November 5, 2017: Only One GOP Candidate for President Since 1992 Likes Trump (Not Counting Trump)

 

11/5/17: Conservative friends on Facebook seem increasingly out of sorts as I continue my crusade to mock their boy Don every day, so long as he shall remain president of these United States. 

 

The political equivalent of the Bataan Death March. 

Allow me to quote a few “non-liberal” sources to bolster my point on Day 290 of the Trump presidency, a presidency which has been the political equivalent of the Bataan Death March. George H. W. Bush recently revealed he voted for Hillary. Trump is a “blowhard,” he said. George W., next in the GOP line, voted the straight Republican ticket but left a blank at the top. Mitt Romney said Trump was totally unfit for high office and you can add John McCain to the list of “Trump haters.” That means the GOP nominees for president in 1988, 1992, 2000, 2004, 2008 and 2012 are on record as objecting to this objectionable human being. John Kasich, Bob Corker, Colin Powell and Robert Mueller have all been Republicans longer than the president. None like Trump. Bob Dole, bucking the tide, praised Trump’s “strong leadership” in July. 

 

POSTSCRIPT: How is the Mueller investigation going? Sen. McCain told a reporter, “It’s like a centipede. There’s always another shoe to drop.”

Bob Dole.

January 30, 2018: Fox News Excited because Trump Uses Word "America" 82 Times in State of the Union Address

 

1/30/18: Trump supporters try out a brand-new argument in the Mueller investigation. The president should refuse to answer questions. He has absolutely nothing to hide. So why testify!

 

Chris Christie, former least-popular Governor of New Jersey ever, says Trump should button his lip. “I don’t think the President of the United States – unless there are credible allegations, which I don’t believe there are – should be sitting across from the special counsel. The presidency is different. I don’t think they should do that.”

 

Who will decide if allegations are credible?

 

Trump.

 

Meanwhile, Trump delivers his second State of the Union Address. He doesn’t insult anyone. So, it looks like a huge success. It also turns out to be the third longest in history, partly because Trump talks really slowly, so dimwitted Americans can follow his logic-no-logic speech. In eighty minutes, the president uses 5,146 words. That would be roughly 64 per minute, half normal speed.

 

Fox News is excited, however, because in his address Trump uses the word “America” 82 times.

 

I can top that right here: America, America, America, America, America, America, America, America, America, America, America, America, America, America, America, America, America, America, America, America, America, America, America, America, America, America, America, America, America, America, America, America, America, America, America, America, America, America, America, America, America, America, America, America, America, America, America, America, America, America, America, America, America, America, America, America, America, America, America, America, America, America, America, America, America, America, America, America, America, America, America, America, America, America, America, America, America, America, America, America, America, America, America. 

Why not: American. 

I win 84-82.

The blogger, right: Camp Pendleton, USMC, 1970

Trump's bone spurs hurt; the blogger enlisted in 1968.

April 26, 2018: President and EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt Both in Hot Water

 

4/26/18: In a rip-snorting, 29-minute call to Fox & Friends, Trump decides to vent about… everything. 

Part of the time he spends yelling. The rest of the time he’s sticking his foot so far down his throat, even the Three Stooges who host appear worried he’s choking.

 

____________________ 

“We’ll see you next Thursday, Mr. President.”

____________________ 

 

At one point, Trump catches a denizen of the Washington swamp in a bold-faced lie. Namely: himself. 

He says Michael Cohen did represent him in the Stormy Daniels case. He tacitly admits he must have known about the $130,000 hush money payment – because he tells the Fox crew, “And from what I’ve seen, he did absolutely nothing wrong. There were no campaign funds going into this.” (See: 3/8/18.) 

His performance is so unhinged even the Stooges become alarmed. Finally, Brian Kilmeade realizes it might be time to cut Trump off. “We’ll see you next Thursday, Mr. President,” he says. “We know you have a lot to do.” 

As for Trump, who also graded his work in office as A+ during the call, he thought the interview went well: 

Trump felt this call went great.

 

* 

APPARENTLY, THE THREE STOOGES aren’t the only ones who think Trump might be coming unglued. The Senate Judiciary Committee votes 14-7, to move forward with a bill to protect the Mueller investigation. 

Milksop Mitch says he sees no need to bring the bill to the Senate floor; but the fact four Republicans, including committee chairman Chuck Grassley, sense danger tells us much about the fear Republicans harbor regarding the nut job in the Oval Office. 

Grassley is clear about the need for protection for Mueller and any special counsels to come: 

Because special counsel investigations only occur where there is a conflict of interest within the executive branch, special counsel investigations are usually matters of great national concern. And Congress, by exercising its oversight powers, can help the American people to have confidence that these investigations are conducted efficiently and independently.

 

* 

E.P.A. ADMINISTRATOR SCOTT PRUITT, facing multiple investigations, spends the afternoon testifying in front of Congress. Did he ever think, lawmakers ask, that maybe it wasn’t a good idea to create a twenty-person security detail to protect him, at a cost to taxpayers of $3 million? Nope. His staff told him he could do it. 

