As part of a plea for him cooperating,he would have a lot more charges if he wasn't cooperating
Former Trump campaign adviser 'almost certainly' has 'flipped'
- Thread starter Cuddles
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As part of a plea for him cooperating,he would have a lot more charges if he wasn't cooperating
The House can not appoint prosecutors. Separation of powers. They can't even prosecute Executive Branch members who commit perjury in front of them or are in contempt of congress. That's why Eric Holder was never prosecuted. A congress which took defending its Constitutional powers seriously would have fought back, either through impeachment or cutting funds to the DOJ. That was never going to happen with Weepy Boehner and RINO Ryan in charge.
There are reasons for that.Those charges are to make Manafort flip and Mueller is working with The New York AG and they are saving some charges for Manafort at the state level in case Trump pardons Manafort.
The Manafort indictment represents huge danger to Trump if Manafort flips.If Manafort doesn't flip he will spend the rest of his life in a federal or state prison.Is Manafort willing to do that for Trump
I read the earlier article regarding the assertions that Mueller is holding back charges and reserving the ability for the NY AG to file further charges if Trump pardons Manafort. I actually flipped the particular article to a neighbor who is a lawyer involved in these type of cases. His take it was complete nonsense. State level DAs//AGs don't get involved in this type of federal case -- unless the case started at the state level before going federal. At most there could be some sort of state level tax evasion charges related solely to NY real estate transactions, but it is likely the state has no standing in bigger picture charges.
My take is that Manafort has nothing to "flip" and he will plea bargain an arrangement that gives him 4 years in jail max (more likely probation) -- based on the results of similar cases in the past. White collar political crime does not tend to lead to lengthy sentences.
Mueller needs papodopo to be able to track down what the Russians were doing. Even if he can't get it to go to trump, he still needs to have him spill the beans on his contacts with the ruskies. If he had more on him, he would be charging him with more because it takes next to nothing to get an indictment. Then he would be plea dealing with him while the charges were in place for even more leverage. He probably did what he needed to get him to wear a wire and if the perjury charge worked, then maybe that is all he needed.
I have friends who are attorneys and say just the opposite.Maybe Mueller and Schneiderman are just hanging out to tell Trump jokes to each other.
http://www.cnn.com/2017/08/30/politics/mueller-new-york-attorney-general-manafort/index.html
Mueller, New York AG working together on Manafort
By Jim Acosta and Sophie Tatum, CNN
Washington (CNN)Justice Department special counsel Robert Mueller is comparing notes with the office of New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman on the Russia investigation, a source familiar with the investigation told CNN Thursday.
The two offices' discussions include the New York attorney general's investigation into former Donald Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, which started earlier this summer, the source said.
Politico, citing several people familiar with the matter, first reported on Wednesday that Mueller had teamed up with Schneiderman to investigate Manafort and his financial transactions.
It's not unusual that both offices would be talking to one another about the probe, the source familiar told CNN, since they are working on the same investigation. The source added that some of the investigators working in Mueller's office come from the Southern District of New York, adding to the closeness between the two offices.
A spokesman for the office of special counsel declined to comment.
Since the US president is unable to pardon state crimes, the collaboration could also be seen as an effort to pressure Manafort to cooperate in the broader Russia investigation under Mueller, Politico reported -- however, the source told CNN that it premature to speculate about that at such an early stage in the investigation.
The move Politico reported on Wednesday night could be another indication that Mueller is ramping up pressure on Manafort. He has not been accused of any wrongdoing but is seen as a central figure in Mueller's investigation into Russia's 2016 election meddling.
Messages to a Schneiderman spokesperson weren't returned.
CNN reported on Tuesday that Mueller issued subpoenas to Manafort's former lawyer and his current spokesman, but it is unclear what specific information the Justice Department investigators believe they may have.
Additionally, earlier this summer, FBI agents raided Manafort's home as part of the ongoing Russia investigation.
On Friday, Trump issued his first pardon to former Arizona Sheriff Joe Apraio, an early Trump supporter who had been convicted of criminal contempt related to his crackdown on illegal immigration.
CNN's Evan Perez contributed to this report.
Manafort has already been charged with much more than White collar political crimes and more charges are coming if he doesn't cooperate.Prosecutors also don't give generous plea deals if you don't cooperate.
Also, there are always things that the states can do in theory but are less-than-smart and good reasons to avoid them suddenly pop up. As I have said a dozen times, Preet Bharara played victim but he also went over to the white house to interview for a job while allegedly having trump under investigation. Now that he is gone, maybe it is not an issue but he should be disbarred. Rather than being a victim, it sounds to me like he tried to shake trump down ie. "I want to keep my job, how would like to see some charges go away."
In addition state governments at all levels- especially a state like new York- are run by politicians that are crooks. Some of this Shiite of trying to investigate and prosecute from the state level works both ways. They can suddenly wake up and find that a certain president now has the fbi and the justice department investigating them. They are not looking for that type of attention. I am sure that Gov. Cuomo is not looking for more years of being under investigation having just gone through for a lonnnng time. Christie as well. And suddenly those states and governors and mayors start getting less funding from the federal government for the special projects that them elected. And their politicians, judges, prosecutors etc who are elected rather than appointed suddenly find opponents in elections when there were none before. So be careful motherfucks, if you are trying to shake a president down. They get to fight back too. Your chances of removing a sitting president while he is in office are very slim and if he knows you and your state are planning to prosecute him immediately after he leaves office, he has years to "help" make charges go away- AND TO MAKE PEOPLE GO AWAY TOO.
I believe the left is mis-reading and spinning the NY AG involvement. The only reason for the NY AG to be involved in the Manafort case is that the state was investigating Manafort first prior to federal involvement (which is likely) and simply sharing their information with the Feds.
The proposition that the Feds are enticing the NY State AG to separately drive charges as a method of by-stepping a federal pardon is not only unlikely but probably tramples some ethical territory -- not mentioning that the Feds generally want the state to step out of the way when the federal government brings a case.
We will see how this all pans out in the end. I think we should start a betting pool on Manafort's eventual sentence -- including the reality he may never be convicted.