That the first indictment is against Paul Manafort … not a surprise. That the charges covers more than a decade of activity … not a surprise. That the very first charge on the very first indictment returned by Special Counsel Robert Mueller is Conspiracy Against the United States … that’s jaw-dropping.
That charge also makes it clear that Manafort and his partner Rick Gates were not a conspiracy of two, as the count includes the language “together with others” in describing their conspiracy to interfere with both the Department of Justice and the Treasury Department. And the timeline covered by the charges explicitly includes the period in which Manafort served as campaign chairman for Donald Trump. Which certainly opens the possibility that the conspiracy charges may expand to cover more names related to the Trump campaign.
What’s also notable about these charges is just what they are not . They are not based on personal testimony. They are not based off of transcripts of discussions between Manafort and others. They are not vague, or debatable, or in any sense small. These are detailed charges backed up by hard numbers and details of specific transactions.
And while Trump’s defenders are rushing to declare that the indictments are “all about business,” the nature of that business is a thunderclap of doom for Trump. At the heart of the charges is one thing: The way in which oligarchs from Russia and other former Soviet states have used the New York real estate market as a means of bringing money into the United States. That’s a practice that includes not just Manafort, but Micheal Cohen , Jared Kushner , Donald Trump Jr , and the other Donald Trump.
By the 2000s, the property developer and casino owner with ready access to the capital markets and the biggest New York banks was no more. A series of corporate bankruptcies had limited his financing options. …
In other words, after his business crashed, Trump was floated and made to appear to operate a successful business enterprise through the infusion of hundreds in millions of cash from dark Russian sources.
He was their man.
These indictments are all about business. But it’s Donald Trump’s business.
Today may have signaled the end of Trump, unless Mueller says he looked into Trump's money laundering and didnt find anything.
Well we know that we must have another seed from the liberal aspect, and here it is...
John's take.
Interesting that this gets posted right after being told to take your drivel elsewhere on the other one......
Freedom of Speech in action!
Ok, if that is your take on this article , take your drivel elsewhere.
You know what I find funny, all last week we had people claiming Clinton was guilty of a crime regarding her email in which INTENT was not needed, but yet want to claim that INTENT is needed for them to be convinced that Trump was complicit in a crime!
Where is anyone talking about intent as related to T-Rump? Where's the crime T-Rump committed?
Have to have a crime before we can have a charge and then discuss intent under the law....
More whishin' and dreamin'?
Trump's only complicity is onto himself. If the situation was warranted he'd throw Ivanka in front of the train.
But yet that didn't seem to stop all of you from making those claims about Clinton!
Not like there isn't laws against setting up private servers for government business.
Only the brain dead claim she didn't break the law even on the liberal side....
No one with any credibility claims she didn't break the law...
You know what....there isn't any! The law actually gives her the right to do just that!
So what law did she break?
Thanks for making my point!
Making your point?
Your welcome. Yes anyone can have a private e-mail server, hell I've had my own several times.
It's not in the having one, it's what she did with it, that's illegal.
Lets see it has been reported that she violated:
There has been extensive detailed reporting on specifically which sections of the Espionage Act she clearly violated on this site.... (a simple search will pull them up)
No excuse for such and what has been public information for quite a while now establishes the illegality much better than I could, and makes the FBI's and Attorney General's handling of the case even more suspicious given the clear politically biased manner in which it was handled.
The Obama administration was covering for her, giving her a pass when anyone else doing the same thing would be buried under the prison by now.
That just might change in the near future. Depending on what Mueller comes up with in his special investigation....
Mueller gets an indictment for crimes that happened when he was FBI director. He couldn't file charges back then but does now? What changed? Trump was elected.
The sad thing for the left is that it has nothing to do with Trump collusion. Imagine that! The only collusion is the dems and Hillary paying for the dirt from Russian sources of the dossier.
Now the Russian lawyer who met with Trump Jr has had her prior involvement with Fusion revealed. Was the meeting she had with Manafort and Don Jr a set up? Just another Clinton dirty tricks scheme? Time and a special prosecutor will tell.
Yeah, it's called statute of limitations....
Umm....an active investigation into criminal wrongdoing
And?!
He couldn't charge back when he was head of the FBI because of the statute of limitations? Yet he can charge now years after the alleged crimes took place?
Please stop, you know full well about the statute of limitations and the fact that even if he couldn't charge back then, there is still a window in which they could charge later. That rightwing talking point doesn't hold water.
The statute of limitations means that after a certain time the violation can no longer be prosecuted. If he can prosecute now he could have prosecuted back then. Why didn't he?
