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Tuesday, October 31, 2017

Mueller Indictments- Manafort, Gates & Papadopoulos


John R. Houk
October 31, 2017

This is a cross post of Western Journalism and WND about the indictments of Paul Manafort and Rick Gates as well as an apparent plea deal for George Papadopoulos squeezed for lying about his interaction with Russians that perhaps Papadopoulos should have registered as a foreign agent. The Papadopoulos plea deal is a bit sketchy because he was a volunteer with a bit of uncertainty if acting on his own volition or was coached by someone to contact Russians.

Before posting this morning, I was watching Fox and Friends inattentively. A gal was interviewed in which I didn’t catch her profession. However, I saw her again on my DVR recorded premiered show called Fox News at Night with Shannon Bream. On Bream’s news show I discovered her name is Sidney Powell a former Prosecutor and author of Licensed to Lie. She criticized the wording of the indictment as being weak citing laws and statutes that she believes have a sketchy application. Powell also criticized Mueller’s lead prosecutor Andrew Weissmann for sketch prosecutorial practices. Here is a quote about Weissman similar to what Powell said on Fox and Friends:

“Andrew Weissmann, the prosecutor tapped by Mueller to help lead the investigation, has also received criticism. Sidney Powell, a former federal prosecutor recently wrote about Weissman in a piece titled, ‘Judging by Mueller's staffing choices, he may not be very interested in justice.’” (Gowdy slams Mueller team over leaks about charges in Trump-Russia probe; By Joseph Weber; Fox News; 10/30/17)

But I did find another person - J. Christian Adams -  who had a similar criticism of the weak indictment put together by Mueller and Dem-oriented Special Prosecutor team:


Posted by Fox News
Published on Oct 30, 2017

New questions surrounding the future of the Russia probe; reaction on 'The Story.'

I need to note that when I Googled the indictments against Paul Manafort and Rick (Richard) Gates, the Google search results went primarily to Leftist news sites and the Left oriented Mainstream Media (MSM). The headlines of those searches indicate disgusting glee that the indictments against Manafort and Gates will soon bring down President Donald Trump. This Fake News glee was related even though the loosely worded indictments are focused on Manafort/Gates business dealing with Russia before Barack Obama was even President.

How in the world is that Trump/Russia collusion in the November 2016 election?

Fire Mueller! Get a different Special Prosecutor. Begin looking at Crooked Hillary and husband, Dem leadership – particularly involved in Crooked Hillary’s campaign, Robert Mueller, James Comey, Rod Rosenstein, Loretta Lynch and I have no doubt – into former President Barack Hussein Obama. For what? The real Russian Collusion for starters.

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Paul Manafort Surrenders to Feds as Subject of First Indictment In Mueller’s Russia Probe

October 30, 2017 6:32am

Paul Manafort, the former campaign chairman for President Donald Trump who left the Trump campaign under a cloud amid allegations of improper dealings involving the consulting business he had previously operated, turned himself in to the FBI on Monday, according to multiple reports.

Manafort and longtime associate Rick Gates, who joined and left the Trump campaign at the same time as Manafort, were indicted as part of the investigation headed by special counsel Robert Mueller.

Mueller was appointed to head up a wide-ranging investigation into allegations that there had been collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.

Manafort and Gates were indicted on 12 charges, including “conspiracy against the United States,” “conspiracy to launder money” and “false statements.”



The New York Times reported Manafort “had been under investigation for violations of federal tax law, money laundering and whether he appropriately disclosed his foreign lobbying.”







Manafort arrived at the FBI’s field office in Washington on Monday morning. Gates turned himself in shortly afterward.

Manafort’s home was raided by the FBI in July, and a number of documents were seized at that time.

Manafort, who piloted Trump’s campaign between June and August 2016, has been under investigation by the FBI and Justice Department for his relationship with former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych.

At the time of Manafort’s departure from the Trump campaign, The Associated Press reported that from 2012 to 2014, Manafort and Gates had been involved in a lobbying effort to increase American support for a pro-Russian Ukrainian government and did not disclose that they were working for a foreign government as required under federal law.

Under the Foreign Agent Registration Act, Manafort retroactively registered in June with the Justice Department for the work he did during that time, for which he was paid more than $17 million.

“Paul’s work ended well before he joined Candidate Trump’s campaign,” spokesman Jason Maloni said in a statement at the time, according to Politico. “Paul was not simultaneously working as a foreign agent while he was working for Trump.”

White House attorney Ty Cobb has said Trump has no fears that Manafort might trade damaging testimony against Trump for a lighter sentence in some sort of deal.

“The president has no concerns in terms of any impact, as to what happens to them, on his campaign or on the White House,” Cobb said.

Trump has said that his campaign never colluded with Russia.

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MANAFORT INDICTED, CAMPAIGN VOLUNTEER PLEADS GUILTY IN RUSSIA PROBE
Former Trump chairman charged with conspiring to defraud U.S. in dealings with Ukraine

10/30/17 7:13 AM - Updated: 10/30/2017 4:13 PM

Fox Video on WND

 WASHINGTON – Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and an associate surrendered to federal authorities Monday on felony charges of conspiracy against the United States and other charges in special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of Russian influence on the 2016 election.

Meanwhile, a former campaign adviser to President Donald Trump, George Papadopoulos, entered a guilty plea in the investigation, admitting he lied to the FBI about his contacts with Russians.

