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Trump-Russia Inquiry: First Indictments Handed Down
Topic Started: Oct 30 2017, 10:01 AM (275 Views)
Webster
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(The Guardian) Good morning and welcome to the start of a momentous week in Washington. The capital is on edge as the first charges are filed in the investigation into Russian meddling in the US presidential election and possible collusion between Donald Trump’s campaign associates in that effort.

Paul Manafort, former Trump campaign manager, and his former business associate Rick Gates have surrendered to federal authorities.

Shortly before news of the indictments was reported, Donald Trump tweeted another blast at Democrats over the firm that produced the now infamous “dossier” on him, this time bringing in the name of Barack Obama. He has not tweeted since. The president issued a barrage of angry tweets on Sunday, as expectation mounted.
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Webster
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(The Guardian) Manafort and associate charged in Russia Investigation
A federal grand jury indicted Manafort and Gates, his former business associate, on 12 counts, including charges of money laundering, tax and foreign lobbying, according to the office of Special Counsel Robert Mueller.

The 31-page indictment was unsealed on Monday morning after Manafort and Gates surrendered to federal authorities. “Manafort used his hidden overseas wealth to enjoy a lavish lifestyle in the United States without paying taxes on that income”, the document says.
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Webster
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(The Guardian) After a lengthy tweet-storm on Sunday, Trump meanwhile has only had this to say so far this morning prior to the announcement...

(1) Report out that Obama Campaign paid $972,000 to Fusion GPS. The firm also got $12,400,000 (really?) from DNC. Nobody knows who OK'd!
(2) Great job by MichaelCaputo on @foxandfriends.
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Webster
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(The Guardian) Kellyanne Conway, a counselor to the president who took over the Trump campaign after Manafort, said before the report came out that the charges did not necessarily implicate the president or his campaign. “Whatever happens today with the Mueller investigation, we don’t even know that it has anything to do with the campaign,” Conway said on Fox and Friends.

She repeated that the president believes the investigation is a “hoax” and lamented the fact that Hillary Clinton is still in the news.
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Webster
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(The Guardian) Democratic leaders are responding to the news that Manafort and Gates have been indicted.

“Even with an accelerating Special Counsel investigation inside the Justice Department, and investigations inside the Republican Congress, we still need an outside, fully independent investigation to expose Russia’s meddling in our election and the involvement of Trump officials,” said House minority leader Nancy Pelosi. “Defending the integrity of our democracy demands that Congress look forward to counter Russian aggression and prevent future meddling with our elections.”

“These reported indictments show that the special counsel’s probe is ongoing in a very serious way. The rule of law is paramount in America and the investigation must be allowed to proceed unimpeded,” said Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer.

“The President must not, under any circumstances, interfere with the special counsel’s work in any way. If he does so, Congress must respond swiftly, unequivocally, and in a bipartisan way to ensure that the investigation continues.”
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Webster
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(The Guardian) What Is A Grand Jury?
Ewen MacAskill, the Guardian’s defence and intelligence correspondent, has the answer to that and more important context in this explainer.
-Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/aug/04/what-is-a-grand-jury-and-how-serious-is-it-for-donald-trump

American grand juries are normally made up of about 16 to 23 members of the public rather than the usual 12, hence “grand” jury. They are held in secret – the fact that one has been convened is not even officially acknowledged. The Wall Street Journal leaked that one has been set up in Washington by Mueller. It will look into links between the Trump team and Russia to influence the White House election and whether there has been any subsequent attempt to obstruct justice.
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Webster
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--BREAKING: Former Trump campaign advisor George Papadopolous has pleaded guilty to making false statements to FBI agents. ()ABC News Politics, 30 Oct. 2017)
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Webster
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(The Guardian) A dispatch from (Guardian correspondent Shaun Walker) in Moscow
The indictment is largely concerned with Manafort’s work in Ukraine, where the consultant became a notorious figure linked with the disgraced regime of Viktor Yanukovych.

Manafort was first engaged in the country in 2005 by oligarch Rinat Akhmetov, a steel magnate from Donetsk, in eastern Ukraine. Akhmetov was a close ally of Yanukovych, a Donetsk politician friendly to Russia and head of the pro-Russian Party of Regions, which also retained Manafort as a consultant. Yanukovych had won a fraud-marred presidential election in 2004, but was stopped from taking office by the Orange Revolution. Manafort was tasked with giving Yanukovych’s image an overhaul, to make him more appealing to the electorate. In 2010, he won a new election more or less fairly, after receiving image and strategic advice from Manafort. During his time working in Ukraine, Manafort became one of Yanukovych’s most powerful advisers, and also built links with other oligarchs and businessmen from Russia and Ukraine.