Did he really need to spend taxpayer dollars to be guarded by security when he took his family on vacation to Disneyland? Pruitt never saw it as a problem. 

Was he aware that trickery had been employed to raise the salaries of two top aides? Pruitt says he knew nothing. 

Did he realize the secure phone booth he ordered for his office was going to cost $43,000? Gosh! He had no idea. 

Had he possibly noticed that one top political appointee, paid a princely salary by taxpayers, didn’t bother to come to work? 

How could Pruitt have known? If she didn’t come to the office, he couldn’t see her and didn’t know she wasn’t there. 

Besides, it wasn’t his fault. 

The aides did it. 

Meanwhile, Pruitt is preparing to submit a budget that reduces E.P.A funding by $2.58 billion, or 23 percent.

May 15, 2018: Lots of Money Laundering and Lots of Russians - Hanging with President Trump

 

5/15/18: What have we learned about the Trump administration lately? We have learned (again) that foreign policy can be a bitch. You move the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem and Palestinians blow up. 

It doesn’t help when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu makes it clear Israel always has and always will want to keep all of Jerusalem. 

Also, Israel would like to keep the West Bank for – who knows – maybe another thousand years. 

Or till the Rapture.

 

*

____________________ 

“We may be a pipsqueak nation, but we are a BIG tax haven.”

____________________ 

 

IN OTHER NEWS, Trump & Co. continue to holler about the “witch hunt.” According to Vice President Jesus, the Russian investigation has gone on long enough! Special Counsel Mueller has been at it a year. 

Since this humble blogger has a brain and can conjure up actual memories, let’s turn back in time to when conservatives loved the Benghazi investigation. That one lasted two years, four months. 

We can go back farther for perspective. Remember when the Whitewater investigation morphed into an examination of Bill Clinton’s sexual misdeeds? How long did that last? Seven years. Or: four years, one month and six days, if you count only the part after Ken Starr took over.  

Remember how Fox News stood up for the right of President Clinton not to testify under oath, how it was a “perjury trap!” 

No, you do not. 

Fox loved that investigation. Sean Hannity wishes it was still going on to this day.

Viktor Vekselberg - estimated worth $10 billion.

You can fairly argue about politics. You can’t fairly argue about the calendar. June 14 is always followed by June 15. The Mueller team continues to go about its work quietly and deliberately. Viktor Vekselberg, yet another Russian oligarch, was recently stopped at a New York-area airport and questioned about payments to Trump’s personal lawyer, Mr. Cohen. 

We know that a surprising number of Russians attended Trump’s Inauguration. Vekselberg was there. Federal campaign filings indicate two of his American partners donated $1.2 million to festivities. Russian pharmaceutical executive Alexey Repik and his wife showed up. So did Natalia Veselnitskaya and Rinat Akhmetshin, two of the Russians who participated in the secret June 2016 meeting at Trump Tower. Russian banker Alexander Torshin also showed. 

Torshin is famous for: 

A)    Joining the National Rifle Association. 

B)     Attending five N.R.A. national conventions, including the one in 2016, where he met Don Jr. 

C)    Possibly funneling money to the N.R.A. to be used in the campaign. 

D)   Reportedly holding the dual posts of banker and “godfather” of a Russian crime syndicate, and specializing in both roles as a money launderer.

 

The Mueller team has also interviewed Thomas Barrack, a close friend of the president. Barrack was chairman of the Trump Inaugural Committee. Anything interesting about Barrack? He was investigated by the Italian government. Prosecutors wanted to know about a complex scheme to funnel money through Luxembourg (motto: “We may be a pipsqueak nation, but we are a BIG tax haven.”). In the process, Italian authorities believe Barrack and his pals evaded $190 million in taxes. It might also be worth noting that Rick Gates (now cooperating with the Mueller probe) worked for Barrack up until the day he was indicted. (See: 6/29/18.)

 

BLOGGER’S NOTE (6/7/2022): In an effort to clean up my blog and make it more manageable, I edit all my posts. With very rare exceptions, they hold up well. Barrack is rich enough to stall justice; but in July 2021, along with two others, he is indicted and charged with a variety of financial misdeeds. 

On July 23, he strikes a deal and is released on bail – which is set at $250 million. 

In January 2022, a judge allows Barrack to fund the defense of Matthew Grimes, a co-defendant in the indictment, to the tune of $2 million. I think we can all agree this is nothing more than a friendly gesture – and in no way designed to ensure that Grimes doesn’t start cooperating with federal authorities.

May 30, 2018: Roseanne Barr and the President Running Neck-and-Neck for "Twitter Nut of the Year"

 

5/30/18: Today’s topic is “Nuts on Twitter.” First up, Roseanne Barr, the suddenly unemployed television star.  

Yesterday she stormed into contention, for “Twitter Nut of the Year,” with a racist tweet comparing an African American woman to a baby born from the union of a Muslim terrorist and an ape. 

____________________ 

Barr and Trump compete in a race to win “Twitter Nut of the Year.”

