Manafort appeared in court in a wheelchair and did not rise when Ellis spoke to him. Defense attorney Kevin Downing said in court that there are “significant issues with Mr. Manafort’s health right now that have to do with his confinement.”
He's been tragically separated from his private tennis court since this summer
Paul Manafort, President Trump’s former campaign chairman, repeatedly lied to federal investigators in breach of a plea agreement he signed two months ago, the special counsel’s office said in a court filing late on Monday.
Mr. Manafort’s “crimes and lies” during a series of interviews with prosecutors working for the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, and the F.B.I. relieve them of all promises they made to him in the plea agreement reached in mid-September, investigators wrote in the filing
...
The dramatic development in the 11th hour of Mr. Manafort’s case means, at a minimum, that prosecutors will not ask for a lighter punishment in return for his cooperation. They could also conceivably seek to refile bank fraud charges that they agreed to dismiss as part of the plea agreement.
The prosecutors did not describe what Mr. Manafort lied about, promising to file a sentencing memo that sets forth “the nature of the defendant’s crimes and lies.”
So from what I am reading Manafort is ****ed. He is still obligated to testify and cooperate moving forward but gets nothing out of it and opens himself up to prosecution when he lies. His guilty plea stands but he gets sentenced the max. Even if Trump pardons him he can be prosecuted by the next administration for his lies and for all the state crimes Mueller never charged him with the first go-round. This is not a rational play unless he’s fearing worse if he testifies (ie Putin will go after his family, which is what I suspected would keep him from cooperating in the first place
How hilarious would it be if there was no collusion and manafort told mueller there was collusion to get a lighter sentence on the bank frauds and mueller charges him with lying about colluding
Also, of course, an evaluation by a judge about whether Manafort is in breach of his plea can address lies that go well beyond what would be relevant and admissible in a Manafort criminal trial. The proper subject matter is anything Manafort lied about, along with the evidence Mueller has that he lied.
Yeah, privity part strikes me as wierd, especially in a criminal context.
The important thing however is that Mueller can get a lot on the record without having to indict anyone else or even file a report with Congress, activities that Whitaker could potentially interfere with.
I wonder what's going to happen to his $20k quartz watch. I assume the feds will auction it off or something. Should belong in the Smithsonian along with the ostrich skin suit.
This almost gave me an erection that would last longer than 4 hrs, and then I remembered that Kavanaugh will be writing the majority opinion on whether or not executive opinion got waived when Trump invariably tweets out denials of all the Manafort lies.