While I rejoice in Manafort's downfall and hope Trump's will follow shortly, the Times Editorial Board chips away at my respect with titles such as "Welcome to the President's Rat Pack, PM" and with opening lines like, "Pardon us, but was it only three weeks ago..." The tone here smacks of an adolescent pettiness all too reminiscent of Trump's tweets. We need better from the paper of record.
14
The get out of jail cards that Trump have are his powers to select his own judges (Kavanaugh) & to fire prosecutors. Ordinary Americans can only shake their fists at this injustice of powerful getting more powerful, rich getting richer, while the poor & powerless getting nothing.
23
organized?
If so it is the only thing organized in the entire administration!
21
Which one of these dolts is supposed to be the Frank Sinatra of the group? There’s so much singing going on I can barely tell one voice from the next.
And enough with the suspense already, this is worse than actually sitting through an episode of ‘The Apprentice’. Who’s going to jail next, Don Jr., or Jared?
24
Under all the bravado, Trump is abject weakness.
It takes deep seated weakness, fashioned over a long empty life, to be a traitor on this scale.
44
If #45 and his family is convicted of willingly accepting the help of their Russians friends against their own country, are all the people of his administration going down with the family? And, will be Gorsuch automatically kicked out of the Supreme Court? And, my final question, is the GOP having some kind of "reprimand" as covering #45 treachery deeds?
7
GREAT HEADER - SO TRUE. Stay tuned, more to come!
Fox News will have nothing to talk about; they're running out of crooks to defend.
14
Trumps testimony will be like Jack nicholsons last scene in a few good men.
7
If it's a witch hunt, if its all "fake news" as he likes to call it, if it's all made up, then why are they all pleading guilty and flipping on his whole unethical operation?
Finally we can say the loud mouth, the vicious ugly creep who has disgraced the office of the presidency is going down. Like Icarus flying to high and too close to the sun, his wax wings are melting and he will plummet to earth soon.
What a nightmare this has been. And as soon as they finally nail him, the entire country will be way better off. He's such a disgrace, too personality disordered to handle the job. Pure arrogance to think he could. We need politicians that work for the people, for health care, education, equality, etc. etc. Enough of all the flim flam pseudo economic flim flam they have been hoodwinking voters with for years.
40
The big question that this latest plea of guilty amongst All the President's Men raises is not about the actual guilt or innocence of Trump or his fitness for continuing in office. That is no longer as an issue in most sensible minds.
The biggest question and of most concern for the future of our nation is WHAT WILL IT TAKE for the GOP leadership and its rabid base of willingly blind Trumpsters to wake up to reality? That reality is in clearly in sight and obvious:
Trump is a bald faced liar and divider, not a leader and uniter. He has no ethics, no empathy...only narcissist self promotion instinct. He will never change. He will never listen. He is always Trump first and the American people last including that Trumpster base which are nothing but expendable pawns in his self promotion.
The GOP leaders and its "base" are the existential threat to our future, not Trump. They are all co conspirators in committing High Crimes And Misdemeanors against the United States and its Constitution.
November is the key to getting rid of Trump one way or another, along with his rabid base of followers. Do that, and we go far toward Making America Great, again and without Trump and his dividing, embarrassing and hateful ways.
19
Has anyone else noticed the Twitter silence?
37
Question:
Assuming a president cannot be indicted while in office (a rubbish concept, but it's you Americans that wrote the rules...), but he can be indicted after he's out of office...
I just want to know will the Secret Service provide protection to Donald while he is in jail?
23
At this pont, I would even settle for Trump fleeing to Russia.
25
Trump did not expect to win. Russia wanted him there because they had him over a barrel, and knew he would assist them in wrecking America and western alliances.
The corruption of Trump and his organization is surely not news!
The greatest concern of Americans like us, is that The Russians never stopped altering polls in polling companies, manipulating wild falsehoods and built in divisions, and changing votes and tallies.
We have to assume, based on all the evidence thus far, that the senate and house will be hit by the Russian criminals. The Midterms are being hacked.
The alarm cannot stop until the hacking stops. The FLORIDA SENATE RACE IS AS GOOD AS GONE! The senator's plans are an open secret. Hacked, shared, and weaponized.
Our elections are a criminal enterprise overseen by Trump, controlled by Russia and China. The peril of our democracy, cannot be understated.
Trump, Russia and China are poised to give the Senate to the republicans by a large margin, and MAYBE, just maybe a narrow win for the democrats in the House.
Please NYT, raise the alarm constantly. We are being hacked, again. The peril is real.
Thank you.
6
White collar crime gets a pass. One tier of "justice" for the rich, another for the poor.
6
Trump can start a new wall of portraits within our WH, in addition to the ones of past (and real) American presidents, the Wall of Felons.
10
" ... there are still many unanswered questions about how Mr. Manafort exploited his Russian connections in the service of helping Mr. Trump’s campaign ... " No collusion? If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it probably is a duck.
7
It's being reported Manafort was instrumental in landing Pence in the VP slot. Hopefully, now, he can answer why Putin wanted Pence?
22
I do not understand why articles, including this one, state that Manafort served as Trump’s campaign chairman “for which he took no paycheck.” Of course he was being paid — by the GOP or by Trump or by Russian interests. The money would go straight to one of his many offshore accounts or shell companies. I don’t understand why journalists accept the idea of no pay as plausible and do not get to the bottom of who was paying Manafort to run Trump’s campaign “for free.”
13
We now know that male witches exist, since our witch hunt is bringing in a big one.
13
My biggest concern is that Mueller will not have enough incriminating evidence to force Trump from office. For those of us who want Trump removed from the presidency, our best bet is a Democratic House after the midterms. That should preclude Trump’s re-election in 2020.
19
"How many more guilty pleas and convictions will there be in Trumpworld before all this crime starts to look — how can we put it — organized?"
It is essential to the recovery of our democracy that Mueller cast a wide net. This investigation can't be just about Russians and the President, otherwise the criminal superstructure remains in place and the next Trump just slips right into place.
Following the illicit money may well lead into the halls of Congress, and everyone found to have participated in wrongdoing has to pay a price.
23
Other readers have noted DJT unusual Twitter restraint this weekend. Similarly, SHS or any of other DJT spokespersons have not had much to say about Mr Manafort's change of heart (direction?). Until the election has passed is silence the best way forward for any Republicans to express their change of heart as well?
3
The prisoner’s dilemma usually works because those who knowingly disregard the law and face punishments are eager to save themselves. Most have some significant inability to empathize with others and often have little or no consciences so betrayal of their co-defendants is not something that concerns them. The famous principle of omertà amongst criminals depends upon a lot of very deep social relationships and close ties that are far stronger than lust for easy money or escaping punishments.
When we see Trump’s world we see he has devoted most of his life to sharing with the mass media we see all of his relationships outside of his family based on being seen with prominent people, great amounts of wealth, relations with powerful people, and indulging in pleasures. His abandoning of people with who he has been close, frequent breaking of agreements to save himself, unnecessary denigrating of people in public and bullying of people makes it obvious that he has no true friends and is not a true friend to anyone. While he craves loyalty he offers none.
All of these people who are facing prosecution or have made deals to testify regarding anything regarding unlawful behavior regarding Trump or his family and close associates are going to tell all. Trump is aware that he is alone. His strategy is to hope that strangers who he has won over while running for President may save him. They probably cannot but we will see. Republican leaders are terrified of his supporters.
9
At this point, the main questions shift towards whether Trump was directly conspiring with Putin or just a giant dope who stood around blathering while pretty much everybody around him conspired with Putin, and towards just how much of this Republicans are going to put up with.
Oh, and towards how many decent folks are going to get off their duffs and vote this November, as compared with the "Yeah, whatever," and the, "Bernie got cheated by Hillary, so I ain't voting," crowds.
Be nice if the folks under 24 flabbergast everybody and show up this time, but I ain't counting on it.
5
Donald Trump likes to push a deal, then when the other side says yes, he likes to push a little bit further, hoping to get a bit more (or he never planned to deal at all). Sometimes it worked; other times it didn't.
Maybe he has been doing this with the dangled carrot of a pardon for Manafort. He may have just been sitting back grinning as Manafort twisted in the wind waiting for a firm offer of a pardon.
This time, perhaps, Trump miscalculated and teased a bit too long for Manafort. Cohen held out for a pardon til he realized Trump was just teasing. Manafort learned quicker. The next one won't even wait for the ink to dry on an indictment before he/she agrees to cooperate.
The possibility that his sworn loyalists will watch out for themselves instead of him should give Donald Trump nightmares.
3
Where are the tweets? Has Trump over-slept? More ominous is what devious actions are being formulated in that excuse of a mind of his? The day has not ended, folks...
8
Perhaps Mr. Manafort and Mssrs. Trump can occupy adjoining cells and wear matching orange suits.
As for the rest of the Trump parvenu, I hope they never get a job of any status again, and that includes you, Ms. Sanders, who have lied to the American public every day, while knowing better.
15
Manafort was making proffers for 4 days before he negotiated this deal. No doubt he described the "highlights" of what he knows already to Muller.
From a jail-time perspective, "probation only" was dangled at the end of the document Manafort signed--but he remains in jail, so a "time served" sentence might well become viable. How quickly Manafort is allowed to leave jail will be an excellent "tell" on how well he cooperates.
The 46 million dollar fine (effectively) is certainly the biggest fine I know about ever paid by a private individual. Can Oleg Deripaska now sue Muller to get some of the 25 plus million dollars Manafort stole from him back?
Manafort has the right to be concerned about his safety and the safety of his family. Did Mueller offer a "sweetener" like witness protection to Manafort for his family?
Republican office-holders will continue, no doubt, to claim this is all a "nothing-burger", and Kavanaugh will undoubtedly agree. Our country is still very much at risk.
14
Of course it's organized crime. That's the GOP's MO and has been for over 40 years. And they have a great PR organization turning it all on everyone and everything else other than the GOP (and the money in that kind of work, by the way, is AMAZING!). A pox on all of them. Judgment day is coming and when it does it will be swift and complete.
7
Calling all the President's criminal men around him a "rat Pack" is not fair to animal rats, who are simply trying to survive the best they can and actually do an important service to humans as the experimental animals for so much medical and health research.
Trump and the men surrounding him listed in this editorial have only been concerned with doing good for themselves and have lied, connived, and engaged in a number of criminal activities--including cozying up to the Russians and doing more good for Putin than for America, their own nation.
But I do agree that Trump is not functioning as the President of the United States and all its people.
Trump does not even function like a king, since even monarchs have a sense of noblesse oblige, which Trump clearly does not.
As I said before, Trump is not managing the presidency of the most powerful country in the world (likely to be past tense after he leaves office). He is running a crime syndicate (that includes Betsy DeVos and other members of his cabinet engaging in crony capitalism at taxpayer expense).
And the Republican Party is making it all possible every day Trump is in office. Keep this in mind on Nov. 6.
13
Maybe this is all a secret Republican scheme to pay for the tax cuts to the wealthy and reduce our largest ever deficit?
How is it possible that the enablers of the Trump administration are not being called out daily and loudly for their complicit and often direct support of this president? (Lower case intended) That the truth has lost any value in regard to our leadership is the most frightening component to me, in all of this. His transgressions against his office, the people he is sworn to serve are egregious to the nth degree. The real reason we are here, is the money that drives the propaganda machine on both sides of the isle. Dem's are not totally innocent but the dark money supporting the right (and left who do not fight hard enough for us), is the ultimate driving force for the politicians who support this current administration. We must vote for leadership willing to return the government of this country back to it's rightful owners. The People. The corporate and wealthy special interests have stopped paying their fair share and yet, they still receive the bulwark and best representation from the peoples government that money can buy. We cannot survive as a Democracy if we do not turn this around. Call them out NYT. The people of this country MUST do their part as well. VOTE.
196
A lot of people seem to believe trump has too much support from his base for the mueller investigation to dislodge him from the presidency. They may be right. But I keep thinking of NJ Gov Chris Christie who once had 80% approval rating but left office at 14%. An imperfect analogy, but it helps remind me the mighty can fall
20
Note: never work for a politician (and, yes, Trump became one the moment he got on the escalator) who is likely to be investigated. They won’t just investigate him (or her), they’ll investigate you, too.
4
Oh, I hope this all comes to something that will bring down the orange one. But I fear we are so broken. The same dysfunction and corruption that got him into power is still in place. We didn’t think it could happen. But it did. Let us not underestimate the forces of evil. Thankfully, we still have a free press and we can still vote (most of us, anyway.) We have to show up in massive numbers to counter voter disenfranchisement and corruption at the polls. But we can do it.
37
So what happens if every member of Trumpworld flips, but the Mueller report to Congress goes straight into the circular file, followed by the landfill? What then?
13
@Mark Lebow
Perhaps you have not yet observed the absence of a Mueller- type investigation during the prior administration. There was no report that could end up the circular file; they went straight to no investigation, skipping "Go to jail."
But no worry; even circular files leak with the help of the busy little elves.
2
Republicans had full Congressional oversight over the Obama Administration. They had the power to investigate whatever they wanted—and did. The result? Nada. Or did I miss a wave of criminal referrals/indictments/pleas/convictions for members of the Obama Admin/Campaign?
5
This editorial reveals that the Board hasn’t a clue. The truth is that both Trump and Manafort have always known if Manafort has any information that can do Trump harm. Every criminal knows his accomplices from those who know nothing. So Trump has known from day one if Manafort could do him harm
There is nothing complicated about the relationship between the two men. If Manafort is an accomplice, Trump is now in panic mode and extreme measures will begin any day. If Manafort has never known the waters will remain calm.
You may ask why Manafort has refused to cooperate until now if he can do Trump no harm. The answer to that is simple. He may well have believed that he could beat the charges and so it wasn’t in his personal intrerest to cave. That is entirely consistent with his decision to put on no defense at trial.
We will soon know what Trump already knows —whether Manafort can do him damage. The answer, yes or no, is currently unknown to the public. The Board assumes the answer is yes but does not justify jumping the gun. We all know the saying about why it is foolhardy to assume what you do not know and it applies to the Board in spades.
4
@michjas
I really don't understand what you're saying, though I may be just dense, and I am not a lawyer (I think you are).
I get that Trump knows - and has known all along - whatever Manafort has on him, and that Mueller knows, and has for a long time, and that Trump knows Mueller knows, and Manafort knows Trump knows, and Trump knows Manafort knows that Trump and Mueller know ... etc.
Could you be missing the editorial's understated, ironic tone?
Isn't it obvious that Manafort has something? What else could this all be about? If Manafort had nothing, why would Mueller have stalked him, slowly but ruthlessly, for months? How would this be the case if Mueller did not already know what Manafort had, before pursuing him?
Mueller is obviously an extraordinarily intelligent and capable prosecutor. It would not make sense to me that he is rounding up all these low-lifes for no purpose. He would have closed up shop by now if he had nothing. To come this far, and make a plea deal with Manafort, for …. what? Why would he want to spare Manafort any prison time? If Manafort turned out to have nothing, Mueller's investigation would be disgraced. I hardly see that happening.
Perhaps I am missing something? (I'm serious, I may just not be getting your analysis.)
Trump's failure to tweet as of noon Saturday speaks volumes about his reaction to Manafort's flipping - no? A hint of what Trump knows Manafort knows … and that Manafort knows that Trump knows Manafort knows …?
12
@michjas
I see that you have already convicted Trump of criminality. Works for all in the brave new Democrat world: accusations are now the new convictions.
What a great country you are trying to create.
Amazing but not unsurprising that DT's diehard supporters still persist in the "illegal witch hunt" meme. Witch hunt or no, an investigation to sort fact from fiction, truth from lies, is legal. Murder investigations, for example, take months if not years. No one, except perhaps the culprit, pushes to curtail such investigations. Trump's supporters continue to yammer about this because they don't want the object of their tribal affinity to be pulled off his reality TV star pedestal. It doesn't matter even if he shoots someone on 5th Ave in New York, and that particular Trump statement was one of the very few true ones he has uttered. Press on, Mr Mueller. No quarter.
25
@Shonunj
Excuse me? Witch hunts are legal now?
Well good, to hear-- so you will be happy if we now begin to investigate the entire prior administration beginning at the top and working our way through the agencies heads to see if we can turn up any criminality.
Even beyond the immediate need to deal with the disaster that is Donald J Trump, the entire Manafort saga highlights what should be the next great political imperative. A new generation of politicians arriving without the old guard’s baggage, must all make campaign finance and lobbying reforms their absolute passion. Manafort’s entire professional history should serve as a text book guide to everything that needs fixing about the way political operatives influence American politics. Over thirty years, he has shown K street how to successfully warp the worlds of lobbying, political campaigning and foreign influence into a cesspool of massively duplicitous greed and corruption. If the Democrats want to win in 2020, party leaders must embrace every bold and permanent constitutional reform required to eliminate this profoundly corrosive threat to democracy itself.
291
Well said Andy. If there is a silver lining to this disaster of a presidency, it’s that crimes like these have been brought to light. And we know, or should know, that Manafort and Gates aren’t the only people doing these things.
I’m 64 now, and I want a younger generation to start taking the reins of our democracy. For too long, it’s been one big good-ol boys club, both the GOP and Dems. We must get back to the principles of our Constitution. If Trump was the price we needed to pay to come to this realization, and see action for a change, it may have been worth it. That said, much work lies ahead.
7
@AndyW
It goes back to 9/11, when vast amounts of our resources were diverted to terrorism. It became no holds barred for white collar crime, no one had time for it anymore. So you can at least partly look to George W. Bush.
3
@AndyW I concur, and there is a further lesson to be learned. The party system should screen all candidates beforehand like gate-keepers, and act as constraints like fences on the more egregious candidates. Unhappily, the Republican party has acted like cheerleaders and enablers-not gatekeepers or wardens. I believe that the Republican party should be penalized heavily.
2
The spotlight shines brightly on the "family values" of the republican party: The Manson family, the Gotti family, the Capone family, the Borgias.
I keep hearing pundits say the U.S. is nearing a Constitutional crisis. Bunk! We are smack dab in the middle of a Constitutional crisis and have been since the 2016 election.
The so called president considers himself above the law. He ran on a platform of a dictator; "only I can fix the problems", so no one should be surprised that is how his administration postures itself. We can't say "that is how he governs" because he is not governing. He is dictating.
29 million stolen from the Coast Guard just as hurricane season starts to warm up. Stolen and given to ICE to lock up children whose parents are trying to get legal asylum. That is the way of a tyrant.
There is one big difference between t rump and those aforementioned gangsters; in that world there does exist some loyalty among themselves. In t rump's world the loyalty only goes one way.
This midterm election might go some distance towards saving our democracy. But only if small d democrats get out the vote and send the republicans in government home.
32
@Bob Laughlin
"...given to ICE to lock up children whose parents are trying to get legal asylum. "
Wow. It is also the law, and has been since the Flores settlement signed by Janet Reno, Bill Clnton's AG, in 1996. But don't trip over the facts on our way out the door.
And consider this: that Sepation was litigated for to protect children from what happens to them in adult detention. It seems to trouble us all when there is unwanted touching of white women in business suits but let there be unwanted touching of brown chidren held in adult detention, and no one wants them separated for their own protection--even when the law demands that they be protected.
1
There is no honor among thieves. Manafort knew what he was doing. So to speak. His "Track record" goes back to the Nixon administration. His days in political influence peddling goes back to the early days of when you could buy your way into a high ranking elected officials office. He is in his late 60s and doesn't want to die in prison.
Those of us from Connecticut know of the Manafort family from New Britain CT. It was said but never proven, that the Manafort family literally paved the highways in our state. The family heavily contributed to elected officials campaigns in exchange for paving contracts. The firm: Black, Manafort, Stone, and Kelly was retained by Reagan and the most insidious firm "The Tobacco Institute," Teaching our kids the advantages of nicotine addiction. Now the Special Prosecutor has his sights of another of that time, the Dirty Trickster, Roger Stone. He already has had his team approach an assistant to Stone and he is working his way carefully up the food chain.
15
@DOUGLAS LLOYD MD MPH
"...goes back to the early days of when you could buy your way into a high ranking elected officials office. "
Do you mean the way Hillary tried to do?
I'd have liked to have seen 'you' reference that, while Manafort gets 'only' a two-count conviction, he 'copped' to every count as charged … in both district courts where actions against him yet pend (including the ten counts in respect of which no verdict was reached after a trial in the U.S. District Court for The Eastern District of Virginia).
As well, I'd like to have seen reference to the effect that, while Cohen is not yet ('formally') cooperating with Mr. Mueller & his team, it is 'more-or-less' apparent that he is begging them to 'take' his cooperation -- in desperate hope of a cooperation agreement that might ease his prison-sentence 'expectations.'
3
The folly of the so-called master real estate Developer, trump, is that the developers’ mantra simply doesn’t work within the glaring spectra of politics.
Manafort, trumps political handler, should have known that if trump won, he would get caught!
Is every single person who touches trumps portfolio, business or personal, as fluffy as trump is? It would seem that way.
God help us if a war breaks out while America is forced to act weak and naive while these lambs head to the slaughterhouse!
5
Mr. Manafort is likely to have concluded he will be safer in federal custody than he would be out roaming a world crawling with Russian assassins.
33
@ Pottree
My thoughts exactly and that may be the real reason Trump is silent on Twitter so far today.
Trump's scared too.
4
If Trump thinks Manafort is a good man, then what does that say about Trump? I think it says Trump has been likely to have committed the same if not worse crimes: worse because Trump is 10 times Manafort by all units of measurement.
15
Maybe I'm just not paying close enough attention, but the Trumpenstinian Tweet'esphere seems oddly quiet this Saturday morning.
23
Yep. One envisions the entire White House staff locked in a desperate game of keep-away with Trump's cell phone.
3
I find Trump's Twitter silence to be ominous. You?
241
@Bill - Yep. It's making me jumpy and on edge.
2
I wonder what our “president” will tweet about Manafort now that he’s a “rat?”
6
QUICK QUESTION, please, for NYT editorial board/NYT readers: under terms of plea agreement is Mr. Manafort entitled to--sorry, don't know proper legal term here--"take a Kavanaugh"? That is, in reply to a question posed by special counselor Mueller, can the former Trump campaign chair say something like "Gosh, trying my best to answer fully, truthfully, completely & forthrightly, but the fact is I was NEVER READ INTO THE PROGRAM. Honest, would love to help, but again--and as the record clearly shows--I just was never read into the program"?
