"Special Counsel Robert Mueller asked a judge to give immunity to five people who may testify at next week’s bank-fraud trial of former Trump Campaign chairman Paul Manafort.
Mueller didn’t identify the five witnesses in a court filing Tuesday in federal court in Alexandria, Virginia. He said the five are likely to invoke their right against self-incrimination if they don’t receive immunity. "
I think thisis a pretty good analysis from GQ of “What Putin has on Trump”.
(italics in original. ETA: which you’d be sure to see if the Quote box hadn’t italicized everything for me )
I’ve gone back and forth on whether the notorious “pee tape” exists, or whether Russia has Trump by the financial balls, or a variety of other explanations. But Ioffe’s explanation strikes me as pretty persuasive. If Putin could, at his whim, destroy Trump’s legitimacy, that would be a powerful motivator for Trump to kneel before Zod in Helsinki. The simplest explanations aren’t always right, but I’m thinking it coul well be in this case.
My favorite bit: “They say these people have not been publicly named before in the case.” Hee hee. So Mueller has five or more people up his sleeve that we were totally unaware of? This is gonna be great.
Wow, I didn’t realize the trial started next week. Looks like I won’t be getting any work done the rest of the summer.
The question is whether even solid proof from Putin that thump’s victory was due to Russian interference would “destroy Trump’s [sic] legitimacy.” I read something this this morning in the Washington Post:
<shrug> She doesn’t give a fuck about legitimacy.
Hell, Putin probably should just take credit for thump’s win and maybe Congress will give him a medal and the MAGAbots can hold a rally at the nearest Wal-Mart. (After they clear out all those brown rugrats.)
At today’s press appearance, Trump had typewritten remarks. A photo of them shows that he wrote on the page, in large black marker, “THERE WAS NO COLUSION” (misspelling in original). I guess he didn’t want to forget his line.
I think its a combination. I think Putin helped Trump win with the agreement that certain financial transactions would be forgotten. With the agreement that perhaps trump could do him a ‘favor’ sometime.
Trump loved the idea of ‘absolute’ power (or so he thought) and millions in debt forgotten. That’s my theory anyway. It lines up pretty well with all the financial problems he has in the states. Claims about how much business they do with Russia (made by Don Jr. and I think Trump as well), and about those tax returns.
Mueller has petitioned for immunity for five witnesses against Manafort. The motion does not name the five people, but it sure as hell will be interesting to find out who they when his trial starts in a couple weeks. And also what the hell they need immunity for.
Isn’t the judge in the Manafort case the guy who’s known for a super-speedy process? I think I saw that he said the trial should take a week. Am I thinking of the same one?
So it could be done before the end of July. Your August will be productive (unless some other shitstorm hits).
Under the circumstances, one can hardly blame them, even if they were only witnesses to a crime, they are obliged to report the crime. Plus, they don’t know what he’s got, nobody does. Bob Mueller doesn’t play his cards close to the vest, he has them stapled to his tits.
So, my son, the Err Apparent, and his friend were over and we were talking. About how if she were in the Oval Orifice, we would probably be bitching about how her policies weren’t liberal enough. And his buddy chimes in with “Well, least we wouldn’t feel like we had to watch the news everyday!”.
You are thinking of the correct judge. Judge T. S. Ellis III of the Eastern District of Virginia.
Trial date is set for July 25th. I heard that Mueller’s team gave a trial time estimate of 3 weeks. The judge gave them 2 weeks, saying he thought the case could be tried in 1 week – so thought a 2-week time estimate was generous.
I was telling a friend the other day that when Obama was in office, unless there was some big deal thing going on, I had no idea what he was up to. I knew he was taking care of business but how he was going about it didn’t really cross my mind. Now I feel bombarded with Trump shit every single day. And I can’t escape it. It’s exhausting.
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