Yanukovych, whose rule was marked by rampant corruption in his inner circle, fled to Russia during the Maidan revolution in February 2014. In August last year, an alleged “black ledger” surfaced in Kiev that appeared to show millions of dollars of under-the-table payments to numerous Yanukovych allies, including Manafort.

Ukraine’s National Anticorruption Bureau posted 22 payments to Manafort over a five-year period between 2007 and 2012 with various vague descriptions such as “sociology” or “services”. The payments totalled $12.7m. Manafort said he never received any illegal payments, but the scandal prompted him to resign from Trump’s campaign a few days later.
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Webster
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(The Guardian) Donald Trump tweets "NO COLLUSION" after ex-campaign manager indicted

(1) Sorry, but this is years ago, before Paul Manafort was part of the Trump campaign. But why aren't Crooked Hillary & the Dems the focus?????
(2) ....Also, there is NO COLLUSION!
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Webster
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(The Guardian) Ex-Trump campaign aide pleads guilty to lying to FBI agents
Separate from the Manafort indictment, George Papadopolous, a former foreign policy adviser to the Trump campaign, pleaded guilty on Monday to making false statements to FBI agents, according to the office of the US special prosecutor Bob Mueller.
-Read more: https://www.justice.gov/file/1007336/download
-Read more: https://www.justice.gov/file/1007341/download
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Webster
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Former U.S. Attorney Renato Mariotti has a Twitter thread up on what all this means at present in regards to Manafort and Company....


(1) Today Trump Advisor George Padadopoulos pleaded guilty to one count of lying to the FBI.
(2) Unlike the charges against Manafort and Gates, Padadopoulos is not charged via indictment. He has agreed to waive that right.
(3) That is something that defendants do when they are trying to be cooperative with the prosecutor. It saves the grand jury's time.
(4) Also it gives the defense some input into what is in the charging document (called an "information") because they are agreeing to it.

(5) In and of itself, the fact that he agreed to an information doesn't necessarily mean that he has "flipped."
(6) "Flipping" means that someone has agreed to completely and truthfully cooperate with the government, including testify against others.

(7) In addition to agreeing to an information, there are two other signs that strongly suggest to me that Padadopoulos has "flipped."
(8) First, he is pleading guilty. If Papadopoulos is not receiving any benefit from Mueller, there is little to be gained from doing that.
(9) He could wait to receive the evidence that Mueller plans to use (something called "discovery") and see what Mueller has on him.

(10) In addition, Papadopoulos is charged with only a single, narrow crime. That is also strongly suggestive of cooperation.
(11) Attorneys representing cooperators typically try to bargain with prosecutors over what crime they are charged with.
(12) Typically federal prosecutors require that defendants plead to a single felony crime that has a sufficient maximum criminal penalty
(13) to cover all of the criminal conduct they committed, because judges consider all of a defendant's activity when determining a sentence.

(14) Lying to the FBI is a fairly narrow crime, but it carries a five-year maximum sentence, which is sufficient to cover his liability.
(15) The fact that this charge was released now, along with Manafort and Gates, suggests to me that he will cooperate against one of them.
(16) Otherwise, Mueller could have waited to charge Padadopoulos. Obviously, the fact that he is admitting that he lied to the FBI will be
(17) by the defense to suggest that he is lying when he testifies against Manafort and/or Gates.

(18) That's very typical for cooperators. Usually cooperators are criminals themselves, and carry with them some amount of baggage.
(19) That's why, as I've said before, a witness like Comey is so much better. Unlike a cooperator, he's a career law enforcement officer.
(20) Nonetheless, Papadopoulos will be very important to Mueller because he can provide an inside look at the Trump campaign.
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Webster
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--The indictment makes it very clear that real estate purchases were a huge means to launder money. TRUMP IS FUCKED. SO ARE HIS KIDS. #SOHO (Bandit Aléatoire‏, 30 Oct. 2017)
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Webster
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--In the Papadopolous plea agreement: "The Government agrees to bring to the Court's attention at sentencing the defendant's efforts to cooperate with the Government..." (Frank Thorp V, NBC News - 30 Oct. 2017)
-Read more: https://www.justice.gov/file/1007341/download
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Webster
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--These indictments underscore the seriousness of this investigation. The GOP must commit to protecting this investigation & the rule of law. (Tom Perez, DNC Chairman - 30 Oct. 2017)
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Webster
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(The Guardian) Manafort and Gates to appear in court at 1:30pm
The office special consul Bob Mueller has announced that Manafort and Gates are scheduled to appear at 1:30 pm before US Magistrate Judge Deborah A Robinson at the D.C. federal courthouse on 3rd and Constitution.
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