On a separate note, could everyone please stop calling Judge Kavanaugh "Bartleby"? So immature. So unnecessary. And that goes DOUBLE for "Bloody Brett."
I wonder if anyone is aware that Manafort had partnered with Podesta Group on lobbying in the US on behalf of Ukraine and that neither registered as foreign agents upfront, but only one seems to be being charged.
2
Reports as of last night were that prosecutors are looking into this very thing and weighing charging the others involved for failing to register.
6
I wonder if you're aware that Tony Podesta lost his consulting and lobbying firm because of this and is currently being investigated, and Roger Craig lost HIS job at a very fancy law firm and is very likely about to be charged for being an unregistered foreign agent?
3
Pardon me if I don't believe Paul Manafort's change of heart. I'll believe it when I see it put "the Don" in jail or at least out of office.
The Trump administration and the infrastructure that put it in office has been one scam after another, from fake news, help from the Russians (i.e. Fox news), evangelicals single voter focus, voter suppression and the famous gerrymandering of so many districts it is hard to see that Manafort's turn will make much difference in this wave of unfairness and theft of democracy.
3
@ZigZagj
I'm curious to learn more about the "infrastructure" that put Trump in office. And also, of course, would you share your inside information that FOX gets help from "the Russians"?
As for voter suppression, when a non-citizen votes using another's information--i.e., illegally--that illegal vote cancels out a vote by a citizen who might have voted for Trump--i.e., 'voter suppression." But just not the kind of suppression you fear.
2
Please learn that non-citizens DO NOT VOTE. Anyone here illegally stays in the shadows and does not come before anyone in any quasi-official capacity, such as at a voting booth, to give name, address, ID or whatever. This is nonsense and I wish people would learn the truth. I know of how some people here without residency papers live and they are in the shadows. They are non-voters and they follow the speed limits to a fault.
4
@ZigZag
One cannot help wondering why, when President Trump sought to make voting legal and transparent by requesting all state supervisors of elections go over their rolls and eliminate dead people and those who have moved permanently away, they nearly all balked.
1
Beyond staring in amazement at the Trumpists who keep howling that just because Trump's campaign manager was convicted of eight felonies that had to do with hiding the loot he got from Putin allies, and has now pled out to charges that include money-laundering for Putin allies, and clearly has something of massive value to tell Mueller and his team, there's STILL NO COLLUSION, I continue to stare in horror at Paul Manafort's hair.
I mean, the man actually sports a more bizarre do than Donald Trump. How is this even possible?
13
Among the numerous alternatives, Judge Brett Kavanaugh was likely chosen by Trump for Kavanaugh's belief that a sitting president should not be indicted because that would be too distracting. Even if that belief played no part in Trump's calculation, the fact remains this is what the judge thinks.
So if Trump were to "stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody," would Kavanaugh still hold to this non-indictment standard? Or, if Trump were to commit sexual assault, would he not stand for indictment?
Of course not. Therefore, the determining factor for indictment is the relative "cleanliness" and "dirtiness" of the allegation, where murder and sexual assault are dirty, and white collar crime is clean.
Why is the relative filth of the crime a determining factor in the decision to indict the president? Because white collar crime is not deemed as awful as other crime, and this is a double standard in our justice system. Our Justice system is not supposed to have any double standards, otherwise it would not be a system of justice in and of itself.
Maybe Trump wouldn't lose any voters for shooting somebody on 5th Avenue, but he should stand for indictment and if found guilty, lose his job and get locked up in federal prison.
12
@Chris
Why does any of this conjecture even matter when we have anonymous allegations,and trusted leakers working in our favor, eh?
The real crime is the American electorate who voted this criminal organization into office. Shame on us.
22
Ah, folks, ah have you noticed that Manafort was did not plead guilty to or was even charged with committing any crime while he was Trump's campaign chairman. He was at the July 16 meeting with the Russians and yet he wasn't charged with collusion or anything else with regard to that meeting. He wasn't even charged with lying about it to investigators. Manafort apparently didn't think there was anything illegal about the meeting and therefore nothing to lie about. And it is rather hilarious that the Times would think there was something illegal about the meeting. If the Russians had offered Hillary dirt (and true dirt) to the Times, it would surely claim that it had a constitutional right to accept it and publish it because, you know, "the people have a right to know" such stuff regardless of the source, but apparently in the Times opinion, a political campaign can be barred by law from accepting such dirt (true or not) from a hostile power like Russia. It is surely rather insulting to SCOTUS for the times to suggest that it would interpret the Constitution to be the ass the Times would have it be? And the dirt they were dangling was rather special. It was the 30000 emails that Hillary illegally scrubbed from her server before turning it over to the FBI. Don't you think we the people have a right to see those emails if in fact the Russians have them, not only to know how careless Hillary was but what the Russians have on Hillary? Dimwit.
I think you are getting ahead of yourself and the facts in the matter at issue here. There are two things being discussed and you should distinguish between them. Yes Manafort pleaded guilty to matters that did not involve his time at the campaign in 2016, BECAUSE those were NOT part of the charges of the indictment for the trial that was to begin on Monday. So no surprise here and no conclusions can be drawn from this guilty plea as to campaign activities. However, he AGREED to COOPERATE on ALL MATTERS so he will have to answer to the Special Counsel about the Trump Tower meeting, which he attended, and to platform change and a host of other matters related to Trump and the campaign.
6
@Bob Richards - If there was nothing wrong about meeting with the Russians why did every single one of Trump's cronies lie about it?
7
@Bob Richards
Sure, Bob. Hillary's emails are the issue here. We'll wake you when it's over.
4
With Manafort guilty plea and Michael Cohen talking to Mueller it will eventually demonstrate what's behind GOP cover up...according to Manafort notes during meet-up with Russians "Manafort's notes, typed on a smart phone and described by one source briefed on the matter as cryptic, were turned over to the House and Senate intelligence committees and to Special Counsel Robert Mueller. They contained a reference to political contributions and "RNC" in close proximity, the sources said."
Let's just say it should warrant countless probes on RNC Russian platform reversal...just wonder how many rubles it took.
Also, the proceeding of Kavanaugh nomination should be stop immediately.
The 65 women who come to defend Brett Kavanaugh is just a prove that the accusations are true. It shows that he knew in advance what is coming and being an advocate of rapid response, according to his own speech on the subject, he prepared in advance.
The NewYorker article is absolutely credible, don't forget Ronan Farrow's Weinstein article started the #MeToo movement.
It will all unravel sooner or later...sooner is much better.
Almost identical allegations transpired in the 90's with Clarence Thomas and Anita Hill hearings and don't forget he is still sitting there.
It will be a tooth and nail battle from GOP side, as we all know Republicans have no morals.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/manafort-notes-russian-meet-contain...
9
There are so many GOPers who do not care as long as Trump sucks up to their party's beliefs. They are on a roll of sorts: before Trump, we saw the appalling acceptance of the unconstitutional approach by the despicably intentioned Mitch McConnell, and his bleating followers, to Barack Obama's SCOTUS nominee, the eminently qualified and garlanded Merrick Garland.
It is a conundrum. But at least it's clear for whom Trump is willing to sink to his knees. Whatever America's choice may be going forward, it will have been made with eyes wide open.
6
Trump said just a few days ago that manafort is a ‘good man’. The latter has evaded taxes, laundered money and had shady relationships with russians. Trump never released his taxes. He appears to be hiding major fraud, tax evasion, collusion with russia and involvement in hacking the dnc during the 2016 election. Trump is a thug and a criminal.
10
@observer
Hillary never released the Foundation's taxes, which were audited after she took office multiple times and "re-submitted" with the Clinton's saying there were so many billions in there what difference would just one billion make?
1
I think the comment above goes to Trump's personal taxes - not those of his foundation. Your comment isn't on point. Besides, did I miss something or is Hillary now President?
7
How long will the Trump-GOP alliance be allowed to degrade and devastate our country? Trump most probably collaborated with Russia to win the 2016 election. In other words, he stole the election. He is an illegitimate president.
9
Trump is delusional (add that to the long list of flaws) if he thinks that anyone including his children will fall on the sword for him.
10
Trump didn’t drain the swamp, he created a filthy swamp filled with crooks, liars and grifters.
15
When the President of the United States describes one of his people as having "flipped" on him, he is using the jargon of a criminal group like the mafia.
We have to get rid of this man and the criminals he has played in high government office. Unfortunately the Democrats are acting like a herd of cats and the Trump supporters are as immoral as Trump is. the Trump supporters seem to want a white male dictatorship.
I beleive that it is no coincidence that Trump, when he is addressing his supporters rises his right arm in the same way that Hitler did.
2
@Jeff
And what do you want Democrats to do, beyond the tremendous work that they're already doing?
Because of the fact that tens of millions of pro-Dem voters stayed home, we gave all power to the corrupt-to-the-bone GOP, remember?
8
@Jeff
Why Jeff, you know very well you had to "get rid of this man" well before any of this became public. Be at least honest with yourself and us. Just as you know you did not have to get rid of anyone in the prior administration; you did not have to question the possible benefit to the US for the sale of 20% of our mining rights to uranium here to a hostile power to which, of course, no one could have said to have "cozied up."
Flip is an understatement. Manafort is doubtlessly the dumbest crook ever born because he was engaging in gigantic criminal activity and returns to America to jump into the brightest spotlights in the history of the world. Then, crafts a strategy and achieves the worst outcome possible: Physical and psychological slave to Prosecutor Muller. This butt boy is cooked and greased and might as well take a cyanide capsule.
3
Only a fool would label 4 guilty pleas and the recovery of $20 million in assets a witch hunt. But then...
236
@Plumeria
That would make me a fool, because at the outset of this investigation we were all told Mueller was looking for proof that Trump colluded with Russia in order to affect the outcome of the investigation, weren't we?
Yet the reality was that Rosenstein had authorized, in collusion with Comey, the very witch hunt you deny. A witch hunt is the search for a crime, not the investigation of a known and named crime. Mueller conducted a witch hunt, even though you can't accept the truth.
Wondering how that Holdout Manafort juror in VA is savoring his attempt at sabotage tonight...
11
Make America Trump-Free Again!...
7
@Lars Aanning
That will only be possible if we make DC, for the very first time in history, GOP-free. Because THAT's where the corruption started and why it continues.
Manafort registered as a "foreign agent", in 2017, because after lobbying for Reagan he started lobbying the US government for foreign dictators, and WITHOUT registering.
7
@Lars Aanning
Yes, I can't wait, along with Russia, China, and Iran, for us to minimize our military capacity, eulogize Antifa thuggery, and Maxine Waters' theory of crowd intimidation against political opponents. It'll be great!
I left out North Korea; they seem to have been on a new track of late, opening the first liaison office for better communications with South Korea. And thank goodness we can get back to carryying the financial load for NATO so they will all love us again.
And let's talk out of both sides of our mouths about illegal unvetted immigration, too. Bring em in--bring 'em all in, as many as will come, whether innocents in search of our jobs, or criminals, rapists terrorists, smugglers--no matter--we want them all here, unvetted. And let's get rid of ICE altogether.
Throw in speech control so no one can discuss Islam and terrorism in the same sentence lest the terrorists are offended. And we can suppress that information that on 9/11 in 1683 in Vienna the Islamist expansion was finally halted after a thousand years. Let's say the attack here on 9/11 never was a message--at least within that fold--that defeat was a thing of the past and a new day of expansion was dawning against the West.
I'll tell you , I just can't wait for the good old days when the FBI, and the DOJ knew how to protect our candidate and do-in any candidate foolish enough to oppose us.
Now let's move in on Trump and his crime family since the spineless, complicit GOP won't. #ImpeachtheGOP
6
Sure, all these rats make the headlines, but what about the unapologetic millions who comprise his electorate, and continue to support this vermin? We may wash our hands of Trump and his rat pack, but not so the substrate that nourishes them .. that's the plague of our time.
9
I don’t like them either, JH. What perplexes me is that these are, for the most part, people who vote GOP in every election, and against their own interests. I don’t understand how they don’t see this.
It was a phenomenon that started well before Trump and can be traced back to Nixon’s “Southern Strategy”. But that was decades ago. So I’m mystified by these voters. At the same time, they are organized and motivated, and so the Dems must energize their voters or Trump will be in the WH until 2024, a thought that turns my stomach.
5
Yet another juicy nothingburger served up searing hot at Bob's Grill and Bar. Mueller lights the fire, grills them, and they wind up behind bars. Just the way I like 'em.
I hear Bob sharpening his knives for a bigley Orange and Pork roast, should be awesome.
6
"Organized crime!" "I love it!"
1
Trump is surrounded by the thugs in his administration that he hired. He is the ringleader of a criminal gang
6
@observer
And by the way, the algorithm that is not biased will not allow me to publish the name of the man who held office prior to Trump.
About him anyway, do you still believe he was surrounded by good people?
BEGINS to look....gasp!) organized?????
You can’t be serious. It IS, HAS, and CONTINUES to be organized. For decades. Why is the Times and its Board acting as if this is all so new and shocking? You devalue yourselves with this pearl-clutching attitude. Why is the mainstream media just beginning to (barely) touch on the mob aspects of this circus?
4
America will be great again when it has a president who follows our Constitution instead of instructing the Justice Department to attack his political enemies and excuse his political allies, regardless of the facts and evidence.
AWBGA when the president protects the election system, which is the foundation of every freedom that Americans have, and who doesn't launder money for, and collude with, foreign adversaries and kleptocrats.
AWBGA the members of his own administration don't refer to him as an "idiot", (Kelly); a "moron", (Tillerson); as "having the understanding of a fifth grader", (Mattis).
AWBGA When it has a congress that does its job to stop a would be Putin named Trump from destroying the American democracy.
But America will prove its greatness when Donald Trump and the others who colluded with Putin to corrupt America are wearing orange jumpsuits.
9
When will the NYT determine that it is “fit to print” information about the abuses of the Obama Administration’s Justice Department, FBI, State Department and CIA in this “Russia scandal?”
Can you not see it? Are Nicki Haley’s curtains blocking your view?
Why a heads up to Sen. Feinstein on her long term driver/Chinese agent vs. the use of Mifsud and Halper to insinuate the most important US agencies into the Trump campaign?
Have you read the Strozk/Paige emails? Do you wonder about the press leaks from Brennan? Do you have any problem with a media leak strategy? Or is your curiosity just overshadowed by the fact that all you can see is Red when there is a republican president and you are too Blue that the dems are not in charge?
There is no doubt in my mind that the content of what you determine is fit to print and the zeal with which you would track down abuses would be much different if a Republican adminiistraton conducted itself in the way the Obama admininistration did.
The Grey Lady is Blue, in more ways than one. And in showing your true colors, you have permanently damaged the country’s free press. You are no longer trusted by the wider public. And you are bringing all of journalism with you.
This is a sideshow that delegitimizes Muellers "investigation". We dont care about tax dodgers. And we certainly dont want Mueller to waste our time and National focus on unimportant matters. Stop this silly, political witch hunt. There is no COLLUSION. Liberals are liars.
1
REALLY!! It is fine with you that these people, Manafort, Cohen, Gates and others are all major tax cheaters, defrauding you and me and all U.S. taxpayers? Millions were due in taxes and when Republicans go out and cut back medicaid for children and poor adults and food assistance for those who otherwise will go hungry, I am so glad someone is making these people accountable to the U.S. Government. It serves as a lesson, if nothing else to others, I hope.
12
@Patrick McCord
YOU don't care about tax dodgers. The Left will take what it can get, and make up the rest via anonymous leaked sources.
All the President's Men are under the bus. Donald Jr. and Jared
will soon be fitted with Orange Jumpsuits and join them, only to await Mr. Helsenki himself.
2
Another witch?! Go figure!! Funny how quiet the Trumpets in my life are today. Manafort will be the key. He’ll either unlock the door that reveals the conspiracy committed by the campaign and the candidate. Or perhaps he’ll implicate the campaign and exculpate the candidate. Either way, the end is nigh!
2
Seems similar to Obama's Rat Pack- just being treated differently.
Really nice guys pay their taxes, don't defraud banks, don't repeatedly lie to the public, press, and courts, but in fact, Mr. Manafort may very well BE one of the nicest men Mr. Trump knows.
What I'm guessing can safely be chiseled in stone this weekend is that Donald Trump is not a happy camper, sleeping well, or handling this with the equanimity we hope all presidents possess, but know this one does not. White House folks would do well to keep an eye on Mr. Trump, because self-absorbed. self-possessed, narcissistic people are far more likely to die by suicide than tiptoe around disaster and keep up the charade of no involvement in the corruption and lies that eventually strangle them. Should Mr. Trump impulsively head in in this direction, he would likely record - in a tweet, or voice recording - that he was pushed to the extremity, because of unfair and unrelenting accusations and verbal assaults on him, betrayal by people he trusted, failure of the nation and world to appreciate and laud his unprecedented presidential accomplishments, and rancorous fake press who have made his presidency a living hell. This is a common way narcissistic sociopaths deal with (and escape) the hell of a reality they repeatedly fashion, but can't tolerate anymore.
5
@drjillshackford
"What I'm guessing can safely be chiseled in stone this weekend is that Donald Trump is not a happy camper, sleeping well, or handling this with the equanimity we hope all presidents possess, but know this one does not. White House folks would do well to keep an eye on Mr. Trump, because self-absorbed. self-possessed, narcissistic people are far more likely to die by suicide"
I'm not sure about that, I don't think a narcissist of Mr. Trump's caliber would commit suicide.
But it has occurred to me that when it seems that Trump is truly cornered - and his silence today is indeed worrisome - it may be time to get out of town to a country bunker somewhere just in case he manages to start a nuclear conflict or something.
2
Donald Trump's precipitous endorsement of Paul Manafort's stoicism, hailing him as one who could not be broken, is typical of Trump's emotionally unbridled, hair-trigger, damn-the-evidence-full-steam-ahead propensity to prematurely rush his judgments. Never one to take the time to become informed, let alone wait for incontrovertible evidence before tweeting recklessly about this or that, Trump now finds himself in yet another self-inflicted conflict with reality.
Chicken Licken, of childhood fable fame and perhaps a direct antecedent of Mr. Trump, routinely squawked that "the sky is falling down," even when it wasn't. When it finally did, no one believed him.
Donald Trump, like Mr. Licken, now finds himself in a place where his own sky is falling down. Unlike Mr. Licken, a lot of people might well believe it, even if Trump himself doesn't. Time and tweets will tell.
So, apparently, will Paul Manafort.
2
Trump is already plotting his resignation. Mueller and the NY State AG will agree to waive any prosecution of current or past crimes if he resigns. However the sticking point will be how much the USG, otherwise known as the taxpayer, will need to pay Trump for future lost earnings. Trump needs to proclaim some historic achievement and undoubtedly it will have to with money.
1
The Paul Manafort / Roger Stone invention was a lobbying firm that first worked to get politicians elected, and then lobbied those very same politicians for the American oligarchy.
And then did the same for dictators and kleptocrats worldwide.
Mueller's work is finally shining a bright light in to this anti-democratic rats nest that is the foundation of the GOP and Trump's "miracle" emergence from six bankruptcies.
9
None of this will matter if Republicans maintain control of Congress.
What is important, is that people show up to vote in November. Raindrops make the ocean and voters make a wave. No rain= no ocean, few voters=no wave.
If more voters show up in each precinct and cast votes for Democrats, control of both the House and the Senate will flip from a majority of corrupt Republicans to a majority of 'checks and balance' Democrats.
It's that simple folks.
☑ Vote Democratic
Just Do It!
15
Here it is in nutshell. Trump Inc. was enabling Russian oligarchs to launder money in the US with real estate deals for years. That’s why they assisted him with hacking and social media trolling during the election. Now Trump is trying to cover it up with obstruction. Mueller is merely methodically connecting the dots so it all can be presented in court with irrefutable hard evidence.
12
What the special counsel knows is what we only speculate on.Isnt't it fun to dream that maybe someday soon we'll know what Mueller wants us to know.The sun will come up tomorrow,but could it be the day? i can hardly wait.
2
The most staggering fact in all this: Many Americans are still sure this president is just fine.
7
Oleg Deripaska was, until very recently, the head of Russia's biggest aluminum manufacturer, Roscal. It's of some great interest that Trump, upon his return from his private meeting with Putin in Helsinki, removed the sanctions on that company.
Robert Mueller must be afforded the time and resources to pull, one by one, all the threads of this complex tapestry of corruption. Only a change in the majority of the House can guarantee this. Republicans have shown very little in the way of support for his investigation; should they be given any new fuel in November might be capable of putting an end to it for once and for all.
Every Democrat in this country needs to come out for the midterms; more is riding on them than the ability to confront and control Congress; allowing the Law to exact justice from a treasonous presidency and party is at stake.
7
My hope is that Manafort will expose the ties that people such as Nunes have with the Russians and that all of the obstructionists will have their day in court.
6
Tax evasion has become a sport for millionaires/billionaires. For years corrupt lawmakers have cut the IRS budget purposely so their donors can skirt our tax laws. Donald Trump is a main culprit among many. It takes a special counsel to convict Paul Manafort for evading taxes. If Trump lost the election Manafort would never had been convicted yet gone to trial. Time to close loopholes. Vote.
10
@RMB, Panama papers and such have revealed a fraction of what is going on, only some of it is made public. These same folks who have tax shelters, shell companies etc, feed our politicians. Even Mitt Romney and sons have money in the Caymans and such. They claim there is nothing illegal about it. So what to do.
2
"The demand for justice once again outweighs the president's demand for loyalty."
The demand for justice, one would think, would outweigh the convenient avoidance of the elephant in the room--three degrees of separation between Manafort's lobbying on behalf of the Ukrainian oligarchs and the Obama White House through the connection of the Podesta Group, Manafort's partner. How has Mueller failed to stumble upon the White House meeting between Obama, Biden Manafort, and his business partner, the Podesta Group?
I have heard that neither Manafort nor the Podesta Group had registered at the time as lobbyists for a foreign government, and that both did so later, which is a common DC practice--but only only half of the partners--Manafort's half--has been charged?
You aren't up on the latest news. The government prosecutors are looking at the Podesta group personel involved in the Manafort matter for their failure to register as foreign agents. They are not immune. It is all mentioned in the papers filed in court yesterday - so all is in the open. You might want to read the source documents, the court filings. Nothing is being hidden here, as you seem to suggest.
