I love the smell of indictments in the morning

[CC27]

Star Member SHRED (20,021 posts)

I love the smell of indictments in the morning



I'll bet the Orange Ass and the entire GOP are shitting a few bricks this morning.

And correct me if I am wrong but didn't Manafort choose Pence as Dump's running mate?

https://www.democraticunderground.com/10029768565

 
You love the smell of weed and old Cheetos in the morning. BTW, i doubt Trump is crapping his pants.

[RobJohnson]

I will love seeing the liberal tears by the end of the day.

[BadCat]

Funny.
Trump fired Manafort right after the Rep. Convention.

[SVPete]

Funny.
Trump fired Manafort right after the Rep. Convention.

Manafort was indicted for activities that began in 2006. He's barely even a Scooter Libby 2.0. Rick Gates has worked with Manafort since the mid 2000s as well, so his indictment is probably related to Manafort's.

The MSM is doing their best to verbally associate these indictments with the Trump-Russia Collusion Myth, but I think DU-folk will soon be hopping-mad (TheMasterNematode especially ) when they realize they got a "trick" for Muellerween.

[Old n Grumpy]

Listen for the sound of liberal heads exploding in 3...2....1....

How long until they declare Mueller a republican stooge?

[zeitgeist]

Listen for the sound of liberal heads exploding in 3...2....1....

How long until they declare Mueller a republican stooge?

I suspect that will begin as soon as the light comes on that Manafort is tied to Podesta at that time.

Twitter is already lighting up:

john reilly‏ @travlr009  3h3 hours ago
More
It's only 2 passes  to the basket from here

Manafort rats out Podesta

Podesra rats out Clinton
https://twitter.com/search?q=Manafort+%2B+Podesta&ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Esearch

   Be very careful what you wish for DUmmies, be very careful.

[I_B_Perky]

Manafort was indicted for activities that began in 2006. He's barely even a Scooter Libby 2.0. Rick Gates has worked with Manafort since the mid 2000s as well, so his indictment is probably related to Manafort's.

The MSM is doing their best to verbally associate these indictments with the Trump-Russia Collusion Myth, but I think DU-folk will soon be hopping-mad (TheMasterNematode especially ) when they realize they got a "trick" for Muellerween.

Oh my, are the dummies are all agog with the indictments! It was as I suspected, and stated earlier at CU. They got him for something not even related in an attempt to pressure him.  Just like enron.

Now unlike those fool dummies, I actually read the true bill that was returned.

Here is my take:

Most of the indictments have to do with money laundering, tax evasion, obstruction, and... the wording is important here... collusion to defraud the US. That has to do with both the defendants acting in concert. Not collusion with the rooskies, treason, like the dummies are going to be yelling. All this actually has nothing to do with the rooskies, it was actually the Ukraine. I suppose in dummies minds that is close enough. Oh and all this occurred back way before President Trump was even a candidate. Oh and if what I read is true from the BBC (I think it was), the FBI had already investigated this back years ago and concluded there was no crime.

Now the third guy that pleaded out... I did not see a true bill so he must have pleaded out before it went to the grand jury... that was an obstruction charge. Doesn't matter what the underlying crime was, supposedly in this case collusion with the rooskies and the evidence seems to suggest this, his plea was to obstruction. And he was a minor player. Nothing there to suggest what he did was sanctioned by the Trump campaign and there is evidence to suggest that he was actually ignored. No treason there.

For that matter, there is no treason anywhere if you take the definition literally.

Now do I know all the facts? Nope. So I can't comment as to what will happen next. Do the dummies know all the facts... or any facts? Apparently not. All they know is three people are in trouble and it all points to President Trump being frog marched out of the white house lawn for execution at dawn. Cause they want it. Just like Fitzmas, Muellerween is not gonna give the dummies the big orgasm they expected.

[USA4ME]

How long until they declare Mueller a republican stooge?

Agreed. They'll be floating their CTs that Mueller was a Republican plant who intentionally filed meaningless charges in order to cover for Trump.

.

[USA4ME]

Good explanation

The Paul Manafort indictment is much ado about nothing . . . except as a vehicle to squeeze Manafort, which is special counsel Robert Mueller’s objective — as we have been arguing for three months. Do not be fooled by the “Conspiracy against the United States” heading on Count One (page 23 of the indictment). This case has nothing to do with what Democrats and the media call “the attack on our democracy” (i.e., the Kremlin’s meddling in the 2016 election, supposedly in “collusion” with the Trump campaign). Essentially, Manafort and his associate, Richard W. Gates, are charged with (a) conspiring to conceal from the U.S. government about $75 million they made as unregistered foreign agents for Ukraine, years before the 2016 election (mainly, from 2006 through 2014), and (b) a money-laundering conspiracy. There are twelve counts in all, but those are the two major allegations. The so-called conspiracy against the United States mainly involves Manafort’s and Gates’s alleged failure to file Treasury Department forms required by the Bank Secrecy Act. Specifically, Americans who hold a stake in foreign bank accounts must file what’s known as an “FBAR” (foreign bank account report) in any year in which, at any point, the balance in the account exceeds $10,000. Federal law also requires disclosure of foreign accounts on annual income-tax returns. Manafort and Gates are said to have controlled foreign accounts through which their Ukrainian political-consulting income sluiced, and to have failed to file accurate FBARs and tax returns. In addition, they allegedly failed to register as foreign agents from 2008 through 2014 and made false statements when they belatedly registered. In the money-laundering conspiracy, they are alleged to have moved money in and out of the United States with the intent to promote “specified unlawful activity.” That activity is said to have been their acting as unregistered foreign agents. On first glance, Mueller’s case, at least in part, seems shaky and overcharged.

