Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort is headed for the courtroom.
Manafort’s much-talked-about trial starts Tuesday, but the Left may be extremely disappointed — don’t expect talk of collusion. The prosection, led by Andrew Weissman — who partied at Hillary Clinton’s election night gloomfest — has no intention to present evidence of it.
Robert Mueller made that clear in a June 6 court filing:
“The government does not intend to present at trial evidence or argument concerning collusion with the Russian government.”
Nearly three dozen witnesses will be called by prosecutors, and 500 pieces of evidence will be introduced. The point of all this? To prove bank fraud and tax evasion, related to the 68-year-old’s consultant work for a Ukrainian politician.
Rick Gates, a Trump campaign aide and business partner of Manafort’s from the past, accepted a plea deal with the DoJ in February. Along with Tad Devine — former chief strategist for Bernie Sanders’s pursuit of the presidency — Gates is expected to yap it up from the witness stand.
Devine and Manafort worked for the former president of Ukraine, Viktor Yanukovych.
The trial will focus on Manafort’s employment by Yanukovych’s political party, the Party of Regions, from 2005 through 2014.
Manafort was paid $60 million for his efforts.
Not bad — that’s almost the pay of a conservative writer.
Manafort blew it, though, by not reporting his income to the IRS.
Note to self — for a conservative writer.
Instead — as the prosecution intends to show — he used the ol’ offshore company trick, while buying lotsa fancy cars, shiny suits, impressive rugs, and a joint in the Hamptons.
Since Manafort’s October 30th indictment (read about his arrest, for witness tampering, here; he was later charged with obstruction of justice), the Left has been wishing upon a star that he’d sing like a canary and throw Trump under the bus, providing that wholly elusive evidence of collusion between Moscow and Führer Trump. But, alas, no cigar.
Rudy Giuliani — who, I am starting to believe, has cloned himself, because he is everywhere — told CNN’s New Day, essentially, “Good Luck with that”:
“They can squeeze him — he doesn’t know anything,”
Well, we’ll know something soon, about the trial and what it brings, as the Robert Mueller wheel of investigation continues to spin. And spin. And spin.
Thank you for reading! What do you expect to come out of this trial? And what do you think its impact will be on the November midterms? Please sound off in the Comments section below.
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