Trump’s former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, got an unpleasant wake-up call from the FBI a couple of weeks ago. Via WaPo:
FBI agents raided the Alexandria home of President Trump’s former campaign chairman late last month, using a search warrant to seize documents and other materials, according to people familiar with the special counsel investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election.
Federal agents appeared at Paul Manafort’s home without advance warning in the predawn hours of July 26, the day after he met voluntarily with the staff for the Senate Intelligence Committee.
The search warrant was wide-ranging and FBI agents working with special counsel Robert S. Mueller III departed the home with various records.
The raid came as Manafort has been voluntarily producing documents to congressional committees investigating Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential election. The search warrant indicates investigators may have argued to a federal judge they had reason to believe Manafort could not be trusted to turn over all records in response to a grand jury subpoena.
It could also have been intended to send a message to President Trump’s former campaign chairman that he should not expect gentle treatment or legal courtesies from Mueller’s team.
I am not a lawyer, nor a counter of chickens prior to hatching. But my guess is it is not a good sign for Trump when the feds conduct an unannounced pre-dawn raid on his campaign chairman’s house during an investigation of collusion with a hostile foreign power to fix an election.
Mike in DC
Maybe rattling Paulie’s cage a bit to make him open up more?
dmsilev
I also wonder whether leaking stuff like this is intended as a shot across the bow of the RMS Trumptanic to try to warn him off from meddling with the investigation.
And to torture the analogy further, like an iceberg, ninety percent or more of that investigation is out of sight and won’t make itself known until the ship slams into it.
O. Felix Culpa
I was just about to post that and am glad to see you’re ahead of me. I am also glad that the heat is being turned up on the Trump Crime Cartel, although I worry a little about diversionary new wars.
Roger Moore
It sure sounds as if they’re unhappy with his document production. We’ll know things are really speeding up when they’re doing the pre-dawn raids with arrest warrants instead of search warrants.
jeffreyw
You would think Mueller is John Wick and Trump has killed his dog.
LAO
@Roger Moore: Agreed. Seems to me, the investigation did not trust that Manafort would comply with a subpoena.
Yarrow
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! Tick tock, motherfuckers. Your’e time is coming, Cheeto crime family.
Mnemosyne
I really hope that Mueller carefully vetted the FBI agents he’s using for his investigation. The rumors of the NYC FBI office being deeply involved with Russian mobsters are worrisome.
Betty Cracker
@Mike in DC: Flip on Trump or die in prison. I hope that’s the offer on the table.
Hungry Joe
Why would anyone under investigation for some serious stuff hold on to incriminating documents? How stupid do you have to … Oh. Right. Never mind.
CaseyL
@Betty Cracker: One problem might be that the Russians will kill him if he does flip.
LAO
@Hungry Joe:
Obligatory Link
JPL
It’s possible that Trump has already pardoned him.
LAO
@Mnemosyne: That seems insane to me. I don’t even know what to say.
Mike in DC
@JPL:
Pretty sure that secret pardons are not actually a thing.
Also, issuing pardons is basically an admission of serious wrongdoing. I don’t think you burn that bridge until you get there.
LAO
This is a super interesting observation:
JPL
A few hours after the raid Trump tweeted
twitter.com/mattmfm
@Mike in DC: Good.
Gin & Tonic
I’ve known of Manafort for a long time. As I’ve posted here before, he has no conscience or scruples whatsoever, so if there’s a deal to be had, he’s having it. He will sell you his grandmother without batting an eye.
In behalf of some dead Ukrainians, I truly hope he goes down anyway, and hard. Motherfucker is slime of the lowest order.
rikyrah
@jeffreyw:
BWA HA HA HA HA HA HA HH A
rikyrah
@Mnemosyne:
I hear you.
Betty Cracker
@LAO: Quite a coincidence, no?
JPL
@LAO: Twitter is saying that probable cause has to suggest something more than not turning over documents. It’s unlikely that twitter graduated from law school though.
rikyrah
@Yarrow:
I love it when you post this. Makes me smile everytime :)
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I think it’s entirely possible that at the end, this will be like “Fitzmas”. Flynn and Manafort will be charged, while a very damning report will implicate that Fredo I, Jared and trump colluded in ways that don’t meet Meuller’s standard for prosecution. That is, I think, a best-case scenario for the trump clan.