2
Amoral individuals like Trump and Manafort are attracted to each other because they share a common lust for power and self-aggrandizement. Both Trump's and Manafort's business and personal lives are textbook cases of staggering narcissism and a belief in their own infallibility. Thankfully we still have a functioning Justice Department. As Mueller exposes the dirt to the light, I'm reminded that there is no honor among thieves.
3
All of the convictions are just confirming the obvious: that while the investigation is going on, we have a criminal, ignoramus, with spite for law, democracy, and basic human decency shaping the America we will have to live in for years to come.
7
The story of the past two years is of a president shrinking in stature, a dizzying turnover in staff until he finds someone who says”yes “ to everything and a puzzling affinity for Putin and other dictators. This is no longer a government true to our Constitution.There is hope that November elections will restore sanity to our government for us and for our allies avroad.
2
I think now that the wheels of justice are working to knock Trump off his crime syndicate perch it might be time to sever the crime base once and for all and go after Putin and his band of robber barons who are making money hand over fist by taking Russia to the cleaners.
How to go about this I’m not sure but the banking industry seems to be one way. I sure hear the word Deutsche Bank a lot and there seems to be considerable activity in Cypress. That seems to be a good start, but until dirty money can be rid of laundering it seems we are going to have more of the same until this problem is solved.
2
Now that Manafort is cooperating I hope that Mueller will finally try to establish some collusion instead of showing that some people around Trump are sleazy. This investigation is supposed to be about collusion between the Russian government and the Trump campaign.
2
All the work of Mueller's team: all the flips; the convictions; the outrageous tweets from a chief executive; the obstructions of justice; the collusion; the exposing of a corrupt White House and Republican Congress; even the public's loss of confidence in the federal judiciary, all these things are meaningless unless it all translates to votes in the next two elections.
As it is, we are ruled by a minority majority. The only corrective is our ballots, precinct by precinct, state by state.
If all the people disgusted with this president and his band of kleptos do not come out and vote in unheard of numbers both this November and in 2020, this country will have seen its best days in its past.
8
“The White House’s defense is that the crimes for which Mr. Manafort was convicted, committed long before joining the Trump campaign, have nothing to do with the president.”
Choosing Manafort for your campaign manager has everything to do with Trump’s massive lack of competence.
5
It would be ironic to see more witches successfully hunted and exposed before Halloween- perfect timing for the midterms to be held right after October 31-- a little like revenge for Comey's timing of the damaging reopening of Hillary's emails days before the 2016 election.
3
Whether Trump resigns, which is unlikely, or survives the findings and perhaps indictment from the Mueller investigation or does not and is predictably pardoned by Pence, or confounds the majority of the country, if not the Electoral College and completes his term and prevails in 2020, whenever he leaves office he will face felony charges in New York State along with Ivanka, Jared and Jr.
The depth and breadth of the Russian involvement in disrupting our elections and successful efforts to polarize our citizens must see the light of day with specific evidence from the Mueller investigation. If Trump fires Mueller we can expect the Republicans in Congress to stand idle. One can hope that such a violation of our values and laws will resonate strongly enough with voters that they will go to the polls and exercise their right to preserve our democracy.
4
This voter will be astonished if R. Mueller finds anything but circumstantial evidence of working with a foreign nation for Trump (sales of real estate to Russian oligarchs). His greatest crimes are probably are his constant lying, his lack of ability to process logically, and his financial deals now involving money making from his position as President. It’s pretty clear from “the resistance” in the WH that DT’s underlings make most of the choices we believe are made by the Prez. Like Oz the Great, this man operates from behind a noisy screen and is really a charlatan.
70
@B. Rothman
Can you imagine your reaction if the crimes you listed were commuted by Obama? You wouldn’t be taking a pass but leading the charge for impeachment.
Bill Clinton was impeached for a single lie about a personal indiscretion I’m sure Mr. Trump has routinely performed against multiple wives.
@B. Rothman
Hasn't the President, like all presidents, divested himself of all his business interests, and, if so, how can he be making money?
Constant lying, of course, is not a crime, much as we all seem to wish it to be one--so if that is his "greatest crime" it isn't really one--although we must admit that lying under oath, or even worse, destruction of subpoenaed evidence --which Hillary did, but Mueller ignores--certainly is a crime, as is behavior exhibiting gross negligence with national secrets--also Hillary, as explained in detail by Comey, also ignored.
I'm afraid the "crime" of lying is on a par with the "crime" of cheating on the nationally- televised debates by accepting, and using, advance knowledge of the questions--Hillary again, neither a creal crime.
A serious search of the Federal statutes confounds when seeking out the imagined crime of failing to "process logically." I note in some newspapers today that North and South Korea are opening the first ever liaison office for better communication prior to their upcoming summit.
No one would make the mistake, of course, of thinking, even for a moment, that this could ever be the result of Trump's failure to 'process logically." Heaven forbid. These things--and so many more politically inconvenient ones f(or us) are fortunately hidden in the back pages of newspapers-- and we all know that they "just happen".
Prepare to be astonished.
Manaforts defection from the Trump-idolizing crowd is not unexpected and frankly Manafort should have been smart enough to do this before his last trial.
What remains to be seen, and D's need to make sure they understand this, is will the R's in Congress protect Mueller and the investigation. furthermore will they actually do anything once the investigation report is sent to them?
The house would have to vote by 2/3rds to impeach and then the Senate would have to decide to actually hold the trial and then it would take 2/3rds of them to vote to impeach.
Does anyone really think that will happen? I don't.
I think our best bet will be if the current petition to have the Watergate report unsealed by a judge works.
With that there is hope that at least the full Mueller report will go to the Full Congress and the public and a basis for actually indicting Trump while in office becomes available.
7
impeachment by the House is just a majority vote
2
What would prevent Trump from firing Mueller and ordering the results of the investigation destroyed? Nothing, according to some of the legal scholars who believe the constitution gave the president unfettered and unlimited power. Certainly not this congress. There is no way that the uber wealthy are going to just let the government they worked decades to get go down in flames. The end of the Trump experiment fiasco is uncertain.
5
@Todd
Only one thing prevents Trump from firing Mueller.
His cowardice.
That’s why he has been ordering Sessions via Twitter, the platform of cowards. And when Sessions would not relent, Trump then insulted Sessions and by extension the rest of our Southern brothers and sisters by calling him “mentally retarded” and “a dumb Southerner,” so now even that ship has sailed too.
The question “Where is my Roy Cohn?” now would be needing some serious update: “Where is my Flynn, Gates, Cohen, Manafort?”
The answer: All are in jail. And soon to follow are Don Jr, Eric, and Javanka.
4
@Todd
as a point of fact, Trump cannot order the "results of the investigation destroyed".
The records and files are secured under the Federal Records Act which would make it multiple Federal Felonies to destroy them.
The most he could do be to seal them and disband the existing Justice Department investigation.
That would last only for as long as he was President.
The political backlash of that would, almost certainly, be a death knell for a Trump second term. Even the herd of cats that makes up the political left would march in lock step to vote him out of office.
There are many other possible if-then scenarios in the event that happens, one of the more far-fetched is that R's in Congress would stop Trump from that action.
Another far-fetched possibility is that Congress "could" start their own investigation with Mueller at the head and subpoena power to retrieve all the records he farmed out to different JD districts to prosecute on state level laws. In this case I imagine a whole bunch of JD prosecutors (in particular those on his current team) and their assistants would quit the Justice Dept and work for Mueller on the Congressional Investigation.
Trump might delay release of this information but the best he could do would be hide it until he is out of office
6
The most recent information about Manafort's "business" practices are eye-openingly crooked. The grand scale hiding of 50 million dollars and stealing passports for purpose of identity theft.
All Trump can do at this point is saying some variation of "I didnt know" what his team was doing around him. Of course, Trump did know. Not sure any of this is enough actually to impeach Trump since the rules about that are so vague.
5
If he wants to plead "I didn't know", he proves that he's outstanding at hiring the worst rather than the best, once he has to do the hiring/firing instead of a television producer.
But then look at his campaign rhetoric and his real estate practices, and you cannot but understand that by "the best" he never referred to men of strong moral character or who were highly competent for the job in the first place.
He was precisely referring to guys like Manafort and Flynn, with no moral compass and who are only in it for themselves, and willing to work for this mafia boss until the next looks to be stronger, and then they "flip".
He calls this kind of spineless men "the best" because he believes that the best employee is the employee who's not in it to serve one or the other cause (making America greater, building something yourself, ...), but the most miserable guy out there, who lives in a "dog eats dog world", and sees Trump as some kind of savior so he can do whatever he wants with them, for some time.
As to impeaching: the entire GOP has become corrupt long before Trump started tweeting. Impeaching him would mean losing everything that motivated them to go to DC in the first place, namely power and personal enrichment. They will NEVER impeach him. And if "we the people" give he Dems the legal power to do so, they will be calling it "Armageddon", even when they themselves impeached a sitting president merely for not telling us that he had sex with an assistant...
3
I know, I know...Benghazi
10
@Lloyd,
I suspect from your comment that you don't now, and likely didn't ever, understand Benghazi--and it isn't completely your fault, because at the time that Hillary underwent those hearings, the whereabouts of her well -hidden e- mails was just beginning to be discovered hiding in a non-governmental e mail system leaking and insecure, although the latter is not my point.
My point is that had those hearings been conducted with all the relevant evidence against Mrs. Clinton in the hands of the Congressional Investigating Committee, even you would not be able to be saying, "I know, I know, Benghazi."
But of course, no one knew that better than Mrs. Clinton, who destroyed that evidence -- more--33,000 pieces of it.
@Oxford96
And yet, Trump didn't even START asking his AG to prosecute her. Instead, he's prosecuting his own campaign picks.
How competent.
1
@Lloyd
should we start labeling this Trumpghazi? let's make it as eternal as the R's witch hunt against the clintons has been.
2
Draining the swamp, the Trump swamp.
9
Astonishing. Being curious, I just went out to the FOX News website to see how they were reporting on this story. This is at 10:15 Saturday morning.
The story of Manafort's plea deal does not even appear on the website.........seriously, wow, just wow!
16
Haiku
Manafort agrees
To work with Robert Mueller...
Hope trump shares same cell.
15
@john jackson
It would appear that you fervently hope that, even if no evidence at all turns up against President Trump. And you are not alone. Hatred of him and his administration began before it began; resistance began before one day elapsed of the traditional presidential honeymoon.
What rank and file Democrats consistently fail to take note of is that from day one, they have been manipulated by their handlers, most of whom would be facing a prison sentence were Mueller not keeping the present administration disracted and were Sessions not being blackmailed to prevent his office from firing hold-overs, hiring unbiased newcomers, and looking into the astonishing level of corruption that existed in the IRS, the FBI, the DOJ and the Dept of State. They all need to prevent that inquiry, and will do and say anything--anything-- to keep themselves free .
@john jackson - Beautiful
1
Won’t It be so coincidental when all those “made up” stories from all the “flippers” end up being the same “made up” story?
4
How benighted the Editorial Board. Justice was served some time ago: Trump to the White House.
Obama's legacy stomped on by the man he hated most. Justice isn't truer or more apt.
Deep swamp DNC-RNC Politburos lost to a rough-hewn interloper and man of the polis--even more Justice.
"A rough-hewn interloper and man of the polis."
Hilarious. George Orwell would be proud; that's the best brief euphemism for, "Born-rich, narcissistic greedhead who wishes he was Mussolini," I've ever seen.
Really; excellent stuff and nonsense.
6
@Alice's Restaurant - President Obama will go down in history as a good president and a great man who genuinely loved his country and did his best to serve it.
Trump will go down in history as a lying, bigot and thug who went down because of criminal activity and treason.
13
I suspect when Mr Trump heard of Mr Manafort's flipping he required an urgent change of underwear.
12
Today is one of those days McNulty and Bunk would relax afterwards by having a few cocktails, shoot the breeze, throw their empties on the tracks, and reflect on the day's fine police work.
2
Trump and Manafort go way back. They have known each other for decades. So reality is, we have a president who knowingly and willingly put a thug..someone committing crimes against America.. in charge of his campaign. If that is not a willful act against America, I don't know what is. Manafort and trump's past oncluded association with mob figures. Please go vote in November.
23
"Welcome to the President's Rat Pack, Paul Manafort"
'I picked you for the job, not because I think you're so darn smart, but because I thought you were a shade less dumb than the rest of the outfit. Guess I was wrong. You're not smarter, Paul... you're just a little taller'. *
*Double Indemnity
As others have said, “to what avail?”
Even if the entire rotten lot turn out to be criminals and traitors many GOP faithful will consider it a price to be paid — a sacrifice — for the victory they have gained in destroying the achievements of a popular black president and science based environmental policy.
16
As another comment shows, yes indeedy--a lot of Trumpists will indeedy think Trump worthwhile if he fully succeeds in tearing down everything Barack Obama got done, who cares who or what gets hurt.
As that great editorial by Charles Sykes pointed out a while back, this is nihilism, built on a slave mentality that sees itself as being all hurted. It just wants payback.
The country don't matter, real jobs don't matter, the economy don't matter, their kids' future don't matter, the fact that they're firehosing money at the wealthy don't matter: revenge for a certain chunk of white people matters.
7
The Trump edifice, facing Mueller's hurricane force like winds, is being slowly reduced to a babbling, dissembling, panicking, pile of rubble. And the hot mess currently residing in the White House is methodically being exposed to the very people who supported him. To some it's like watching pain dry. But the methodical approach Mueller is utilizing insures that no stone will go un turned in the search for truth. Mueller would never have offered Manafort a deal if he had little or nothing to offer...the screws are tightening.
2
Evil us as evid does. I am praying for irange jumpsuits for the whole evil disgusting trump family including jared and ivanka.
What kind if famiky are they that they despise poor people, especially poor brown children, do anything to make their lives even more miserable including terrorizing and and traumatizing their children for political gain.
Human stains all of them.
21
@Thereaa
Evil is seen and conjured wherever convenient and politically expedient, and your post so drips in accusations of unsubstantiated racism, lies and hatred that it reflects badly on the very cause you believe you are serving. Your hatred and contempt not only know no bounds of decency, but you yourself obviously know no history of the law of Separation, or the prior president's chastisement by the US 9th Circuit of Appeals. And even were you spoon fed the cases and the history, one has every reason to doubt that hard facts could penetrate the veil of misinformation surrounding your very hateful being.
So for the other readers of this post whose minds might not be as bound up as yours, I will offer these small pieces of information to keep it very simple:
1. The Flores Settlement of 1996, under Bill Clinton's Democrat administration, brought us Separation of children from adult detention facilities--not Republicans and not Trump.
2. The 9-year long litigation was pushed by liberal groups trying to protect alien migrant minors from adult detention facilities--protecting them, for example, from the "unwanted touching" and worse that has so riled up your base when adult women are victims, but which apparently flies under your politicized radar when alien migrant brown children are equally affected in adult detention facilities.
Let's just leave it there for now.
You are correct in that Trump is unconcerned with poor people regardless of race, color or national origin. Other than the wealthy or the autocratic, he seems to have no interest or concern.
1
Oh. That explains why Trump's been deporting parents and keeping kids, in defiance of several court orders, and diverting money from the Coast Guard and FEMA to pay for expanded detentions of chldren.
Hey, do you happen to know what FEMA and the Guard actually do? Friends of mine from the Carolinas were asking.
1
The NYT Editorial Board concludes, “How many more guilty pleas and convictions will there be in Trumpworld before all this crime starts to look — how can we put it — organized?”
Ooh! Is the Board suggesting that when Mueller finally snares the Don, it might be under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act?
9
If the Democrats take control of Congress, they might want to consider introducing the Russian Influenced and Collusion Operations Act to expand the Mueller probe so that it brings all the meddling, corruption and illegal money laundering since the fall of the Soviet Union out in the open. Let the chips fall where they may!
5
Next up: Mike Pence
11
Don't sweat it, Pablo. Those Hermes ties and the ostrich blazer will get you presidential pardons every time.
1
Mike Flynn sentencing on Monday, 17th...
Will Flynn get 2 weeks jail time like Papadopoulos? Lots of cooperating going around.
Nice touch starting the article with “Pardon us!” So, I guess that brave, brave man, Manafort, finally figured out that he wan’t going to squirm out of this one with a Presidential Pardon. Now he’s just another Trump casualty. Welcome to the witch’s coven, Paulie Boy!
1
NYT- your tone is so giddy even as a liberal I find it a bit hard to buy into your angle of optimism that justice is near. NYT is excited for the story not the justice. How else to explain all those articles NYT published on Trump before he was president, giving him so much room in the media it made Trump inevitable??? Trump’s claims not to like the media are false, the media breathes so much oxygen into this monster everyday with all the intrigue and he loves it. I find it all quite non-objective and transparent.
This proves how amoral and low Mr.Trump is. Such kind of person with deeds reeking criminality should not be the president of our nation.
3
And we'll see the Trump tweet assailing Paul Manafort in 3 ... 2 ... 1 ...
3
Yo Vladimir,
Your dirty hand in our democracy will be exposed and the backlash will be sanctions the likes of which you have never seen.
5
The good moderators at The Times will probably delete this comment but I’ll chance it nevertheless.
Joining that presidential “rat pack” should be, in no particular order: Mitch McConnell, John Boehner, Paul Ryan, Devin Nunes and all those on The Hill—in the various governors’ mansions and state legislatures—as well as the Koch Bottles, ALEC, Fox News, Rush Limbaugh, the entire Trump family and Cabinet.
None of the names mentioned above have been charged with any criminal liability. I build my argument because not one individual or group could fail to know, before Paul Manafort dropped a dime on the president yesterday, that Donald Trump was not fit to be No. 45. They had something to gain from his election victory.
Silence or hand-wringing are not justifications for shady, questionable behavior by either demonstrable deed or, much worse to my mind, unsavory reputation that was accepted and acceptable because the “greater” purpose was not in the advancement of America’s noble interests but in the narrower and sleazier knowledge that one’s selfish interests would be served, no matter who was harmed.
Those on The Hill might begin a restoration of their sullied “honor” by postponing a vote for Judge Brett Kavanaugh. His (and Justice Neil Gorsuch) name will be forever tarnished by association with a man who may one day have been adjudicated a traitor.
What price honor? “I (we) didn’t know” won’t cut it and would be a monstrous lie. Haven’t we had enough?
30
@Soxared, '04, '07, '13
Well said!
And if Kavanaugh gets on the bench, money in politics will only get worse.
3
@Soxared, '04, '07, '13
Unfortunately, the ship “honor” has sailed a long time ago.
2
Perhaps Mueller will move into the Trump Tower flat he just evicted Mr. Manafort from.
7
Interesting this happened in 2013, and just now be brought to justice? What about the dozens of Members of Congress, their staff, and White House and State Department officials who were lobbied are they also being investigated for any illegal activity?
3
If the USA were still a republic, Trump would not be president. The evidence of his corruption, greed, and amorality was there for all to see before any investigation, but the greed of the Republican Party allowed Trump to be president. The same Republican Party has provided cover to this disaster for democracy and, further, it has encouraged it. The Republicans in the House even chose to side with Putin and attack the FBI and our intelligence services, initiating investigations uncalled for. I can go on and on, but the gist is that no matter what Muller finds the Republicans are not going to do anything about it. For those who care for this country, there’s only one option left. Vote them OUT on November 6.
16
The question now is can the president commit treason and money laundering on Fifth Avenue without losing any of his supporters.
408
@Bruce Stasiuk
I am so confused. What do you mean by "on Fifth Avenue?" Would you be happier if alleged treason had been committed elsewhere--say just for example, in the Department of State, the DOJ, or the FBI?
@Bruce Stasiuk They don't care. And most of them have not followed any of this; they simply tune in to Hannity for his take on what's going on. Ignorance is bliss.
3
“I know the best peep-hole, I mean people”
3
Birds of a feather . . . . .
2
The POTUS is Tony Soprano. We are dooomed.
Interestingly, Pence was highly involved in a lot of what happened and led the transition. I guess that makes Pence, Pauli Walnuts, one of Tony Soparanos capos.
9
Great analogy, Alan. However, I think Tony Soprano would take offense!
2
No matter how much he "cooperates", here's hoping Paul Manafort serves no less than 10 full years in a prison cell- in general population; no special VIP treatment. He is a thug.
5
He even used the term "bada bing, bada boom" talking about the "Obama Jews." You couldn't write a screenplay this bad, but I have to pinch myself, every day.
8
I’ve had very few dealings with lawyers over the years:
1 will, 2 real estate purchases, 0 prenuptial agreements,
0 divorces, 0 lawsuits, 0 confidentiality agreements with porn stars, 0 trials, 0 traffic tickets needing fixing, 0 advice on how to avoid impeachment, 0 help in pleading the Fifth Amendment,
0 hours contemplating how I was going to pay my legal bills, 0 hours defending myself against contacts with Russians, 0 hours watching Alan Dershowitz on TV.
It makes me wonder why Trump and Manafort and the rest of their shoddy bunch get so much pleasure out of it.
11
This is all playing out like a classic dope case. lol
1
Maybe we'll get the whole picture painted for us, from Trump's complicity with the Russian mafia when he was struggling to get from under billions in debt (aka the KGB / GRU), up to the present. It all runs together like a slimy tapestry.
The Constitutional Judas Caucus (aka the GOP and The Base) will not care, but perhaps the rest of the country will.
5
The closing statement concurs with what has been stated all along... the current administration (such as it actually administers anything) operates more like the Mafioso than a government of intelligent individuals. The Don requires fealty to only himself and not to the country or the rule of law. It looks like the rule of law will ultimately win (GO, Mueller, GO!).
3
Salmonella or Ebola? Trump or pence?
8
@RTC
It was Manafort who pushed Trump to select Pence, so.....perhaps more details to follow........
5
The editorial states that Mueller agreed..."not to retry Mr. Manafort on 10 counts over which last month’s jury deadlocked". I was under the impression that (as part of the plea deal) Mr. Manafort admitted guilt for those ten counts. Is that not correct?
1
Has Trump ever hired anyone who was NOT a crook?
