And no matter what the moron in the Oval Office tweets to his supporters, no one is trying to charge him with collusion. C’mon America- snap the fuck out of it.
Yet y’all hated her and left us with this… mess.
I’m sure, had she been elected, I’d be grumbling about her policies right now, but I would not be worried about the permanent damage* being wreaked upon the republic and its people, as I am with the current administration.
*Permanent in this case meaning more than a generation to fix.
from what they asked the judge today, sounds like Manafort jury is hung on all counts. If he walks , I guess the Trump witch hunt cries will be even worse. Yes, I know a hung jury is not the same as not guilty.
God help us.
They asked about the impact of hanging on a single count. Link.
From what I understand, it’s not necessarily all counts, but maybe just a single count. It’s not entirely clear if they mean they haven’t reached a unanimous verdict on any of the 18 counts, or if they’re stuck on one.
The Hill indicates that there is indeed confusion over what the note means:
I read the report as meaning the jury is hung on 1 out of 18 counts, but has decided on the others. Though I agree the phrasing “cannot come to a consensus on a single count” is confusing.
yes it would be odd to be hung on all counts unless there is a really big Trump fan who is holding out as his/her own jury nullification.
So what does being hung on a single (or a few) counts do for the trial as a whole? Probably a stupid question: Does the whole thing go down in flames if they’re hung on one or 10 counts?
If there are convictions on the other counts, a prosecutor will usually drop the ones that the jury was hung on. The verdict on other other counts (either way) would be binding and final (other than appeal, for defense, if applicable) They could retry any counts that were hung, and probably would if it were the charges they cared most about.
So, no, the whole thing does not go down in flames if they’re hung on one or more counts.
and there is a 2nd trial coming up for him soon on other charges after this one is done.
But you can bet that Trump and the Trumpies (worst cover band in history, btw) will make as much hay as possible on that one count that they hung on.
The follow up question makes it clear they are speaking about a specific charge, not all of them:
“If we cannot come to a consensus on a single count, how should we fill in the verdict form for that count? And what does that mean for the final verdict?”
Emphasis mine.
Michael Cohen took a plea deal, Press Conference at 4 pm today. I suppose if you plead guilty it makes no sense to later take a pardon? Maybe it depends on if he gets jail time.
It is perfectly sensible to accept a pardon at any time. It is pointless to offer a pardon after a defendant has been cooperating with the prosecutor.
on the manafort trial the jury must have a mixed bag of verdicts. i just can’t see them going all 17 guilty/not guilty and hanging on one thing. if all 17 go one way, what is one more. if there is a mixed bag of a handful of guilty and several not guilty, then hanging on 1 count makes more sense.
i’m reckoning it being an overseas thing, those are really technical (embrace the technicality) and depend on percentages.
looks like Cohen will plead to counts related to Stormy Daniels payoff which could mean campaign finance problems for Trump.
Beside the Cohen news (apparently, he’s turned himself in at the FBI) I’ve been thinking about the recent news that Maria Butina had been moved into the same prison as Paul Manafort.
Just a theory, but it seems likely that if Russia put any significant amount of money into the Trump campaign, that it would have been based on the recommendation of Paul Manafort and funneled through the NRA with the aid of Butina. Gates would have overseen things on the side of the campaign after Manafort left, but there would likely be a lot that he didn’t know and was simply taking directions from Manafort.
Housing Butina and Manafort together lets the investigators put the two of them in separate rooms and question them back-to-back, playing information from one off against the other.
And for the record, all of the known interactions between Butina and the campaign:
- Butina questioned Trump in July 2015 at a rally.
- Butina and JD Gordon had ongoing social emails through the campaign.
- Trump aides attended Butina’s inauguration costume party.
It also is plausible that Butina might be the non-MFA Russian agent mentioned in the Papadopoulos case.
Breaking: the jury found Manafort guilty on eight charges. They could not reach a unanimous verdict on the other 10 charges, and the judge will declare a mistrial on those ten charges.
Edit: the BBC says he was found guilty on “tax fraud” charges. Trump ex-campaign chief Manafort guilty of multiple fraud charges - BBC News
My question, which I imagine articles will answer soon: what sort of prison time is he looking at for those eight charges?
This may turn out to be an amazing result for Mueller, if the prison time is moderate. If he can say, “You’re behind bars for ten years, Manafort. If you cooperate now, we see no need to retry you on the remaining ten charges.”