Maybe a little taste of how he could spend the rest of his life will inspire this treacherous scumbag to roll on his former boss (as opposed to his once and future boss who’s busy hosting the World Cup).
He has not flipped, nor pleaded guilty because he thinks Trump will pardon him. He’s probably right.
A pardon might not work:
If Trump pardons Manafort, lawyers would immediately ask the federal court in D.C. to dismiss the indictment on the theory that it is void as a result of the pardon. Mueller’s team would then oppose the motion on the grounds that the pardon itself was invalid. And Trump would not necessarily prevail.
Even though the pardon power is broadly worded in the Constitution, the president cannot use it in ways that violate other provisions.
[…]
Using the pardon power for the sole purpose of insulating high-level government officials from criminal liability involving potential abuses of office, moreover, could arguably violate the take care clause, which mandates that the president “shall” faithfully execute the laws — including criminal ones.
A defrauded bank with standing to challenge a Manafort pardon might argue that Trump abdicated his Article II prerogative by impeding the administration of justice to save himself. Such a pardon could also form a basis for a separate criminal obstruction charge, or for impeachment — which is expressly exempt from the pardon power.
A constitutional challenge to a Manafort pardon would require creative lawyering, to be sure. But we live in groundbreaking constitutional times. As a matter of historical precedent — which matters to the Supreme Court in novel situations like this one — Trump is not on unassailable ground.
Mueller knows what he’s doing, and there are so many scumbags under his scrutiny and so many state attorneys general working with him that if Paulie Kremlin doesn’t flip it’ll be someone else.
I am applauding the outcome, but I am not applauding the process.
When is witness tampering not witness tampering?
When it is done by the FBI, Police Department, Secret Service, or other governmental funded law enforcement organization.
If you don’t believe me, then the entire plea bargaining process is inherently a (defacto) exercise in witness tampering. (In exchange for “helpful” testimony, we will go light on our prosecutions against you.)
The defense can use the discovery process to request video of these exchanges for each of the witnesses with a checkered past, and urge the court to sanction the plaintiffs accordingly.
A pardon also has the side effect of invalidating 5th Amendment protections against self-incrimination as the suspect has been granted immunity (by virtue of the pardon) and can still be held in contempt for withholding such testimony.
I wish I could give credit to whoever originally made this observation (maybe Ben Wittes?) but one of the key insights coming out of the investigation into Trump associates is that there is really a lot of uninvestigated white collar crime.
Like, if these guys hadn’t had the bad luck to have their guy actually get elected, they could have kept on making millions doing crimes and died of old age in bed surrounded by affluent grandchildren
I’m sure there are quite a few big time grifters for whom that hindsight is now “20/20,” and they probably rue the day they ever decided to encourage this fuckery.
It’s got almost a greek tragedy kind of feel to it doesn’t it? Like Icarus, but for complete scumbags
Robert Mueller’s Brilliant Strategy for Outmaneuvering Trump Pardons
The author writes a fascinating article about why so few charges have actually been filed against Manafort and Papadopolous, guessing that Mueller is holding a bunch of potential state charges that could have a lot of prison time just in case Trump decides/is offering to pardon Manafort. Of course, I can’t keep up with all this crap, and maybe more charges have been filed now and this argument is less strong. But it’s a very intriguing take on the matter.
Manafort and Cohen and Trump and others in that circle, they obviously know the things they did were wrong, hence the cover-ups and implausible denials, but at the same time I get the impression they were so used to ignoring rules and laws and common sense that they just figured “hey, this is all perfectly OK” and just figured they would never get called on it.
That or a nothingburger. Here they are making all kinds of headlines about some schmo that Trump didn’t even know.
I’m pretty sure you need to be convicted first. So… that time plus zero?
Hopefully (?) the trial will take long enough, that Trump will be out of office by the time it is over.
it’s certainly more common for pardon to follow conviction, but it doesn’t seem like that’s necessarily a requirement. Slate got some law professors discuss this back in the Bush administration:
Ford pardoned Nixon before he was convicted (or even indicted) of any crime.
Right on cue with the obstruction:
“In one of his most forceful attacks on the special counsel yet, Rudy Giuliani on Friday claimed the Russia investigation could get “cleaned up” with pardons from President Trump in light Paul Manafort being sent to jail.
“When the whole thing is over, things might get cleaned up with some presidential pardons,” the former New York mayor told the Daily News.
Giuliani’s stunning remark came hours after a Washington, D.C., judge revoked Manafort’s bail and ordered him to remain behind bars while awaiting his September trial. The ruling came after Robert Mueller’s investigators alleged Manafort had attempted to tamper with witnesses in the Russia investigation.
Giuliani, who worked as a federal prosecutor for nearly a decade, claimed he had seen no evidence to warrant Manafort being sent to jail.
“I don’t understand the justification for putting him in jail,” Giuliani, 74, said. “You put a guy in jail if he’s trying to kill witnesses, not just talking to witnesses.”
There’s a funny thing about pardons. If Manafort were pardoned, he could be compelled to testify against Trump or his minions and would be unable to plead the Fifth (as he’s under no risk of self-incrimination). This could actually be very bad for Trump as Manafort likely knows where all the bodies are buried.
(goddamnit, @apenzott beat me to it…)
Jesus F Christ; based on the nonsensical bullshit he lets fall out of his mouth on a regular basis, this guy seems to think ‘killing someone’ is the only thing that’s a crime in this country.
Hey - let’s look back at your time a a prosecutor, Rudy. Did you ever ask to revoke bail or ask for no bail for someone who wasn’t trying to kill a witness?
I’ll bet good money serene in the surety of taking yours.
They flew to close to the Scum.
