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In my last post I looked at Donald Jr’s testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee on the Trump Tower meeting. Jr is back in the news after his Dad apparently expressed concern that Jr could be in trouble for no reason other than being in his Dad’s world Are we seeing some actual paternal flickers from Trump? Or is he actually throwing his son under the bus to save his own skin?
https://lastmenandovermen.com/2018/08/06/is-trump-defending-his-son-or-throwing-him-under-the-bus/
Whatever Trump’s motivations, Jr is in some big trouble-perjury is serious business and he perjured himself multiple times-he’s a real chip off the old block; he even said ‘if Carter Page walked into a room I probably wouldn’t know him.’
UPDATE: Mueller ultimately didn’t convict Jr and the rationale is far from clear-Chapter A for more.
Pg 66.
Of course, Jr lied because telling the truth would totally incriminate his father’s campaign for colluding with Russia. As I document in the link above, the emails from Rob Goldstone show a clear pattern of collusion between Russia and the campaign or at a minimum, they show Goldstone, at the behest of Emin Agalarov and his father, Aras, proposing collusion between them.
For more on the etymology of the Trump Tower Russian Collusion-Aras Agalarov’s key role-meeting of June 9, 2016 see Chapter B.
One particularly damning revelation: Goldstone floated a proposal for the Trump campaign to collude with a Russian Facebook company-any working with a foreign company is against the law; wether money, gifts, services received.
He proposed this in an email to Dan Scavino, Trump’s social media director and the email chain included Don Jr and Rhona Graff. While Jr. claimed not to recall if Goldstone mentioned this at the Trump Tower meeting on June 10, Goldstone claimed in the email that he had told Manafort-aka Trump’s campaign manager about it at the meeting and that Manafort’s response was that he’d ‘welcome it.’
Pgs, 47-48.
While Trump and his loyalists have dismissed the Manafort trial-as the charges don’t directly relate to Russia collusion-keep this in the back of your head today as we get news and updates on the trial. While the case is about bank fraud and tax evasion, in the bigger picture it’s all about collusion, including what Manafort himself was involved with or knows about-like his own attendance at the Trump Tower meeting, to say nothing of his welcoming colluding with Russia on Vote Trump Facebook page-according to Goldstone, or his conversations with Konstantin Kilimnik about using his position as Trump’s campaign manager to get whole with the Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska, including offering Deripaska a private briefing in July of 2016, or his conversations with Kilimnik about the campaign, including the hacks of the DNC-which Manafort insists was just a ‘very general conversation’ about the hacks.
Sure, a general, light conversation between the Trump’s campaign manager and a former member of the KGB about the Russian hacks of the DNC.
FN: Almost a year later t’s now clear that Manafort was central to Russian collusion-Chapter A.
As for Gates himself, Mueller’s interest him goes far beyond showing that Manafort’s a tax cheat and fraudster.
https://lastmenandovermen.com/2018/08/04/muellers-made-a-deal-with-gates-to-find-out-what-he-knew-about-collusion/
The Washington Post frames Gates’ testimony today as a contest between an accused liar and an admitted one.
“Whom to believe — the accused liar, or the admitted one? A Virginia jury is expected to wrestle with that question this week, when it is scheduled to hear testimony from the former protege of Paul Manafort, President Trump’s former campaign chairman now facing trial on bank fraud and tax charges.”
This is rather misleading-the media in general has fallen for this canard just like they did in the Trump-Cohen cage match: where they dismiss it as a contest between two liars.
https://lastmenandovermen.com/2018/07/30/the-msm-falls-for-another-trump-canard-its-just-a-he-said-he-said-between-cohen-and-the-trump-family/
But that’s the wrong way to look at it-though it is a common tactic for defense attorney’s defending criminal-guilty-clients.
However legal experts like Seth Abramson have pointed out that as an informant Cohen-and in this context Gates-have nothing to gain by lying where as Trump and Manafort have everything to lose by telling the truth-you have to factor in incentives. Then you have the powerful chain of circumstantial evidence and we’re not starting from 0-0 between two equally dishonest criminals.