5
I certainly hope that Mueller et al are on the right track to bring our country back home to the American people. But I am worried, very worried, because the truth that the FBI and the DOJ are unwilling to tell is YES, because of the slim margin of victory the 2016 Presidential election was not only influenced but the outcome was decided by Russian dirty tricks. And frankly I still do not buy Comey's explanation for his bizarre actions 10 days before the election. From the beginning our government agencies and election officials have repeatedly claimed that the Russian influence did not decide our election and I worry that Mueller and his team will get a bunch of guilty pleas and keep Trump insulated enough to avoid the American public from finding out the whole truth in order to quash the civil unrest that will ensue if we find out the full extent of Russian influence and dirty election tricks and that they actually did affect the outcome of our 2016 Presidential election. A very likely scenario is that Trump will resign claiming innocence, that he really did win on his own, that everything is stacked against him and so unfair; for the "good" of the country he very likely will be pardoned for any and all crimes by Pence, and the GOP will be free to continue undermining our democracy as Fox News proclaims ad nauseum that this was all a big conspiracy against Trump and anyway Hillary would have been so much worse. Can Mueller and his team save us from this scenario?
2
My elderly mother created a paper voodoo doll of our "president" and sticks pins in it daily. The Manafort headline cheered her up.
My personal hope is that she sees this reprobate run out of office before she passes away. She should not have to die thinking this is what her beloved country has come to. Clock is ticking.
12
@peinstein - I wish I could shake your mother’s hand.
Please give her my best wishes.
2
Excellent article.Rudy's inane disclosure of that joint defense agreement says it all- conspiracy to act against US interests by both Manafort and Trump.The depth of the confession as to Manafort's acts in defending the Russian puppet in Ukraine is astounding. Worse yet is the disclosure of an anti-semitic slur against the opposition and Hillary orchestrated by Putin and with Israeli involvement which is disgusting. Manafort and now Trump have manufactured a whisper campaign heard in Israel of Obama and Hillary being anti-semitic. They effectively co-opted Jewish votes with help from Moscow.Disgusting!
Next on the list should be Roger Stone, who was Manafort's partner. However he is the repository of GOP dirty tricks going back to Nixon. No wonder Manafort is seeking protection for his family. Between Putin, Stone, the GOP, the NRA and Trump I can understand his fears.
Then we have the issue of Pence being chosen by Manafort over Christie, a former US prosecutor. Is he in Mueller's sights? Find me a speech where Pence was in favor of Russian sanctions.
November's election could determine who is next in line for the Presidency. Robert Mueller has the election in his hands.
6
A dirty man surrounds himself in dirty people.
Vote folks. Our lives depend on it.
8
Sure are a lot of witches in Trump's orbit.
Come now should we be surprised about all this? Perhaps Trump's favorites, the tea partiers, neocons, evangelicals and more importantly the Republican hierarchy will finally come around and support a movement to get rid of Trump before it is too late for our country.
2
Mothers and fathers the world over have worried about the company their children keep. Paul Manafort’s cooperation with the Russia investigation confirmed the charges of the president’s campaign manager's business practices. But he has plenty of company, and company surrounding one person, the president.
The president has surrounded himself with money launderers, perjurers, criminal conspirators, bank fraudsters, campaign finance violators—and these are just the crimes that have achieved admission of guilt or conviction in court. Felons all.
If one’s teenager were hanging out with a crowd of felons, what parent wouldn’t be alarmed?
Yet, the Congressional GOP does nothing. The Constitution was set up by people who understood the notion of divided power to maintain balance. The current GOP have forsworn their oath to the Constitution in not conducting a single Congressional investigation, holding a single hearing, or even making comments that might even accidentally intersect with criticism.
At the moment, the fate of the Republic hangs by two threads. The first is gossamer thin as the Mueller investigation continues. We hear many, many times that the president wants to fire him. More importantly, the conclusion of his investigation is uncertain. Will he, can he, indict a sitting president? If he refers the matter to Congress, what can he report that prompts GOP action? We cannot rely on this thread.
That leaves the second. November is coming.
12
Lately I've been re-watching "The Sopranos". The parallels are not just fascinating, they're frighteningly accurate. There's a good reason Robert Mueller staffed his investigations with lawyers well-versed in prosecuting organized crime.
I know it's a tv show, but the impunity with which its organized crime members move through their world, insulated by a code of silence and "a lot of buffers" (Godfather II), with the freedom to shoot somebody on 5th Avenue in broad daylight without worry about repercussions, matches the Trump Organization's operating model. Even as his capos and soldiers are taken down, each one implicating the Don, his attorneys and protectors continue to claim that nothing they've copped to has anything to do with him. Yep, a lot of buffers.
Meanwhile, the government is stacking up witnesses and testimony like cord wood, as the good soldiers of the Trump family are faced with life sentences and denials from the Don that he ever knew them, ever met them, ever talked to them, ever directed them in any way, the classic abandoning of the loyalty he demanded from them.
You couldn't make this stuff up. Or, maybe you could....
20
Manafort's reversal could be a whole lot of something or it could be a whole lot of nothing. We don't know right now. Manafort is in a place to confirm or contradict accounts of Trump's knowledge and actions during the campaign. Most famously, Trump Jr.'s testimony that Trump had no knowledge of the Trump Tower meeting. Before you get excited, Manafort may very well confirm Trump Jr.'s account or at least mirror his interpretation of the meeting.
On the other hand though, a contradiction about the point of Trump's prior knowledge puts us in a weird place. Manafort could potentially, in effect, accuse Trump Jr. of lying before Congress. As we've seen, Mueller has no hesitation when pursuing indictments for lying. This entire situation would naturally implicate President Trump as well.
Then of course, we have the question of pardons. Given Manafort's extensive legal exposure, you have to wonder why Manafort was taking his case to trial at all. He was in a much better positional to negotiate *before* being convicted. A pardon was therefore almost certainly considered. The question is whether Trump's legal team floated the idea explicitly.
Last but not least, Manafort might know nothing at all. Mueller might be using Manafort to communicate a message to other suspects. This is what happens when you mess with Mueller. Turn fully and turn early or else.
1
If Trump's demand for loyalty doesn't disqualify the man's suitability for Presidency, what in God's name does?
2
The culture being exposed is one the majority of taxpaying Americans cannot even fathom. Offshore accounts, foundations, tax evasion, attorneys to fix your extramarital affairs, divorces and handle your multiple bankruptcies and lawsuits are the furthest things from our minds. Is anyone not part of this tangled web electable? The amount of money being spent on political ads and campaign contributions right now is staggering and paybacks are expected. How can this ever change?
9
here, here. my only comment would be; "The demand for justice ALWAYS outweighs the president’s demand for loyalty. "
5
Like many others, I shudder at the thought of a President Mike Pence.
But hope springs eternal: If Trump is convicted of treason, specifically, then the Constitution allows for ALL members of his administration including the VP and cabinet secretaries to be removed from office. And, assuming the Dems retake the House in November, they get to choose the next Speaker ...who just happens to be next in the line of succession to the presidency. Ironically, while I admit it’s far-fetched, it’s not impossible that the next speaker could be—wait for it—Hillary Rodham Clinton: The Speaker does not have to be an elected member of the House.
Reality check: I predict the GOP will do everything in their power to get Trump to resign, if for no other reason than to stave off any attempt to charge Trump with treason. Call it a hunch.
5
If you truly want to see the Dems take back at least one house of Congress in November, please stop mentioning HRC — her time has passed and she is a liability in this context. Same goes for Biden, Pelosi, Feinstein, Sanders and, yes, Bloomberg. To create a wave, you need energy. Septuagenarians do not create enough energy. While Bernie gave it one helluva go in 2016, he now needs to be working behind a new, younger standard-bearer for the movement he created.
2
Trump and Manafort have shared greed. Their love for money no matter how acquired knows no bounds. And Manafort's forfeiture of a minimal $46 million back to the US Treasury was a shock to Trump's existence.
No matter the ways in which he got it, through fraud or Russian money laundering, it's Trump's money now. HIS ALONE. He can see the writing on that wall, whenever he leaves office he will face NYS investigations, most likely charges too and he might have to forfeiture some of HIS money. That is just too much to expect from Don the Con. He has spent his whole life making more, more and more money. It is one of the ways that he defines himself, that keeps that fragile ego fed.
The whole POTUS gig was never about service to country but service to self - and Trump has been busy making money for himself and buying judges to protect his behind. But once out of office that protection will be reduced 'bigly'. Manafort offers information regarding Russian money in America at many levels.
Trump is afraid of that coming too close for his comfort.
He will trash the Oval Office on his way out to save his ill gotten gains. Watch out, it's not over yet by a long shot.
11
While The NY Times seemingly gloats with giddish optimism, it may want to consider two ideas:
1. Mueller isn’t a hero yet. If he’s going outside the mandate of collusion, he hopefully takes the opportunity to reveal the second idea...
2. That organized crime isn’t limited to one party.
All for exposing the truth no matter where it lands, while I’m cheering for outing trump.
2
@Peter Duffy. Mueller's mandate is to investigate Russian interference in the 2016 elections and any crimes that he turns up in the course of that investigation. The document is online.
2
Take a good look, Trump Country. These are your heroes. Rich, corrupt jerks from New Yotk
25
Let's remember how long Manafort worked for Trump before Trump fired him and how far back in time the allegations occurred. What was it - three or four months before Trump fired him? It's difficult to drain the swamp when the pool of candidates for many of these D.C. jobs has lived and inbred in the swamp for years if not decades. I have a hard time getting worked-up to the point of believing that this is Trump's fault or problem.
18
@Keith. Pay Attention. They have been associated for much longer than Manafort's stint as campaign head.
@Keith As they say, when you lay in bed with dogs, you shouldn't be surprised that you wake up with fleas.
Trump's been a denizen of the nether world for years and years. He's completely flea bitten.
@Keith Ih honey, that’s sweet but no, not really valid in the context of what happened during the campaign.
I have a theory (don't we all). Muller realized a long time ago that all this corruption is tied to much more than the manipulation of our election by Russia. It's pretty obvious to anyone who looks that the origin of Putin's power is a confluence of the KGB and the Russian mafia. One of the world's superpowers is run with absolute control by an organized crime boss with nuclear weapons. That's a first in geopolitics. Or it was.
Thanks to diligent reporting and numerous books, it's also obvious that Trump has a thirty year history of involvement with individuals connected to Russian organized crime, mostly but not exclusively through money laundering.
All of that is provable just based on what we publicly know. But Muller knows and has proof for much, much more. My theory is that Muller is going beyond Trump. He's after Trumps boss, Vladimir Putin. Many reporters have lost their lives uncovering the horrors of the Putin kleptocracy.
If anyone thinks Putin is beyond Muller's purview, know he's already charged 13 Russians. This case is about more than an American election. A couple years ago, Putin had senior advisors that told him bluntly that what he was trying to do to America was way too dangerous. He got rid of them.
We're in uncharted waters. There's no president for any of this. We're dealing with a nuclear armed crime syndicate. The truth will come out, but I'm fearful of the consequences.
6
Trump's supporters were never conned or duped - they knew exactly what they were getting in Trump who wore his vices on his head like a glittering crown.
That is the real crime: that so much of the population has fallen to such tawdry levels of racism and cynicism. Trump may be put in prison, but what is to be done with sixty million voters who praise his corruption like it was virtue?
892
@Jonathan Baker How haunting and accurate an observation Mr. Baker.
2
@Jonathan Baker
Yes. This is the whole thing. It turns out Americans are far from "special" as they would like to believe. It is interesting to consider that America was founded as an English colony for commercial gain. It had NONE of the painful evolutionary history witnessed in Europe, etc. Perhaps slavery underpins this best. So, the rotten underbelly rises to the surface. As Plato stated 2400 years ago (paraphrasing), in any Republic, it's all a matter of the quality of the electorate.
3
@Jonathan Baker...what you’ve posted is exactly what worries me. I knew that there were many people in the country who are racist, xenophobic, greedy, etc. But, I was naive. I never suspected that there were so very many . Until we can substantially reduce the levels of racism, etc., we will never be “great”.
2
Manafort, Cohen, Gates and ....Jared. Three men and a baby in a cell Now that is a reality TV show that Les Moonves wishes he were around to produce.
6
A few weeks ago, when Trump tweeted about “such a brave man” Paul Manafort and the fact that he “ refused to break” and cooperate with federal investigators he was clearly confusing Manafort with someone of the of the calibre of a John McCain.
Amazing how “crime bosses” over the years, who have been brought down by their own people, never learn the truth in the maxim - “There is no honor among thieves.”
5
"All the President's Felons" is all one needs to know about Donald J. Trump.
9
A picture is worth a thousand words.
Whoever took this picture should be given a journalistic award for the best, most concise and most truthful thing that has been "said" about Manafort and, indeed, the rest of the trump crime syndicate.
And it is a crime family in the Mafia tradition.
Sic 'em. Justice Department. You owe the American public that due to Jim Comey and his republican instincts. Never forget, it was Comey who sealed the deal with his "kiss"
4
Note that what Pres. Trump is urging people like Mr. Manafort to stand up courageously and refuse to do is to tell the truth.
5
It is unfair to the talented likes of Sammy Davis Jr., Dean Martin, Sinatra, et. al., to call Trump's boil of parasites and cockroaches a "Rat Pack." These self-serving, talentless thieves, including the grifter in chief himself, have no redeeming gifts for humankind whatsoever. They're singing now, but it's not music their nervous emanations are singing to.
4
Has anyone checked the president’s twitter account lately... Anyone?
5
Only the best ..... sad.
1
Great editorial, with a damning conclusion. You are absolutely right: the actions of Donald Trump and his inner circle appear more and more to resemble "organized crime." The biggest question is whether and how this Mafia-Don will be removed from office.
5
Cohen, Flynn, Gates, Manafort, Papadopoulos are part of an ever growing Alphabet soup of essentially haute-couture crooks that surrounds somebody in the center! His cabinet picks and staff are leaving or being driven out or being harassed by the man in the middle. And these are the "Best People" America can produce?
Then there is the biggest con - congress who has not only capitulated to his capricious whims, except for a few stalwarts who can be counted on one hand, but are actively co-conspiring and colluding to cover up any potential criminal activity!
Wake up people, your only weapon, only weapon is your vote. So, vote and get these crooks out! If you don't they will stay!
7
We already know he's a rat, but will he sing like a canary? And will it be enough to end - or help end - "our long national nightmare"?
4
Can Manafort provide evidence that Russians illegally contributed $$ to the Trump campaign?
1
Others have already said this: Manafort might want to enter witness protection so the Russians don't get to him with their special powder.
3
Listening to bob Marley now, “Everything’s going to be alright. Everything’s going to be alright. Everything’s going to be alright. Everything’s going to be alright.”
1
This president ran on a platform of “draining the swamp”.
Whether you believe Trump’s lies and defenses or not, you can’t look at this and think that he surrounded himself with anything but the swamp.
Manafort, Flynn, Papadopoulos, Cohen, Gates......
Does this guy do any vetting? And if so, what is he looking for in a candidate except loyalty?
Certainly not character or honesty.
These are the men he chose for his inner circle. (I’m not even talking about Giuliani, Bannon, Pruitt, etc )
With his track record of finding “the Finest people,” why are we moving forward on his nomination to the Supreme Court?
Is there a way to stop this? Republicans? Are you
out there?
3
This editorial was a little vindictive, almost Trump-like. I have always respected the Times' attempts to editorialize for what they thought was the good of the country, and I am with you on most points of view. But this editorial seems more emotionally charged, and even childlike in its taunts. What happened?
Reading this column today should make many feel better. Until they read the one in the same section by Roger Cohen. Democratic optimism sometimes has a certain knack for quickly turning into a subtle form of glibness based on faulty assumptions.
Republicans seem to know better. To borrow a couple of clichés,
we're still only in the early innings here and the fat lady has yet to warm up.
Vote.
2
The WH's flaccid retort that nothing in Manafort's case involves Trump and his swamp rats wilol soon deflate Mueller is not interested in Manafort's shady deals, tax fraud or illegal foreign lobbying; he is after the Big Fish, knowing that Manafort ws deeply involved in the Trup campaign during its most critical periods, including the Trump Tower meeting.
2
Next step, vote Trumpublicans out and prosecute them under the R.I.C.O. Statutes.
6
Saturdnay 10am: Where in the world is Donald Trump this morning? No tweets about Manafort?
3
When Jackie O had a pratfall from her horse she complained to JFK. He said your job is to amuse the populace. POTUS now is doing a great job of amusing us.
1
There are still the midterms. A SCOTUS confirmation. A loyal Trump base. Fox News. A congress rife with enablers and protectors. Giuliani’s mouth. And Twitter. Unless Manafort coughs up some seriously useful and damning information for Mueller to act on in an urgent way, this saga will drag on through a second term for DJT.
105
@DesertRar
But still about 65% of Americans have had enough of the bloviated blowhard named Trump.
2
@Desert Rat
And why should we expect truth or forthrightness from anyone in this mob?
@Desert Rat
I believe you misunderstand. If and when Mueller was turning up zip, it didn't matter to the anti-Trump forcers, just as it didn't matter to them when Comey presented the public with multiple examples of Hillary's gross negligence, then told the public a tiny little fib --something about the non-existnent requirement for "intent" in the Federal Gross Negligence statute. Ever see the actual statue printed in the mass media--minus the word intent? Ever wonder why? Which goes to my point: when there are powerful forces aligned against a sitting president, the last thing they actually require is seriously useful and damning information. They get along quite well with none of it, thank you very much. Innuendo, repetition, false narratives, sex, anonymous sources, accusations never proven--it all works very well without the need for the hard stuff of proof. No collusion between Trump's campaign and Russian interference in the election ? Who needs it? Just switch the narrative the tiniest bit from collusion to found crimes, which would never have been discovered but for the excuse of seeking always known non-existent collusion--i.e., a witch hunt--and no one will care, because any dirt will do ya.
In a way, it's good that most young people are not interested in politics. If they would, it would be much harder for them to be honest.
1
Would love to hear what the republcs would be saying if this many Obama's staff had pleaded guilty during a investigation. Their hypocrisy is almost unbelievable.
8
Manafort was recently convicted for his Ukrainian activities in 2007. This was known, investigated and case closed in 2013. Then the case was reopened in 2017 to find something on Trump. Manafort's home was raided by swat team whole family was home..at night, then spent time held in isolation.
Are we setting a banana republic precedent? Will everyone participating in an election be vulnerable to a fine tooth investigation going back decades for political advantage?
The fact is, had Hillary won,none of this would have happened to Manafort.
Liberals,moderates and conservative Americans should think this thru.
Dangerous Precident.
1
Rat Pack? To say the least.
Now appears Trump didn't want blind people (or guests?)
living at Trump Tower. Criminals from all over the planet?
Hop in the "waters" fine.
The basic folly, as exemplified by this Editorial, is that there exists a rat pack ONLY on the Republican side.
2
Organised Crime. You nailed it.
3
While I'm hesitant to pop the champers just yet, I believe that between Mueller and the mid-terms, there's a prison term for the Trump Administration - "Dead man walking".
4
'Junior, Mr. Mueller will see you now.'
7
Out of many hundreds of "respectable" Republican legislators, academics, and supporters, why did Mr. Manafort pick Mike Pence to be our Vice President? What made him particularly appealing to this pro-Russia-connected convicted criminal?
8
Here's a happy thought. Once Trump loses his usefulness to Russia, Putin just might call in his chit, leaving Mr. T not just irrelevant but totally broke to boot.
1
Donald has led a life of crime and has finessed his way out of any consequences. He is about to pay. Bigly.
8
Trump, an innocent, sure was surrounded by a lot of crooks!
3
Mr Trump, How is that "Witchhunt" working for you now?
5
Yes, Donald, that is a BUS you're looking UP at.
6
Okay, the details that are building the case against Trump are becoming overwhelming. One by one, his close associates are pleading guilty to serious crimes and cooperating with the investigation.
But in the meantime, Donald is still president.
If we know he's seriously compromised -- and we do -- then how much longer do we permit this miscarriage of justice to persist?
It's Mueller time.
4
Right now, the biggest concern about the Paul Manafort cooperation deal with Robert Mueller should be whether or not the Mueller report on his entire investigation ever sees the light of day.
If Republicans after the midterms still hold the House, any report by the Mueller team is likely to be buried by a White House assertion of executive privilege.
If Republicans lose the House, Donald Trump, the day after the midterm results are confirmed, may still create a constitutional crisis by firing Mueller – along with getting rid of Rod Rosenstein and Jeff Sessions.
The Trump fallback position for those firings would be the protection of a U.S. Supreme Court dominated by the presidential immunization theories of the by-then, newly confirmed Justice Brett Kavanaugh.
If the House initiated impeachment proceedings and produced evidence of a Trump conspiracy with Vladimir Putin to win the 2016 election (and to make national security concessions to Russia in return for that service and for freshly laundered money from Russian oligarchs), Donald Trump would need another get-out-of-jail-free card.
His name is Mike Pence.
2
On Friday, Mr. Manafort broke in a big way — agreeing to cooperate “fully, truthfully, completely, and forthrightly” regarding “any and all matters” the special counsel, Robert Mueller, wants him to.
I predicted this would happen. Nobody wants to go to prison if there's a way to get out of it.
When Mr. Trump is impeached next year I think it would be good for his mental health. It would also be a good thing for this nation and for the entire planet.
5
Who would ever write a tv reality show in which the "star" keeps getting put upon by his henchmen, one after the other?
Only in Delusional Donnie's universe.
Can't wait for the last episode.
5
Once this lot of criminals is out of the office we need to extend the hunt to congress. Policies, treaties and damage done needs to be repealed as it has been conducted illegally.
Clearly changes need to follow including: separation of church and state needs to be enforced. Religions perhaps should lose tax exempt status when they unconstitutionally spend their money and time in politics. Congresspeople must not talk religion on duty. Gerrymandering needs to be looked at and fixed. Get rid of the electoral college. Pump up public education and enforce charter school regulation. Restrict and regulate banking and fix the corrupt FCC that enables Fox news. Medicare for all.
10
@P Wilkinson
And all campaign financing regulations - tear down and rebuild.
1
No one has ever been wounded nor killed nor imprisoned by a Donald Trump tweet nor snarling snarking speech.
Plenty of people have been hurt, killed and imprisoned by a Vladimir Putin smirk or smile.
Paul Manafort has far more to fear from Putin than he does Trump. And so does Trump. Because Putin knows what cooperation, collaboration, collusion and conspiracy he cleverly concocted with Trump and his campaign team to get Trump elected President. And Putin knows what Trump is hiding from the American people in his personal and family income tax returns and business records.
MAGA!