LAO
@Betty Cracker: I’m not one to believe in conspiracy theories — at all — but the timing of the attack on the acting FBI director, which appeared to come out of the blue, is troubling.
And by I don’t believe in conspiracy theories, I don’t think the NYC office of the FBI is in bed with Russian mobsters.
LAO
@JPL: Before obtaining a search warrant, the government must demonstrate to a judge that there is probable cause to believe that the search will produce evidence of a particular crime. So twitter is correct. But in the ordinary course of an investigation, the government will rely on subpoenas, unless and until they can’t. Manaforte is represented by counsel, he is well aware he’s under investigation and I’m certain his counsel speaks with prosecutors on a weekly basis. IMO, they choose to go the search warrant route because they didn’t trust Manaforte or his counsel.
Yarrow
@Betty Cracker: Or get sent back to Ukraine where he’ll die in their prison, which would be a much less pleasant experience.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@LAO: my wildest-ass theory about 2016 is that Rudi Giuliani and his friend, the retired agent who started the agents association that they like to imply (to Fox and Friends) speaks for the rank and file, are useful and utterly unwitting idiots to someone not unacquainted with the Russians, and that if we could know all things currently unknowable, we would see a lot of communication between Rudi’s office and Jason Chaffetz.
ETA: I have hated Rudi G for a very long time, which may color my speculation
Lurking Canadian
Next spin will be: Manafort? Never heard of him. Sounds like a type of cheese.
Roger Moore
@Hungry Joe:
I can think of several answers to this question:
1) If they’re financial documents, they may want to keep track of them so they know where all their ill-gotten money is. What’s the point of doing the crime and risking the time if you don’t get to keep your money?
2) Maybe those documents incriminate somebody else, too, and you’re hoping to be able to use them to bargain with the prosecutor.
3) If you’ve been ordered to preserve records, you can get in a lot of trouble for destroying them. A warrant may be as much to prove that you destroyed documents you were ordered to preserve as it is to get the documents themselves.
4) You may not have destroyed those documents as thoroughly as you thought you did. The FBI has truly impressive forensic capabilities, so they may be able to recover documents you thought you had safely destroyed. Don’t assume you’re safe unless you physically destroyed every hard drive that data has ever been on.
Another Scott
@LAO: We shouldn’t dismiss the possibility out of hand, not based on what we’ve learned about Whitey Bulger and the Boston FBI office.
I too think it’s unlikely, but given the apparent glee that at least some Giuliani associates had in attacking Hillary, if there are substantial allegations then they need to be followed up.
My $0.02.
Cheers,
Scott.
Yarrow
@Mnemosyne: Giuliani is up to his eyeballs with the NY FBI office and their Russian mob involvement. Rumors are he’s begging for a deal and is cooperating. He has gone strangely quiet. Remember how he was always on TV being interviewed about something. He was also supposed to run Trump’s cyber security office or something like that. Where did he go? Seems like his silence would be consistent with a guy whose lawyer has told him to stop talking.
a thousand flouncing lurkers (was fidelio)
And after this raid was made, we hear about the grand jury. I wonder how much effect documents seized in the raid had on that, or if was due by now anyway.
Peale
@Yarrow: I would so much like to see that phony “security millionaire” in prison.
Yarrow
@rikyrah: Happy to be of service! Although i wish I had spelled “your” correctly. Bah.
A Ghost to Most
@LAO:
They are not theories when the conspiracies are real.
Roger Moore
@Roger Moore:
Thinking about it, the worse possible case is a combination of 3) and 4): you tried to destroy the documents but the FBI is able to recover them from your hard drive. Now they have you for trying to destroy evidence and for whatever the evidence implicates you in.
gratuitous
If our good friends in the conservative media even deign to notice that Trump’s campaign manager had his home raided by the FBI in the early hours of July 26, we will be assured that this sort of thing happens all the time.
GregB
Fake news! No puppet! You’re the puppet! Lock her up! Benghazi! Lakes of fire! Hold me Ivanka! Mommy!
Yarrow
@LAO: That’s typical Trump behavior. Also, the distraction technique. Something bad for him is happening so he creates a distraction so everyone looks over there at that thing and not at what he doesn’t want us to see.
