Anonymous ID: c6effd Jan. 25, 2019, 9:40 a.m. No.4902093   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>2165 >>2316 >>2455

Dershowitz on Mueller move against Roger Stone: 'Trump is the target'

 

Robert Mueller is trying to force Roger Stone to "flip" and incriminate President Trump by indicting the veteran Republican operatives on charges that leave him facing the prospect of dying in jail, according to Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz.

 

"The obvious purpose of indicting him on these obstructing and false statement charges is to put pressure on him to flip. That's the goal,” said Dershowitz, a Harvard Law School professor emeritus. “Will he flip? Nobody knows the answer to that. Michael Cohen said he would take a bullet for the president, and he's become his opponent,” he said. “[Stone] said recently he would never cooperate and testify, and I take him at his word. But when he's told by his lawyer that he's facing essentially spending the rest of his life in prison, you never know what people will do.

 

Stone, arrested in a dramatic FBi raid before dawn on Friday, has vowed not to turn against Trump. But the 66-year-old operative now faces a long sentence if convicted of five counts of making false statements, one count of witness tampering, and one count of obstruction of an official proceeding. Dershowitz said more than a decade behind bars is likely if Stone’s convicted on all counts. "If you do them consecutively rather than concurrently, it's probably more than 10 [years] and he's no youngster. You're talking about dying in prison,” he said.

 

Mueller’s probe, which began looking for Trump campaign collusion with Russia, has netted indictments and guilty pleas from many former Trump allies and aides who ultimately cooperated, including former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, former Trump attorney Michael Cohen, former National Security Adviser Mike Flynn, and former Trump campaign aide Rick Gates.

 

"Most of the people have flipped so far. The prosecutors have this enormous power. They can threaten not only the person but also his relatives and friends and associates,” Dershowitz said. “Judge [T.S.] Ellis pointed that out in the Manafort case. People like Manafort and Stone are not the real targets of the investigation. President Trump is the target.”

 

Manafort was found guilty by a jury in Virginia this summer on eight counts. His trial was the first stemming from Mueller's probe. A federal grand jury in Washington, D.C., indicted Stone on Thursday, and Friday morning he was arrested in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Stone subsequently appeared in federal court there and was released on a $250,000 bond. His travel was also restricted to Washington, D.C., Florida, and New York City. A post on Stone’s Instagram account called news of the indictment “deeply saddening,” saying, “Robert Mueller's early morning raid was straight out of the gestapo's playbook.”

 

Dershowitz said it’s particularly notable that federal agents arrested Stone in a pre-dawn raid. “The fact that they arrested him this morning rather than allowing him to appear is another evidence that they are trying to put pressure on him,” he said. Although the indictment does not contain damning information about Trump, Dershowitz said that’s not necessarily exonerating for the president. "The purpose of the indictment was to get [Stone] to cooperate against Trump. So, the face of the indictment doesn't tell you what the purpose is,” he said. “I think the fact that Trump isn't in the indictment in any way is significant, but it doesn't eliminate the possibility that [Stone] might flip."

 

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/dershowitz-on-mueller-move-against-roger-stone-trump-is-the-target

Anonymous ID: c6effd Jan. 25, 2019, 9:55 a.m. No.4902349   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>2455 >>2543

Judge to hold sealed hearing on whether Manafort breached plea deal

 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A federal judge on Friday ordered lawyers for Special Counsel Robert Mueller and President Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman Paul Manafort to appear Feb. 4 for a closed hearing on whether Manafort breached his plea deal by lying to investigators.

 

Judge Amy Berman Jackson in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia cast doubt on some of the lying allegations against Manafort but said others appeared more firm. The special counsel has accused Manafort, 69, of breaching his plea deal by lying to federal investigators on at least five different subjects ranging from his contacts with Trump administration officials in 2018 to his interactions with his former business partner in Ukraine Konstantin Kilimnik, who Mueller’s office has said has ties to Russian intelligence. Some details about Manafort’s alleged lies were made public inadvertently by his defense lawyers in a Jan. 8 court filing. Prosecutors said Manafort lied about sharing election polling data with Kilimnik, about his discussions with Kilimnik concerning a Ukrainian peace plan and a meeting the two had in Madrid. Kilimnik, who has denied ties to Russian intelligence, was indicted by Mueller in June on obstruction of justice charges.

 

Manafort’s attorneys say he had memory lapses but was not trying to lead investigators astray. Jackson said the court would release a redacted transcript of Manafort’s February hearing soon after its conclusion. She said she was a bit torn after reading the court pleadings. Jackson said “not all of the instances rise to the level of actual false statements within the meaning of the criminal code” but that in other cases Manafort “may have lied - pure and simple.” If Jackson finds Manafort breached his agreement, it is still unclear how it would impact his sentence.

 

Manafort pleaded guilty in September 2018 in the Washington case to attempted witness tapering and conspiring against the United States, a charge that covers conduct including money laundering and unregistered lobbying. Both counts carry a statutory maximum of 10 years, which is well below the sentencing guidelines. To increase the sentence beyond the 10-year maximum, prosecutors could file fresh charges against Manafort for lying or recharge him with the other remaining counts in the indictment, according to sentencing experts. Jackson also could consider stacking his sentence on top of whatever he gets in the Eastern District of Virginia, where he is due to be sentenced on Feb. 8 after a jury convicted him on eight counts of bank and tax fraud.

 

On Friday, prosecutor Andrew Weissmann said his office does not currently intend to charge Manafort with other crimes and there is no reason to delay sentencing. He declined to rule out the chance that charges could be filed later against Manafort by Mueller’s office or other Justice Department prosecutors.

 

Manafort, who has in recent months waived most court appearances, showed up to court on Friday wearing a suit and walking with the assistance of a cane. His hearing came on the same day that his former business partner and fellow Trump campaign associate Roger Stone was arrested on charges of obstruction, witness tampering and making false statements related to the release of stolen Democratic Party emails during the 2016 presidential campaign. Mueller, a former FBI director, is investigating whether Trump’s campaign conspired with Moscow and whether the president unlawfully sought to obstruct the probe. Russia has denied election interference. Trump has denied collusion with Moscow.

 

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-russia-manafort/judge-to-hold-sealed-hearing-on-whether-manafort-breached-plea-deal-idUSKCN1PJ13C?il=0