4
I've been thinking about this "Rat Pack" and how different they are from individuals working for multi-national corporations who work abroad. I work for one publicly held Federal contractor with foreign contracts, but mostly domestically. Never the less, I have received something like 300 training sessions in 20 years covering foreign and corrupt practices act, insider trading, security, unfair business practices, "red flag" recognition, etc. Usually our people travel in groups to foreign countries, so there are witnesses to meetings. We know in some countries, we may be surveilled.
So how is it, that Trump who hires only the "best people", find these untethered "lone cowboys". Have they attended the same training opportunities that I have? (Only Flynn must have). Even Trump demonstrated he operated alone in Helsinki, with only an interpreter between him and the Russians. His first meeting in Nov 2016, alone in his office with Lavrov and Kislyak was very disturbing. All men emerged from the meeting with the classic "Cheshire Cat" grins. Trump gave them Israeli classified information. There are "untethered and untrained lone cowboys" throughout his administration. Even his Cabinet Secretary excesses are "untethered".
These are all "red flags" for the American voter.
7
One can now reasonably presume that Manafort’s purchase of that forfeited apartment in Trump Towers was done with laundered money. If so, was his “seller”, whose own family digs was located in the building’s penthouse, aware of his receipt of illegal funds in the sale? Yet another conspiracy trail for the Mueller Investigation to follow up on with its captive canary. In the end, Americans will be seeing criminal conspiracies piled on top of conspiracies in this legal saga.
4
Of all of Trump’s campaign advisers, Manafort had the deepest ties to Russian operatives and oligarchs. He worked for years in Ukraine with Konstantin V. Kilimnik, a Russian citizen who prosecutors have said had ties to a Russian intelligence service. As an associate of the Russian mafia, Manafort was paid millions.
When Putin's gang attempted to murder the Russian spy who flipped, and his daughter as well, he was sending a message to Manafort.
Thus the statement from Manafort’s lead lawyer, that said Manafort "wanted to make sure his family was able to remain safe and live a good life.”
Manafort knows what Putin would do to him and his family will be worse than jail.
Even though Putin's sock puppet Trump, was likely to pardon him, Manafort made the decision that he trusts Mueller more than Trump.
10
The Man has flipped and the Fort sheltering Trump has started to collapse. It is becoming the usual story in criminal conspiracies,- when the law begins to close in, it’s each rat for himself.
3
We can not change the president to move his steps to resign; we may fail at impeachment...and whether he wins nomination or not, election or not, we have December of 2020 when riots will break out (supporters or opposition)due to the above with Mr. Trump still in office. The work of newspapers then is to undermine those riots by converting Mr. Trump's supporters. They are more dangerous than Trump. How? They will cause Trump to initiate martial law...and it won't be lifted.
It's just a thought, but could McConnell and Ryan have known anything about Trump's election shenanigans? Could some arrangement have been made to keep Trump in power no matter what in exchange for something? Does that partly explain their weird silence as the indictments multiply? Could one or both of them have known what Trump was up to during his campaign, but was promised something if they looked the other way? How deep does Trump's corruptive influence go?
6
Once Trump's legal risk exceeds his political risk he'll begin the process to fire Mueller (1st fire Sessions, Rosenstein,etc until he finds somebody at Justice who will fire Mueller).
1
It would seem to me that there are a whole lot of people who wish they had never heard the name Donald J. Trump. Had they not their lives would be a lot more comfortable and they may we’ll have been able to fly under the scrutiny of the law for a long, long time. I also suspect there are more than a couple more who are extremely nervous and also wishing the Trump brand had remained a distant novelty to them as well. It reminds me there really are no adults in the White House despite the assurances of Mr(s) Anonymous.
325
@Doug Thomson
Paradoxically, the absurd, cloying almost drunken circus which trump has turned the Office of presidency into this may well give Americans cause to reflect upon what their Nation is supposed to be about and how far away from all of those Olympian dreams they have allowed themselves to be led.
It could be the start of a renewal and re-dedication to the high ideals which the USA is supposed to be all about.
Who knows? All I can say is that the current embodiment of the Great American Dream bears very little relation to what it "says on the tin", America is a wonderful country but it is in real danger so please wake up and reclaim the Democratic Process from the PACS, lobby groups and foreign influences.
27
While we naturally tend to focus on the effect that Mueller's investigation might have on Trump, it's important to remember that Mueller's focus is on the Russian oligarchs and their interference with not only our elections, but our entire government. He is exposing all of the connections, the money trails, the subterfuge, the influence, the individuals and their methods, some of which involved Trump's campaign and perhaps Trump himself. While it may seem as if Mueller is going to save us from Trump (please!), he is actually saving us from our true enemy, the Russians. Mueller is a great American hero.
796
@syfredrick "it's important to remember that Mueller's focus is on the Russian oligarchs and their interference with not only our elections, but our entire government."
Is that so? What has he discovered, then, to have been any benefit, whatsoever, to the US of the sale of 20% of our uranium mining rights to Russian oligarchs?
@syfredrick
Well said.
It has become clear since Trump took office that the Russians have "kompromat" on members of Congress as well as on Trump. That is how they operate and it explains why now Republicans enable Trump's most divisive measures and most pro-Russians actions.
1
The noose continues to tighten, but for what purpose? If the Republicans remain in control of the government - Congress, the WH, and SCOTUS - even if Mueller provides slam dunk proof, they won't do anything to risk their monopoly of power. Our only hope is that the Democrats can take back at least one branch of Congress, and ideally both.
In the meantime, Mr. Mueller continues to pick off Trump's exoskeleton and is getting closer to the heartbeat. I'm waiting for the announcement that Donald Jr. and the others in that June 2016 meeting are charged with treason for conspiring with a foreign enemy to influence the election. According to what's known at this point, that's what they were discussing, so how isn't that treason?
And as the dominoes fall, and the elections grow closer, would it surprise anyone if the Republicans force Trump to resign so they don't have to go on record as impeaching him and angering their base? One can only hope.
502
@Kingfish52
I wonder that you care so about the possibility of "treason," but ignore that probability when Obama told a Russian president he'd have more flexibility after the election, followed bythe Russian invasion of Crimea, or when he condoned the sale of 20% of our uranium mining rights to Russian oligarchs without explaining how we benefited; or how your candidate and party hired Russians through laundered money to provide dirt on her opponent which then was used to fool a court into providing legal cover for spying on an opposing campaign--not that anyone would find Clinton's attempt to influence the election outcome just from her bribing Russians for dirt. Perish the books outlining that in detail, like Greg Jarrett's The Russia Hoax. Unbeknownst to the Democrats, and to borrow your own language, Kingfish 52, Judicial Watch and our courts are picking off the Democrat exoskeleton and are getting closer to the heartbeat of a corrupt Obama FBI, DOJ, Dept of State--and we all know the IRS has already confessed and paid its fine for proven illegal partisanship on the part of the government taxing agency. For shame on the lot of you, your corrupt past administration, your current unprecedented shadow government in DC and your former Secretary of State, working behind the currently elected government by holding meetings with the hostile Iranian government. How is this different from your party's hysteria over Trump's campaign meeting with Russians before the election?
@Kingfish52. Remember you must, that Trump supporters actually believe his lies and therefore live in the same alternative universe.
3
@Kingfish52
"the Republicans force Trump to resign so they don't have to go on record as impeaching him and angering their base? One can only hope."
Hadn't thought of that, but I like it. Maybe some such deal making is going on behind the scenes? Just go, Donald. Go. I don't care how he goes as long as he GOES.
I just hope I live long enough for a day to arrive when I don't hear or see Donald Trump's name or ugly face ever again, and I don't have to keep my twitchy fingers near the radio dial or TV remote, which I do now in case I hear his voice because then I have to turn off the radio or mute the TV instantly. PLEASE let a day come when I hear no more about this revolting person - or any member of his family. They are ugly inside and out, irredeemably.
The universe has simply tilted sideways. I can't take it much longer. May a black hole please swallow the whole Trump clan while we sleep, and the nightmare end. (It can take Pence too, please.)
3
And still Trump is allowed to drastically and devastatingly change the direction of one of America's three pillars of government (the judiciary - from Appellate to Supreme Court) for a generation.
Something the founding Fathers did not envision perhaps?
934
@John The Republican party is complicit in this as well. The members of the Legislative Branch are supposed to put the nation first, but clearly the Republicans have sold out to Trump.
Keep in mind, this whole mess goes back to the Electoral College system. This mechanism works against the concept of democracy and put Trump in office. HRC got almost 3 million more votes but Trump got to be president. It needs to be scrapped.
4
@John I think what they did not envision was a complicit congress. How could they protect us from that.
1
@John
The Founding Fathers could never have imagined the influence of mass media and social media and how much easier that allows amoral people to manipulate the minds and behavior of ordinary citizens.
At the time, voting was de facto limited to "the elites", who all had access to newspapers, which contain MUCH more information than any television news can bring, whereas social media allow no matter whom to spread fake news - including foreign enemy countries.
Those who didn't have access to decent education (and as a consequence fact-checking) were also denied any voting rights, so the dangers of fake news at the time were much more limited than they are today.
So yes, I do believe that the Founding Fathers never envisioned that someone with a mafia conception of Executive power could become the nominee of a political party with a mafia conception of Legislative power, and win general elections because of a massive propaganda machine such as Fox News, which has a mafia conception of journalism and believes that it HAS to invent its own narrative if the politicians its support must ever be elected by ordinary citizen conservatives.
That may mean that we have to rethink the election process, and once we can come up with solutions, pass laws that prevent the WH from becoming a mafia HQ, or if necessary amend the Constitution.
The question now is: WHAT could those laws/amendments be, more precisely?
1
There are many people who are reported to be cooperating with the Mueller investigation. None of us know to what extent that cooperation is. What information and evidence are they providing the special prosecutor? Since this thing is dragging on and more and more people are being ensnared in its net, it's a safe bet to say that they are providing a lot for Mueller to work with. These people aren't sitting around in offices playing tiddlywinks. They are hard at work building their cases.
As far as Michael Cohen is concerned, all of his sensitive recordings and computer files have already been confiscated. Mueller probably knows more about Michael Cohen than Michael Cohen. He might not have to flip, but he probably will to save himself jail time.
Trump must be sweating bullets by now. The walls are closing in. Just like us, he doesn't know what Mueller knows. Trump has denied all wrongdoing of all kinds for three years now. It's all a hoax, fake news. If all if it is fake, then why are all these people pleading guilty and cooperating with the prosecution?
1041
@Bruce Rozenblit
Really--"The walls are closing in." Right. His walls will be built before Mueller builds his case and then it's just a laundry list, after which the real fun begins. Given current speed, should be ending sometime around 2026.
2
@Alice's Restaurant I mean, if you look at similar investigations, this is going pretty fast and extremely by-the-book. You can't take down a president without rock solid evidence.
19
@Bruce Rozenblit Re: "Since this thing is dragging on...." Actually, compared to other investigations of this sort, this "thing" is not dragging out at all; it's moving at a very brisk pace and has been all along.
75
"How many more guilty pleas and convictions will there be in Trumpworld before all this crime starts to look — how can we put it — organized?"
Sly concluding paragraph, Editorial Board. But it needed to be said.
Tonight I was treated to intense and serious debates on what it would mean if the president were to pardon Paul Manafort tonight.
Yes, this is the granular level to which even ordinary citizens are feeling like real lawyers, if even in voyeur mode.
It's unlike the president to stay off Twitter as long as he has today. Surely the voluble Mr. Trump doesn't lack for words--although most probably shouldn't be spoken in public.
Everyone suspects he's reeling. The man who demands allegiance, gives none in return unless it's blanket loyalty to family (even that is somewhat laughable given how little involved the father was with the care of his own offspring.
I think that Manafort must have really good information to get such a sweeping plea and cooperation agreement.
Let's hope Robert Mueller makes good use of it--as successful as he's been, I think he's been waiting awhile for the big fish.
From the thoroughness of this agreement, I think he just landed his first big catch.
1197
@ChristineMcM
Pardons will be granted after the mid terms. If Republicans keep Congress (no investigations, no impeachment), everyone is fine-let the pardons begin! If Democrats take either House or Senate, then likely impeachment proceedings and associated investigations, and pardons will given to shut up potential witnesses. Grab the popcorn. In the meantime, he has moved an entire branch of Government (judiciary) hard to the right for a generation (Kavanaugh in his early 50s could be on SCOTUS for 30 years) and further enriched the wealthy class far beyond what any other American oligarch has. Mission accomplished.
11
@John. Pardons do not “shut up” potential witnesses. Pardons by definition remove the possibility of self-incrimination and thus put such witnesses in the position of being forced to testify on threat of incarciation for contempt.
@Steel Magnolia. Make that “incarceration.”
As an outside observer from far away, but victim of tariffs, global warming and hateful speech nontheless, this can't end soon enough. Godspeed Mr Muller.
1529
@pablo marambio
Sadly, the US Federal Government will continue on the same path of promoting global warming/climate change under VP Pence, who has apparently installed Koch Brothers' associates throughout the Administration.
Wildfires. Floods. Deaths. Needless suffering and waste of money and more lives.
So, so, sad. And not Christian by my definition.
21
@pablo marambio. Thank you for your thoughts. Millions of us feel the same way as you.
6
I'm not getting my hopes up over this flip. Trump is very much teflon in his ability to wiggle out of any tight spot. I have reconciled myself to the fact that he may hold office for two terms--anything less than that will be a blessing and a win in my opinion. Personally, I have little doubt that a criminal has taken the office of the presidency. He's going to hang onto it as long as he's profiting and not in danger of going to jail. We're screwed.
15
And the Republicans in Congress cower in silence.
33
It looks like the only people draining the swamp in DC is Robert Muller and his team. Quoting Mr. Trump “Paul Manafort has done nothing every other lobbyist has done”......... Makes it sound ok to defraud the US of 15 million in tax revenue. I wonder how much Mr. Trump and his businesses have defrauded the US in tax revenue?
36
skilled prosecutors can make almost anyone a member of a rat pack, if they want to really badly.
It's time to batten down the hatches for Hurricane Mueller.
For it looks like Trump's gonna ride this one out rather than voluntarily evacuate.
20
Here’s to hoping that Manafort will finger McConnell and Ryan as having been “read into” the election fix. They knew and put socks in their mouths to win Republican autocracy. They were given the outlines and told to not ask questions.
22
Looks like we traded a swamp in Washington for a cesspool and the stench runs from the top down throughout most of the GOP.
Trump will "end" - eventually, but the stench of the GOP has been putrefying for decades.
Calling them spineless and derelict of their sworn duties is way too kind.
The even bigger threat to our Democracy is the Trump base.
Seems like their hatred of facts and those not white has been around for a very long time - probably even before the Civil War.
Clearly, a recent turning point was Johnson's Civil Rights Act.
Manafort was at the Tower Meeting - Giuliani can whine all he wants about no collusion - Trump not involved !
Yeah - Right !
A tremendous Halloween Treat for all of us watching our country be torn apart - would be:
Indictments of Don Junior and Jared Kushner - JUST before the November elections !
19
Yet, still zero evidence of collusion with Russia. Reasonable search and seizure? where is the ACLU? Trump's friends are all receiving cavity searches due to the clinton funded memo saying Trump was colluding. Awful abuse of power.
1
That sound you hear is the rest of us laughing on the outside.
3
@Joe yohka
So that's all you have?
Republican Jeff Sessions, Trump's first GOP Senator to publicly support him and to this day his own pick for Attorney General, hired Republican Mueller, who finds something new on a daily basis, and yet all you can find to excuse this unacceptable behavior by Trump campaign people (one of them already pleaded guilty to "conspiracy against the US") is that this is ... "awful abuse of power" ... ?
WHOSE power, more precisely?
Don't you realize that TRUMP is the boss now ... ?
1
@Joe yohka
You might want to read the charges to which both Manafort and Cohen have plead guilty. Manafort’s include conspiring with a foreign power to falsely tarnish the reputation of a high-ranking US official.
It’s truly chilling what both men have done and it’s clear their misdeeds go well beyond those for which they have pled.
Even though I believe Mueller will go down in history, rightfully so, as one of the greatest Americans, it disgusts me to see the sentences of these vile men being reduced.
3
Trump's defense of criminal behavior speaks volumes. He may escape, but his contempt for the law and for ethical decency is on record for all time. He will go down as the worst, most contemptible president in our history.
30
What would Trump supporters be saying if this had been for Hillary's campaign?
43
@Independent
The problem is that Fox News and the GOP leadership has made them believe for years already THAT Democrats do things like this too, and on a daily basis.
That's why they continue to blindly follow the GOP today, rather than understanding what the GOP is doing to America's greatness.
3
Lock her up — and throw away the key!
1
Yeah...but this Rat Pack ain't in anyway cool. Not even their ring leader and quasi demi-God is cool. In fact, unless you aspire to pettiness, narcissism, sniveling childishness, and buffoonery - Trump is the antithesis of cool.
I'm not putting any eggs in any baskets. Not until I see a shift in the Repubs in Congress from frightened, fawning sycophants to semi-spined, cant ignore this anymore realists - compounded by serious Democrat wins next month. Then I'll put a few eggs in one or two baskets. But I never underestimate the Dems (super)power for messing the bed even if they have the House, and gain a few Senate seats, but not a majority.
BTW; we need to stop denigrating rats. As they are smarter, and more resilient then the deplorable humans we often compare them to.
9
You think? Pence is merely a hideous stooge. I doubt that he is even present when most decisions---er, tweets---are made.
3
Another ' brave, respectful ' loyal flips. What's happened to allegiance to Trump? Kudos to Special Counsel Mueller and his team. They are real patriots stealthily, steadfastly focused on their goal, one felon at a time. Trump is getting more and more isolated and surrounded by his own loyal army who've turned on him. What is the definition of ' long time ' before the campaign? Six months when the infamous meeting at Trump Plaza took place with Manafort, Jared Kushner and Trump Jr. in attendance? Now Trump cannot even pardon Manafort for his silence. And the cowardly Republicans? Their silence is deafening. Even Kavanaugh if confirmed and his fellow Republicans at the Supreme Court cannot save this President. At least there is one honest Republican in the mold of Abraham Lincoln. And Abraham Lincoln had won. The country cannot be grateful enough to Special Counsel, Robert Mueller and his team and Rod Rosenstein. They are human Gods who will have saved America.
8
@ Daniel S.
Anyone in the least bit susceptible to “reasoned argumentation” has more than enough “careful documentation of a falling (sic) presidency.” Clearly, you can’t reason a person out of a position he didn’t reason himself into. Sarcasm and mockery are worth a try.
1
Even with a pardon, Manafort would still have the convictions stamped on his name forever while Trump would possibly be protected and pampered. Maybe the thought of Trump carrying on in his arrogance, always giving himself A+ for everything and whiling his time away on his golf courses while stuffing his pockets was enough to turn Manafort's stomach and thus make a decision to take the Don down with him.
4
Trump's "rat pack" - oh, that's a good one!
Don't forget his CEO, Allen Weisselberg, who has immunity and will sing like a bird along with the rest of them.
Who's left to flip? No one of consequence, I believe. Mueller is just tying up loose ends. Trump is surrounded. And he can't pardon ANY of them because that would effectively be pardoning himself, which is highly unconstitutional - all that "he shall take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed" stuff from Article 2 section 3. This would also apply to firing Mueller.
Trump's trapped. His best option now is to resign. But, of course, Trump being Trump, he's too pig headed to realize it, and will fight on to the sorry conclusion of this debacle. And why not? It's a free country. Or, it will be, once Trump is out of office.
12
Tick tick tick tick. As much as I want to see trump go down I want to see the whole bunch of conspirators and enablers to go down also. Getting justice applied to only trump leaves the company of criminals who propped this thief up to be able to continue in their criminal enterprise.
7
As Mueller closes in on Trump, the world should be concerned about what a threatened, amoral narcissist with extraordinary power will do to survive.
Should Congress be taking steps to prevent Trump from starting a war with North Korea or Iran?
Remember, Trump still holds the nuclear football, and this is one game he is not going to lose without a fight.
10
The Justice Department and federal government can seize assets from criminals, even without court proceedings. Perhaps the time is near for the government to seize Trump assets, if criminal activity has occurred on trump property?
Mar-a-Lago, Trump Tower,...
8
@Greg L. The good news is that the Justice did seize Manafort’s property at Trump Tower. Given that money laundering was one of the crimes to which he pled guilty, does that open the door for Mueller’s team to look for similar transactions at that address/LLC?
1
Glad the NY Times concludes this piece with a question about organized crime. The answer is it was always about the mob. Initially, Trump was linked to the Italian Mob, back when Trump built his shady tower and ran his dark NJ casinos. Since Trump's spectacular collapse as a "businessman" in the early 90's, it has been all Russian mobsters, all the time. This explains the curious affinity Trump has for Putin and Russia. Winning the presidency has shed a bright light on his numerous past dark deeds. Trump, will be the one going to jail. This grave event will hopefully strengthen our national resolve to prevent this sort of corruption at the highest levels of our government from ever happening again. (For documentation of Trump's mobbed up history, see Lincoln's Bible on Twitter and the author, David Cay Johnston)
9
Yes, trumps sleazy circle of associates looks very much like an organized crime ring. We keep hearing how this situation is not normal. I’m beginning to wonder if that’s true. When I see how willingly republican leaders in Congress have abandoned their purported principles and embraced Trump's sleaze in order to pay back their mega donors and pack the federal courts with judges who will thwart the popular will while protecting the interests of oligarchs, I have doubts. I think Trump may simply be a more virulent form of a problem that pervades our government, particularly the Republican Party.
8
The mice hiding in the baseboard are afraid of the cat who is constantly sniffing around. The mice have found a little bell and all agree that what was needed was to hang the bell around the cat's neck. A wonderful idea the mice say, but who will bell the cat? Answer we all have to do it at once.
Well that may be a good plan for 2020 but he might burn down the house by then or sell it at auction. How do we get Trump out of office now with a corrupt Congress drunk on catnip or and a corrupt Supreme Court which has abandoned its constitutional function in 2000 when it selected GWB as president without counting the votes and the Democrats did not yell foul and refused to accept a decision which was clearly unconstitutional since the Florida Supreme Court had jurisdiction.
The solution is not impeachment because these crimes involve stealing the office not abuse of power in office plus obstruction of justice which the GOP will eagerly provide for him. Mr Mueller with the permission of the Asst. AG should indict Trump and Pense for defrauding the American people and a conspiracy with Russia to install these two as president and veep by fraud.
