Manafort's lawyer pleads guilty to lying about contact with Russian agent during 2016 election

[777]

Russian Collusion: Democrats, Obama, Hillary Clinton | National Review

and Obama's own statement in November 2016.

Unfortunately the evidence that has come out since then has been all in one direction, towards the likelihood that there was collusion. Hopefully that is not the case but I guess we will see as more guilty pleas and evidence comes to light.

Evidence? What evidence? All you have is someone who knew someone who knew someone, and that's not going to cut it - I work with a guy who has a younger brother who is in prison down in Colorado for armed robbery. We're not armed robbers.

Now you do have "evidence" that some people who worked with Trump have been indicted for prior crimes but "unfortunately" (for you), none of this points to anything like defrauding the United States. They have a better case for collusion with the Clintons.

 

[Gold Dragon]

Evidence? What evidence? All you have is someone who knew someone who knew someone, and that's not going to cut it - I work with a guy who has a younger brother who is in prison down in Colorado for armed robbery. We're not armed robbers.

Now you do have "evidence" that some people who worked with Trump have been indicted for prior crimes but "unfortunately" (for you), none of this points to anything like defrauding the United States. They have a better case for collusion with the Clintons.

Yes, the guilty pleas are not major charges yet because Mueller is a good poker player and isn't showing his cards too early. These early indictments are meant to set the stage for more subpoenas and access to more evidence and flipping smaller players who are unlikely to be pardoned by Trump. It isn't just the charges that matter but the context of the lies and sources of the money, all of which are necessary to describe a complex conspiracy which takes time to uncover.

Gates has plead guilty to conspiracy against the United States. Yes it is about money laundering and not declaring himself as a foreign actor but it outlines how these guys get "paid" under the table by foreign governments.

Why Rick Gates pleaded guilty to "conspiracy against the United States"

In the October indictment and a subsequent court document from February related to Gates’ plea deal, the special counsel specified that Manafort and Gates defrauded the government by “impeding, impairing, obstructing, and defeating the lawful governmental functions of a government agency, namely the Department of Justice and the Department of the Treasury.”

This is a reference to their alleged money laundering (which obstructs the functioning of the IRS, a subsidiary of the Treasury), their failure to disclose foreign financial transactions (also a purview of the Treasury), and their failure to adequately disclose their lobbying under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, which is enforced by the National Security Division of the Department of Justice.

The second part of the “conspiracy against the United States” definition concerns “commit[ing] any offense against the United States.” Unlike the defrauding clause, charges relating to this part of the statute require an underlying criminal offense against the United States.

The initial indictment and February court document allege that Manafort and Gates ran afoul of this part of the law as well — because making false statements about lobbying for foreign governments, not filing reports about foreign bank accounts, and lying to investigators are all crimes against the United States government.

In the conspiracy against the United States count, the special counsel wrote that the two conspired to “commit offenses against the United States, to wit, the violations of law charged in Counts Three through Six and Ten through Twelve.” Those counts include Failure to File Reports of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts (counts three through six), serving as an Unregistered Agent of a Foreign Principal (count 10, namely serving the pro-Russian government of Ukraine), False and Misleading Foreign Agent Registration Act Statements (count 11), and False Statements to investigators (count 12).

In van der Zwaan's guity plea, we find out that he was acting as a proxy for Manafort and Gates with a known Russian actor during the election.

In Flynn's guitly plea, we find out that Flynn lied about contacting the Russian Ambassador to try to get Putin not to retaliate before he was the National Security Advisor and Putin acted in accordance with his request. Flynn stated he was ordered to do so by a senior member of the transition team which Mueller likely has the name but has not revealed yet.

 

[church mouse guy]

Yes, the guilty pleas are not major charges yet because Mueller is a good poker player and isn't showing his cards too early. These early indictments are meant to set the stage for more subpoenas and access to more evidence and flipping smaller players who are unlikely to be pardoned by Trump. It isn't just the charges that matter but the context of the lies and sources of the money, all of which are necessary to describe a complex conspiracy which takes time to uncover.

Gates has plead guilty to conspiracy against the United States. Yes it is about money laundering and not declaring himself as a foreign actor but it outlines how these guys get "paid" under the table by foreign governments.

Why Rick Gates pleaded guilty to "conspiracy against the United States"



In van der Zwaan's guity plea, we find out that he was acting as a proxy for Manafort and Gates with a known Russian actor during the election.

In Flynn's guitly plea, we find out that Flynn lied about contacting the Russian Ambassador to try to get Putin not to retaliate before he was the National Security Advisor and Putin acted in accordance with his request.

The conservatives said that if there were any major crimes, the indictment would have come before these petty charges, which really have nothing to do with Russia. The charge of making erroneous statement to the FBI is a very petty charge that implies that is all that Mueller has. Mueller has a reputation of not wanting to tackle tough issues and squandering time in unsuccessful investigations such as his anthrax investigation that lasted ten years and cost six million dollars in a malpractice settlement and forced an innocent person into suicide. Mueller is a bully. General Flynn did not wrong and nothing out of the ordinary and yet he is charged by Mueller--Mueller is not fit to shine General Flynn's shoes.

 

[church mouse guy]

Yes, the guilty pleas are not major charges yet because Mueller is a good poker player and isn't showing his cards too early. These early indictments are meant to set the stage for more subpoenas and access to more evidence and flipping smaller players who are unlikely to be pardoned by Trump. It isn't just the charges that matter but the context of the lies and sources of the money, all of which are necessary to describe a complex conspiracy which takes time to uncover.

Gates has plead guilty to conspiracy against the United States. Yes it is about money laundering and not declaring himself as a foreign actor but it outlines how these guys get "paid" under the table by foreign governments.

Why Rick Gates pleaded guilty to "conspiracy against the United States"



In van der Zwaan's guity plea, we find out that he was acting as a proxy for Manafort and Gates with a known Russian actor during the election.

In Flynn's guitly plea, we find out that Flynn lied about contacting the Russian Ambassador to try to get Putin not to retaliate before he was the National Security Advisor and Putin acted in accordance with his request.

The conservatives said that if there were any major crimes, the indictment would have come before these petty charges, which really have nothing to do with Russia. The charge of making erroneous statement to the FBI is a very petty charge that implies that is all that Mueller has. Mueller has a reputation of not wanting to tackle tough issues and squandering time in unsuccessful investigations such as his anthrax investigation that lasted ten years and cost six million dollars in a malpractice settlement and forced an innocent person into suicide. Mueller is a bully. General Flynn did not wrong and nothing out of the ordinary and yet he is charged by Mueller--Mueller is not fit to shine General Flynn's shoes.

 

[777]

Yes, the guilty pleas are not major charges yet because Mueller is a good poker player and isn't showing his cards too early. These early indictments are meant to set the stage for more subpoenas and access to more evidence and flipping smaller players who are unlikely to be pardoned by Trump. It isn't just the charges that matter but the context of the lies and sources of the money, all of which are necessary to describe a complex conspiracy which takes time to uncover.
.

How do you know all this? Hope springs eternal?

I think he's just trying to drag this out to midterms butit really wouldn't matter who Mueller indicted, he has a long history of over-charging:

Judging by Mueller's staffing choices, he may not be very interested in justice

he tends to throw the book at them then they plea way down. He's also knowingly withheld exculpatory evidence (Flynn is the latest example of this). And it's also not like him to hide away, and slowly build a devastating, airtight case but that does describe Jeff Session's m.o.