____________________ 

 

Until that moment, President Trump had “Twitter Nut of the Year” locked up. But a look at the body of Barr’s work marks her as a dark horse candidate to take home this year’s prize. (It’s a trophy of a golden head jammed up a golden ass.) Barr has been all over the place in the past, insulting all manner of individuals and groups. She once told an interviewer that the Pope “owns almost every dollar in the world.” She called Hillary Clinton’s aide, Huma Abedin, “a filthy Nazi whore.” As Vox noted, racist tweets have long been a staple of her feed. Barr referred to Susan Rice, an adviser to President Obama, as “a man with big swinging ape balls.” 

In the same way, there was no conspiracy theory Barr wouldn’t swallow. In March she tweeted about a survivor of the Parkland school shooting. She insisted he performed a Nazi salute during the “March for Our Lives.” Later she had to admit the image she had seen and tweeted about was doctored. Barr offered up Twitter support for Pizzagate conspiracy sites. This was cool, assuming you were a right-wing nut. It was sad if you were the dumb schmuck who believed Hillary was holding children in a pizza parlor basement as part of a child sex ring. Then you, the poor dumb schmuck, would march into said parlor, fire your assault rifle several times at a locked basement door, get arrested and be sentenced to four years in jail. 

Total children found and saved: 0. 

If you tweet your belief in imaginary child sex rings, that’s how you win “Twitter Nut of the Year.”

 

Trump, of course, is a tough Nut to beat but Barr has serious chops. She said Obama organized the Boston Marathon bombing so he could trample gun rights. At one point she called Israel “a Nazi state,” and insisted Zionism was a creation of the Third Reich. That’s like saying General Custer was plotting with the Sioux to get the Seventh Cavalry wiped out.

 

* 

OF COURSE, to become the champion you must beat the champion, and the “Twitter Nut of the Year,” three years running, 2015, 2016 and 2017, has been the President of the United States. 

Trump gets in another great shot today. With iPhone in hand, he could have tweeted something like: “Roseanne Barr’s comments are totally unacceptable in a diverse country based on the ideal that ‘all men and women are created equal.’” He could have posted: “All good people, of all races, religions and ethnic backgrounds deserve to be treated with….” 

Trump tweets instead: 

Bob Iger of ABC called Valerie Jarrett to let her know that “ABC does not tolerate comments like those” made by Roseanne Barr. Gee, he never called President Donald J. Trump to apologize for the HORRIBLE statements made and said about me on ABC. Maybe I just didn’t get the call?

 

That’s how you win the Nut Award: ignore racism and be a whiny bitch about how mean the media is to you.

 

* 

SPEAKING OF WHICH, President It’s-All-About-Me has been tweeting madly about the Mueller investigation all week. 

Last Saturday, he unleashed a flurry of Twitter yelps: 

With Spies, or “Informants” as the Democrats like to call them because it sounds less sinister (but it’s not), all over my campaign, even from a very early date, why didn’t the crooked highest levels of the FBI or ‘Justice’ contact me to tell me of the phony Russia problem?”

 

Okay. Let’s follow the president’s logic. There were “spies.” They were “all over” his campaign. 

No one warned you about the “phony Russian problem?” That would be true – unless you counted James Comey and James Clapper who spoke to him about the investigation on January 6, 2017. And you probably should count Sally Yates, who came to the White House on January 26, six days after he took the oath of office, to warn that General Michael Flynn, the man he chose as his National Security Adviser, had been lying about contacts with Russians. 

The tweet barking continued: 

Who’s going to give back the young and beautiful lives (and others) that have been devastated and destroyed by the phony Russia Collusion Witch Hunt. They journeyed down to Washington, D.C., with stars in their eyes and wanting to help our nation...They went back home in tatters! 

 

Such young lives ruined! Michael Flynn, pled guilty, age 59; Paul Manafort, indicted, but still starry-eyed at 69. 

 

Judge Napolitano blows a big hole in the “Spygate” boat. 

Unfortunately, not even some of the regulars at Fox News could support Trump’s absurd comments about spies and infiltrators swarming his campaign. Judge Andrew Napolitano, a legal expert who appears regularly, blew a big hole in Trump’s “Spygate” boat. 

Speaking with Martha MacCallum, he said: 

The allegations from Mayor Giuliani over the weekend, which would lead us to believe that the Trump people think the FBI had an undercover agent who finagled his way into Trump's campaign and was there as a spy on the campaign seem to be baseless – there is no evidence for that whatsoever.

But this other allegation with this professor (whose name we’re not supposed to mention), that is standard operating procedure in intelligence gathering and criminal investigations.

 

The professor Napolitano refers to is the single informant known to have talked to three members of the Trump campaign. (See: 5/24/18.)