If you really want to get into the weeds, have a look at some of the timelines created for what happened before and after the meeting with Don Jr. and the Russian lawyer and the others. The meeting happens, minutes after it does Trump tweets about Hillary’s emails, and others connected with his campaign tweet very questionable things as well. Conspiracy theory? Maybe. But now we know that meeting happened, how long it was and who was in it, it certainly puts the tweets in a different light.
rikyrah
@Yarrow:
uh huh
uh huh
Sab
@rikyrah: Mueller is not naive or inexperienced or unconnected. Lots of law enforcement people have had serious issues with Rudi’s integrity for decades.
LAO
@Another Scott: Well, the Bulgar fiasco, led to a dramatic alteration of how the FBI deals with confidential informants, and the circumstances did not relate to a wholesale infiltration of that office by foreign agents. But I understand your point.
The fact is law enforcement, as a whole, was pro-Trump, not because of nefarious motivations but because, law enforcement tends to be made up of RW assholes. (My brother is a federal agent, and thankfully not a RW asshole). I deal with these guys (and gals) all the time, they tend toward the uber-conservative. I’m not sure why we feel the need to blame Russian interference for everything. It belittles the actual corrosive effect it had on the election.
FlipYrWhig
@Yarrow: Yeah, I’ve heard rumors about Giuliani’s back-scratchy dirtiness for a long time, from someone who used to work for the legitimate side of a business whose management was mobbed-up in an open-secret sort of way.
Chris
@JPL:
I love that he’s whining about the actions of his own attorney general as if he’s somehow helpless to control what the man does.
FlipYrWhig
@Chris: Look for an earlier-than-usual early-morning tweet where Trump complains WHY DOESNT THE PRESIDENT DO SOMETHING ABOUT ALL THESE PROBLEMS, SAD! before remembering that the president is him now.
Yarrow
@rikyrah: Yep. A quick search of the news shows he’s going to be at a fundraiser, his son got married, his law partner is floated for Preet Bharara’s job, he was floated for Sessions’ job. It’s all rumors and society stuff. Nothing like, “Giuliani supports Trump; says Mueller goes too far” or things I’d expect from that loudmouth ghoul. Why not? Why so quiet, Rudy? Afraid of being tried for espionage and going to prison?
Sab
@Chris: He is helpless. Sessions is a monster, but he has a weird attachment to having a law license. Silly at his advanced age, but hard to argue with the olds.
Roger Moore
@FlipYrWhig:
I would suggest he’d tweet about why won’t somebody rid me of this troublesome special counsel, but I don’t think he’d know the reference.
West of the Rockies (been a while)
With his obvious wealth and intelligence, I’d be surprised if he kept any incriminating evidence at home. I’d love to be wrong.
Patricia Kayden
@jeffreyw: Lol! Or perhaps Mueller is pissed off at how much influence Trump has allowed a foreign country to have over our elections. Mueller’s investigation is a way to save the Republican Party from grifters like Trump, Bannon, Manafort, etc.
rikyrah
During an all-hands-on-deck moment, Trump is short on hands
08/09/17 10:57 AM
By Steve Benen
Former Rep. Ellen Tauscher (D-Calif.) left Congress to join the Obama administration eight years ago, initially serving as Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security Affairs. In 2012, Tauscher took on a new role, becoming Special Envoy for Strategic Stability and Missile Defense at the State Department.
This morning on Twitter, Tauscher raised an interesting point (translated slightly from Twitter abbreviations):
She’s referring, of course, to the job she used to have. And Tauscher’s correct: Donald Trump hasn’t even nominated someone to fill that post – which seems like an important oversight in light of the world’s newfound interest in arms control.
If this were an isolated incident, it might be easier to overlook, but the larger point is that the Trump administration hasn’t bothered to fill a wide variety of key posts that are suddenly quite relevant. There is, for example, currently no U.S. ambassador to South Korea.
The Washington Post maintains a helpful list tracking key Trump administration posts and their status, and perusing the database this morning, I found all kinds of relevant State Department offices awaiting a presidential nominee. Here are some of the more notable vacancies:
Yarrow
@Chris: He is helpless to control what Sessions does. If he fires Sessions then all hell will break loose on him and his high priced legal counsel has no doubt told him that.