5
Thanks goodness for journalism and journalists!
You are our refuge of sanity in this storm.
10
Not that I feel sorry for Manafort, as my mother would say, he made his bed, now lie in it. Having said that, spending your remaining retirement years behind bars is a sad way to ends ones' career and life.
3
"Pardon us, but was it only three weeks ago that President Trump expressed “such respect” for Paul Manafort, (...) a “brave man”?"
When Trump talks about "brave men", "good guys", "very fine people" etc., he's never talking about moral character.
We should stop pretending that he does, and finally start to confront and tackle the reality of the GOP/Trump presidency.
There IS no morality in Trump's world.
And he really didn't built that. It has always existed in parts of NYC and parts of the entire country. It's a worldview that has been cultivated 24/7 by Fox News and the GOP leadership.
The fundamental hypothesis, in such a worldview, is that human beings essentially ARE "amoral".
"Homo homini lupus", as Thomas Hobbes wrote centuries ago.
In that case, you still TALK about moral values such as loyalty, justice etc., but they no longer refer to what most Americans think of when they hear these words. They don't refer to the idea that building a man's moral character is possible, that sticking to strong moral principles is possible.
A mafia world is a "newspeak" world. "Brave" now refers to behavior, not a man's inherent goodness. And behavior where someone resists a rival mafia boss because he believes it's safer to stick with his own one for now.
We have to openly address this, rather than sticking to mere (and justified) moral rejection of this worldview, especially knowing that part of the left became cynical too, which is how the GOP won in the first place.
1
Dear op-Ed
While I share the vorfreude of seeing the trump clan behind bars, I cannot help but think about the unimpeded deluge of crimes that appear to have been committed back when Mueller was actually at the FBI.
Why wasn’t all this caught before, and how many more - republicans, democrats - have secret deals and cayman accounts? Time for AGs to open this up, or appoint a special prosecutor for each member of Congress / cabinet and see what we find. Speaking of dogs that don’t bark, Romney, Ryan, Cheney, Rumsfeld come to mind.
4
I remember when Manafort was named campaign director and the Times outlined his career up to that point, his association with Yanukovych and work on his behalf (I definitely did not understand the black ledger and still don't). I was stunned that such a person would be running the campaign of a major US candidate for president. It is comforting to see the wheels of Justice turning slowly and methodically to pick these bad apples from the barrel. And it seems the noose is tightening around the by who gets away with everything.
4
It doesn't not take any more guilty pleas and convictions to come to the conclusion that for the first time in the history of the United States, the man at the helm of the country has proved to be a modern version mob-family boss from the day he moved into the Oval Office.
He has disgraced the presidency from day one and uses his position as a personal piggy bank for himself and his equally corrupt family and in-laws.
The only difference between former famous mob-family bosses and the present Don sitting in the White House is that the latter lacks a large amount of functioning grey cells and has the attention span of a toddler.
7
@Sarah he’s a tin-pot wanna be mob like boss. He’s clumsy and over confident. Mob bosses are much more cleaver and smart.
1
Fuggedabout loyalty among thieves, President Trump. Wiith Paul Manafort ("a good, brave man") securing a plea deal from the Special Counsel, justice may well be served within the coming two years of the only term Trump will be president. Michael Cohen and Paul Manafort have both flipped and broken with Trump. Someone "anomalous" in the White House has flipped and written in this newspaper of record about the chaos occurring since Trump took office.
We aren't concerned with honour among Trump's sycophants. We are interested in the "Russian Meeting" at Trump Tower in June, 2016. Trump's people will turn on Manafort as they turned on Cohen, as they turned on everyone fired by the president since his election less than 2 years ago. We must deal with what's happening now until president Trump is removed from office by hook or by crook.
5
Wequestion-opine: Is it necessary to use the phrase " ... the White House ... (claims, defends, ... in a statement, etc.)?
The White House is a structure. It is a neutral thing and, frankly, it should not be used as a surrogate name for its resident. Using it as a surrogate name (especially now) offends it as our national center of power and repository of dignity.
And using it instead of the resident's name deflects the facts that one person, the president in residence, is the real, attributable, source of whatever is being reported.
3
Pleading guilty-yes. To avoid the financial ruin already incurred by Flynn et.al. When your opponent is the the DOJ, FBI and the resources of the United States government there are few who are in a position to resist this behemoth possessed of unlimited resources.
The right to counsel is guaranteed. But it is a hollow right since one has to able to afford to exercise that right. Akin to freedom of the press. Guaranteed to any one who can afford a printing press.
@Alan Funk - Those who swim in cesspools, tend to smell like, um, cess.
1
@Alan Funk - Perhaps he should have saved some of those millions he scammed so he could pay his legal fees.
If Mueller wanted Manafort, I can only guess Manafort has some valuable information.
On the other hand, I wonder if the even bigger threats to Trump are Roger Cohen and Trump CFO, Allen Weisselberg.
They know all the financial activities of Trump for years.
It may or may not have any relation to the election depending if the Russians have information on Trump finances all those years.
But even if it is not connected to the election, if it is illegal it is still a problem.
And during the Whitewater investigation (4-1/2 years and $100 Million in today's dollars), Clinton was impeached for lying about Monica Lewinsky which had nothing to do with Whitewater.
12
Let us not forget that if Trump is somehow forced out office, through indictment, impeachment or resignation, Mike Pence is quietly waiting in the wings. But Trump and Pence were elected as a team, and any collusion by Trump with Russia, which may have played a part in his election, therefore stains Pence as well. He should not be allowed to reap the benefits of such illegal action but avoid the negative impacts.
95
@JHHVTSC
But like it it not, Pence has a moral compass. He actually believes in things of a higher order. Sure he's a stinking sell-out, and his faith is certainly put in question, but at least he has shown a respect for the rule of law. More then we can say for his boss.
@JHHVTSC
Excellent point and hoping you're holding up under Florence's weight.
1
Didn't Pence head the transition team, or at least the part of it that brought in Flynn as NSA head?
They appointed him even though they knew he was already under FBI investigation -- and kept him on for six weeks after that investigation came public!
Pence may be more involved with all this -- or, at least know enough to make him an accessory to the collusion and crimes, plural!
1
Reading details on the extent of Manafort's subversive influence peddling to change the course of how Congressional members, Administrations , elections view foriegn policy has been been revelation. How many more Manafort's are out there?
It is proven the Trump team altered the US stance on Russia before the convention. What negotiations took place for this Administration to blatantly alienate Europeon allies?
What has gone on behind the scenes regarding the alliance between Saudi Arabia, Israel and other Arab countries in their quest to reinstitute sanctions on Iran which included dropping out of the Iran Nuclear Treaty? Trump again backed Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries when they instituted sanctions and on Qutar while a US base is in that country.
The US Embassy was moved to Jerusalem despite decades in Tel Aviv, where our allies remain, knowing this would jeopardize future peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians. The latest news is aid is cut off to Palestinians which effects families that are trapped and isolated. It is well known Jared Kushner and his family have had an extremely personal relationship for years with Netanyahu.
How has this turned the tide on theMiddle East policy and according to Trump's statements Jared Kushner was responsible for finding a solution to the problems.
Mr. Muellar is conducting a legal bowling game and I sincerely hope all the pins fall.
52
@rhdelp The thoroughly unqualified and corrupt Kushner is currently still running around the mid-east making who knows what traitorous self-serving deals also. When Trump goes the rest of them need to go also. Kushner and the family merit prosecution and I am sure many more.
3
The significance of Manafort’s agreement to cooperate without counsel cannot be overlooked. He’s all in.
40
@Kim Murphy -
"I have seen the writing on the wall.
Don't think I need anything at all.
All in all it was all just bricks in the wall.
All in all you were all just bricks in the wall."
Pink Floyd
This is not quite the blockbuster story Trump haters seem to think. The plea here was inevitable once Manafort lost the first trial. Remember that he was already facing effectively life in prison so it is not as if he could be in an any worse position. Or, put another way, the Special Counsel's leverage, with a multi-count guilty verdict in hand, was already extraordinary. The plea helps both sides. As for the cooperation agreement it is unclear what more Manafort could add that his partner, Gates, long in Mueller's grasp, hasn't already divulged. In one peculiar sense it actually helps Trump since the plea forecloses him from the controversial act of pardoning Manafort.
4
@Frunobulax
Mueller's team will have explored the main substance of new or corroborative information Manafort
can supply before any plea deal was offered, much less entered. If Manafort had nothing of significant value to add (in addition to cost offsets from property forfeiture), no prosecutorial offer would have been forthcoming.
9
Manafort was at the Trump tower meeting with the Russians. Making him a witness that can indict Trump Jr , this drawing Trump into the conspiracy.
1
This is not about hate, it’s about justice.
As former campaign manager, Manafort is a much more significant figure than Gates. Only Muelller’s team know
what one felon or another have to say, unless you have inside information
There is nothing controversial in pardoning a convicted felon to protect yourself. It’s unquestionably improper behavior.
4
The Steele dossier continues to be verified. For all the abuse thrown at the intelligence agencies and FBI, again and again activities and actors in Europe really did represent Russian interests. That is what Manafort and all the president's men brought to the campaign.
Millions in payments to Manafort were documented in the black ledger, and the trail of bread crumbs went straight to Russian interests. Evidently Putin met with Yanukovych to confirm that there were no documents of the payments to Manafort.
We owe a debt of gratitude to all the hardworking and honorable agents and investigators (including friends of America abroad) to see that these crimes originally surfaced and that alarms were sounded.
As a young man, Princeton-educated Robert Mueller served as a Marine in Vietnam and was awarded a bronze star for his valor. Now he once again serves his country in the wake of a massive and complex attack on American democracy.
Trump's rise to power was a storm surge of hostile attacks from Russia, financial crimes, and the smearing of opponents.
Contrast the histories of these three men--Trump with his inherited fortune, playboy lifestyle, from manically entanglements with Russia, and multiple deferments; Mueller with his military and public service and degrees; and Putin, the former director of the KGB.
Ask not for whom the bell trolls.
133
Sad to say, but the adage about rats and sinking ships appears to apply here.
God Bless America.
33
Mueller already had Trump on obstruction a hundred times over.
And probably Stone, Kushner and Junior will join those already convicted on on conspiracy with Putin's stooges.
But Paul Manafort is the Capo di tutti Capi by comparison.
Manafort is a bad dude: off the charts intelligence, cunning, and international connections for hire, in service of raw power, amorality and evil.
There is a bad moon rising for Donald John Trump.
72
Let’s see what lies the President comes up with. “Paul was tortured and ended up saying what they wanted to hear, which will be all fake folks” or “Paul was with me such a short amount of time; I really don’t know anything about him. I think he might have been in one meeting with me.” or “Paul really isn’t well after all the stress they put that fine man through; he doesn’t know what he’s saying at this point.” or “If Paul was involved with Russians it’s certainly news to me. I never heard anything about that.”
What is worrisome are how many dastardly deeds Trump will get away with while we wait for the Mueller report and how much crazier Trump will become as things close in on him.
It does give me hope that the world felt a little more normal and a little more fair today. You know what they say about Karma....
26
Note that Trump's "twitter" has been curiously quiet since Manafort agreed to cooperate. We haven't heard: "He's a good man. He's an honest man." [Uh, yes, a convicted felon.]
Trump's lawyers, not just Dershowitz, probably told him to "zip the twit", as forcefully as you can to Trump—probably by using pictures.
But we'll see how long that lasts.
27
Too bad the slow coup has already occurred.
1
Would it be a coup if Obama and his top advisors were being investigated and prosecuted for similar offenses? Of course not, and FOX would be lauding the investigation every step of the way.
2
"all this crime starts to look — how can we put it — organised"
In certain circles Trumpian chaos is a sign of executive genius. Bannon argued that the Trump campaign could hardly collude with Russia if it couldn't co-operate with itself.
Russian connections have long been undeniable, and so the cry is "No collusion, no collusion!"
This cry will morph. "Individual crimes may be there are a few, bigly even, OK boys will be boys, but
"NO ORGANISATION, NO ORGANISATION!"
7
Trump is our Brexit.
Both are a disaster for our respective countries......
33
@David Jaundrell
And we can both thank Russia for our respective disasters
4
I’m wondering about the value of the haughty and sarcastic tone of this piece. Does it not merely stoop to the level of the president’s own arrogance and immature style, or am I missing its weight and purport? My major concern when Trump was elected was that even his most vociferous opponents (like me) would start to adopt his crass and juvenile behaviors, undercutting their own attempts to promote justice and decency in the face of this adolescent thug. C’mon Times, I know its tempting, but please cut out the sarcasm and stick rather to reasoned argumentation and the careful documentation of a falling presidency.
11
@Daniel S
Haughty is a strong word, I wonder if I would say haughty when I read this : Pardon us, but was it only three weeks ago that President Trump expressed “such respect” for Paul Manafort, his former campaign chairman and freshly minted felon, who had refused to cooperate with the special counsel’s office and took his federal bank- and tax-fraud conviction like a “brave man”? The POTUS has repeatedly tweeted about people and news and whatever goes to mind without any filter. POTUS has no sarcasm and while I read this in the manner I am, sadly, I find no sarcasm here but a sense of weariness and just disappointment in how such a man can be our President. That is my perspective, Daniel.
5
If only Trump were half as coherent, witty, and informed as the authors of this editorial!
It's hardly Trumpian at all!
1
There goes the Witch Hunt, Don. Have you talked to Junior recently?
25
"Unless Mr. Trump is watching Fox News, he can't be feeling too good right now."
Indeed.
As I read this (around 6:15PM PDT Friday), top stories on Fox News website, aside from the Kavanaugh nomination and the hurricane, included "Texas Board of Ed votes to pull Hillary Clinton from social studies curriculum" and "Texas biology teacher on leave for allegedly bullying pro-Trump student."
To Fox's credit, this story is reported eventually ("Paul Manafort pleads guilty, agrees to cooperate in deal with Mueller team"), but the headline appears in small print much farther down on the page, directly between "Ariana Grande breaks silence on ex-boyfriend Mac Miller's death" and "Ex-Disneyland princess convicted of aiding beau in bizarre double murder."
Fox editors: congratulations, you've figured out how to get top ratings by telling viewers--who you evidently hold in low esteem--exactly what they want to hear. But ultimately, you're doing them a terrible disservice.
77
@M. Fox News began as a corrupt enterprise. Murdoch purchased citizenship in order to own a US TV network. Send him back to Australia!
3
Trump's Tweet silence is deafening, and a question comes to mind.
If you're a Secret Service agent assigned to the White House detail, what does your code of conduct say about men in white coats with straight jackets approaching the president?
31
I give no credence to the contention that anything in “trumpworld” is organized!
20
The Art of the [Plea] Deal...coming to roost.
40
It has been 20 hours since word of this plea broke. Not a peep about it from Donald, which must signify the depths of his terror. Stunned into Twitter silence on the topic of Manafort. I am sure he’s raging in the White House. And of course, he is busy rewriting the story of Hurricane Maria.
Something broke loose inside of Manafort to compel him to cooperate. Who knows what? I guess it depends on whether or not you believe in redemption.
Thanks to Bob Mueller and his entire team, who have mastered the art of uncovering the facts and letting them speak for themselves. I have nothing but admiration for the manner in which they have gone about the task. Virtual silence outside of the courtroom but an utter tour de force inside of it. Their commitment to truth and justice is what I still admire most about America.
71
This is all well and good. But it won’t amount to a hill of beans if the Democrats don’t win in a landslide across the country this November!!
If the election results are “equivocal” or worse, it would indicate two things to me.
1. The mental block in the heads of die hard Trump voters is made of rock solid cement, and the future of this country is indeed in big trouble.
2. The Democrats ran candidates that are so, so far left, that even Trump haters couldn’t vote for them because as moderates (of both parties) or independents they couldn’t stomach much of the extreme agenda.
There’s not much one can do about #1. As for #2, I urge the Democrats to field candidates with positions that are certainly Democratic in philosophy, but not so radical that it only appeals to a small segment of the electorate!!
This is one very important election in our history. Wresting control of government from Trump et. al. is the ONLY item of importance here. Without that no Democratic agenda, radical or otherwise, will ever see the light of day in Congress and therefore, in our country. Stopping Trump now is all that matters. All the rest can come later!
38
An indictment is hardly a “hill of beans.”
1
The excuse many of my Trump supporting work colleagues use to support point number one is that any criticism of Trump is all "fake news" generated by the "left wing" media. They will support him no matter what.Trump's sexism, xenophobia, and racism are not deemed to be negatives for them. They actually support all of the above, and wink wink call it fake news.
IHMO racism and it's cousin xenophobia still pervade America. Trump has cornered that market and it is a lot larger than we'd like to believe. He managed to unite the far right with the right to consolidate that vote.
So get out and vote.................and hope that Mueller brings down Trump.
@Kim Murphy
If Manafort’s indictment, guilty plea, and cooperation with the special counsel doesn’t result in bringing Trump et.al. down and the Democrats back to power, then just another white collar crook going to jail doesn’t amount to “a hill of beans” for the immediate and possibly long term future of this country.
Demand for justice? If our court judges are not peerless, how can we expect any justice? Clarence Thomas is a known sexual assaulter. Now there is a letter claiming Kavanaugh of attempted assault on a teenager. Does not Mr Kavanuagh have daughters of his own? How would he feel if his minor daughters were assaulted at prep school parties and they would never report it because they were ashamed of it? Would not he want his own daughters to speak out. Hello? This is 2018, this is not 1980.
12
In the distance, but much closer every day, through the mist
in the early morning . . . yes, I hear it now . . . . . a woman of
ample size is singing.
40
@Mark Schlemmer careful, it's not over till the fat lady sings. we were sure hilary was the winner, remember?
@Mark Schlemmer
Everyone else is singing, why not?
Your hatred of Trump blinds you to the concept of justice. It is not justice to compel statements from a cornered rat. It is not justice to rely on the statements of someone who has every incentive to please the prosecutors and give them a win against the big fish. Trump will get replaced, as you desire, but your support of twisting the legal process to get there represents quite a compromise of the high standards of fairness that I used to expect from the New York Times.
3
@No It seems clear that Manafort would have been convicted from his first trial, on the documents alone. I suspect when all is said and done, and all of Meuller's investigative work is finally revealed to Americans, that there could likely be sufficient strong documentary evidence, excluding testimony, to bring the Trumpian house of cards down.
6
@No Mueller had the proof of Manafort's crimes. He didn't have to compel Manafort to admit a thing. Clearly the "jury of his peers" in the last trial was convinced (except for one die-hard Trump-supporting juror) on all counts. What did you expect Mueller to do? And what's Manafort's incentive? He's going to jail for the rest of his natural life, most likely. He's 69 years old, and will be in jail for probably 10 years minimum, based on the first trial and this plea deal.
5
@No
But it was justice, of course, to corner Clinton over a consensual affair, about which 99+% of men would lie, to impeach him and then to use it to denigrate his wife when she stayed with him, just like Republican wives of adulterers and Evangelical preachers. After all, Republicans are perfect and Democrats deserve to be taken down.
10
Why is Donald so worried? He says he “didn’t do anything wrong”.
4
@Truthiness, he does not know what "law" really means. He has so far escaped the law because he is white rich male christian and he thinks people like him can get away with anything. If George W Bush & Cheney got away with killing thousands of innocent civilians in far away lands, just in the name of "spreading democracy" (remember NYT was with Georgie all the way), and were never held accountable for a single death, Trump thinks he can at the very least, get away with womanizing, money laundering, greasing officials, conducting sleazy business under the guise of expanding garish and obscene Trump buildings and golf courses...world wide. Its pure business and lobbying is the way business is conducted in Washington Capitol Halls, so Trump thinks he did nothing wrong because the system blessed him to do so.
3
Spot on. The bright side is that truth is truth. The dark side is that 1/3 of America was duped for 2 years by this gang of criminals.
21
@Erik Asphaug, where was truth hiding when George W. Bush led us into the Iraq war?
2
Robert Mueller will probably snag Donald Trump Jr. or Jared Kushner before he takes it up to POTUS. He is heading there like a slow moving train.
25
Flynn, Papadopolous, Cohen, Gates, Pecker, Weisselberg and now Manafort.
Trump, Guiliani and Sanders can say all they want that these people are liars and their problems have nothing to do with Trump, but why is it that so many people in his orbit either have extensive Russian connections, are admitted or convicted felons, or are so concerned about being prosecuted that they cut immunity deals in exchange for cooperation? Even the people who have not yet cut deals or been convicted, like Roger Stone and Felix Slater, are sleazy and operate on the margins of right and wrong. And then throw in affairs with adult film actresses and Playboy centerfolds for good measure.
And, still, his supporters say this is all a witch hunt. Maybe exemplary family men Mike Pence, Devin Nunes, Jim Jordan, Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan should think about all this when they are at church this Sunday.
24
@Jack Sonville
I would not call Pence, Nunes, Jordan, McConnell and Ryan exemplary men in any sense of the word. They are all a disgrace to this country. They took a vow to uphold the Constitution and they did not. They were elected to serve the people they represent, and they did not. Going to church means nothing. It's all a facade.
7
How long will it take for Trump to back-pedal on his praise of Manafort? Didn't take rocket science for Manafort to figure out he's better off playing ball with Mueller than depending on Trump to pardon him.
7
After a perfect water ski enjoying the best Vermont has to offer, I was pleased to hear the fine news. In our home we think as Friday's as indictment Fridays. We are amending our Friday's to plead guilty day, cooperate day and indictment day.
The Union will be saved by the patriots on Mueller's team. We survived a Civil War and we will survive this organized crime family. It is time to get out the pitch forks and chase the members of this corrupt class, back into their rat holes.
41
@Marc
TGIF?
1
Nah, its all just a big fat coincidence. Trump is a businessmann and a billionaire and therefore it is not even possible that he is responsible for any wrongdoing.
3
What will DJT choose - orange jumpsuit or resignation?
12
Amazing what a real taste of jail will do.
26
The “curious” meeting? You have got to be kidding, right? Connecting dots ain’t that difficult.
3
At every one of the plea deals, ‘flips’ mentioned (Cohen, Flynn, now Manafort), the White House claims “Has nothing to do with Trump”, “Happened long before the campaign”.
Even if that was true, the question remains - why does Trump hire such dishonest people?