 

Rep. Trey Gowdy then all but sank the Spygate boat. He is one of a handful of members of Congress who sat in on meetings with the heads of the F.B.I., Department of Justice and U.S. intelligence agencies earlier this week. This was after Trump demanded investigators provide information about all the “spies” investigating his campaign. Now Gowdy had this to say in an interview on Fox News. First, the F.B.I. routinely used informants, he pointed out: 

I am even more convinced that the FBI did exactly what my fellow citizens would want them to do when they got the information they got, and that it has nothing to do with Donald Trump…It looks to me like the FBI was doing what President Trump said: “I want you to do, find it out.” President Trump himself in the Comey memos said, “If anyone connected with my campaign was working with Russia, I want you to investigate it.”

 

Sounds to me like that was exactly what the FBI did.

 

What about the idea that Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani had been floating lately, that the president should never sit down with the Mueller team and talk? Gowdy responded, “If he were my client, I’d say if you’ve done nothing wrong, you need to sit down and tell Mueller what you know.”

June 8, 2018: Rick Gates Knows Where the Coven Meets

 

6/8/18: This is how the Russia investigation goes. Rudy Giuliani makes stupid comments on television: “The president has the power to pardon himself! He can pardon a head of lettuce!” 

Next, the president posts a stupid tweet, something like: “I can pardon anyone I want. Even witches! I am totally innocent. But even if Special Counsel Mueller has pictures of me in bed with five Russian hookers, a pair of mallard ducks, and Vladimir Putin, I have the power to pardon myself!!!” 

 

Gates knows where the coven meets. 

Special Counsel Mueller and his investigators just keep on digging. They keep building cases (we don’t know how many there will be) and keep their mouths clamped shut. 

On this fine day Mueller and his team issue two fresh indictments. Paul Manafort gets hit with another, this time for witness tampering. 

If you’re having trouble keeping track, don’t feel bad. Manafort has been charged with conspiracy to defraud the United States, money laundering, tax evasion, bank fraud and being, generally, a scumbag. 

Also indicted for the first time is Konstantin Kilimnik, Manafort’s business partner and man with ties (of course) to Russian intelligence. Manafort once referred to him as “my Russian brain.” 

Rick Gates, Manafort’s right-hand man, and a cooperating witness in the investigation, has admitted that he knew Kilimnik was linked with Russian intelligence agents. Manafort left the campaign under a cloud in August 2016; but Gates remained a member of Team Trump through Inauguration Day and beyond. 

That means if there are real witches in the White House Gates knows where the coven meets.

Rick Gates is cooperating with Mueller.

 

* 

AT THE G-7 MEETING in Canada, President Trump, who all the other leaders there can’t stand, suggests Russia should be allowed to rejoin the group. That way he’d have at least one friend. 

Trump also appears to be confused. At one point, he suggests Canada was responsible for burning the White House in 1814. As for Russia invading the Crimea in 2014, that doesn’t bother him one bit.

Trump does ♥Putin.

 

Ohio Governor John Kasich, a Republican, issues this statement: 

Russia was kicked out of the G-8 because of its invasion and annexation of Crimea. Since that time, Moscow has encouraged and directed a separatist insurgency in Eastern Ukraine, intervened in support Syria’s murderous dictator and the war crimes that he has perpetrated, interfered in the U.S. presidential election, waged an information war to undermine Western democracies, attempted to assassinate opponents on the sovereign territory of our allies, and made common cause with China to undermine the post-WWII international security system and the democratic values embedded in it.

 

…President Trump’s idea of renewing Russian membership in the G-7/G-8 does not protect or defend the national security interests [emphasis added] of the United States or our allies.

 

Ohio Sen. Rob Portman, also a Republican, says in a statement of his own, “Russia shouldn’t be let back into the G-8 until it changes the behavior that caused it to be expelled in the first place.”

 

* 

BACK IN WASHINGTON D.C., Sierra Club leaders file a Freedom of Information Act request. Then they start digging through E.P.A. records. It doesn’t take long to learn that E.P.A. Administrator Pruitt allowed a Dallas businessman to select the head of the E.P.A.’s influential Science Advisory Board. 

That businessman, Doug Deason, and his dad, Darwin Deason, donated $900,000 to GOP candidates and Trump’s 2016 election. Now the head of the Science Advisory Board will review regulations that can impact Deason’s business. 

Pruitt has also removed pesky scientists, with their ridiculous focus on clean air and water, from several advisory boards. To fill their seats, he allowed coal and gas industry executives to suggest replacements. Now the people who bring you giant oil spills, blow up towns like West, Texas and cause hundreds of fracking-related earthquakes in Oklahoma, will be advising the E.P.A. on clean water and clean air and how to make sure dangerous chemicals don’t end up… 

Oh, forget it. This is Scott Pruitt. 

He doesn’t care any more about clean air and water than Trump cares about eating healthy and regular exercise.

August 18, 2018: White House Counsel Don McGahn Cooperating with Mueller Investigation

 

8/18/18: The New York Times reports that White House Counsel Don McGahn has been cooperating with the Mueller investigation. Sources say McGahn has met with investigators on three occasions and answered questions for 30 hours. 