Rumors are that Sessions worked a deal with Mueller to stay in his job (not resign and force Trump to fire him if Trump wants him gone), which in turn means Mueller won’t be fired because the AG has to do that. I’ve seen some lawyers make similar observations (separate from the rumors) that Sessions is behaving like someone who has done just that thing.
JPL
If there is a weather god, then I must thank her for the perfect golf weather in NJ today. Trump is not going to be happy when he returns though, and you know the new saying when trump ain’t happy, no one is.
Hal
Can Mueller hurry up? I don’t want to die in nuclear fireball.
Also, listening to the 538 podcast yesterday and at one point Nate Silver described Trump’s 37% approval being as close to Nixon’s 25-26% when he resigned as he is to 50% approval. They also interestingly talked about how Trump’s approval ratings might affect the public’s acceptance of impeachment. The lower Trump’s approval, the more likely less Russia related stuff the inquiry might reveal will get public support for removal vs Trump maybe being able to hold on to office if the investigation reveals more real estate shadiness than Russian collusion.
So here’s to hoping Trump’s rating keeps going down, down, down…
Lyrebird
@Gin & Tonic:
re: Manafort finally experiencing consequences:
From your lips to the Flying Spaghetti Monster’s ears!
re: no conscience:
Even from reading headlines, I believe you and then some. He and S Miller have dead-looking eyes, as well; I think Miller is younger and not as clever so has not committed as many crimes.
bemused
@rikyrah:
We haven’t seen or heard from Rudy in months, afaik. He’s as cocky and smug as the Trump mob but not quite as stupid, sensing when to shut up and lay low.
Yarrow
@bemused: Yep. He’s better about listening to his lawyers. Trump’s lawyers must be tearing their hair out. I can’t figure out why they’d stay. He’s notorious for not paying anyone. Maybe the checks are clearing so far.
ET
Problem is that Manafort is dirty in ways that have nothing to do with Trump and I have no clue how that will play into everything. Also, the only reason I doubt Trump will ever pardon Manafort (particularly if what get Manafort in trouble for predates being on the campaign) is that Trump has no loyalty to the many because Manafort was only a hired gun – not someone particular loyal to Trump. That and he doesn’t give two figs about Manafort.
Also, I am surprised given the leaky nature of so much related to this that the raid on Manafort wasn’t know more sooner than this.
cleek
DEEP STATE!!!
***SKRRAWWWK SKKKRAAAWWWKK!***
Booger
@dmsilev: And javanka are the brittle, high-sulfur steel rivets below the waterline!
Villago Delenda Est
@Roger Moore: Arrest warrants need probable cause.
Manafort is in deep doo-doo.
catclub
@Mike in DC:
What about double secret probation?
Villago Delenda Est
@Roger Moore: Which is just one of the many things to loathe about him.
A Ghost to Most
@cleek:
Go Deep State! Beat Red State!
Central Planning
@catclub:
Oh that’s real.
clay
@rikyrah: *pfffbt* Clearly Democrat obstructionism is preventing Trump from nominating people.
Another Scott
@LAO: Good points.
Still… ;-)
Cheers,
Scott.
catclub
@West of the Rockies (been a while):
I was thinking that anything kept at home will be less likely to be related to the Trump campaign.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
The Enquirer has been a fairly reliable voice for what’s going on in trump land. I just wonder who decided to toss Manafort this particular anvil. At 8 a.m. eastern this morning
hacking again….
Villago Delenda Est
@Villago Delenda Est: Erg, I meant SEARCH warrants.
/bangs head on table
Yarrow
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: That could be a sign that Trump isn’t going to support Manafort–no positive tweets, no potential pardon. As we’ve said many times, Trump will throw everyone under the bus before he goes down. If he thinks blaming Manafort for everything will help his case then that’s what he’ll do.
rikyrah
@Yarrow:
Don’t know about that..
What IS true, is that the KKKeebler Elf has been persistent in fulfilling the White Supremacist fantasies of the White Supremacists in the White House. He has fanboys in the alt-right.
