I don’t think it’s Trump’s people that Manafort is worried about. It’s the polonium-tipped umbrella crowd that may be keeping him awake.
Yes, that was my assumption (that it’s Putin’s wrath that Manafort fears, rather than Trump’s). Guess I should have been more explicit.
Trump is vindictive, but so far there haven’t been hints that he’s actually authorized violence against anyone–and if he did have a history of such, hints about it (at the very least) would have come out by now.
Of course we don’t know what Trump might be driven to as his brain continues to deteriorate and his situation continues to worsen.
In any case, Manafort, given his long history with Putin’s pals, would know that fear for his family’s safety was not at all misplaced.
I’m less concerned about a polonium scenario against Manafort than others here. I can’t think of many other things Putin could do to ensure that even Republicans would sanction him within an inch of his life than attack an American citizen on American soil in such a way that can be traced back to Russia with immense certainty. That’s the last thing Putin wants.
Remember, even Republicans voted nearly unanimously to impose sanctions against Russia for their election interference in 2016. Republicans pretend to not understand what happened, but they know full well. If Dems have more control after the mid-terms, their response to such an overt act would likely be even more drastic.
Putin has been and remains in a quite precarious position in his own country. It has only been his ability to keep control over his oligarchs that allows him to remain in power. If Putin provokes sanctions that are even more stringent against Russian oligarchs, that puts him in far more peril at home than he’s already in.
As an aside, the specificity in Mueller’s indictment against the 13 Russians was a warning to Putin to stay the hell out of our electoral processes, because we will know if he interferes. If we know, we will respond with more sanctions. I believe Mueller has done more to protect the integrity of our elections than Trump and/or Republicans ever will – at least until after 2020. Putin is substantially standing down in 2018 because of this. Trump hasn’t really worked out as well as he’d hoped, and I don’t think he’s nearly as invested in 2018. Putin plays a long game and he is safer to sit this one out.
Today I am far more upset about Trump’s declassification of selected pages of Carter Page’s FISA warrant application. He’s tearing apart a confidential process for political gain that will potentially endanger sources and methods, as well as chill future cooperation of such sources far into the future. It’s utterly despicable – ergo, utterly predictable by this “administration” and its henchmen in the House.
Manafort’s flip is wonderful news with respect to advancing Mueller’s investigation. There are good reasons why Mueller chose to hang onto Manafort and pressured him so relentlessly to flip, boxing him in with his own criminal conduct until he had no other reasonable choice. Trump knows those reasons, and he is terrified of them.
Shitting bricks takes much serious concentration, probably distracting him from tweeting about it.
Good points about Putin not wanting to be credibly connected with any attack on Manafort or Manafort’s family.
(Though that doesn’t guarantee safety from attacks that could not credibly be traced to Putin. Putin wanted to be given credit for the Salisbury attack, so a substance that had his virtual signature was used. There are other ways of killing, however, that would not scream ‘Putin.’ Manafort knows this.)
As for Trump’s silence: odds are that Ivanka actually got through to him that the danger to the family is great.
Trump may believe on one level that he can fix anything, but on another level he has to know, by now, that his one skill—causing an uproar—is not the right solution to this situation.
Sure, there is the ever-popular exploding car, or a sniper or an accidental fall out of a window or or or… 
Honestly, though, I imagine Putin and the GRU will be closely examined if anything ever happens to Manafort and/or his family. I’m not saying it won’t. But a response by the US will be far more destructive to Putin than anything the UK can do. No offense to the UK, but US/Russia relations have more effect on Russia.
You’re probably right about Ivanka. It won’t last, though. He just can’t help himself.
Which is exactly why he is so dangerous to our national interests. There is nothing he won’t do to protect himself. Paraphrasing a familiar Republican pundit (can’t recall his name) last night on The Circus, the past two years may come to be known as The Calm Years. And it scared the shit out of him (me, too).
Trump is selectively declassifying and releasing materialinvolved in the investigation into his campaign.
I wonder what that’s supposed to do to help him?
The same morons who thought releasing the Nunes memo would fully exonerate Dumb Donald will also buy whatever he says about what’s to be released.
Operation Candor, the Reboot.
obviously cherry picking things out of context and not releasing what makes him look bad.
Christ, it’s as stupid as he thought firing Comney would win over everyone who thought Comney put his finger on the scale against Hillary. The two wrongs make a white argument. Or to be clear, I thought Comney clearly put his finger on the scale, and I still wanted him and the FBI to investigate Russian election interference. Those are not diametrically opposed thoughts.
It’s an opportunity to create ‘noise’ before the election and further weaken the credibility of the investigation. Even if it doesn’t actually change public opinion about the credibility of the investigation, the political noise it generates could be used to energize his supporters and confuse everyone else.
More ominously, though, such a move could also be viewed as an intimidation tactic. Investigators and intelligence officials now know that Trump will release any information for his own benefit, regardless of how sensitive it might be. So now intelligence officials in the military and in law enforcement now have to take that into consideration. It’s going to be harder to find foreign intelligence agents willing to work with the United States. Terrorists and other nation-state actors with designs on harming the United States won bigly today.
I mean this seriously - do any rational people still believe anything that comes out of this administration? My response to anything released is to wonder what the truth is. I just assume anything that is not a bold faced lie was taken out of context, and that surprisingly little is taken out of context.
It depends on what you define as ‘rational’ and how you define ‘truth’.
Fools get to vote, too.
It lets him, and the Foxbots, claim he’s released everything and it proves there was No Collusion.
Its a “Hail, Murray” pass. So, they got that part wrong, too.
Schiff claims that Rosenstein and Wray have told him that releasing this information is“a red line that must not be crossed as they may compromise sources and methods.”
That said, apparently the administration was unaware that in order for this to happen, they have to actually fill out some paperwork or something, as they did nothing other than release a statement.[URL=“Trump Has Ordered The Declassification Of Documents Related To The Russia Investigation”]
"*Asked for the actual presidential directive or directives referenced in her statement, Sanders told BuzzFeed News, “There isn’t anything else, just the statement.”
Despite the lack of any formal directive, a Justice Department spokesperson said Monday evening that government agencies were reviewing the documents for release but did not say when that process would be completed. It was not clear if portions of the documents might still be withheld.
*"
“A direct order from the President to declassify something doesn’t trigger a declassification review, because it doesn’t give the agency any authority to not declassify anything, even ‘to ensure the safety of America’s national security interests.’ It would be an order to declassify, not an order to review,” Kel McClanahan, executive director of National Security Counselors, wrote. “In essence, DOJ is treating this as a Mandatory Declassification Review request, which anyone in the country can make.”
Isn’t that where some brainiac puts us all in a bottle?
Too true. I put him in the same category as your typical internet bully, all bluster, no balls even by proxy. What I’m worried about is one of his [del]deplorables[/del] followers doing something on his own like that doofus who self-investigated pizzagate.
Can’t you see one of them putting a couple rounds into Mexico’s ambassador?