The Times writes that McGahn and his lawyer, William A. Burck, grew concerned when Trump and his lawyers at the time, John Dowd and Ty Cobb (there are a lot of lawyers in this story, so pay attention), allowed McGahn to speak to investigators without claiming executive privilege. Burck and his client “feared Mr. Trump was setting Mr. McGahn up to take the blame” for trying to fire Special Counsel Robert Mueller “…so [they] devised their own strategy to do as much as possible to cooperate with Mr. Mueller and to demonstrate that Mr. McGahn did nothing wrong.” 

 

“A couple documents locked in a safe.” 

To understand McGahn’s concern we need to go back nearly a year. On a crisp autumn day last September, Dowd and Cobb were overheard conversing over lunch at a fine outdoor dining facility in the nation’s capital. That establishment happened to be located next door to the D.C. offices of The New York Times. Ken Vogel, a new reporter, was seated close enough to hear. 

Cobb was warning about a White House lawyer he considered “a McGahn spy.” McGahn, he told Dowd, had “a couple documents locked in a safe” that he’d really like to get his mitts on. 

When that story leaked, McGahn is said to have decided it was time to go talk to Robert Mueller. 

McGahn has told people close to him he’s anxious to “avoid the fate of the White House counsel for President Richard M. Nixon, John Dean, who was imprisoned in the Watergate scandal.”

John Dean testified before Congress during the Watergate hearings in 1973.

President Trump is trying to make sure Don McGahn never has the same kind of chance.

September 20, 2018: Michael Cohen May Spill Trump's Beans

 

9/20/18: ABC News reports that Michael Cohen is talking to Mueller’s team. The president’s former personal lawyer has had “multiple interview sessions lasting for hours.” Those interviews have been held in both Washington D.C. and New York City, where Cohen has spoken to prosecutors from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Southern District of New York. 

Topics of interest include: 

Trump’s dealings with Russia – including financial and business ties (possible crime: money laundering) 

Collusion with Russians during the 2016 campaign (legally speaking: possible conspiracy) 

Any pardon offers Cohen might have received (i.e. obstruction of justice; witness-tampering) 

The inner workings of the Trump family charity and Trump Organization, where Cohen served as executive vice president for ten years (tax fraud) 

 

We can also assume investigators will ask Cohen: 

Did you travel to Prague in early 2016 and meet with Russians about covering up payments to hackers who were going after Clinton’s emails? (conspiracy) 

Who knew about the secret June 9, 2016, meeting with Russians? Was there another meeting, three days earlier, to strategize? (perjury; obstruction of justice) 

Did Trump pay hush money settlements to other than the two women already known, and the doorman, during the campaign? (campaign finance violations) 

What light can you shed on Donald J. Trump’s taxes? (tax evasion) 

As a businessman, is Trump a crook? (everything)

May 21, 2019: "Is This the Beginning of the End?"

 

5/21/19: Tuesday is a busy day for lawyers, as former White House Chief Counsel Don McGahn, bowing to presidential orders, refuses to appear for testimony before the House Judiciary Committee. Normally, communications between a president and aides are privileged. 

That is, they are not subject to review. 

McGahn has already talked at length with investigators, and his comments, outlined in the Mueller Report, hint strongly at obstruction of justice by the president. His previous testimony, when the White House waived privilege, may make it hard in court to claim privilege now. 

In any case, aides have often appeared before Congress and claimed “executive privilege” in declining to answer specific questions. 

It is unlikely that an aide can just blow off an appearance entirely. The courts will now have to decide.

 

Meanwhile, fresh subpoenas go out for Hope Hicks, one of Trump’s favorite aides, and a young woman who may very well have aided in obstruction of justice. Since her alleged involvement in obstruction predates Trump’s election, her testimony will almost surely be required. 

Also served a subpoena: Annie Donaldson, former White House Deputy Counsel and top associate of Mr. McGahn. She took daily notes of discussions involving the president, herself, and McGahn. 

Donaldson’s notes are often cryptic, as we learn if we read the Mueller Report. But when Trump rages about firing F.B.I. Director James Comey – because of the Russia investigation – she writes, “Is this the beginning of the end?”

Hope Hicks looking at a subpoena.

 

The evidence for obstruction of justice by the President of the United States continues to build. (See: 5/17/19.)

June 22, 2019: Text Messages between Sean Hannity and Paul Manafort Point to Plan to Obstruct Justice

 

Sean Hannity speaks at Trump rally.
Behind the scenes he hints at a pardon for a key witness.

 

6/22/19: President Trump would like us to believe that the Mueller Report clears his name and nothing sneaky, involving multiple Russians, followed by repeated attempts to obstruct justice, occurred. 

 

____________________ 

Manafort would have been the critical witness. Keeping him quiet was paramount.

____________________ 

 

It turns out another big name on the right was doing his part to thwart investigators. Namely, that pompous, fake-patriot windbag, Sean Hannity. 

It is well known that Hannity and Trump talk nightly, just before the president shuffles off to bed. That made the Fox News commentator the perfect go-between when Trump wanted to get a message to Paul Manafort, when Manafort was in the crosshairs of federal authorities. 

