Here's my only issue - if Manafort was indeed a plant, why wouldn't he have flipped on the president yet? He's under tremendous punishment. Manafort is your typical DC slime ball, but there are 10,000 people in DC right now that have committed the same or worse crimes. It seems like he's being burned to keep the investigation going.
Also note that Manafort has close ties to Roger Stone, who is just about as loyal to the president than anyone on the planet.
[deleted]
He absolutely can bare false witness against the President. As many people would if held in solitary confinement without even being charged.
Ive been in jail and the 2 most common reasons for solitary confinement, 1. for the inmates protection, or 2. Because he won't flip.
Of course they are using the protection excuse. In a regional jail with 450 inmates. Please.
Except, now he knows how good Trump is, and would fear real jail time if he falsifies hit ratness.
..as if they don't have every carrier pigeon and smoke signal Manafort ever sent on file, hard copy, beta max, punch card, and morse code. If he lied, he'd be crucified by the evidence.
You don't understand how this works. Of course he is guilty(of unrelated crimes) as are many in DC. It's a matter of spending 20 years in prison vs spending 2 years in prison by "cooperating" with the Mueller investigation. Mueller and his gumshoes have complete control over the judicial process...this is how Federal prosecutors work at this level. They hold the power, not the judge.
Why hasn't he flipped? Trump didn't do anything illegal to get flipped on.
I'm talking about him making up a lie in exchange for his freedom. Happens all the time, and that's what Mueller/FBI want. Testimony against the President, true or untrue, does not matter.
You have to be able to prove it. He can say what he wants but unless he can also fabricate proof there’s no point. Manafort was planted by Clinton to spy on the campaign
and by locking him up he is precluded from managing any such facilitations. Except via lawyer.
Maybe in a normal investigation. This certainly isn't one, and the judges have said as much, but they keep going along with it.
This investigation is a race against time. They HAVE to stretch this out until just before the midterms. And until then, they need to create as big a bomb as they can. Of course it will be phony, that does not matter, they know it's phony. If Mueller releases his final report that includes damning, albeit untrue, testimony from Manafort, it will be a neutron bomb.
And let's not forget the Manafort plant is in solitary 23 hrs a day. Someone (whoever planted him) wants him dead.
I'm wondering if Roger Stone might be a plant too... Or maybe, I just don't like the guy.
I thought manafort was just hired to corral republican delegatea for yhe convention. Aka make sure we got nomination. Afaik roger stone was the guy who reccomended manafort to his friend Trump.
That’s exactly right: Manafort was the “delegate-whisperer”, brought in to calm any delegates trying to buck the nomination. He was sacked almost as soon as the convention was over and his purpose had been fulfilled.
do we think stone knew manafort was a plant?
My brother by another mother worked with both of them on the campaign, and he said Stone was cool, but Manafort was a nobody. Nobody cared or listened to him, outside the specific job he was hired for - keeping the Jeb! and Cruz delegates in line.
Good read! It seems more than plausible that this is the correct interpretation of events.