3/13/19: Former Trump 2016 campaign manager Paul Manafort is sentenced to an added 43 months in jail.
____________________
“If the people don’t have the facts, democracy can’t work.”
Judge
Amy Berman Jackson
____________________
This gives him a total of seven-and-a-half years to ponder his crimes, wonder what ever happened to his python skin jacket, and pray for a pardon from President Trump. (See: 3/7/19 for first sentencing.)
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Manafort's expensive python-skin jacket. |
Judge Amy Berman Jackson roasts the defendant thoroughly before handing down her decision. Manafort’s lobbying work for Russian and Ukrainian oligarchs, which he kept secret for years, “infects our policymaking [emphasis added throughout],” Jackson says. “What you were doing was lying to Congress and the American public,” she adds, noting that Manafort made a “deliberate effort to obscure the facts.”
“If the people don’t have the facts, democracy can’t work,” the judge warns; and “court is one of those places where facts still matter.”
You could take that as a veiled slap at Donald J. Trump.
Manafort tried his best to appear contrite. “I
know it was my conduct that brought me here today,” he said. “For these
mistakes, I am remorseful. I will be 70 years old in a few weeks. My wife is
66. She needs me. I need her. I ask you to think of this and our need for
each other. Please do not take us away from each other. Please let me and
my wife be together.”
Jackson was in no mood to spare the defendant, who appeared in a wheelchair, wearing a green prison jumpsuit.
She noted that one of the crimes for which he was being sentenced was witness tampering. That tampering involved a Russian, Konstantin Kilimnik. Kilimnik was under investigation by Special Counsel Robert Mueller. But he wasn’t about to stick around and take his chances in court. When last seen he was hopping a flight for Moscow, and we assume never coming back.
So, how did the president react once he heard the sentencing news? “I feel very badly for Paul Manafort,” Trump told reporters. Naturally, they asked: Had he given any thought to a pardon for the money-laundering, tax-evading, witness-tampering tool of Russian oligarchs who used to run his campaign?
Oh, no, Trump claimed. He did add, however, that Judge Jackson had found that there was no collusion with Russians involved in the Manafort case.
In reality, that was the exact opposite of what she had said. Jackson all but said Manafort’s entire defense was a flawed ploy to win the president’s heart. That is: hey, look at me! I keep my mouth shut about what I know. When the coast is clear, you slap me with a pardon.
Manafort’s lawyer exited the courtroom Wednesday and made the same claim: that Judge Jackson had found that in his client’s case it had was proven there was no collusion with Russians.
He was lying, too.
The pardon door might have slammed shut even before Trump could reach for the knob. Within minutes of Jackson’s ruling, New York State prosecutors filed 16 fresh felony charges against Manafort, which could mean ten additional years behind bars if he were convicted.
A presidential pardon would not get Trump’s old
campaign manager off the hook for state crimes.
*
“Sleep well tonight, you have friends in high places.”
BY DAY’S END we had fresh news regarding presidential pardons. Emails between Michael Cohen and lawyers for Mr. Trump had surfaced.
Before diving into this story, it helps to go back to April 9, 2018. That was the day federal law enforcement raided Cohen’s home, office and hotel suite and confiscated his electronic devices. From that moment on, it was clear authorities believed the president’s lawyer was involved in some kind of criminal enterprise. Prosecutors soon charged Mr. Cohen with eight felonies – while also listing President Trump as an unindicted coconspirator, or “Individual 1.”
Cohen had to find out. Was he going to be protected by his longtime boss and top client, now the President of the United States?
And his longtime boss had to find out. Would his
former fixer still take a bullet for
him and clamp his mouth?
What made this unlike your garden variety criminal case was the president’s ability to grant pardons for federal crimes. Cohen had to be pondering his predicament. Lawyers for Cohen had to be wondering. How could their client make it clear he’d keep quiet if a pardon were coming his way? How could Trump’s lawyers hint to Mr. Cohen that a pardon would be forthcoming, and how could they make it clear what they expected in return? There has been a good deal of arguing in recent weeks about whether Cohen asked for a pardon first, or whether the president and his lawyers were all but guaranteeing a pardon in return for sealed lips.
What is not in dispute is that the president has said he would not take pardons off the table (hint: for witnesses who protected him). That means any discussion related to pardons might devolve into classic obstruction of justice.
Initially, the president was all in on support for Cohen. Trump made this clear while speaking to reporters from the Oval Office just hours after the Cohen raids:
So I just heard that
they broke into the office of one of my personal attorneys, a good man and it’s
a disgraceful situation. It’s a total witch-hunt. I’ve been saying it for a
long time….And it’s a disgrace, it’s a real disgrace. It’s an attack on our
country in a true sense.
