(WTF? This is it??): U.S. rests its case against former Trump aide Manafort

All the money we’ve spent and we don’t get no RUSSIANS!!?? No election meddling? No Boris and Natasha??

U.S. rests its case against former Trump aide Manafort

(Reuters) - U.S. prosecutors on Monday rested their case against former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort after 10 days of testimony detailing how he avoided taxes on at least $16 million of income and lied to banks to maintain an extravagant lifestyle once his work for pro-Kremlin politicians in Ukraine dried up.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-russia-manafort-prosecution...

How disappointing. No treason. No ‘collusion’. Just a big-time sleazebad (like Blumenthal and the Podesta boys) milking the system for all it’s worth.

That’s typical in D.C. Everyone has their fingers in the cookie jar. The ones who skate are the “well connected’ ones. Like the Clintons.

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edg's picture

They did manage to sneak "pro-Kremlin" into the article when referring to the Ukrainian politicians. That somehow magically ties it to Russia and Putin, right?

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Unabashed Liberal's picture

is a test. Tried to repurpose/reboot and defunct (for 6 years) Twitter account--gave it a new name, etc. Anyhoo, doesn't seem to work, here. Tired of working on it, for now. Here you go,

https://twitter.com/blueonyxblogger

Seems that the Tweets won't post/embed--unless the code will work better posted, than it did in 'preview' mode. Posted the link to the Twitter account, since I'm not sure that the embedded Tweet will even be readable.

I've spent a heck of a lot of time trying to get it to work--between 2-3 hours--using 3 browsers. So, going to call it quits for now. (This comment, that is.) I'll keep working on it, and let you Guys know if I can figure out the problem.

Hey, thanks for tonight's edition of EB. Joe. Everyone have a nice evening!

Bye

Blue Onyx

"Everyone thinks they have the best dog, and none of them are wrong."
~~W. R. Purche

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@Unabashed Liberal @Unabashed Liberal

c99 will take twitters embed code. What it won't do is let you preview it. If you try, you get the error message. If you take a leap of faith and just hit publish, the tweet will embed.

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"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon

Unabashed Liberal's picture

@dkmich

the problem (I 'think') by using another browser when I post Tweets.

Also, Sean gave me a couple of hints regarding 'getting around' some HTML code being blocked, when I try to post some videos. BTW, appreciate the Follow. Trying to raise the awareness that our Part B benefits are under very serious attack! Aggressive

Blue Onyx

"Everyone thinks they have the best dog, and none of them are wrong."
~~W. R. Purche

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Unabashed Liberal's picture

I had so much trouble trying to get the Tweet to post, guess I sorta lost my place.

Obviously, this comment was intended to be posted at Joe's EB. Sorry!

Yeah, agree that the Manafort 'thingie' was a let down, and certainly didn't warrant the 'breathless coverage' that it received on 2 of the 3 main Cable News Channels.

Not to mention the fact that Manafort's misdeeds (swindles, etc.) mostly occurred prior to the barely 3-month stint he spent as DT's campaign manager. Whew!

Blue Onyx

"Everyone thinks they have the best dog, and none of them are wrong."
~~W. R. Purche

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Amanda Matthews's picture

@Unabashed Liberal

A roll. I got 2 to work this week!

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I'm tired of this back-slapping "Isn't humanity neat?" bullshit. We're a virus with shoes, okay? That's all we are. - Bill Hicks

Politics is the entertainment branch of industry. - Frank Zappa

snoopydawg's picture

This was prosecuted by NYC authorities IIRC, but of course the evidence to charge Manafort came from Mueller. He might have another case to bring against him, but regardless it has nothing to do with Russia interfering with the election which was the original reason Mueller was created.

But Rosenstein told Mueller that he has the authority to take his investigation wherever it goes because Rosenstein is a gutless wondering puppet.

Robert Mueller is supposed to be investigating Russiagate, which has been shown to be a hoax concocted by former CIA director John Brennan, former FBI director James Comey, and current deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. As Russiagate is a hoax, Mueller has not been able to produce a shred of evidence of the alleged Trump/Putin plot to hack Hillary's emails and influence the last presidential election.

With his investigation unable to produce any evidence of the alleged Russiagate, Mueller concluded that he had to direct attention away from the failed hoax by bringing some sort of case against someone, knowing that the incompetent and corrupt US media and insouciant public would assume that the case had something to do with Russiagate.

Mueller chose Paul Manafort as a target, hoping that, faced with fighting false charges, Manafort would make a deal and make up some lies about Trump and Putin in exchange for the case against him being dropped. But Manafort stood his ground, forcing Mueller to go forward with a false case.
....
Mueller's investigation is restricted to Russiagate. In other words, Mueller has no mandate to investigate or bring charges unrelated to Russiagate. In my opinion, Mueller gets away with this only because the deputy Attorney General is in on the Russiagate plot against Trump. Mueller and Rosenstein know that they can count on the presstitutes to continue to deceive the public by presenting the Manafort trial as part of Russiagate.