The indictment swept up Manafort’s onetime business partner and protégé Rick Gates, but it makes no allegations about the 2016 election. Both pleaded not guilty.

It alleges 12 counts, including conspiracy against the U.S., conspiracy to launder money, being an unregistered foreign agent, misleading statements and failing to file reports of foreign bank accounts. The charges relate to overseas business operations.


Watch Manafort walking into FBI headquarters with his attorney: [Blog Editor: You’ll have to go WND to watch. I can’t find the embed or the Fox News link.]

Papadopoulos, whose Oct. 5 guilty plea was unsealed Monday, admitted lying to FBI agents about the nature of his interactions with “foreign nationals” offering “dirt” on Clinton who allegedly were attempting to line up a meeting between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

According to Mueller’s filing, Papadopoulos met with a female Russian national on March 24, 2016, shortly after learning he had become a campaign adviser. Papadopoulos believed the Russian had connections with the Russian government and could arrange a meeting with the Trump campaign. The next month, he met with a professor in London who said operatives in Moscow had “thousands” of Hillary Clinton’s emails. The filing, however, does not specify whether the reference was to the emails stolen from the Democratic National Committee’s computers.

Responding to reporters at the White House press briefing Monday, press secretary Sarah Sanders said Papadopoulos didn’t have an influential role in the campaign, describing him as a volunteer on an advisory council that met one time during the year.

“Any actions he took would have been on his own,” Sanders said.

In a tweet Monday morning, Trump emphasized the Manafort indictment had nothing to do with Russian collusion.

“Sorry, but this is years ago, before Paul Manafort was part of the Trump campaign,” Trump tweeted. ‘But why aren’t Crooked Hillary & the Dems the focus?????”

“Also, there is NO COLLUSION!” he said.

Mueller was appointed to investigate claims of Russian collusion with the Trump campaign after the Democrats’ 2016 election loss, but now there are allegations against Democrats.

Last week, the Washington Post reported Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign and the Democratic National Committee paid for the research for the largely fabricated anti-Trump dossier. Late Wednesday, a complaint was filed with the Federal Election Commission charging Clinton’s campaign and the DNC violated campaign finance law by failing to disclose payments for the dossier. Also last week, a source claimed that the Podesta Group, run by John Podesta’s brother Tony, is a target of Mueller’s investigation. And The Hill reported that before a government panel in which Hillary Clinton was a member approved the sale of a company controlling 20 percent of U.S. uranium reserves, the FBI was sitting on evidence Russian nuclear industry officials were engaged in bribery, kickbacks, extortion and money laundering designed to expand Moscow’s nuclear business in the U.S.

In addition, a congressional inquiry led by Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., is focusing on how aides to President Obama “unmasked” individuals caught up in government surveillance.

Manafort has denied wrongdoing. Many of the charges date back as far as 2006.


Among the allegations is that Manafort moved $75 million to offshore accounts without declaring the income for taxation purposes. He then allegedly used $18 million to “fund a lavish lifestyle,” as the London Daily Mail described it.

FBI agents staged an early morning raid on Manafort’s home last summer, confiscating records.

According to the New York Times, Gates’ name appears on documents linked to companies that Manafort’s firm established in Cyprus to receive payments from his clients in Eastern Europe.

President Trump’s lawyer, Ty Cobb, assured reporters last week Manafort does not have damaging information about the president to offer prosecutors.

“The president has no concerns in terms of any impact, as to what happens to them, on his campaign or on the White House,” Cobb said.

Manafort joined the Trump campaign in March 2016 and developed a strategy that convinced delegates not to break with Trump in favor of establishment candidates. Trump then appointed the veteran Republican strategist as chairman and chief strategist of his campaign.

Months later, Trump fired Manafort after learning his chairman received more than $12 million in undisclosed payments from former Ukrainian president Victor F. Yanukovych, who he spent years working for as a political consultant.

The case advanced amid claims Russian President Vladimir Putin colluded with Trump campaign officials to rig the 2016 presidential election against Hillary Clinton.

Mueller was appointed by the Justice Department in May to lead the investigation into Trump campaign officials’ relationships with Russian operatives. But the focus now actually may be turning to the Democrats.

President Trump contends the “real Russia story” is the sale of 20 percent of U.S. uranium assets to a Russian company under Clinton’s watch.

Critics also have pointed to Mueller’s relationship with fired FBI chief James Comey and the fact that he stacked his team of investigators with lawyers who had openly supported Hillary Clinton in the election. The Mail reported it was unclear if Mueller still has a strategy to “squeeze” Manafort” for information about the 2016 election “and Russian’s possible interference with it.”

The allegations concern actions that all predate the Trump campaign, and Trump’s name doesn’t appear in the 31-page indictment by Mueller, who in the document makes no allegations of collusion with Russia.

The case has been assigned to Judge Amy Jackson, an Obama appointee.


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READ ALSO:

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Mueller Indictments- Manafort, Gates & Papadopoulos
John R. Houk
© October 31, 2017
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Paul Manafort Surrenders to Feds as Subject of First Indictment In Mueller’s Russia Probe

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MANAFORT INDICTED, CAMPAIGN VOLUNTEER PLEADS GUILTY IN RUSSIA PROBE

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