Fair Economist
@Yarrow:
Hasn’t he lost 2 lawyers already? I understand the ones he has now are decidedly second-string as well.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Yarrow: I could also see him impulsively issuing a pardon– I don’t know the process but I can imagine him and a dumb lawyer drafting something overnight at Mar-A-Lago with Jared before a smart lawyer could bodily stop him from signing it– and daring the Republicans to do something about it, and the Republicans furrowing their brows and locking themselves in their offices to avoid comment. (The blowback from a pardon, Manafort being compelled to testify without Fifth Amendment protections and the whole admission of guilt thing is why I mention the distinction between stupid and smart lawyers)
Villago Delenda Est
@rikyrah: The racist fucks love their homeboy Sayshuns.
Yarrow
@rikyrah: No disagreement there. Sessions wants to stay in the job to keep his instituting his white supremacist policies so he’s happy to get to do that. There’s just a lot of other things going on too, including Sessions’ involvement with the Russians–remember those multiple meetings with the Russian ambassador he conveniently forgot to mention?
I see it as a both/and not an either/or. Sessions is an evil traitorous white supremacist fuck. That’s a fact.
Kay
The should raid the Trump kids’ homes. Leave no stone unturned in our search for truth.
See if you turn up any tax returns. Remember the bullshit press conference they held with the empty files? Come on. We’re not that dumb, are we?
I have juvenile delinquents who put more effort into criminal activity than that. Documents. Paper. If they can dust for fingerprints on Hillary Clinton’s files they can do the same to this crew. Where’s “Judge Starr”, the roving prosecutor? Bring that clown out of storage. Let’s go.
Yarrow
@Fair Economist: I don’t know. I haven’t kept up with the Trump lawyers. They’re all fools to me. The only one I recognize is that Sekulow (sp?) guy, who seems like an idiot out of his depth when I’ve seen a clip of him on TV.
Villago Delenda Est
@Yarrow: He’s a grifting fundie nutcase. All you need to know about him or his criminal thieving family.
Chris
@Yarrow:
There would be a political cost to firing Sessions, absolutely. But that doesn’t make it any less his prerogative as President of the United States. Whining about an underling as if he’s an equal over whom you have no authority simply highlights that you’re a gutless turd who would rather wail about your problems and how unfair they are to you than grow the spine required to actually do something about them.
rikyrah
@Yarrow:
NO LIE TOLD.
But, if he hadn’t of been doing the bidding of the White Supremacists, it would have been easier for Dolt45 to fire him.
rikyrah
@Kay:
I hear you, Kay.
Central Planning
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: The only way Dolt 45 would try to pardon somebody is on twitter, and I’m sure that doesn’t count.
He would need people to actually draw up the pardon and sign it. Who would do that for him without his lawyers knowing about it?
Yarrow
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
I can see this happening too. Jared may or may not want to stop Trump, though. Jared and Ivanka have their own lawyers–smarter lawyers than Trump’s, from what I heard–and they have their own interests to protect that may not align with Daddy’s interests. Gotta be interesting times in that family these days.
I really can’t imagine how it’ll go if Trump does something like that. I’d think Republicans would lock themselves in their offices to avoid talking about it, but eventually one of them would either get caught or say something.
Frankensteinbeck
@dmsilev:
I don’t know. Other than official public information, Mueller’s office has been quiet as a lamb. They are keeping their secrets well. I bet this came from someone connected to Manafort who witnessed/was told about the raid from him. I doubt he wants the information released, but it’s a more likely source of gossip.
Yarrow
@Chris: Oh, I agree. If Trump is unable to fire Sessions due to the political (or legal) costs to him that’s one thing. His whining about it on Twitter is something else entirely. It makes him look like the overgrown toddler he is. And that’s unfair to toddlers.
Amaranthine RBG
I can’t get too excited about this. Manafort has decades of experience in counseling 3rd world heavies and other nefarious international machinations so I find it hard to believe that he has any papers sitting around his house that would implicate him – esp. months after a special counsel is appointed to look into the subject.
But then again I have overestimated the savvy of Trump associates again and again and again.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Does Roger Stone have a JD? These oafs would cut’n’paste Manafort’s name into Ford’s pardon of Nixon, or Clinton’s of Marc Rich, cause those are the only two pardons they’ve ever heard of.