29
Superb headline! Another domino topples. Poor old Manafort, fraud and evasion charges around his neck and another trial coming - you can’t really blame him for trying soften the blow, but he still should have done it earlier. You can’t really help but feel sorry for hi....wait, no, that’s completely wrong, he deserves everything he gets.
These electoral actors who are getting exposed to daylight more and more need cutting down to size, whether in the Ukraine like Manafort or anywhere else. Another example: Robert Mercer’s slimy cash should have nowhere near the Brexit vote, yet it was. A lot of it. These are democratic processes, the people’s will and all non-political individuals involved in an election process need keeping an eye on. Elections (and referenda) have had too many shady backroom funding deals, plots and millions-of-dollar donations to buy advertising, third-party data analysis companies and otherwise grease the path to success by deceit. And yes, patronising as it sounds, these things can & do win votes when a public aren’t paying attention or are disengaged from the process and the webs of influence that decide who rules.
2
Promising.
But I still don't think anything will happen to King Orange Man.
Life isn't fair. Just the reality.
It will be interesting to see who looks best in orange jumpsuits - Cohen, Manafort or Trump.
2
This latest saga has me confused. It reminds me of the great comedy skit by the immortal Abbott and Costello called "Who's On First. The difference is that our presitge has been shattered by this rat pack as they decide to save their soul and come to Jesus.
The Dems best choice is not to impeach but to let the "Trumpistas" devolve as the Democrats take control of congress.
8
Did this merit an editorial?
And if it did, shouldn't the headline have read, "Another rat deserts a sinking ship?"
A headline that makes it sound like Mr. M. cares an iota about "justice" beggars belief!
The only people (who matter) who are putting loyalty ahead of justice are the GOP Senators and Congressmen who are TRULY rat-like - beady eyes and all.
But they truly ARE cornered. Of course, the way the game is playing out, none of them feel the need to bite before they die. Some are banking on re-election, ... and others have decided to go quietly - almost surely knowing that a judgeship or some other supplement to a $500K p.a. pension will come their way ... if they're "loyal" to the end.
Maybe, some of those who win squeakers and others who hear the sucking sound not so very far in the future emanating from Nov. 2020 will reprise the Nixon denouement - reminding Trump that he IS the face of the Republican Party and his staying at the helm consigns thousands of office-holders to going down with the ship.
Good luck with that! Because if ever there was an individual whose loyalty stops at his epidermis, that's DJT!
2 caveats - 2018 had better turn out the way the polls are pointing. I'm not sure if the wishy-washy predictions Nate and others are making have to do with getting burned in 2016 or are "statistically based."
And I'm with the people who say that most cornered rats DO bite or try to. WHAT WOULD DONALD DO when "Anonymous" goes public and is far from alone?!
5
I wish no one harm but it is dramatic timing that a giant storm pounds through Trump country on the evening Manafort flips. This is going to be a tough night of sleep for DJT.
6
It’s clear that the rat frenzy in the Trump whitehouse is every bit as tawdry as we thought it was and it makes me sad for our great country. However we have a correction in the mid terms that can de fang the narcissist and lying imposter of a president we have, every citizen needs to turn out and vote to right this mess we are in, the future is in our hands.
8
@donnagrant365
That will be the only way, to use our power to VOTE this government out of office.
6
It is hard for me to believe the NY Times is truly outraged that foreign countries (or anyone else) buy influence through lobbyists in Washington to get whatever they want.
In fact, this is how American Democracy works now. A person makes a "deal" with a rich campaign contributor. That contributor spends money to get the person elected. Then, the elected official continues to collect money to do the bidding of whomever purchased him.
In his spare time, he can also take any money he wants that is approved by his sponsor. Like from Ukraine or even Russia.
These are the basics of Capitalistic Democracy as practiced in the USA.
It is because of this system that we have continuous war (military contractors as campaign contributors).
It is because of this system that bank managers received bonuses the spring after receiving the TARP $700 billion to bail them out of their failures.
In fact, all of America can see that this is how America works and, as a consequence: We now have Trump who managed to sell himself as outside this prostitute for hire method of Democracy.
How can you guys be surprised? This, prostitute for hire, is actually how American Democracy runs.
11
What are the immediate checks & balances on the POTUS to enforce restraint, accept the rule of law and place the national interest before self interest.
As I comment, unhinged, blazing guns are wrecking your world domestically & Internationally.
Excellence, intelligence, decency, experience, good judgement & morality left the White House on other occasions but creepy Trump tops contemporary
The extraordinary United States must come together to embrace the best they can.
Do you want to be reduced to an ugly fairy tale?
1
@punch
No, we don't. The checks and balances of the House and Senate have failed us in backing everything Trump wants, rather than serving this nation. McConnell wanted a conservative Supreme Court Justice and was willing, with the rest of the GOP, to overlook everything Trump did. The other objective was to erase everything Pres. Obama did because they could not tolerate the whole concept of a Black man being President. Everyone must use their power of the vote if we are to get this rot out of our government.
2
I hope Bob Mueller isn't tired of winning yet.
50
@Bumpercar
I don't think it's about a "win" for Mueller. I think it's all about seeking the truth and having substantial proof to bring people to justice.
4
While Trump and Giuliani would like us all to falsely believe that a sitting president can not be indicted, they have done nothing in their propaganda blitz to protect Trumps kids.
Donald Jr. most certainly can be indicted and, my guess is, likely will be.
Oh, what a fun news day that is going to be.
12
Do you really think that the prospect of seeing his kids sent to prison would give pause to Donald J. Trump? He might even welcome the chance to demonstrate, with a great show of sorrow, how he was betrayed by the actions of his own flesh and blood. Sad!
3
"This is the time now for those Republicans in Congress to stand up for our country not their pocket books or power or self-serving ideologies."
Lol!!! Thanks for the laugh!
25
How desperately Mr. Trump wants this all to go away. He finally has been rendered speechless (tweetless?), at least temporarily. It has likely dawned on him that a pardon of Manafort or firing any of the principals in the Mueller investigation will only drive his unpopularity much deeper. And, besides, any good lawyer of his has probably told him that either course of action would pretty clearly set up or add to a case of obstruction of justice against him. I expect he’s in a state of meltdown/breakdown the likes of which he’s never experienced. Oh, to be a fly on his wall, who might be hearing anguished screams of “Where’s my Roy Cohn!” But Roy won’t be there. Besides the fact that he’s dead, Trump abandoned him in his hour of need. What goes around comes around . . . eventually.
15
@Clyde i hope, very deeply that your scenario is correct. it give such joy to imagine it as true!!!
1
Unfortunately, I think Mueller is desperate. Manafort has nothing to lose, but Mueller might not have the goods on Trump, yet. This might just be another shell game that leads to nothing.
We remain hopeful, but maybe there isn't a there there.
Anyway, please vote these criminals out of office. Our only hope is to make them impotent.
11/6!!!
4
If anyone on this list believes that POTUS did not know and bigly sanction that "Trump Tower meeting",then I have a bridge for sale in Brooklyn. Birds of a feather no longer fly together... the Trump brand of loyalty has it's limits.
9
Organized crime organizations do not evolve and operate by committee or by the random, self-interested choices of participants. Somebody runs the show. Has there ever been any show that Donald Trump been a party to that he didn't run? The jig is up. So, assuming that Trump reverts to type and bails out, a la Atlantic City, we will be left with a President who fawned revoltingly over the malignant imbecile at every opportunity, and probably lied to us about the Flynn/Russian deal. And if we find a good reason to push him out after November, we get whoever the Democrats elect as House Leader. This is no way to run a republic or a democracy. As more is revealed about Russian meddling and Trump involvement, a consensus may evolve that the election was literally stolen by Trump with Putin's decisive assistance. Maybe the Democrats should elect Hillary Clinton as House Majority Leader, and then let nature and Mueller take their course.
6
Mueller must find a way to publish all his findings.
Crude politics cannot be allowed to limit in any way what the American people have a right to know.
9
John Kerry hit the nail on the head last night on Bill Maher. Trump's autobiography after his term in office will be entitled, "The Art of the Squeal".
7
The rats are fleeing the Trump Titanic leaving its version of Captain Queeg, now alone with his family, howling in the wind at betrayal by "Anonymous," by Bob Woodward, by Democrats fudging the fatalities in Puerto Rico from Hurricane Maria, and now in an "et tu Brute" moment, Paul Manafort. Of course Manafort had everything to do with Trump campaign, despite the claims of Rudy The Mouth. He was the campaign manager who was there when the Republican Party platform was suddenly changed to favor Russia, and he was there on June 9, 2016 in the Trump Tower meeting hosted by namesake son, Don Jr, and son-in-law, Jared Kushner to meet with Russian operatives to obtain "dirt" on Hillary Clinton. And, of course, Mr. Manafort, a long-time Trump associate was the master of Russian money laundering. We have reached a climactic moment and hopefully this national tragedy will soon be over as the captain and his family crew head for the life boats and abandon the ship of state.
23
Hey, all you Republican Senators and Representatives, I’m talking to you. We begged you for nearly two years to do your jobs and provide oversight. We begged you to remember your oath of office. We begged you to put country over party. You ignored us.
Instead you pledged loyalty to Donald Trump. Now as the Mueller investigation exposes the corruption that we all suspected, it has never been more obvious that you have failed miserably in doing what you had promised to do in your solemn oath. History will tell your story.
71
Mr. Mueller's slaughter escalates. He hasn't drawn blood from Trump yet, but Trump is splattered with the blood of his fallen devotees.
5
So Manafort took the deal - a guaranteed outcome - rather than toss the dice that Trump would pardon him. If anyone doubted the honor among thieves, it was Manafort. He simply didn't trust that lifeline.
I never believed Trump to be clean, financially. New York real estate is a dirty and cutthroat business, and Trump had been dirty and cutthroat enough to have dried up a lot of legitimate sources of investment cash.
But I had doubted that Trump himself knew what the quid pro quo was for the Russian interference. I thought clearly there was a quid pro quo, but that it was implied, and the implications were made to senior staff.
Of course, now I am less and less sure that Trump's biggest failure is that he surrounded himself with grifters and crooks while he remained in his cocooned bubble of vainglorious ego and stupendous, arrogant vanity. Now I feel sure that he surrounded himself with grifters and crooks because people are most comfortable with people like him. His WH has been tumultuous, because people who are not grifters and crooks have tried to work with him. I feel sure that Trump understood the implied Russian deal, and has been steadily delivering.
Manafort will likely never be the guy who seals the President's fate. He will just tap another nail in the coffin which the people who can step in and end the farce will ignore.
3
How many more guilty please you ask?
I wouldn't be at all surprised to see Jr. & Jared flip-plead too. Mueller now has more than enough evidence & future testimony to prove they, at the very least, lied to Congress. And of course, they are the next rungs on the ladder. At the same time loyalty to Don Sr. is in mighty short supply these days. In his cadre of narcissists (you mean he's not alone?) where loyalty is as mythical as unicorns this comes as no surprise.
3
I am no legal genius, but I have to wonder what is taking so long for Trump to pardon himself, his family, and everyone is sight. Sure, he would have to resign, but hey, sitting in Russia like the former Ukrainian President is doing, beats sitting in an American prison. It doesn't matter that a pardoned person can no longer plead the 5th, because it would take time for Mueller to get organized, and in that time, all the rats could be safely in Russia.
If there are no pardons, this is going to get even more ugly, as with tens of millions in play there were a lot of political operatives who played fast and loose with the laws regarding registering as foreign agents.
One has to wonder what dark crimes would be illuminated if Russia had a criminal investigation like Mueller's.
Hugh Massengill, Eugene Oregon
4
America is to blame. Trump and his henchmen never expected to win. They jumped in to make the most of it while they could, even negotiating a tower deal in Moscow weeks before the election. The voters messed up and exposed these flawed men to the kind of scrutiny that eventually exposes all faults. Like Phoenix, these guys flew too high. The crash won’t be pretty.
8
If Trump is squirming, so are his believers.
Am hoping the preponderance of this evidence cracks the Trumpsters' alternate reality that Trump can do no wrong.
With enough wrongdoing, Trump must be declared an illegitimate president and the election result reversed.
We need a do-over, a new presidential election, or else Hillary should serve out her term.
7
@Fourteen my Trump supporting friends believe Trump is a “good man trying to help America.” And those apposinghim are leftist commies trying to destroy America.
If I was Trump, I would've resigned from presidency right now after Paul Manafort's plea deal. Knowing that his ex-campaign manager is going to spill the bean on his collusion with Russia to save 70 years of his life from rotting in a federal prison, Trump should know that Manafort'll say everything he knows to stay out of prison.
With that I also think that we Americans are coming to a very swift conclusion to this saga of Russia conspiracy which started on a day in July 27,'16 when Trump openly invited the Russians to hack into his opponent Hillary's personal computers and extract 30,000 emails.
We all know from Mr. Mueller's charging of 12 Russian hackers including the infamous Guccifer 2.0 that the Russian counter-intelligence agencies like G.R.U. and F.S.B. didn't waste any moment. They penetrated Hillary's computers almost at the same time of Trump's plea for help at 10.30 a.m. in Fla. It was late afternoon in Russia.
But even after knowing what is coming next if Trump wants to ignore the impending doomsday scenario of his short lived presidency and wants to linger around the White House a little longer, that's his prerogative. As for me I'd high tail and leave not only Washington but leave the country altogether and not come back until people forgot everything.
Knowing fully well that Mr. Mueller is going to convene a grand jury and give them the evidence of collusion to be provided by Mr. Manafort, Trump will be too stupid to think that nothing will happen to him.
5
Not since NIxon have I seen a sad and sordid carnival side show that Trump and his fellow con artists are entertaining us with.
With the numbers of “squealers” willing to lay bare the skeletons in the closet Trump should be squirming.
Perhaps if the demands for loyalty was a two way street his long lost “friends” would possibly fall on their swords instead of throwing the Trump show under the bus.
But, back to Nixon-he was slightly smarter than Trump yet he still was caught engaging into illegal deeds. There may be a lesson that Trump could learn from if had the ability to learn.
5
Of course Manafort is flipping, they're all flipping. Why would anyone count on Donald Trump's honor to save them? They may be crooks, but they're not crazy.
Unfortunately, their erstwhile benefactor/mob boss is crazy. Next up: Trump ups the attacks on Sessions and Mueller. What are the odds that he does what he's always wanted to and fires them?
7
I have no doubt that Manafort would flip. A big fat rat is still a rat. My question is with Weisselberg, Cohen, and Manafort flipped, when will Trump Jr., Eric, Ivanka and Jared be pressured to testify. Do we have any doubt that they have participated in plenty of shady deals and will be susceptible? It would be interesting to see if the family is loyal to that patriarch or even these relationships are transactional.
Do not let our guards down. Trump may be bleeding but he is no doubt more dangerous when his own survival is at stake.
9
The number of child refugees in detention centres has exploded. America is out of control. When will the world impose sanctions? Any other country and it would have happened by now. The world is too stupified to make a move.
7
I am sure Mr. Muller is quite interested in the closing documents of the Trump Tower Condo among the other real estate closings. Where did that cash come from and the cash for other Trump Condos in the the tower. Perhaps Mr. Manafort can fill in that blank.
Who recommended Manafort to Trump anyway? Ivanka? What info did she tell daddy about this man and who gave it to her anyway?Or maybe Trump knew him as a poker buddy. Inquiring minds will know eventually.
6
I once interviewed an enthusiastic Pennsylvania timber rattlesnake hunter who described walking up the warm south slope of a big stony hill, stomping hard on a broad rock, and hearing it buzz. He said he could feel it in his knees.
He had brought a crowbar.
Go for it, Bob Mueller, and thanks to all your allies in Justice for working hard on this investigation and keeping silent when silence is the hunter’s best strategy.
Mr. Mueller, it looks like you’ve got a crowbar.
10
Every passing day reveals a presidency so blatantly criminal of which not even Mario Puzo could have conceived.
This is truth and history in the making—at (supposedly)—the highest level of the federal government, not mere cheap pulp fiction with some laughs tossed in for good measure among the brutal murders and betrayals of the seedy, dark alleys of organized crime.
Donald Trump—now perhaps for all time— has been fitted with an overcoat that bears the cement markings of “don,” a “term of affection and respect,” as the phrase was used in The Godfather, the book and the films. Mr. Puzo’s creations have become cultural icons as people found fascination with underworld characters and their bizarre ways. A president of the United States is not supposed to be the 21st Century iteration of a post-World War II gangster whose hold in power was directly attributable to his readiness to steal and threaten and coerce and kill to obtain his ends.
No one is accusing the 45th president of murder but all the crimes that circle around the drain that lead to homicide begin with the need for protection from jealous rivals and the indispensable insularity from criminal prosecution by having lawyers, judges and courts in their pockets.
Paul Manafort joins many others who, in their seemingly misguided allegiance to Donald Trump now find themselves a step away from witness protection.
8
I have been wondering for some time now if Manafort fears for his life, which might at least partially explain the inexplicable (why go to trial in Virginia? Why cooperate now?). He faces at least 10 years in jail, but jail may be preferable to being assassinated by the Russians. Their arms are long, they don't like it when people who work for them get caught or turn, and they don't take prisoners. Explains a lot about Trump's behavior as well, doesn't it?
20
@JoanC
I have thought the same, that Manafort feared for his life. He may have to go into a witness protection program.
3
Well, in this case, I agree with trump. This whole lot of smug flippers should be jailed as well as the person(s) they implicate. They are no better than the crimes they’ve committed. Papadopoulos getting a weeks worth of detention due to his “I didn’t know it was wrong” plea sickens me. The court should determine appropriate sentence after they’ve provided evidence. Not before.
1
Beware of pardons and firings, you hopeful people. This cornered and desperate man is still up for a fight and we still don't have an honorable Republican Congress who will shut him down although they may now be seeing the futility of blindly supporting him.
As we move toward the elections in November, anything, and I mean anything can happen.
I want so badly to see this misguided failure of a man dealt with and the sooner the better but trapped animals know how to fight.
34
Is this the first honorable thing Mr. Manafort has ever done? I am glad he is cooperating, but only if it brings down trump. Otherwise Mr. Manafort deserved to be fully prosecuted for all his crimes. And he will be back to zero on honorable moments.
7
"Oh what a tangled web we weave
When first we practice to deceive"
These lines from Sir Walter Scott do double duty here. There are two kinds of tangled web in this story.
First, the web of lies within each of the indicted (and unindicted) individuals; secondly, the web of connections between the different individuals.
In Mr. Mueller we have exactly the right painstaking and patient man to get to the bottom of all this, so it's no wonder that trump, Giuliani and company have been trying to rush him with their fictitious deadlines.
With Mr. Mueller investigating, we can be confident that, as another line from literature (Shakespeare, I believe) puts it:
"the truth will out".
28
Thank you Mr. Mueller for your integrity,for your devotion to our nation.You are a true American hero.
73
The base will not see this as a problem for Trump. After all he told them he hasn't done anything wrong. He told them the deep state was after him. And they believe it if he tells them the moon is made of cheese. But the people who put him over the top were the voters who hated Hillary and the independents who decided to give him a chance. All they hoped for:... he would stop the twitter onslaught, he would become more presidential, and that he would learn the job with each passing day...has not happened. What these voters will do is look elsewhere. They have had enough of this. They see someone unwilling to adapt, change, or behave as a president should. And all it will take is 80,000 of them to abandon Trump. I believe many many more than that have already done so. Trump makes no concessions to try and keep them in his corner. He, essentially, is pushing them out the door. Because , unlike the base, these people don't just believe what they are spoon fed. They base their support on what is happening in front of their eyes. And when it never changes, and only gets worse, they shake their heads and go elsewhere.
12
That headline should read:
"The demand for justice once again outweighs the president's demand for putting the president above the law."
It's absurd to call this "loyalty" just because Trump has been using that word since he started campaigning.
It has been clear from the very beginning that what Trump means when he talks about "loyalty" has nothing to do with any strong moral values, and everything with a mafia contract where you lie and cheat for this particular criminal because you believe that that's the best way to survive - mistakenly or not - and protect yourself against the violence of another criminal.
One of the big mistakes that the media has been making from the very beginning, with Trump, is to take over his words without any critical distance.
He may not have "the best" words, but he knows how to sell his name using words, and although I disagree with those who believe he should have gotten less coverage, journalist did have the means and training necessary to not fall for words whose meaning becomes so distorted that it starts firing up voters for totally inaccurate reasons.
STILL voting for a presidential candidate, even when he shoots someone on fifth avenue, THAT is what Trump means when he refers to "loyalty". Not some highly laudable moral value.
When Trump uses the word "loyalty", he tells his voters that there is no justice, that there are no "good people" in this world, not that somehow justice and personal loyalty are 2 competing moral values.
8
It is just a matter of time until the very nervous remainder of the “ pack” decide to turn. I hope. Survival beats all.
4
Underlying many of these comments is a steady bemoaning and questioning of how and why Trump was hoisted on the American nation. Was it not known before the election that Trump was demonstrably unqualified and unsuitable to serve as president of this noble Republic - a nation where the rules of democracy and rule of law prevails in a powerful way?
The parties - Republican and Democrat - need to pass eligibility rules to determine the candidates who are eligible to run in the primaries. Trump should have been deemed ineligible simply by refusing to release his tax returns. Today this "long nightmare" (president Ford's phrase) the American nation is put through would have been avoided.
46
@Mike Persaud
Who would create and administer the qualifications and testing? Right now it’s left to voters which is where it should be. The credit or fault for the selection of officeholders falls squarely on the citizens. In this case the voters failed. We learned a lot in the process about ourselves, but putting the decision in someone else’s hands can’t be the answer.
6
@UScentral
Yes, the voters failed in 2016, but what were our viable options? Anyone who is truly qualified to lead as President is more than likely too smart to get involved in the process. I hope one day we will see a credible third party effort with a lead candidate worthy of our respect.
2
@UScentral, The Electoral College was meant to be the way to filter out the failures of the voters. It didn't work! It needs to go away.
After all the earlier strong indications that Manafort would never flip, what prompted the change of heart and why now? However, I have a theory. Maybe Manafort started reading Bob Woodward's new book when it released last Tuesday.
I suspect if he had read only the first 17 pages, he would have been shocked at how Trump was trashing him with others on the campaign. It is hard, if not impossible, to remain loyal to someone who denigrates you and your work behind your back.
This president has never learned that what goes around comes around.