People have already said that they are okay with this case not showing that Trump colluded with Putin to win the election because after Manafort is found guilty he will then flip on Trump to reduce his sentence. Okee-dokee. Whatever.

The Mueller investigation would not have come into existence if Comey hadn't leaked his notes on his meeting with Trump to his friend, but he knew if he did that then Rosenstein would have to appoint a special prosecutor.

I'm still waiting for a special prosecutor to be appointed after the IG report showed how Obama's justice department covered up Herheinous' crimes so that she wouldn't be charged under the espionage act. The guy that took pictures of the inside of his submarine was prosecuted for doing it and spent a year in prison. I read that he is trying to get his charges dropped because he says that he didn't intend to break the law. I think that is what everyone who gets arrested should say. Hasn't the FBIs ruling set a precedent for that?

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Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

Amanda Matthews's picture

@snoopydawg

That’s my point. Promises were made. Heads were gonna roll. And Tiny Digits would be marched out of the White House by the nations top cop, James Comey. And Manafort was the KEY to it all. He had PROOF! Turns out the PROOF! is bogus BS. The ‘left’ is STILL claiming this proves Trump/RUSSIAN! collusion. Go figure.

That’s some real false advertising as far as I’m concerned. I expect the crimes to be YUGE for the money they’re costing us. This was just a pathetic bait-and-switch.

I want...

1477B9FE-1FC3-431B-80FE-C6069A3EF6F1.jpeg

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I'm tired of this back-slapping "Isn't humanity neat?" bullshit. We're a virus with shoes, okay? That's all we are. - Bill Hicks

Politics is the entertainment branch of industry. - Frank Zappa

snoopydawg's picture

Hey why not? Andy McCabe received $500,000 after Rachel promoted it when he was fired "just days" before he could take early retirement and start receiving his pension. McCabe and his wife who is a doctor were worth between $11-22 million, but he must not have wanted to dip into his funds. Or something ...

Peter Strzok is only asking for $350,000 for his increasing legal fees.

Peter Strzok, a man who has spent his entire life working to help keep us and our nation safe, has been fired. He needs your help

For the last year, Pete, his work, and his character have been the target of highly politicized attacks, including frequent slanderous statements from President Trump, who actively—and apparently successfully—pressured FBI officials to fire Pete.
....
The nation saw Pete’s true character when he voluntarily testified before Congress on July 12th, 2018. Facing an inquisition that even a Fox News anchor said “felt like a public lynching,” he expressed regret for the pain he caused his family and for the harm caused by the weaponization of his words and, as reported by The Daily Beast, “issued a ringing defense of himself and his agency.”

Following his repeated Congressional testimony and a lengthy investigation, one thing is clear: Pete’s personal views never once influenced his professional actions. As The Washington Post reported, “Republicans have not been able to produce any evidence that Strzok or anyone else took any official action that was biased, unfair or inappropriate…” The Weekly Standard, a leading conservative magazine, declared that the “overwrought tale of bias” surrounding Pete is “just sound and fury.

The real story behind this episode was made clear in an analysis by Slate, which said that “Peter Strzok is the hero we need.” The author wrote that Pete is an “honest law enforcement officer standing up to a corrupt president. And that’s why Trump attacked him. Trump doesn’t want Americans to...see what backbone looks like. I’ll tell you what it looks like: Republicans tried to put Strzok on trial, and Strzok put Trump on trial instead.” f

That thousands of people have to create a Go Fund Me to get money for medical treatments, funeral expenses, and countless other reasons is a stain on the government.

Daniel has only raised $9,000 of his goal of $85,000 in 9 months for treatment for his ALS while Strzok has raised now $192,050 in just 14 hours.

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Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

enhydra lutris's picture

corrupt, amoral "fixer", run some investigative theater complete with leaks and such for as long as they can, and then bust him for corruption. He'll probably get some sort of hard slap on the wrist, we get an enormously expensive corruption bust, Mueller gets accolades and the Democrats got weekly titillating breadcrumbs to discuss and salivate over.

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

This thing started as a vendetta by the Brennan CIA because Manafort and Flynn had the gaul to stand up against the regime change programs in Ukraine and Syria, and both programs were failures. The Mueller brief is to paper over this split within the US policy elites and to arrive at a bipartisan consensus the dissenting faction was criminal. Mueller may well fail to achieve a clear consensus and the net result will be a further rendering apart of the US political process. That result was completely foreseeable and another unforced error by the New Cold Warriors and Neocons.

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