@Yarrow: My predictions are spectacularly wrong, but I will not be surprised should it come to pass, that Jared tosses all his in-laws under the bus to preserve the Kushner family interests, and Princess Tackycrap would strike a weepy pose as she waves good-bye to Daddy and the Fredos. I’m sure she knows what happened to the Madoff offspring (I actually don’t… I’m assuming they at least had to lay off servants and sell off summer homes. Where would one ski if one were poor?)
bemused
Trump is The Incredible Shrinking President.
Yarrow
@rikyrah: Yes, if Sessions were even a standard AG and upheld usual laws, without going out of his way to support civil rights legislation, he’d be much less popular on the right. They love his white supremacist worldview. He’s popular with them, and those people are Trump’s base, so that makes the idea of firing Sessions less popular.
There seem to be other things going on as well, involving Russia and Sessions’ involvement with it, and what Mueller’s investigation is doing, but so far all we have there are rumors and our own observations of his behavior. Time will tell.
J R in WV
@Kay:
Hey Key,
I asked on a lower thread, but will go again… do you know anything about the Ohio pharma ballot initiative? We’re getting bombarded with Ohio aimed TV ads hating on the changes it may make… but nary a fact about what’s inside the thing to be voted on. Anywhere to read about the details?
Thanks,
JR
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@Yarrow: Thanks for noticing, I can un-great my teeth now. The your/you’re confusion is one that gets me viscerally every time.
Yes, I know there’s a spelling error. By Internet Law, all Grammar Nazi posts are required to contain at least one spelling, grammar, or punctuation error. I wanted to make sure I was compliant.
On the main subject: Yay! I am also encouraged by the fact that we are hearing about the legal steps (grand juries, search warrants, etc) weeks after the fact. Mueller is not seeking headlines, he’s seeking a strong case that will stand up in court. So I’m pretty sure he’s got it.
On this blog I’ve read that the classified evidence (whatever was briefed to the Senate Intel Committee months ago) is quite damning and clear-cut, and that the problem is assembling an unclassified case. That surprised me, as I thought we had classified mechanisms for prosecuting, for instance, espionage cases.
rikyrah
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
BWA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA
lollipopguild
@catclub: Double Secret Probation is a real thing and I am sure that many of us here at Balloon Juice are currently on it and do not know that we are on it.
Immanentize
@LAO: my guess is that he gave over some documents voluntarily, but indicated either he didn’t have any more or that he could not remember if he had anymore. Meanwhile, the DOJ people talking to Manafort in his ‘voluntary’ capacity already have copies of other documents he created but failed to produce. The warrant was probably obtained before the meeting at DOJ and was only executed because Manafort — dare I say — lied. Therefore the search for documents was not to find documents, but to prove the charge of lying to the FBI.
Frankensteinbeck
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
The problem is, the administration is full of people with negative amounts of loyalty, who would line up to throw each other under the bus. Trumplestein and Kushball would be jockeying for first place, except they’re both spectacularly stupid and unaware of their surroundings.
West of the Rockies (been a while)
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Where would one ski if one were poor?
One does enjoy one’s inherited WASP privilege, yes?
bemused
@Kay:
Absolutely. They are all dirty. Let’s see how strong the Trump family loyalty really is when all of them are sitting in the same hot seat.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@bemused: I am suddenly reminded of the Simpsons episode where they all were given buzzers to shock each other, and I am smiling.
CZanne
It appears this warrant execution happened the morning of the transgender ban tweets. So this explains that…
LaNonna
As a native New Yorker, also find Giuliani’s low profile recently really interesting. Unusual for such a relentless (unjustified) self-promoter to be so quiet.
randy khan
@Central Planning:
Pardons are public documents. I’m sure it’s not hard to find them online. Jared could get one, change the names and dates, and that would be all they’d need.
(Heck, here’s the text of Ford’s pardon of Nixon, which would be a pretty good template: No prosecution for Tricky Dick)
Bobby Thomson
@Mike in DC: basically admitting serious wrongdoing (as Trump does routinely) is an admission of wrongdoing, too, so . . . .
Yarrow
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: I hate that I made that mistake. Sometimes my fingers type something different than my brain is thinking.