Even though the Ukrainian money goes back to 2006, the counts involving failure to file FBARs (Counts Three through Nine) go back only to 2012. This is likely because the five-year statute of limitations bars prosecution for anything before then. Obviously, one purpose of the conspiracy count (Count One) is to enable prosecutors, under the guise of establishing the full scope of the scheme, to prove law violations that would otherwise be time-barred. The offense of failing to register as a foreign agent (Count Ten) may be a slam-dunk, but it is a violation that the Justice Department rarely prosecutes criminally. There is often ambiguity about whether the person’s actions trigger the registration requirement, so the Justice Department’s practice is to encourage people to register, not indict them for failing to do so.

It may well be that Manafort and Gates made false statements when they belatedly registered as foreign agents, but it appears that Mueller’s office has turned one offense into two, an abusive prosecutorial tactic that flouts congressional intent. Specifically, Congress considers false statements in the specific context of foreign-agent registration to be a misdemeanor calling for zero to six months’ imprisonment. (See Section 622(a)(2) of Title 22, U.S. Code.) That is the offense Mueller charges in Count Eleven. But then, for good measure, Mueller adds a second false-statement count (Count Twelve) for the same conduct — charged under the penal-code section (Section 1001 of Title 18, U.S. Code) that makes any falsity or material omission in a statement to government officials a felony punishable by up to five years’ imprisonment. Obviously, one cannot make a false statement on the foreign-agent registration form without also making a false statement to the government. Consequently, expect Manafort to argue that Mueller has violated double-jeopardy principles by charging the same exact offense in two separate counts, and that the special counsel is undermining Congress’s intent that the offense of providing false information on a foreign-agent registration form be considered merely a misdemeanor.

Finally, the money-laundering conspiracy allegation (Count Two) seems far from slam-dunk. For someone to be guilty of laundering, the money involved has to be the proceeds of criminal activity before the accused starts concealing it by (a) moving it through accounts or changing its form by buying assets, etc., or (b) dodging a reporting requirement under federal law. Now, it is surely a terrible thing to take money, under the guise of “political consulting,” from an unsavory Ukranian political faction that is doing the Kremlin’s bidding. But it is not a violation of American law to do so. The violations occur when, as outlined above, there is a lack of compliance with various disclosure requirements. Mueller seems to acknowledge this: The money-laundering count does not allege that it was illegal for Manafort and Gates to be paid by the Ukrainian faction. It is alleged, rather, that they moved the money around to promote a scheme to function as unregistered foreign agents, and specifically to avoid the registration requirement. That seems like a stretch. To be sure, the relevant money-laundering statute includes in its definition of “specified unlawful activity” “any violation of the Foreign Agents Registration Act of 1938.” (See Section 1956(c)(2)(7)(D) of Title 18, U.S. Code.) But the prosecution still has to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the money was the proceeds of unlawful activity in the first place. Moreover, the prosecution must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Even from Paul Manafort’s perspective, there may be less to this indictment than meets the eye. Manafort and Gates (a) knew the money was the proceeds of illegal activity and (b) transported the money the way they did with the specific intent of avoiding having to register as foreign agents. This count will thus fail if there is any doubt that the Ukrainian money was illegal under American law, that Manafort and Gates knew it was illegal, that they knew the work they were doing required them to register as foreign agents, or that it was their intention to promote a failure-to-register violation. Even from Paul Manafort’s perspective, there may be less to this indictment than meets the eye — it’s not so much a serious allegation of “conspiracy against the United States” as a dubious case of disclosure violations and money movement that would never have been brought had he not drawn attention to himself by temporarily joining the Trump campaign. From President Trump’s perspective, the indictment is a boon from which he can claim that the special counsel has no actionable collusion case. It appears to reaffirm former FBI director James Comey’s multiple assurances that Trump is not a suspect. And, to the extent it looks like an attempt to play prosecutorial hardball with Manafort, the president can continue to portray himself as the victim of a witch hunt.

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/453244/manafort-indictment-no-signs-trump-russia-collusion

.

[DUmpsterDiver]

These dumb MFing dummies could not repeat a circular firing squad with a calculator and a compass.

[BlueStateSaint]

These dumb MFing dummies could not repeat a circular firing squad with a calculator and a compass.

They would also require footprints to be painted onto the surface of wherever they were standing.