Robert Mueller, Former F.B.I. Director, Is Named Special Counsel for Russia Investigation

When I was selling guns, it turned out I had a customer who was doing illegal stuff. I had to go to the ATF office to be interviewed. I promise you, the absolute last thing on my mind was lying about anything or withholding anything.

And I wasn't under indictment nor did I sign a plea deal. You really have to twist things up in your mind to view an expectation of honesty in sworn testamony when you signed off on a plea pledging to be honest as unscrupulous.

If that is really how you think about lying to federal investigstors, maybe someone should start investigating you. I've been under that scrutiny, albeit briefly, and the path through to the other side was pretty clear.

 

Judicial review isn't in the consitution, but it is pretty much all the SC does. Presiden claims unlimited power to pardon even himself, but it's never been tested.

If pardoned, 5th amendment protections against self incrimination dont apply, I think.

 

and that's after Manafort had entered a plead/corroboration agreement w team Mueller

doesn't this waive the "lawyer-client" privilege ?

if so, both Guilliani and Manafort's lawyer can be subpoena to testify in a grand jury to disclose the details of such communication

 

You might be right.

I think that the only reason that the Congress will remove Trump from office is if 18 Republican Senators think that they will lose their 2020 election if Trump does not get removed. Self preservation trumps Trump.

 

I'm sure you felt the same way about Bill Clinton.

 

There aren't 18 Republicans in jeopardy in 2020. The bigger fear would be moderate Republicans subjecting themselves to a primary if they ousted Trump.

There is like 0.1% chance that Trump is ever removed from office. I put it at 50/50 he's impeached in the House, but no chance he's actually removed. The whole collusion angle is just vague enough of a crime that it gives them all cover. For months now the Republicans have been working overtime to convince the base that this isn't an issue at all. They aren't going to remove him.

 

I don't really know but I haven't heard it suggested that it violates the privilege. It may get his lawyer in trouble for ethical issues and it could very likely get Manafort in more legal trouble for violating his agreement, but that's all.

Guilani has now confirmed they've been in regular communication with all of these people working with the special counsel and that they have definitely discussed pardons. There is a clearly a coordinated effort to obstruct justice here, but no chance the new AG is going to let Mueller move forward on this stuff.

 

Oh I completely agree about the challenges of actually removing him from the position. I’m increasingly believing that the Dems will decide best course of action and best for the country would be to make him an exposed lame duck for two years and force the Senate Republicans to control the government with the exercutive branch doing the bare minimum. Then make 2020 all about Trumps crimes in office along with a strong candidate with his/her own vision for the country.

Exposing him as a bonified criminal and working with Mitch McConnel behind closed doors to keep the country going in the interim is probably the most likely route and best thing for the country. Getting 2/3 votes in the senate would be damn near impossible. Working behind closed doors with McConnell when McConnell knows Trump is getting beat mightily in Nov of 20 would be the biggest hurdle but I think it’s doable.

End of his presidency meaning end of his political power and ability for McConnell to operate without his leverage over him.

 

Trump doesn't need to be impeached, he needs to be imprisoned.

Let him sit in the office, block all of his legislation, then send his ass (and his mafia family) to jail the moment his term is up.

 

They have been this underhanded my whole life. No one complained when they did it to mob bosses and drug dealers. Why is it suddenly problematic?

What legislation? Most of the grief he causes is by executive order.

 

Manafort’s Lawyer Said to Brief Trump Attorneys on What He Told Mueller
By Michael S. Schmidt, Sharon LaFraniere and Maggie Haberman

WASHINGTON — A lawyer for Paul Manafort, the president’s onetime campaign chairman, repeatedly briefed President Trump’s lawyers on his client’s discussions with federal investigators after Mr. Manafort agreed to cooperate with the special counsel, according to one of Mr. Trump’s lawyers and two other people familiar with the conversations.

The arrangement was highly unusual and inflamed tensions with the special counsel’s office when prosecutors discovered it after Mr. Manafort began cooperating two months ago, the people said. Some legal experts speculated that it was a bid by Mr. Manafort for a presidential pardon even as he worked with the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, in hopes of a lighter sentence.

Rudolph W. Giuliani, one of the president’s personal lawyers, acknowledged the arrangement on Tuesday and defended it as a source of valuable insights into the special counsel’s inquiry and where it was headed. Such information could help shape a legal defense strategy, and it also appeared to give Mr. Trump and his legal advisers ammunition in their public relations campaign against Mr. Mueller’s office.

For example, Mr. Giuliani said, Mr. Manafort’s lawyer Kevin M. Downing told him that prosecutors hammered away at whether the president knew about the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting where Russians promised to deliver damaging information on Hillary Clinton to his eldest son, Donald Trump Jr. The president has long denied knowing about the meeting in advance. “He wants Manafort to incriminate Trump,” Mr. Giuliani declared of Mr. Mueller.