As the Mueller Report makes clear, Manafort would have been the critical witness if he revealed all he knew. 

Keeping him quite was paramount. 

U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson has ordered release of 56 pages of text messages that passed between the two men. What we quickly learn is that Hannity had repeatedly made it clear to Manafort that he had a very good friend in the White House. 

 

A sampling of their messages, with editorial comment:

 

8/9/17 

Hannity: Please know you are in my prayers. 

Manafort: Thank you. I need them. I feel so violated. 

Blogger: Manafort’s home has just been raided. Those dirty rats from the F.B.I.! Just because they have evidence to indicate Manafort might have been working with Russian agents during the 2016 campaign.

 

8/11/17 

Hannity: I am truly frightened the constitution is being shredded, (no 4 th Amendment protections) no equal justice under the law. I am truly frightened for the future of this country we love. God help us and the world if we don’t get this straightened out. I pray that God give you grace and peace in this difficult moment. I sadly know from experience that in times like these friends will abandon you… 

If you just ever want to talk, grab dinner, vent, strategize—whatever, I am here. I know this is very hard. Stand tall and strong. 

Blogger: Hannity is on his side. And he won’t abandon him. And if Hannity is on his side, it is implied that the president is on his side. Let’s “strategize.” Maybe we can obstruct justice. That would be cool.

 

Manafort: I appreciate what you tried to do [on your show]. Mueller is trying to intimidate me. The raid is just one example. I won’t let him succeed but it is very lonely fighting this fight. I feel all alone out there. Except for you and a few others, our side is not engaged. 

Blogger: Can you help me? Can you make sure the president is thinking about ways to save my money-laundering, tax-cheating, witness-tampering ass?

 

Hannity: Call me, text me, email me. Let’s eat talk and anything I can do to help [emphasis added, unless otherwise noted]… I’m not a fair weather friend. 

Blogger: Hannity want’s Manafort to know. He speaks for Trump. He’s in Manafort’s corner.

 

Hannity: Paul, like u, I don’t give a shit about me. I do care about this amazing country that is soooo sooo off course and experience real corruption. And I’m gonna fight for the country I love...Then poor Gen Flynn. What they did to HIM WAS ILLEGAL. 

Blogger: Flynn has been fired for lying to Vice President Pence. Hannity and Manafort are texting at 3 a.m.

 

Hannity: I made more this year than my mom, dad and all their brothers and sisters and my grandparents made combined in their lifetimes. 

Manafort: Your life story, and mine, are the reasons this country was created. 

Blogger: Manafort has been working for pro-Russian Ukrainian oligarchs for a decade. His main guy eventually flees to Russian after the Ukrainian people revolt in protest against massive corruption. Manafort has millions hidden in offshore bank accounts in Cyprus. He’s a tax cheat. 

That’s not why this country was created. 

Several weeks elapse. The “friends” don’t text again till late September.

 

9/26/17 

Hannity: “How are u holding up?” 

Blogger: Hannity wants to remind Manafort, hey, we’re still thinking about you. A pardon might be nice in the end.

 

10/25/17 

Manafort: Thank you for fighting for our country. 

Hannity: I’m sick of these lies. COME ON WITH ME WITH YOUR ATTY BEFORE THEY TRY AND ATTACK U MORE 

Blogger: Hannity wants Manafort to come on his show and he’ll help spread the Manafort version of the truth. 

Hannity really likes this guy who has been a tool of Russian-leaning Ukrainian oligarchs. Manafort was also a founder of a lobbying group that promised to burnish the image of various tyrants and authoritarian governments. He and partner Roger Stone, who also worked for Trump in 2016, acquired a reputation for amorality and questionable ethics. In 1992, The Center for Public Integrity, reporting on their work, listed Manafort and Stone’s group as one of the top five comprising “The Torturers’ Lobby.” 

Manafort and Stone’s firm made at least $3.3 million representing the kinds of governments who torture and kill their own citizens.

 

10/30/17 

Hannity: Hey You OK? 

Manafort: Yes. Rough day but yes. Their [federal prosecutors] case is totally BS. Wrong on law and wrong on facts. 

Blogger: We learn soon the case is strong, the evidence voluminous. Manafort’s own tax accountant will testify against him.

 

11/8/17 

Manafort: I am dealing with this gag order on me and my lawyers. Building a plan B. 

Hannity: Ok. Can we talk tonight? 

Blogger: Hannity seems to be suggesting that the defendant simply ignores the gag order.

 

11/14/17 

Manafort: They are still f’ing with me on bail. Getting close [to being able to come on Hannity’s show]. Once dine then we need to sit and build a plan…Hopefully Sessions moves on new Spec Pros 

Hannity: He has to [do?] it [or?] he is gone…Talked to a friend. 

Blogger: Hang on. The president is going to fire Attorney General Sessions. A new AG will get rid of Robert Mueller. Hold on, Paul, we’re going to rescue your ass. Everyone at Fox News will later argue that Trump never wanted to fire Mueller – which would have been clear evidence that he planned to obstruct justice. 