LAO
@Immanentize: I like the way you think!
bemused
@Ceci n est pas mon nym:
Ha, ha. I really am looking forward to watching that family meltdown, praying right and justice works as it should. They should be treated no differently than Maddoff. The only difference is that Maddoff kept his corruption from his family and Trump family bilked the whole country.
burnspbesq
@bemused:
Giuliani understands the process, because he once was the process. And SDNY kicked ass on his watch.
low-tech cyclist
@Amaranthine RBG:
Haven’t we all.
Immanentize
@LAO: I certainly have seen that in money laundering prosecutions. It’s a good move.
If I get some head space, I thought I might write up a little primer to representing a Grand Jury witness. It’s interesting and has some fun tricks.
LAO
@burnspbesq: They sure did, till they ran into the buzz saw that is the Second Circuit. (Who overturned most of the major white collar convictions).
NeenerNeener
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I think the Madoff offspring are both dead now. One committed suicide bacause he couldn’t leave the house without being swarmed by reporters, and the other died of cancer.
LAO
@Immanentize: Do it and send it to me! Like I just got hired by a witness 5 minutes ago. (Not related to the Mueller investigation, damn it).
Mnemosyne
@LAO:
I freely admit that I’m responding to rumors that other people have reported and don’t have any connections to NYC, but as Cheryl said when she posted about the time that the Chinese tried to cultivate her as a source, it’s entirely possible for people to be courted with money and access and information and not realize that the people courting them are spies. This goes double if the people courting them seem to be simple Russian mobsters who just want to make a buck and share a few pennies if their new friends will just look the other way.
bemused
@burnspbesq:
And Trump is incapable of learning anything.
RobertB
@J R in WV: Stole this from cleveland.com/open/index.ssf/2017/08/poll_most_ohioans_are_confused.html
“Voters will decide Nov. 7 whether the state should adopt Issue 2, which would require Ohio to pay pharmaceutical companies the same rates for prescription medicine as the levels paid by the VA, which typically gets drugs at a 20 to 24 percent discount. Only state programs would be affected by Issue 2 – including Medicaid, medical programs for community college and university employees and people who have benefits through the the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation – in all affecting about 4 million adults and children.
Supporters, funded largely by the Los Angeles-based AIDS Healthcare Foundation, say $400 million a year in taxpayer money would be saved if the public adopts Issue 2.
Opponents, funded entirely by the pharmaceutical industry, dispute the savings and say that prices for people covered by private insurance could increase to offset the losses drug companies would experience from the state.”
Villago Delenda Est
@LaNonna: He, unlike Donald, listens to his lawyers, and is keeping his mouth shut and profile low.
Immanentize
@LAO:
Fun!! I think there are a few touch points outside of the contents of the testimony —
Process defenses
What can a prosecutionsbeen do/not do
your representation power
Immunity
Testimony and perjury.
I’m sure there are more interesting parts but that’s my immediate divisions.
TenguPhule
@jeffreyw:
And stolen his car. Then set his house on fire.
TenguPhule
@rikyrah:
Trump is simply being efficient as he doesn’t see a Korea existing in the near future.
SiubhanDuinne
Someone remind me: was it Manafort that Spicer dismissed a few months ago as someone who had had very little connection with the campaign, who was little more than a volunteer and a temporary one at that — or was he talking about Lewandowski, or even someone else? I honestly can’t remember or keep track of the cast of characters of this soap opera at this point.
lollipopguild
@TenguPhule: And stole his family Bible.
lollipopguild
@SiubhanDuinne: It was “Manafort? Who is this Manafort person that you speak of?”
SiubhanDuinne
@lollipopguild:
That was it!
J R in WV
@RobertB: 8
Thanks!
Surprised most of the people who oppose this are Vets… but then they already get VA pricing, AND paid for their time.
Sister Golden Bear
@Frankensteinbeck: Back when I was a reporter in a former life, I also made sure to make friends with the folks who in the Court Clerk’s processed supoenas and other filings that were public record.
So that’s another possibility. If I were the Post or Vichy Times, I’d have an intern dedicated to checking filings in various courts every day. (Useful for turning up non-Trump stories too.)
Sister Golden Bear
@CZanne: Sadly, I expect you’re right.
Somehow having my rights used as a political football is all the more galling knowing that it was just to provide a distraction (which leaks previously suggested it was).