In my link above about Gates and collusion I quoted an experiences prosecutor on the defense’s strategy-‘Rich Gates made me cheat on my taxes and commit bank fraud.’
What Manafort is doing is actually criminal defense 101: the nobody likes a rat defense.
“Typically, the best way to penetrate a closed or secretive criminal organization is by flipping somebody on the inside who can act as a guide. And you can’t bring down the mafia or a drug cartel or an insider trading ring with choir boys as witnesses.”
“Not only do people underestimate how common cooperators are, they just don’t like cooperators. It goes back to elementary school. Nobody likes a tattletale. That’s why the list of pejorative terms for cooperating witnesses is so long, including: “rats,” “snitches,” “turncoats.”
But, again, this is not a novel strategy-defendants use it every day-Trump is doing something like this already with Michael Cohen.
“The defense attack: Gates is an admitted criminal. The prosecution response: Yes he is. In fact, he pleaded guilty. That’s part of his deal with us. He admitted all of his crimes. And you know who he committed those crimes for, and with? His boss, the guy who ran the show, the guy who got really rich off all this – Paul Manafort.”
The defense will claim that he cut a sweetheart deal not out of altruism but save his own skin. But the prosecution will point out that the cooperator only gets a potentially reduced sentence if he tells the truth.
“The defense will argue that Gates is a dirtbag and you should hate him. The prosecution response: Maybe. But guess who chose Rick Gates? Not Robert Mueller. Not the prosecution team in the courtroom in Virginia. Paul Manafort chose Rick Gates. He chose Rick Gates when they went into business together, when they made millions together, and when they committed fraud together. And why did he choose Rick Gates? Because he needed someone willing to do his dirty business with him and there’s no question that Gates was willing to do it. Gates has admitted that under oath. It doesn’t matter if you like Rick Gates. All that matters is if you believe him. Just look at all the other evidence—testimony from other witnesses, emails, financial records—that backs him up.”
Exactly-he’s Manafort’s dirtbag. Just as Rudy is right-Cohen has been lying for years but in the capacity of Trump’s glorified mob lawyer.
Back to the Washington Post:
“Rick Gates worked for years as Manafort’s right-hand man, managing his clients, his business, and his accounts. He also served as a senior Trump campaign aide and played a major role in planning the 2017 inauguration. This week, Gates begins a new role: star witness against his former boss and business partner.”
This is something else to keep in mind: Gates stayed with the Trump team long after Manafort’s embarrassing connections to Russia forced him out; it was actually his tie to Kilimnik that was the proximate cause-Kilimnik was his man in Kiev.
And he was no ‘coffee boy’ not that George Papaodoupolos, the real coffee boy, was a coffee boy either-he was only the cause of the entire Russia investigation.
Gates was on Trump’s inaugural committee that while it was not close to PACE Spicer ‘the biggest inauguration crowd, period’ it was the biggest fundraising hall period-which raises more than a few questions. Even after Trump became ‘President’ Gates was an adviser receiving checks from Trump donors.
Back to the Post:
“Gates’s testimony against Manafort, which could happen as early as Monday, will do more than lay bare the end of a long relationship that made both men millions of dollars as political consultants. The prosecution’s theory is that, time after time, Manafort instructed Gates to lie, and many of those lies were crimes. If the jury agrees, Manafort, 69, could spend the rest of his life in prison.”
“Gates, 46, already is likely headed to prison. Under the terms of a plea deal struck earlier this year, he faces about five years behind bars. But a judge could give him less time if prosecutors decide he provided “substantial assistance” to the special counsel’s office.”
UPDATE: But he has to tell the truth-if he makes stuff up then he loses everything. As for Manafort he’s playing-uh, Russian roulette-in angling for a pardon and gave Mueller a lot of information on Russian Collusion-Manafort’s but also Trump’s role.
Unlike the rest of Trump’s co-conspirators Gates hasn’t essentially gone back to being a Trump loyalist like George Papadopoulos and Michael Flynn-Manafort essentially never really cooperated with Mueller-he tried to play both sides during his brief ‘cooperation’ stint in late 2018.