Here, Hannity seems to know that Trump plans exactly that. 

Manafort: Fingers crossed you are right.

 

11/28/17 

Hannity: Hope you had a great thanksgiving 

Blogger: Hannity is saying, “I am really spending a lot of time caring about you, even though the free press has revealed your meeting with Russian agents in Trump Tower.” 

(It will later be proven that Manafort met secretly with a Russian agent in August 2016, as well.)

 

Manafort: I did. Spent it with my family and my 3 month old grandson…Hope you had a good one. 

Manafort: But I cannot allow them to win. It would empower them to go after DT [Trump] and lots of others. 

Blogger: “I need help,” Manafort means. I have damaging information. I could tell investigators that Trump knew about both my secret meetings with Russians.

 

Hannity: The country can’t allow it. 

Manafort: Plus i plan on helping on the re elect! 

Blogger: Manafort is currently serving seven years in prison. He won’t be out in time to work on the 2020 campaign. 

Or the 2024 campaign, probably.

 

12/7/17 

Manafort: Your monologue was the best summary ever of the case against Mueller and his team 

Hannity: F him 

Blogger: Yeah, “F him.” All Mueller ever did was head the F.B.I. for years and build a reputation for integrity. Also: Mueller is a decorated war hero who was wounded in Vietnam. But Fake-Patriot Sean loves Paul! 

Neither he nor Manafort served this country in uniform.

 

12/25/17 

Hannity: My brother, thinking about you. Merry Christmas and 2018 is the year of exposing the TRUTH!!! 

Manafort: Sean, your ears must have been burning. Just told my relatives who you will not give up ever! Merry Christmas to you and your family. Paul 

Blogger: Trump and Hannity are thinking about Paul. They should have sent him a present. A nice Christmas sweater maybe, the kind that lights up.

 

1/3/18 

Manafort: I told my lawyer that i want him to find a way to give you an interview on this complaint [one of numerous legal moves in the case]. He will need to navigate carefully re not violating the gag order in the criminal case, but i think we can figure that out. He said he will give me a sense tomorrow of how we can do it. 

Hannity: We can tape it. 

Blogger: Anything for you, brother, Hannity agrees. We are on the same side, protecting you…and protecting the president.

 

1/17/18 

Manafort: You were awesome last night.

 

1/24/18 

Manafort: In a fair world you would get a Pulitzer for your incredible reporting. 

Hannity: LOL. I’ll take those assholes going to jail.

 

1/25/18 

Manafort: They [the Mueller team] are running out of time…and have nothing but BS charges on me. They are threatening me with more charges because they realize their case is weak and I am not bending to their pressure. JK threats [threats to indict Jared Kushner] may be another way they are trying to get DT to agree to interview. 

Hannity: He won’t agree. The lawyers will fight tooth and nail. 

Blogger: Trump’s guilty. He can’t testify under oath because he’ll lie so many times, even a crack team of investigators will have a hard time keeping track. You’re guilty, too. We both know it; but we will stymie these guys together. Sean and Paul! Like Batman and Robin, only committing crimes, not stopping them.

 

Hannity: Weissmann [Andrew; one of Mueller’s investigators] is a piece of shit…This is a National fing disgrace. 

Blogger: Sure. Pursuing a tax cheat. What an “fing disgrace.”

 

1/26/18 

Manafort: Great show tonight. This story on Trump wanting to fire Mueller is another OSC [Office of Special Counsel] leak – which is illegal. 

Blogger: The president later denies he ever told the White House Chief Counsel Don McGahn to fire Mueller. McGahn says he did. Someone is lying. 

(It’s Trump.)

 

2/3/2018 

Manafort: …Thank you and God bless you for what you just said about Flynn and me. 

Hannity: Later [on the show] I say charges need to be dropped. 

Manafort: I know they are scared because they have been pressing me and I told them to fuck off. 

Hannity: I’m in campaign war mode every day…I am disgusted at this corruption. It should not happen in the USA I can tell u POTUS is disgusted too 

Blogger: Hint, hint, hint: Trump is on your side, Paul.

 

Manafort: I live in a nightmare every day…But I won’t give in 

Hannity: Flynn agreed to “lying” because they said they would go after his son. 

Blogger: Flynn absolutely lied to Vice President Pence; he also took $530,000 from Turkish interests while working on Trump’s 2016 campaign, which would be an absolute conflict of interest. 

Hannity doesn’t care.

 

2/22/18 

Manafort: The SP [Special Prosecutor] just filed more charges against me. They are BS but it is still depressing…Taxes and bank fraud. Honestly, it’s pure intimidation …[Rick] Gates new lawyer is going to be fine. Gates is in for ling haul 

Hannity: Nobody has any idea what this guy is up to. I keep warning everyone 

Manafort: Gates is totalky united with trump and m 

Hannity: They want Trump BADLY 

Manafort: Yes and they are pummeling me to cave These charges are so crazy. They are meant to destroy me 

Blogger: Gates, Manafort’s business partner for years, cuts a deal and pleads guilty. He later testifies that he and Manafort both knew they were communicating with Russian agents during the 2016 campaign.

