lawyers about discussions with federal investigators after Manafort agreed to cooperate with special counsel Robert Mueller, The New York Times reported Tuesday.
Rudy Giuliani, who represents Trump in the special counsel’s investigation, confirmed the arrangement to the newspaper and argued that the conversations provided valuable insight.
Giuliani said Manafort’s lawyer, Kevin Downing, relayed that investigators pressed Manafort on what Trump knew about the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting between Trump campaign associates and a Russian lawyer who had promised dirt on then-Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.
“He wants Manafort to incriminate Trump,” Giuliani claimed to The Times, referring to Mueller.
Trump’s legal team has maintained a joint defense agreement with witnesses in Mueller’s investigations, including Manafort. However, it is uncommon for those agreements to continue after a witness reaches a plea agreement with prosecutors, The Times reported.
Downing did not respond to a request for comment from The Times.
Mueller’s team said in a court filing on Monday night that Manafort had violated the terms of his plea agreement by lying to federal prosecutors about a number of topics…..
I posted yesterday that Manafort’s actions have NOT made Mueller’s team happy….
Mueller’s prosecutors wrote that Manafort lied to the FBI and the special counsel’s office “on a variety of subject matters,” saying they would file a “detailed sentencing submission” to the probation department and federal court laying out the nature of his lies.
While the details are unknown, experts say the development signals Manafort is lying about something significant, though it’s not necessarily information that’s key to the Russia investigation.
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It’s possible prosecutors believe Manafort was untruthful with investigators working on other foreign lobbying investigations that grew out of Mueller’s probe. The special counsel has reportedly passed on three such cases to federal prosecutors in New York, and prosecutors in Washington secured a guilty plea from Manafort associate Sam Patten in late August…..
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“I don’t think it will hurt the overall investigation, but it definitely hurts his usefulness at trial,” said Washington attorney Shanlon Wu, a former federal prosecutor who represented Manafort’s associate Richard Gates before he took a plea deal.
Kirschner said the investigation could be impeded if Manafort’s testimony was needed to secure an indictment against a potential defendant. But Kirschner, who worked with Mueller, doubted that the special counsel would hang a charge on Manafort’s testimony alone and would have ample other evidence.
It is not out of the question that Manafort will return to cooperating with prosecutors, but observers described it as unlikely given that Mueller has publicly questioned his credibility.
Meanwhile, Mueller is said to be pressing forward by investigating matters involving Manafort. On Tuesday, CNN reported that Mueller is probing a meeting last year between Manafort and Ecuador’s president. Earlier Tuesday, The Guardian reported that Manafort met secretly with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London months before the organization released a trove of hacked Democratic emails later tied to a Russian operation to interfere in the election. Manafort vigorously denied the report, accusing The Guardian of libel.
The breakdown of his plea agreement has left many wondering why Manafort would torch what was otherwise a sweet deal so late in the game.
Some have speculated he could be worried about the Russians retaliating against him or his family. Others say he could still be holding out for a presidential pardon, though questions have been raised about whether it would be legal….
Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) “shut down the possibility that the Senate might take up legislation to protect special counsel Robert Mueller from being fired by President Trump, even after Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), the No. 2 Senate Republican, held open the possibilityearlier Tuesday,” USA Today reports.
“Earlier in the day, Cornyn signaled a potential change in the position of Republican leaders who have previously rejected a push by outgoing Republican Sen. Jeff Flake (R-AZ) to allow a vote on the Mueller legislation.”….
Note….
The comment in the above linked piece about pardon’s being illegal is NOT based on fact….
Presidential pardon’s for Federal crimes are just about absolute…There is NO mechanism to rule them illegal….A President cannot pardon someone for a State or Local crime…Furthermore?
A President can pardon someone for a crime they did NOT even get concivcted of….
And…
While there is procedure for such action?
President’s do NOT have to follow that Justice Dept. procedure….
Oh?
A pardon is actually looked at an admission of guilt and the charges pardoned?
Stay on the record….
image…vanityfair
More on Manafort/Mueller and the Russians….
Evidence is mounting that Special Counsel Robert Mueller is moving toward further indictments — and perhaps some big ones, with an end-of-year flurry of activity, Garrett M. Graff reports for Axios.
The big picture: Graff — one of the most astute Mueller-watchers, and author of a book focused on his dozen years as FBI director — sees six signs that a Mueller climax may be accelerating….
More…
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Paul Manafort was hauled back into court this week to face charges from the special counsel that he had breached his plea deal by “repeatedly lying.” And now the Guardian has a report that would seem to be something very, very worth lying about.
Donald Trump’s former campaign manager Paul Manafort held secret talks with Julian Assange inside the Ecuadorian embassy in London, and visited around the time he joined Trump’s campaign, the Guardian has been told.
The source for the story sets Manafort’s visit to Assange in March of 2016. Which puts Manafort’s visit, and his chairing of the Trump campaign, squarely in the middle of the Russian hacking effort.
This is what that period looked like when everything is put together: On February 29, Paul Manafort sent Trump a written “pitch” document explaining how he should direct the campaign. His pitch was backed by a recommendation from Roger Stone. The very next week, Trump senior campaign staffer Sam Clovis told the team that “good US-Russia relations” were a goal of the campaign. The week after that George Papadopoulos, fresh off hearing Clovis describe the campaign’s desire for good Russia relations, first met with the London-based “professor” who claimed to have Russia connections. That was all in March….
More…
When this is all finished?
Somebody is gonna write a good spy novel and we’re gonna have a good spy Movie involving the President of the United States in the REAL….