Mueller: Manafort LIED, plea deal CANCELLED
Breaking HARD:
BREAKING: Paul Manafort LIED to FBI and special counsel’s office “on a variety of subject matters” after pleading guilty.
Prosecutors want to move him to sentencing.
Plea deal/cooperation has been “breached,” they say, according to new court filing.
— Katelyn Polantz (@kpolantz) November 26, 2018
The full filing can be read here. Here’s the most relevant portion:
After signing the plea agreement, Manafort committed federal crimes by lying to the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Special Counsel’s Office on a variety of subject matters, which constitute breaches of the agreement. The government will file a detailed sentencing submission to the Probation Department and the Court in advance of sentencing that sets forth the nature of the defendant’s crimes and lies, including those after signing the plea agreement herein.
Before some of you freak out, keep in mind that the Office of Special Counsel must therefore have airtight proof that Manafort lied to them, which means:
- Manafort will be immediately sentenced to at least the recommended penalty (in the 14-to-20 year ballpark, which amounts to a life sentence), but there is nothing stopping the presiding judge from throwing the book at him; and
- Manafort may face even more charges.
And keep this in mind:
Before you guys lose your minds and say Trump will pardon.
My counter argument: VA & NY AGs
You commit Fed Tax Crimes, you’re also on the hook for state tax crimes. No double jeopardy different statutes
Thought you should know and you’re welcome pic.twitter.com/y4f9ud6lw2— SpicyFiles (@SpicyFiles) November 27, 2018
Proof of Collusion author Seth Abramson tweets:
Mark my words: Trump witness-tampered with Manafort directly/indirectly. Manafort had nothing to lose by cooperating with Mueller—only gain—and Mueller was asking him about Trump, and Manafort lied. So he was expecting a pardon. Which means somebody let him think it could happen.
— Seth Abramson (@SethAbramson) November 27, 2018
(Full thread here.)
And here is an interesting theory. Keep in mind that Mueller is executing eleventy-dimensional chess moves while Trump and his “brain trussed” are playing Hungry Hungry Hippos:
I’m comfortable saying Manafort took the plea to feed info to Trump and Trump lied his bloated orange fugly butt off in his written answers. Genius move by Mueller et al. Why? Because it locks Trump in and I’ll bet $1K that Bill Shine was a conduit
— SpicyFiles (@SpicyFiles) November 27, 2018
This particular subplot of the Russiagate scandal is far from over. We’re going to need a lot more popcorn…