He couldn't charge back when he was head of the FBI because of the statute of limitations? Yet he can charge now years after the alleged crimes took place?
That is why he brought the charges to current(2017) and spread a Wide Net..
The statute of limitations had nothing to do with him not bringing charges when he was FBI director.
Chances are if he had know then and had the power he would have. DUuuu
Manafort's activity was known and investigated back then. He didn't charge because proving the charges is next to impossible. Mueller overplayed his hand in thinking this would get Manafort to turn on Trump. He has Manafort so pissed off because of the no knock raid on his house that he will never cooperate.
Really? That's interesting. I must have missed the Sessions' announcement. Perhaps you could explain why the Trump DOJ hasn't indicted anyone yet. I mean hell, there's enough 'empirical evidence' that alleges to support said indictments on this site alone. Sessions need only read the articles on here for the last week and take notes while he sits back and watches Hannity.
And you missed the news about Hillary and the dems paying for the dossier. Money to a foreign spy that ended up with dirt from Russia. The next indictment will probably be John Podesta's brother. He was in on the Manafort deals.
So what? You seem to think gathering opposition research is illegal. Nope. Don't confuse that with what they are investigating in the Trump orbit. Obfuscation fail. If Podesta's brother is caught in that, bring him down with the rest.
So Don Jr. and Manafort did nothing wrong in their meeting with the Russian lawyer? They could have paid for dirt on Hillary from Russia and you would just call it opposition research?
You may have missed that Steele gave the dossier AND information on his sources in early AUGUST of 2016. ALL of the information in the dossier was gathered BEFORE the Dems paid a dime to anyone. In short, the Dems paid for a finished product.
A GOP candidate started the ball rolling and paid 'money to a foreign spy that ended up with dirt from Russia'. Since he was the one who paid for the 'investigation' do you CARE what the identity of that GOP candidate is? I haven't seen one of you and yours ask that question. Wonder why?
Oh and BTFW, almost the ENTIRE speech by Powell to the UN was based on information from 'foreign' spies and Iraqi ex-pats.
Not by Mueller so irrelevant to the seed.
I see you missed the timeline as well. The rep was out of the picture before the dems and steele came on board.
So which is it? Ok for the dems to do oppo research from foreign sources but not for reps? I say neither one should. How about you?
I think we all need to take a deep breath and let this all play out. My take is that the Russians tried their best to influence both Democrats and Republicans in the last election. We will have to wait and see who took the bait and who didn't...(Who laundered money and who didn't)....Obviously, Papadopolus plead guilty to lying to the FBI...and...The DNC paid for a fabricated Dossier aimed at Trump. Then there is the Uranium One deal.....and the alleged Clinton Pay to Play scheme.
Personally, I think all of this shows how corrupt and dirty our Political Leaders are (Exactly who all of them are...remains to be seen)........The President pledged to "Drain the Swamp".....Well the swamp appears to be pretty deep and on both the GOP and Dems property.......
The President pledged to "Drain the Swamp".
Hi TAP, good to see you..
This pledge of Trump to drain the swamp, he had not considered the people surrounding him when he made that pledge, actually, he could not see into the future to know there would be Robert Mueller...
Hey CM!
So good to see you! I don't have much time......but If you think about it. To the best of my knowledge......None of these people are in Trumps White House.
A little information for you if you are interested in the truth.
If Uranium One is a lie then maybe there is more lies concerning Hillary Clinton from the GOP?
I will have to look into this article when I have more time. Thanks.
Exactly, TP! Best comment on the article so far.
Thank You!
Duh. But all their efforts were intended to get Trump elected by leaking or inventing negative claims about Clinton.
true that s why I abandoned both damn parties and went independant.
Neither crocked party can show my support too bad everyone doesn't do the same.
Well......I can understand that.
Looks like the next target is Tony Podesta:
I guess when you kick over a big enough stone all kinds of bugs come crawling out.
together With Others'—Which Could Include Trump
It could also include Barack Obama or a Unicorn!
A liberal's wet dream.
You have to wonder why Tony Podesta stepped down.
No you don't.
Best thing on 'the tube', since Watergate investigation. If you weren't alive, brain dead, or a Nixonian apologist, look it up. This will be hard to equal the entertainment factor, but Trump is going down! Get Chopper 1 warmed up. Next big thing, Trump waving goodbye, with a shit eating grin on his face. Oh wait. Maybe he should charter Air Force 1. Then he could taking his whole family, all the sycophants, and swamp dwellers with him. The end is near Trumpsuckers.
It's Mueller time!