Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Not all heroes wear capes.

“Can i answer the question? No you can not!”

Make the republican party small enough to drown in a bathtub.

Republican obstruction dressed up as bipartisanship. Again.

The worst democrat is better than the best republican.

If you are still in the GOP, you are an extremist.

Bark louder, little dog.

The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.

Wow, I can’t imagine what it was like to comment in morse code.

I was promised a recession.

Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard

Teach a man to fish, and he’ll sit in a boat all day drinking beer.

New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.

I really should read my own blog.

The GOP couldn’t organize an orgy in a whorehouse with a fist full of 50s.

A democracy can’t function when people can’t distinguish facts from lies.

I’d try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.

Republicans do not pay their debts.

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

Republicans seem to think life begins at the candlelight dinner the night before.

Whoever he was, that guy was nuts.

They fucked up the fucking up of the fuckup!

When your entire life is steeped in white supremacy, equality feels like discrimination.

Authoritarian republicans are opposed to freedom for the rest of us.

You are here: Home / Economics / C.R.E.A.M. / Pre-Dawn Open Thread: Paul Manafort & the Mills of Fate

Pre-Dawn Open Thread: Paul Manafort & the Mills of Fate

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Which, proverbially, grind slowly, but they grind exceedingly fine.

Maybe I’m just a cockeyed optimist, but the news of last month’s pre-dawn raid feels parallel to that little 1973 news filler about a security guard detaining a couple of guys illicitly prowling the Watergate halls. It’s possible Manafort hasn’t yet flipped for Mueller’s investigators, but Paul was always much more interested in the payment than the politics, so why would he waste time laying down cover for a bunch of nitwit amateurs like J-Kush and Donny Jr?

Politico, in the evening:

Federal investigators sought cooperation from Paul Manafort’s son-in-law in an effort to increase pressure on President Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman, according to three people familiar with the probe.

Investigators approached Jeffrey Yohai, who has partnered in business deals with Manafort, earlier this summer, setting off “real waves” in Manafort’s orbit, one of these people said. Another of these people said investigators are trying to get “into Manafort’s head.”

Manafort, who is a focus of the broad federal and congressional investigations into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential campaign, is also under investigation for his business and real estate transactions, including some that involve Yohai…

Manafort’s team has repeatedly pushed back on suggestions he’s cooperating with federal investigators. “Paul’s been forthcoming, but he’s not a cooperating witness and any suggestion to that effect is silly,” Manafort spokesman Jason Maloni said in a July interview when asked about concerns from former colleagues that Manafort had turned against the Trump team.

People close to Manafort reiterated Wednesday that he has no plans to become a cooperating witness…

Renato Mariotti, a former federal prosecutor, said cooperating witnesses are “often very significant to make your case” when it gets to trial.

“They can provide direct evidence of what the defendant said or did,” he said. “That’s usually far more compelling to a jury than just looking at documents.”

Mariotti also brushed aside comments by Manafort associates who insist the former Trump campaign manager has nothing about Trump that would matter to investigators. “I wouldn’t take much from it,” he said. “I’d take it with a grain of salt.”…

Reader Interactions

18Comments

  1. 1.

    Mustang Bobby

    They may also go after Michael Flynn or even Jared Kushner. A guy like Trump doesn’t engender a lot of loyalty (Exhibit A: the way he’s treated Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III, the first senator to endorse him), and political ideology and family ties go only so far.

    If one of them is offered a deal to rat out the Trump organization, especially if they’re facing criminal charges, it won’t be a question of if they’ll turn but who will be the first to jump at the offer.

  2. 2.

    eclare

    I will grant that Don Jr and Jared had no idea what they were doing with that meeting, because they are idiots. But Manafort did.

  3. 3.

    eclare

    I will grant that Don Jr and Jared had no idea what they were doing with that meeting, because they are idiots. But Manafort did.

  4. 4.

    Schlemazel

    @Mustang Bobby:
    While I hope you are right I am afraid of two possibilities, they are all good little soldiers and maintain omerta and/or the tangerine tantrum has his own separate deals and slips away because they can’t pin the other’s crimes on him also. But this is good news so I’ll just keep hoping for more.

  6. 6.

    Anne Laurie

    @eclare: Since a similar glitch happened around the same time yesterday, I’m guessing that the ‘dead hour’ daily FYWP update between 3-4am has something to do with it.

    Suppose it’s better to have one comment repeated multiple times than to schedule the update when a dozen or more commentors might run into the problem!

  9. 9.

    Anne Laurie

    @eclare:

    But Manafort did.

    Yeah, and that’s why I assume he’ll flip: He’s not a true believer, ergo he has only his freedom / fortune to lose. Better to cut a deal and sell his associates out in return for a lighter sentence, right?

  10. 10.

    Shalimar

    @Anne Laurie: I’m guessing if Putin were going to have an American murdered for potentially talking about what he knows, the guy who has spent significant time in Ukraine and Russia would be at the top of the list. I still think Manafort will testify against everyone else. But he does have reason to be scared of more than just prison and lost wealth.

  11. 11.

    GregB

    Whatever decisions are made, we know that Trump with Kushner’s, thin, pale steady hand of advice will make the gutter most shitty choices available.

    Manafort will cut a deal if offered.

    You can see it written on his cheesy face.

    Plus, one wonders what else the FBI turned up on their raid. Manafort’s daughter was convinced he was a murderer in his dealings.

  12. 12.

    Tokyokie

    @Anne Laurie: I’m not sure any of them are true believers, inasmuch as what does der Trumpenführer give them to believe in? But I agree with you to the extent that I’m guessing that Manafort’s less self-deluding about what’s at stake. In the end, I figure all the apprentices will be willing to rat out the star of the show.

  13. 13.

    Fester Addams

    @Tokyokie:

    I’m not sure any of them are true believers

    My thought as well. The Trumpian dream? That any child of a sufficiently wealthy person can grow up to attract the attention of a foreign intelligence service who will help him attain an administrative position with duties he is neither capable of, nor wants to perform?

  14. 14.

    Luthe

    Of course Manafort isn’t a cooperating witness (at least not in public). Cooperating witnesses get whacked by good ol’ Vlad.

  15. 15.

    Kristine

    @Luthe:

    Of course Manafort isn’t a cooperating witness (at least not in public). Cooperating witnesses get whacked by good ol’ Vlad.

    Could they have staged the raid to make it appear as though he wasn’t cooperating, for just that reason.

    I doubt it, but stranger things have happened. Just this week, in fact.

  16. 16.

    Tokyokie

    @Fester Addams: At best, they believe in the undeniable greatness of der Trumpenführer, and the greatness of an utterly vacant con man being hounded into ignominy by legal authorities is pretty simple to deny.

  17. 17.

    catclub

    They may also go after Michael Flynn or even Jared Kushner.

    It is a little strange how strongly Trump has supported Flynn, in contrast with Manafort, even though Flynn did not seem to be family, either.

  18. 18.

    Raoul

    @PreetBharara
    Yes, use of a search warrant is significant. Also, this happened last month – Mueller team is quiet, professional, methodical & thorough

    Yes. That the raid happened July 26 but news didn’t break on it till August 9 suggests that ‘leaks’ are not really a problem in Mueller’s shop.

    I just worry that a war with NK may keep us from paying enough attention to the fall of The Trump Organization.

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