On April 21, 2018, Trump made it clear where he
stood regarding Mr. Cohen when he tweeted:
So, what were Trump’s defense lawyers, and Cohen and his team, discussing that very day? Recently revealed emails allow us to see.
“I just spoke to Rudy Giuliani and told him I was on your team,” Robert Costello wrote in the first email. It was one of two from Mr. Costello that popped up in Cohen’s email inbox on April 21, 2018. Costello was a longtime friend and associate of Giuliani and was serving as intermediary between the president’s old lawyer, now in serious legal jeopardy, and his new lawyer, Horndog Rudy, whose full-time job was keeping the president out of similar jeopardy. Rudy “asked me to tell you,” Costello wrote, “that he knows how tough this is on you and your family and he will make (sure) to tell the President. He said thank you for opening this back channel of communication and asked me to keep in touch.”
We don’t know if Cohen responded. But CNN has seen a second, follow-up email, later that day.
This time, Costello assured Cohen he had spoken with Giuliani and their conversation was “very very positive.” “There was never a doubt and they are in our corner,” Costello continued. “Rudy said this communication channel must be maintained. He called it crucial and noted how reassured they were that they had someone like me whom Rudy has known for so many years in this role.”
Finally, he added, “Sleep well tonight, you have friends in high places.”
So, was this a veiled hint to Cohen – keep your yap closed and you can expect a pardon? If you have an ounce of objectivity, you know it is. Costello, however, told CNN that such an interpretation was “utter nonsense.”
Well, CNN wanted to know, had a pardon been dangled in front of Cohen, or not?
Costello scoffed:
Does
dangled mean that he raised it and I mentioned it to Giuliani, and Giuliani
said the President is not going to discuss pardons with anybody? If that’s
dangling it, that’s dangling it for about 15 seconds. The first time I kind of
danced around the issue because Michael brought it up with me and I told him,
“Look, this is way too premature.... But if you want me to bring it up, I will
bring it up.” And I did.
Premature, yes.
On the table? No doubt.
CNN tracked down Giuliani for this story and inquired: What about the “friends in high places” comment?
What exactly could these friends in high places do for Mr. Cohen – and who might those friends be?
“That was about Michael Cohen thinking that the President was mad at him [Cohen],” Giuliani told CNN. “I called (Costello) to reassure him that the President was not mad. It wasn’t long after the raid and the President felt bad for him.”
Yes, the president felt bad for Cohen at the time – just like the president feels bad for Paul Manafort, as of today.
POSTSCRIPT: A fresh sign of trouble for Team Trump may have been overlooked in all the flash and bang of this week’s news.
Officials from the Department of Justice asked a judge for permission to delay turning over 302’s to General Michael Flynn’s lawyers, preparatory to final sentencing. Flynn has been cooperating for two years, but the 302’s in question (official F.B.I. documents detailing Flynn’s interviews with agents), are important in open cases. DOJ lawyers explain: “The 302s of General Flynn’s interviews relating entirely to matters other than the pending charges against the defendant contain information concerning a number of sensitive matters, including ongoing investigations.”
We already know the General fingered two other individuals who, as the DOJ officially noted, were indicted last December 17:
An indictment was unsealed today
charging Bijan Rafiekian, aka Bijan Kian, 66, of San Juan Capistrano,
California, and Kamil Ekim Alptekin, 41, of Istanbul, and a Turkish national,
with conspiracy, acting in the United States as illegal agents of the
government of Turkey, and making false statements to the FBI.
What other treasures Flynn might have revealed remain to be
seen. If the rule of law lives 
and that’s a big “if” with Trump seated in the
White House – any and all revelations will be seen.
BLOGGER’S NOTE (3/18/21): Rafiekian was convicted
by a jury, had his case thrown out by the judge, and then had it reinstated by the Fourth U.S. Circuit Court
of Appeals in March 2021.
The Justice Department explained:
According to court records and
evidence presented at trial, the scheme included using Alptekin’s Dutch shell
company to act as FIG’s “client.” FIG [Flynn International Group, run by
General Flynn] was paid $600,000 in three installments from an account in
Turkey in Alptekin’s name. After Alptekin made the payments to FIG, FIG kicked
back 20% of the payments to Alptekin’s shell company.
(As far
as this blogger can ascertain, Alptekin has remained beyond the reach of the
law, since he resides in Istanbul, Turkey.)
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