September 15, 2018: If Manafort Breaks Trump Is Toast

 

9/15/18: The president wakes to grim reality Saturday. Hurricane Paul is bearing down on Washington D.C. 

 

As innocent as O.J. Simpson in a cutlery factory. 

Friday, with Hurricane Florence lashing the Carolinas, and Trump angrily tweeting about Barack Obama’s twenty-four second slip of the tongue in 2008, Cat 3 winds battered the White House. 

Paul Manafort, a man the president insisted would never “break,” a “brave man,” with a “wonderful family,” finally succumbed. 

For over a year, Manafort insisted that he was as innocent as O.J. Simpson in a cutlery factory. Then a Virginia jury convicted him on eight felony counts. Having been lodged in jail since June 16 (after a judge ruled him a serious flight risk), Manafort, 69, was staring harsh reality between the eyes. If he went to trial again, on a fresh battery of charges, and lost again, he was never going to live in a penthouse bought with laundered Russian money again. 

For three long months, Manafort pined for a pardon from the president. President Twitter Thumbs was busy. Besides, if the president awarded him a pardon before the midterms it would look, even to many Trump fans, as if Donald had something to hide. 

So, the “good man” broke.

Manafort would be one slice, Cohen another.

 

Manafort, who ran the Trump 2016 campaign for several critical months, copped to another pair of felonies, catapulting himself into the lead among Trump campaign operatives with a total of ten. Under a general charge of “conspiracy,” he admitted in court on Friday that ten more felony counts with which he had previously been charged – yeah – he also committed those. 

A jury in his first trial had deadlocked 11-1 for conviction on those charges. But that had been enough of a hook for the president to hang his hat upon. “A large number of counts, ten, could not even be decided in the Paul Manafort case,” Trump noted on August 22. That could mean only one thing: “Witch Hunt!” he added. 

Now even that consolation was gone. 

 

Trump knows Manafort knows. 

Hurricane Paul began gaining strength. What might have been a Category 1 storm a month ago is now a Cat 3. Manafort agreed to a plea deal which requires him to cooperate “fully, truthfully, completely and forthrightly…in any and all matters” with the Russia investigation. 

So, what would bother the totally innocent, orange-colored man in the White House on a fine September morn? What kept the president tossing and turning and tangling his sheets last night? First, Trump understands that Manafort attended a June 2016 meeting when agents of the Russian government offered campaign dirt on Hillary Clinton. Second, Trump knows Manafort knows if he approved the meeting beforehand or received a briefing after it was over. 

Don Jr. and Dad for sure, and former White House Babe Hicks, have already lied about what went on behind Trump Tower’s closed doors. Immediately after the meeting ended, Don Jr. made an 11-minute call to a blocked number. He forgets who he called. But Don Jr. and Dad must know by now, how thorough the Mueller investigators have been. They have to think that Mueller has Don Jr.’s phone records. 

Now the witch hunters have a witch from that meeting who is willing to reveal a few of the spells.

 

Trump knows plenty for once because this is a subject he cares about – namely himself. He knows the door to a useful pardon, one that shuts Manafort up, is closing. Several charges to which Manafort has pled could, if he were pardoned on federal charges, be revived in state courts. Trump knows Manafort knows he’s going to spend a long time in jail. The question is how long. Three years? Ten? Or the rest of his life? Trump knows Manafort agreed to work for his campaign for free. He can only hope his fans don’t realize how bizarre this was, since Manafort was dealing with spiraling debts at the time. Trump knows that Manafort offered to provide “private briefings” to a Russian oligarch, Oleg Deripaska, during the 2016 campaign.

____________________ 

“I don’t separate myself from the state. I have no other interests.” 

Oleg Deripaska

____________________ 

 

For purposes of discussion let’s point out that Deripaska is a bosom buddy of Vladimir Putin and himself under sanction by the U.S. government. Why? Deripaska is a money-laundering outlaw. He has ties to the Russian mob and may be complicit in at least one murder. Deripaska once told a reporter that he understood he controlled the aluminum business in Russia only so long as Putin allowed it. “If the state says we need to give it up, we’ll give it up,” the billionaire said. “I don’t separate myself from the state. I have no other interests.” 

How close was Manafort to Deripaska? Close enough to do the oligarch’s bidding for years, to get a $10 million annual contract, and to put in place a secret plan “to greatly benefit the Putin government.” Close enough – and shady enough – to fall millions of dollars into debt to Deripaska. Close enough, once he took over the Trump campaign, to see a way forward, to get out of that debt and maybe cash in big. 

We already know Manafort was cooking up some get-rich-quick scheme with a Russian friend, Konstantin Kilimnik. “I assume you have shown our friends my media coverage, right?” Manafort emailed him that summer. 

“Absolutely,” replied Kilimnik. “Every article.” So, the Russians knew they had an ally inside the Trump camp.

 

Trump now knows that the courts can seize assets if those assets were obtained through illegal means. Manafort has, agreed to forfeit three houses and two apartments, one in Trump Tower. He must also cough up funds he had hidden in several secret bank accounts, investment funds, and even a life insurance policy. His five properties alone are worth an estimated $22 million. 

So, if nothing else, Old Twitter Thumbs can stop tweeting about how much money the Mueller investigation is costing taxpayers. As recently as June 18, Trump said the “scam investigation” had cost $17 million. Now, Mueller’s team has paid all its bills and they’re in the black. 

 

Was the pardon offer an attempt to obstruct justice? 

Finally, due to climate change in Washington, conditions are ripe, and Hurricane Paul may strengthen to a Category 5. This past March, The New York Times reported that John Dowd, then the president’s lawyer, had floated the idea of presidential pardons in front of lawyers for Manafort and another confessed witch, former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn. 

Trump and Trump fans might call it “Fake News,” but Manafort and Flynn are in perfect position to tell the truth. 

Was this offer really an attempt to obstruct justice? 

The president tossed and turned Friday night, into Saturday morning, because he heard Manafort’s legal team had already made two “proffers” to Special Counsel Mueller. That means they have twice approached investigators with proposed offers: “Here is what our client knows and what he is willing to say.” 

So, Trump knows Manafort has something of value he’d like to share, and Mueller wants him to share it.

 

* 

MICHAEL COHEN, Trump’s former personal lawyer, has also reportedly been in talks with the Special Counsel. According to one reporter, Cohen has expressed a desire to “be on the right side of history.” 

More bad news for Trump.

BLOGGER’S NOTE (5/30/22): If you would liked to see how seriously Trump took the threat of Manafort talking, consider text messages sent from Sean Hannity to Manafort over the course of several months, when it seemed he might break in the face of a long prison sentence. 

If you don’t think Hannity is almost promising a pardon – without saying so, which would be a felony – you probably need reading glasses. (See: 6/22/19.)