While Mr. Downing’s discussions with the president’s team violated no laws, they helped contribute to a deteriorating relationship between lawyers for Mr. Manafort and Mr. Mueller’s prosecutors, who accused Mr. Manafort of holding out on them despite his pledge to assist them in any matter they deemed relevant, according to the people. That conflict spilled into public view on Monday when the prosecutors took the rare step of declaring that Mr. Manafort had breached his plea agreement by lying to them about a variety of subjects.

Mr. Manafort’s lawyers insisted that their client had been truthful but acknowledged that the two sides were at an impasse. Mr. Manafort will now face sentencing on two conspiracy charges and eight counts of financial fraud — crimes that could put him behind bars for at least 10 years.

Mr. Downing did not respond to a request for comment. Though it was unclear how frequently he spoke to Mr. Trump’s lawyers or how much he revealed, his updates helped reassure Mr. Trump’s legal team that Mr. Manafort had not implicated the president in any possible wrongdoing.

Mr. Giuliani, who has taken an aggressive posture against the Russia investigation since Mr. Trump hired him in April, seized on Mr. Downing’s information to unleash lines of attack onto the special counsel.

In asserting that investigators were unnecessarily targeting Mr. Trump, Mr. Giuliani accused the prosecutor overseeing the Manafort investigation, Andrew Weissmann, of keeping Mr. Manafort in solitary confinement simply in the hopes of forcing him to give false testimony about the president.

 

I've seen some speculation that the special counsel actually let Manafort and his lawyers do this (while knowing that the information he was giving them was bogus) in order to see if Trump would use the same false information in his written answers to the special counsel. Time will tell if that is actually the case but the one saving grace in all of this, despite Trump's continued success in turning some public tide against the special counsel, is that Mueller and his team are far more intelligent and savvy than Trump and his team of clown lawyers.

 

An oldie but a goldie...

 

I've seen some speculation that ...

Trump asked Manafort to do a plea bargain and return back to Trump all questions asked (ie what Mueller appears to know), in exchange for a pardon.

This is definitionally ... Obstruction of Justice.

Mueller should see this coming a mile away. One would think that Manafort and Trump would be smart enough to not do something so obvious. But then again ...

 

But if it had been Hillary? "LOCK HER UP! LOCK HER UP! LOCK HER UP! LOCK HER UP!"

I recently finally read "1984" and it's even scarier than I imagined. Someone really taught Trump about the Two Minute Hate.

 

No one with the capacity for abstract thought would think either of these inveterate liars would be smart enough to not do something so obvious.

 

What is it taking Mueller all this time. I mean at this point everyone knows Trump conspired with Russia. He is shady as hell. People knew about this before they elected him. His supporters don't care. He could have killed JFK and and beat up Hookers, and his supported wouldn't care.

The only people who could do anything would be the senate and they won't do anything. To remove him from office would take 67 votes. Which is impossible.

I wish someone would just leak everything. This is just a waste of money at this point.

 

Manafort held secret talks with Assange in Ecuadorian embassy, sources say

Donald Trump’s former campaign manager Paul Manafort held secret talks with Julian Assange inside the Ecuadorian embassy in London, and visited around the time he joined Trump’s campaign, the Guardian has been told.

Sources have said Manafort went to see Assange in 2013, 2015 and in spring 2016 – during the period when he was made a key figure in Trump’s push for the White House.

In a statement, Manafort denied meeting Assange. He said: “I have never met Julian Assange or anyone connected to him. I have never been contacted by anyone connected to WikiLeaks, either directly or indirectly. I have never reached out to Assange or WikiLeaks on any matter.”

It is unclear why Manafort would have wanted to see Assange and what was discussed. But the last apparent meeting is likely to come under scrutiny and could interest Robert Mueller, the special prosecutor who is investigating alleged collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.

A well-placed source has told the Guardian that Manafort went to see Assange around March 2016. Months later WikiLeaks released a stash of Democratic emails stolen by Russian intelligence officers.

Manafort, 69, denies involvement in the hack and says the claim is “100% false”. His lawyers initially declined to answer the Guardian’s questions about the visits.

In a series of tweets WikiLeaks said Assange and Manafort had not met. Assange described the story as a hoax.

Manafort was jailed this year and was thought to have become a star cooperator in the Mueller inquiry. But on Monday Mueller said Manafort had repeatedly lied to the FBI, despite agreeing to cooperate two months ago in a plea deal. According to a court document, Manafort had committed “crimes and lies” on a “variety of subject matters”.

His defence team says he believes what he has told Mueller to be truthful and has not violated his deal.

Manafort’s first visit to the embassy took place a year after Assange sought asylum inside, two sources said.

A separate internal document written by Ecuador’s Senain intelligence agency and seen by the Guardian lists “Paul Manaford [sic]” as one of several well-known guests. It also mentions “Russians”.

According to the sources, Manafort returned to the embassy in 2015. He paid another visit in spring 2016, turning up alone, around the time Trump named him as his convention manager. The visit is tentatively dated to March.

Manafort’s 2016 visit to Assange lasted about 40 minutes, one source said, adding that the American was casually dressed when he exited the embassy, wearing sandy-coloured chinos, a cardigan and a light-coloured shirt.