 

3/7/18 

Hannity: We r all on the same team [he has just mentioned Roger Stone in another text] 

Manafort: And we will prevail 

Blogger: The message for Manafort: Keep lying, we are Team Liars, you, Stone, the president, and me. I will lie to my viewers. I will tell them I love America when I’m essentially conspiring with felons.

 

3/14/18 

Hannity: Why don’t u get a sweetheart deal like Gates 

Manafort: They would want me to give up Dt [Trump] or family, esp. JK [Kushner]. I would never do that. 

Blogger: Paul to Sean: Tell Trump when you call him tonight. I really need a pardon. Or: I might have to cut a deal.

 

3/23/18 

Manafort: Ok Call me on 917-562-0567

 

4/10/18 

Hannity: Time to say F u and go to war. 

Manafort: Yes 

Hannity: They will get Jared…And try to get Potus to explode…Maximum damage to country. Deep state wins 

Manafort: Sessions is totally worthless…By the way, [Judge Amy Berman] Jackson denied me bail today. Declared most of my hard assets couldn’t be used, all on BS reasons…So I may be stuck if I can’t find 2.5 m. 

Hannity: It’s horrible. Michael [Cohen] is a total mess. 

Manafort: These guys started with me, but Cohen isn’t the end. They are fascists. And true criminals. Sessions needs some balls. 

Blogger: Trump fires Sessions the day after the midterm elections in November. He’s angry because Sessions hasn’t “protected” him. Cohen pleads guilty to eight felonies and says Trump ordered him to commit two.

 

5/4/18: 

Manafort: It was a big day. This judge really came down hard on all the key points on illegal delegation [a judge has expressed concern that the case being built against Manafort is really being built to get at the president], anti DT motives, improper over reach. If he rules correctly everyone benefits from me to DT to JK et all. 

Hannity: Massive. Tune into radio now 

Manafort: Next week I do my motion to tgrow out gag order as violation if my 1^st amend rights. I will win it. Then you are the first appearance I do 

Hannity: I am told DT is pumped 

Manafort: Do you think you can use today to give my defense fund a promote? 

Blogger: Paul really needs cash, or he might have to talk. Trump is pumped because he thinks he might get away with lies and obstruction.

 

5/7/18 

Manafort: S I have a favor to ask. I am going live with both a GoFundMe and Facebook defense fund sight tonight around 7:00pm. Do you think you can do a tweet or a like to the site? 

Hannity: Paul it would be problematic with Fox. I need to get the ok. Hope u understand. 

Blogger: Even Fox News has ethical standards. Hannity has none.

 

5/18/19: 

Hannity: Brought up your case with Rudy [Giuliani] 

Manafort: Rudy seems to get it 

Blogger: Sean wants Manafort to know Trump’s newest lawyer is on his side. Remember, keep your mouth shut if you want a pardon.

 

6/5/18 

Manafort: S I know you know this but for the record: This Mueller claim of jury tampering is a total lie. It is the latest squeeze. Just wanted you to hear it from me. 

Hannity: Ok. Got it. Understand. These real crimes committed and ignored disgust me. Fisa HRC [Hannity believes Hillary Rodham Clinton is a criminal; and the FISA courts were wrong to allow an investigation into conduct by several members of the Trump 2016 campaign.] 

Blogger: On August 8, 2018, a jury finds Manafort guilt on eight felony counts. A lone juror hangs the jury, 11-1 for conviction, on ten more. 

In September, Manafort pleads “guilty to one count of conspiracy to obstruct justice and one count of conspiracy against the U.S.” That gives him ten felonies. He agrees to a plea deal and admits that the other ten felony counts (which resulted in a hung jury) were correct. He says he will cooperate with the Mueller team. 

In November, Mueller accuses Manafort of breaching the plea deal and adds a charge of witness tampering. 

On February 13, 2019, Judge Amy Berman Jackson rules that Manafort did indeed violate his plea agreement. First, he lied about, “interactions with the former Russian intelligence operative Konstantin Kilimnik and Kilimnik’s role in the alleged conspiracy to obstruct justice by trying to influence the testimony of two witnesses in February.” Second, he withheld information that was “pertinent to another Department of Justice investigation.” 

The bromance comes to an end, at least in traceable form. Hannity may have been spooked after Manafort was convicted. 

As far as we know, all text messages cease. 

Kilimnik is charged with felonies of his own – but he evades arrest and absconds to…Russia. Same with the Russian lawyer who met with Manafort, Donald Trump Jr. and Jared Kushner in June 2016 at Trump Tower. 

That lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskaya, also flees to Russia to avoid arrest.

 

BLOGGER’S NOTE: On his way out the door, in the wake of defeat in the November 2020 election, President Trump grants Manafort the pardon that Hannity had hinted repeatedly would be his if he refused to spill the beans.