Visitors normally register with embassy security guards and show their passports. Sources in Ecuador, however, say Manafort was not logged.

Embassy staff were aware only later of the potential significance of Manafort’s visit and his political role with Trump, it is understood.

The revelation could shed new light on the sequence of events in the run-up to summer 2016, when WikiLeaks published tens of thousands of emails hacked by the GRU, Russia’s military intelligence agency. Hillary Clinton has said the hack contributed to her defeat.

The previously unreported Manafort-Assange connection is likely to be of interest to Mueller, who has been investigating possible contacts between WikiLeaks and associates of Trump including the political lobbyist Roger Stone and Donald Trump Jr.

One key question is when the Trump campaign was aware of the Kremlin’s hacking operation – and what, if anything, it did to encourage it. Trump has repeatedly denied collusion.

Earlier this year Mueller indicted 12 GRU intelligence officers for carrying out the hack, which began in March 2016.

In June of that year WikiLeaks emailed the GRU via an intermediary seeking the DNC material. After failed attempts, Vladimir Putin’s spies sent the documents in mid-July to WikiLeaks as an encrypted attachment.

According to sources, Manafort’s acquaintance with Assange goes back at least five years, to late 2012 or 2013, when the American was working in Ukraine and advising its Moscow-friendly president, Viktor Yanukovych.

Why Manafort might have sought out Assange in 2013 is unclear. During this period the veteran consultant was involved in black operations against Yanukovych’s chief political rival, Yulia Tymoshenko, whom Yanukovych had jailed. Manafort ran an extensive lobbying operation featuring European former politicians.

He flew frequently from the US to Ukraine’s capital, Kiev – usually via Frankfurt but sometimes through London, flight records seen by the Guardian show.

Manafort is currently in jail in Alexandria, Virginia. In August a jury convicted him of crimes arising from his decade-long activities in Ukraine. They include large-scale money laundering and failure to pay US tax. Manafort pleaded guilty to further charges in order to avoid a second trial in Washington.

As well as accusing him of lying on Monday, the special counsel moved to set a date for Manafort to be sentenced.

One person familiar with WikiLeaks said Assange was motivated to damage the Democrats campaign because he believed a future Trump administration would be less likely to seek his extradition on possible charges of espionage. This fate had hung over Assange since 2010, when he released confidential US state department cables. It contributed to his decision to take refuge in the embassy.

According to the dossier written by the former MI6 officer Christopher Steele, Manafort was at the centre of a “well-developed conspiracy of cooperation” between the Trump campaign and Russia’s leadership. The two sides had a mutual interest in defeating Clinton, Steele wrote, whom Putin “hated and feared”.

In a memo written soon after the DNC emails were published, Steele said: “The [hacking] operation had been conducted with the full knowledge and support of Trump and senior members of his campaign team.”

As a candidate Trump warmly welcomed the dump of DNC emails by Assange. In October 2016 he declared: “I love WikiLeaks.” Trump’s comments came after WikiLeaks released a second tranche of emails seized from the email account of John Podesta, Clinton’s campaign chairman.

The Trump White House subsequently sent out mixed messages over Assange and his legal fate. In 2017 and behind the scenes Assange tried to reach a deal with Trump’s Department of Justice that might see him avoid US prison.

In May 2017, , Manafort flew to Ecuador to hold talks with the country’s president-elect Lenín Moreno. The discussions, days before Moreno was sworn in, and before Manafort was indicted – were ostensibly about a large-scale Chinese investment.

However, one source in Quito suggests that Manafort also discreetly raised Assange’s plight. Another senior foreign ministry source said he was sceptical Assange was mentioned. At the time Moreno was expected to continue support for him.

Last week a court filing released in error suggested that the US justice department had secretly charged Assange with a criminal offence. Written by the assistant US attorney, Kellen Dwyer, the document did not say what Assange had been charged with or when the alleged offence took place.

 

I think he's dotting all the 'i's and crossing all the 't's. He will get as much evidence as he possibly can to present. I think he realizes the Senate will not remove him which makes it more important to gather as much evidence as possible. There are two reasons for that.

1. In the best (but highly unlikely) case, a huge amount of irrefutable evidence will force the people in both parties of the Senate to act.
2. Ironclad evidence will expose those who choose not to take action or block action from being taken. Lay it all out there in a proper method and leave what happens up to those in charge of that part.

Leaking everything will only give credence to those who claim it is a witch hunt with a purpose for smearing Trump rather than the purpose being justice.

 

Mueller gets 1 shot at this, he can't just all willy nilly file a report that can be shot down with technicalities and other BS. He knows what he's doing, he's the best lawyer in the country. He will deliver a thorough, damning report that will hopefully be so completely and utterly damning to the point where not a single senator could mouth together some backwards logic to dispute it. He has to get ALL the facts.

To the "waste of money" point, that's unequivocally false. The government seized almost $40 mil in assets from Manafort, so this investigation has actually turned a profit.