9
Donald Trump made Paul Manafort his campaign manager on June 20, 2016, and fired him two months later on August 19 when allegations of money laundering and tax evasion stemming from Manafort’s work for the Ukrainian Party of Regions surfaced. The charges against Manafort are unrelated to the Trump campaign or the 2016 election.
So far, no member of the Trump campaign has been indicted or convicted for anything they did as members of the Trump campaign. George Papadopoulos pleaded guilty to making false statements during a post-election FBI interview when he was no longer a member of the Trump campaign. He wasn’t charged for anything he did during the 2016 election campaign. Michael Flynn pleaded guilty to telling the FBI during a post-inaugural interview that he had not discussed sanctions imposed by the Obama administration with the Russian ambassador during the transition period. Transcripts of calls showed he told the ambassador that Russian should not overreact to sanctions. However, there was nothing unlawful about his conversations with the ambassador.
4
@William Case
Donald Trump told us who he was when he went to Helsinki. He tells you every day he's part of the Rat Pack, are you listening to him?
9
@JRM
I don't read Trump tweets or care what he says in presidential addresses. I wish he would shut up and robo sign legislation sent to him by Congress. We got stuck with Trump as president because the absurd multi-candidate presidential debate format permits the least qualified candidates to gang up on the most qualified candidate. However, I don't think the Trump campaign unlawfully colluded with Russia to influence the 2016 election.
@JRM. Using your logic should we listen to Trump when says there was no collusion ?
Mueller better have something or else this is going to look like a big witch hunt and have widespread long lasting repercussions resulting in Republican control for years to come.
2
Manafort is one of many persons who thought they could benefit by aligning themselves with Trump. This supposed benefit would be money, power, influence. In so many cases that have now become public, this alignment has ended badly. Manafort has lost millions in forfeited property, has lost his liberty (he is now in jail), and his reputation is in tatters. Manafort has been a crook for years, but it was his association with Trump that finally did him in. The same is happening, and will happen, to many others in the Trump orbit.
22
A person who admits crimes under threat or torture can't be trusted. What we see here is very clear. Mueller has no evidence against Trump on anything, particularly related to collusion with Russia. So he is squeezing anyone he can hoping that someone has something on Trump. Good luck with that Bob.
But the truth is:
1) While it is problematic if other countries try to interfere in our elections -- what Russia did had no impact on the vote. If anything we should send them a thank you note for the wake up call.
2) Obama did nothing about Russia when he could have. And I guarantee if HRC had won, we wouldn't hear anything about Russia interfering with the election. This is merely an attempt by Obama (who initiated the whole probe) to preserve his legacy by undermining Trump.
3) We can be certain that Russia didn't do anything to help Trump win. They were hacking the DNC computers before Trump announced and way before he was the leading Repub.
4) I've never read in the Times or elsewhere a logical case for why Trump would collude with Russia or vice versa. I'm still waiting.
5) The only campaign guilty of undermining the election was HRC's. First, she made sure Sanders couldn't get the nomination. Next, she paid large dollars for the Steele dossier -- using a foreign national to get dirt on Trump from Russians.
Finally -- if there was any evidence of collusion it would have been leaked or Mueller would have concluded his investigation.
1
@Ralphie. Good points. You are either going to be viciously attacked or ignore in the bubble chamber here.
That a political novice like Trump could capture the presidency has rattled so many people they can’t accept it. They are hanging everything on the fact that the Russians are so smart that they were able to correctly pick that Trump was going to win that they cozied up to him and him alone. Every poll had Hillary so far ahead and the endless cheerleading by the left was a ruse that only the Russians could clearly see through and they were able to target their Facebook ads so precisely to get their win. Part of their reward, banished Diplomats, sanctions and open chastising of a NATO member nation Germany for buying oil from Russia and not us.
1
@Ralphie Well well well -that's a lot of whistling in the wind there. As my gran used to say - none so blind as those who don't want to see. Those 5 points have all been answered time and again, even in media downunder. All you do is follow the money.
3
@Ralphie
That's not how justice works you know.
You clearly first picked your side, and then decided to suppose that each time that Mueller finds something and indicts someone, it must be based on false confessions, extorted under illegal pressure.
That is indeed the narrative that Trump has been tweeting 24/7, and before that, that Fox News has been constantly pushing about any "liberal" out there.
From the perspective of that narrative, US institutions were already totally corrupt before Trump took over, and justice already no longer existed, and it's Obama and the Democrats that did this to the nation.
After hearing this narrative for two decades, about 35% of the country to day made it their own and now imagines that it's their "personal opinion" - and of course also the unshakable truth.
So unshakable that you don't even have to do any fact-checking anymore.
All the evidence is already out there, and has been reported in detail by the NYT and many other reliable news sources, and yet, for you there's still nothing to see here.
Forget about the fact that Mueller works for Sessions, Trump's first public supporter in the Senate and who Trump himself appointed and can fire at any moment. Forget about the fact that Mueller himself is a Republican, highly respected for decades of outstanding and fair prosecuting.
Once you're stuck in the hoax narrative, you become immune for reality, apparently.
1
Quite a few commenters here seem to think Manfort’s plea assures the end of this presidency, that it’s “all over but the shoutin’.” But we have yet to see either the full force of Trump’s response—or the full force of the GOP’s willingness to protect him—and the prospects of both are terrifying.
There is absolutely nothing we know about Donald Trump that would lead us to believe he will “go softly into that goodnight.” His number one instinct is self preservation, to fight to the finish with every weapon in his arsenal with no thought whatsoever to who or what is killed in the process. And there is absolutely nothing we know about the GOP that would lead us to believe they will do anything but stack up more sandbags around the red wall they have built around their man. They haven’t gotten their next Supreme Court justice yet, much less their gutting of Medicaid or the final demise of the ACA. They can’t stop now.
With the president and the GOP both fighting for their own survival, we are set for a battle royal. And regardless who ultimately wins, the damage to our country and its institutions will be incalculable.
22
Sad to say, I think you've nailed it.
2
It's said that a fish rots from the head down. How many more parts of that rotten fish will go down until the head is finally removed? It can't happen soon enough.
37
With two new hired guns on SCOTUS (who were selected especially to give cover to corrupt lawmakers and corporations) the GOP will have cemented their legacy as the destroyer of American democracy. The Dems have been enablers too. Their tolerance for corruption is just (very slightly) lower. I don't think Mueller can save us. So many Reps and Senators beat the drum of "patriotism" but they love money and power more than democracy. When it looks like POTUS might lose power there will be more blood in the streets. He's counting on it!
12
@Lani Mulholland
Democrats NEVER did something remotely similar.
What is destroying this country more than any single lawmaker or Justice could do, is the rampant cynicism both on the left and the right.
It's out of cynicism that part of the progressives in this country stayed home and allowed the GOP to take over in Nov. 2016.
Cynicism means for instance forgetting that there are a LOT of good, decent citizens, including in DC, and that the only way to make real, democratic, lasting, non-violent progress is to have the focus and patience to make step by step progress. That's the kind of cynicism that part of the left has always been vulnerable to.
On the right, cynicism means having seen so much violence in your own life that you can't believe anymore that real moral values exist, and that at least part of the elites in this country continue to cultivate them, especially also on the left.
Both types of cynicism are slowing down progress, and turning us into a weaker and less perfect union than what could have already been the case today.
Here's just one answer to cynicism: Obamacare. Not only did is curb cost increases, on average, and cover 20 million more Americans, it's saving an additional 40,000 American lives a year. That means that thanks to the Democrats, soon half a million lives will have been saved. And many who voted for it knew that it may cost them their jobs, and many did lose it indeed. They did the right thing anyhow.
We can too ... !
9
I couldn't agree more. Their phony baloney war on crime begins and ends with the war on drugs or should we say the war on the poor. White collar crime is now an accepted career path to money and power - disgusting. The real war should continue along the same path that Mueller is heading down. Cleaning up crime and corruption should focus on the two pillars of responsibility the leaders of our public and private sectors. If they are clean great we need them if not lock them up!
3
@dln So-called white collar criminals go to country club prisons for short spells when their crimes hurt us all. They need to go to the real prisons.
Mueller's investigation is the prelude. To be successful in his charge, he must keep much of what he learns secrete. For the nation to successfully deal with these crisis and move forward, the facts must be put forward in a public way.
This plea deal advances the short term progress of the investigation, but reduces the information in the public dialog.
Putting more information into the public dialog can best happen when Congress begins to do it's job and holds sworn public testimony on all aspects of these various scandals.
Congress has shown it will only do it's job after voters do theirs. We must sit a congress that will investigate.
Register and vote.
25
For those who didn't learn about "Watergate" in 1973 or weren't even born yet. They're learning it now. And for those who knew about "Watergate" in 1973. They're reliving it now.
19
I was 25 the night Nixon resigned in 1974 on live TV. But Watergate was a bungled domestic burglary and comically inept cover-up. Child's play compared to Trumpgate. And it still took over 2 years to finally bring him down even with solid Democratic majorities in both houses.
It was a big mistake to pardon Nixon, he should have gone to prison. Let's not repeat that mistake. Orange jumpsuits, every one of them.
3
@Joanne Rumford
I lived through Watergate. I think this is much, much worse. Nixon wasn't in cahoots with the Russians.
1
Most followers of the Trump saga believe there is a complex hidden conspiracy that will be uncovered about Trump. However, it is obvious and clearly in sight. Yes trump accepted the help of Manafort and his Russian cohorts, but for Trump this is like going 75mph in a 65mph zone. The real fear by Trump is his money laundering, e.g.,how many Russians own Trump Tower apartments? how many properties have been sold to Russian and Ukraine backed entities? How many foreign entities and bank accounts exist that are controlled by Trump and his family? How much of his ill gotten money’s has been hidden from the taxing authorities? The real crimes Trump is worried about are the racketeering that went on before he entered the political spotlight. Cohen,Manafort and his CFO, all who are cooperating, are the key to the snakes nest.
20
That there was a crime of political conspiracy cannot be doubted. But was it organized? Hardly. Otherwise, these and future culprits would have escaped these indictments, convictions and exposure.
2
@Pat Choate
If that were true, no organized crime group would ever have been caught and put behind bars ... which as you may know is not the case at all ... ;-)
Trump himself told us that his big example is Al Pacino, and we know how that story ended, don't we?
The Republicans have been willing to overlook almost anything from their fellow Republicans as long as they can keep giving tax cuts to their wealthy donors and allow corporate polluters to continue to profit while ignoring the effects on the health of America's children
But, selling our country out to the Russians HAS to be a bridge too far, even for the Republicans, isn't it?
84
@Ronny when all's said and done and Trump is gone these same Republican's will stand up in front of the cameras and tell the American people that like them they were also duped by Trump and that's because they have always put great faith in our political system. They can spin it 10 different ways and their followers will believe it. Nothing will really change.
8
@Ronny. From what we have seen and heard so far, the GOP sees selling the country to the Russians a small price to pay for two Supreme Court justices and a host of other federal judges. They will even throw in the rule of law if they think they can further politicize the judiciary in their favor.
28
@Ronny: Unfortunately, it's not enough for his Republicans, as Trump proved by siding with Putin against his own U.S. intelligence agencies.
2
There's something intensely wrong with the picture when a president demands allegiance to his person, at the cost of the country he is sworn to preserve and protect.
And as the cards fall into place with the recent confessions of Paul Manafort, Michael Cohen, and a host of others who have been discovered for their malfeasance, the extent of Donald Trump's and the G.O.P.'s corruption is slowly becoming known.
That they should call themselves 'Patriots' by wrapping themselves in the American flag while proclaiming immunity is just par for the course.
The course to destruction, that is.
And looking at Mr. Trump's former campaign manager Paul Manafort, is a perfect case and point.
Not only did Manafort lie about his income from the very beginning, but he also worked as a foreign agent without properly registering it.
With these kind of characteristics, it's no surprise he'd throw anybody under the bus in order to save his own skin -- but there's no way of getting around a distinct Russian connection...again.
And with the New York State investigation into the Trump Foundation, the ongoing Robert Mueller investigation into Russian involvement, and the list of canaries singing louder everyday, there's no reason to doubt that things in "Trumpworld" are going to get pretty interesting, and pretty soon.
61
@N. Smith: Patriotism wrapped in religion cloaks the worst of all scoundrels.
4
@Steve Bolger
But Patriotism cloaked in nationalism is still the worst.
It's mindful of the time when Richard Nixon declared that he was not a crook. Of course he was involved in Watergate only days after this "third-rate burglary". Whether or not Donald Trump was engaged in these criminal activities is immaterial. The focus must be not so much on the who but when he was informed of this criminal undertaking and why he protected these men for as long as he did.
41
Paul Manafort undoubtedly knows how unfit for office Trump really is. And Manafort surely must suspect that the uber ambitious Vice President Pence and at least 8 of the 15 current cabinet members feel the same way and could invoke the 25th amendment at any moment without advance warning. Trump would be immediately stripped of his presidential authority. True, he could fight it. And it would take a 2/3's vote in the House and Senate to uphold Trump's removal from office. Nothing is certain these days, but it's unlikely that Congress would disagree with a majority of cabinet members who declare that their president is crazy.
So if the 25th amendment comes into play, there goes Manafort's pardon. I wonder if he has finally decided that he can't take that chance.
11
Manafort picked Pence for Vice President,
Pence was the transition team chariman
Pence is part if the conspiracy.
The only other question is will this pull in McConnell and Ryan?
6
@Deirdre Your skepticism is warranted. I've had this queasy feeling for some time now that the Republican party is one big Russian sleeper cell. I think we can be confident that Putin has bought off Trump, but why think Benedict Donald was his only purchase? I suspect Putin has plunked down a ruble or two on a bunch of Republican lottery tickets over the years, and he hit the powerball jackpot with Trump. Why spend hundreds of billions of dollars on defense when a few billion in bribes will do the trick?
I wonder whether the next Republican charged and who may eventually flip will be a total surprise and shocker.
It is beginning to remind me of the Spiro Agnew surprise in the middle of Watergate.
29
@Kevin
Reread your history. Agnew had little to do with Watergate other than to blindly defend his boss. He had to leave for other reasons.
2
During his election campaign, Mr. Trump vowed to "drain the swamp". What he didn't say was that once he'd dredged up its contents, he was planning on hiring them to work for his administration.
90
@Aelwyd
What he meant by "swamp" was clear for his voters not but for everybody else.
By "swamp" he means "elites", not in the sense of the wealthiest citizens, but in the sense of those who still talk about high moral values, moral character etc. For people living in a "dog eats dog world", where as someone told me lately, the only one you can trust is yourself (and that person was only 28-years old ...), the worst criminals out there are those who still try to pretend that there are things such as "good people" or moral values in this horrible world, because not only must they without any doubt be as bad as anybody else, but on top of that, they add the hypocrisy of still trying to make people believe that a better world exists but that you and I just weren't lucky enough to be part of it.
Of course, some Tea Party voters probably believed that Trump would take on the financial elites too, but he never actually truly attacked Wall Street.
The only hope still left, in a dog eats dog world, is that your mafia boss will take out all the other mafia bosses, so that now at least there can be some time of relative peace and less violence, and that's it.
Trump was their man. And all his tweets continue to nurture this (and almost certainly his own) dark worldview, which unfortunately IS reality for a minority of Americans. THOSE are the ones supporting him no matter what he does or says, because what else do they have left .. ?
2
@Ana Luisa So much of what you say is true. Yet I am dismayed by the darkness of it all. Trump appeals to those who perceive life has passed them over. They wallow in their discontent. They are by nature darkly focused. But I chose to think the world is not a horrible place, that good ultimately triumphs over evil, that America is at its core a good, generous and positive experience.
As the old saying goes (& whose mother didn't say it) - you can judge a person by the company he/she keeps...
91
@Anne-Marie Hislop ...or birds of a feather flock together.
1
Yes, Rat Pack indeed, but why no mention of Democratic Party operator, fund raiser, Tony Podesta, brother to Democratic Party Chairman John Podesta. At the top. Rat Pack has no interest in Red or Blue partisan issues. The only color of interest is green.
7
Closely related to the question of possible crimes committed by Trump and Manafort,
the GOP wants to rush to judgement on Mr. Kavanaugh's case of an attempted gang rape with another male of a young high school girl.
Kavanagh is accused of locking the door and playing load music to cover up his rape victims screams.
That is quite a horrible case of attempted gang rape by a proposed justice of the Supreme Court, if true.
Trump's White House wants Kavanaugh to be confirmed in a big rush on Thursday before the public can find out about this accusation of horrendous attempted rape.
If Kavanaugh is confirmed and then it comes out that he indeed committed attempted gang rape to a young girl, it would pull the country apart to an even greater extent than it is now.
The thought is horrible to contemplate.
66
@David but is a sitting Supreme Court Justice immune from criminal prosecution? It would indeed be interesting if he's confirmed and later indicted.
@David: I'm a lot more concerned about Kavanaugh's history of compulsive gambling than some misdeed in high school. And when Kavanaugh suddenly paid off that debt a few years ago, where did the money come from?
8
@David
Where has this information come from?
Add some barbed wire fencing, bars on doors and windows, and guard towers, and Mar a Lago could be repurposed as the Federal government’s presidential prison. For corrupt politicians, sleazy movie executives, and mass murderers. Maybe then prison reform would receive serious attention.
44
This is the best show in town! Forgive my schadenfreude but ever since trump became president I knew that something very ugly was happening to not only the US but to the entire world, the electoral machinery seems controlled by strings being pulled from as far away as the Kremlin, the GOP has shamelessly and eagerly pounced upon the advantage that these illegal and deeply sinister machinations brought them and has embarked upon what looks like to me (over here in the UK) as a virtual coup. The entire judiciary of the US has been stuffed with pro-Republicans, they want a deeply Right-Wing state and that demands tight control over all aspects of daily life.
If they manage to get Kavanaugh elevated into the Supreme Court the vast majority of crimes against the state and the American people will be brushed under the carpet and trump will get pardons for himself and anyone else in his family who has been implicated in any of the shady dealings which have taken place since this farce began.
Imagine what a trump free of legal jeopardy would be like, he would have Carte Blanche to behave in any manner he felt appropriate for that moment, he is such a child with a terminally spoiled nature that he would turn on those who tried to bring him to justice with a vengeance,
He'd be a third-rate, geriatric Caligula with Putin laughing himself silly from the shadows.
This is a major turning point in American History and trump must no be let off the hook because he would take America down.
92
@gkropotkin That's an assumption regarding the Supreme Court since the majority were picked by Republican Presidents. However, I still believe that many of the Justice's are honest Americans who'll uphold our Constitution regardless of party politics.
There are two threads of thoughts that I cannot shake:
1) here again is an example of the character of the people who were selected as part of the team; - is there anyone who is not a felon?; and
2) did the Russians conspire to have Mr. Manafort placed as campaign chairman?
62
@Roscoe Answer to #2: YES!
If Trump committed treason by himself and those around him, I think that's enough to make the 2016 election null and void.
And yes, this all looks like organized crime.
154
I've been wondering when anybody would now reference Trump's remarks of admiration for Manafort (in contrast to the traitor Cohen). Thank you for the satisfaction of reading it here.
24
Paul Manafort may be sent to prison for not for any Russia collusion but his ties to Ukaraine long before he was briefly campaign manager for Trump. It took a thorn like Manafort to take out the thorn like Hillary. Two years ago Trump won against the most formidable and ferocious opponent my matching a rat pack with a rat pack of his own but with half the spending on campaign. American democracy at the highest level downright is dirty politics and vipers pit. But what matters ultimately is that USA has a robust economy and all the fear mongering that Trump's entry into the white house will be apocalyptic has not panned out for his opponents and the press that predicted and endorsed his opponents and that is what is fueling the bitter partisan divide that has spilled over to the average Americans.
America will do it right in the end after trying everything wrong........... Winston Churchill
6
@Girish Kotwal how can you say this with a straight face? He has already done so much damage to the environment, our relationship with allies, regulations to protect it's people, women's rights, healthcare reform, immigration, he's questioned our freedom to protest but more importantly he's divided our people like no one ever in our history has. You can stuff the economy because outside his huge giveaway to the top 1% he's done little to make any meaningful difference in the working man's financial well being.
10
@Girish Kotwal
What a great quote!
thank you
I would question if the writer was really Donald Trump - but no, too many big words and long sentences. So no, not Trump, just a Trumpster with Hillary Derangement Syndrome.
1
Can’t wait for Trump’s reaction. Barely knew him, just a lowly campaign manager, witch hunt, lock her up.
58
@RickyDick And don't forget fake news, Obama did it, the Dems are responsible, no collusion, and oh yeah, did we mention witch hunt? Also can't forget "TREASON???," which he obviously doesn't know the definition of. He certainly has become predictable, hasn't he?
@RickyDick
Time to "lock HIM up" Our president is looking more and more like a mafia leader, a wanna be dictator. Lock him up", Lock him Up". It is time before he does more damage. ANd show hie tax returns. I bet he has not paid any taxes since the 90s. What a crook we have if this is true. Honest Citizens pay their taxes but this president is just the worst we had. Can't you see this" Or no matter what he is "your Man". It is astonishing to me.
O,K. so now the New York Times is referring to people who cooperate with the Special Counsel as rats? Funny, but not accurate. Clever, but not smart. The tone of this editorial is pettier than a reader should expect from the Editorial Board. Besides, look at all the thunder you have stolen from the columnists who could do a much better job of exploiting the idea.
4
@Richard Mclaughlin
Sinatra's 'Rat Pack' was the epitome of cool.
So...different perspectives are possible.
1
Scary thought—Pence is licking his lips and rubbing his hands...
46
Pence was selected by Manafort and he was the transition chairman whose inaugural committed collected the most donations in history and put on the worst party - where did that money go? - Pence is most certainly involved in the conspiracy and he helped select many in the administration - so the only question left to ask is ‘How deep into this administration do the Russians go’?
7
@TS Scary thought indeed. Whether Trump of Pence Kavanaugh will do their dirty works. Lock up all the minorities, women who speak up or trying to control what they will do with their bodies. Poor working people whether white or whatever color race etc will be fooled into doing well when in reality they will be paying all the taxes. Private prisons will flourish, where the person on top makes all the money with thugs to run the prison. NO taxes at all will be paid by the super rich, and crooks will go free. Back to 1800. Welcome to dictatorship hidden behind lies.
2
@TS
And deleting his messages and burning his files …...
1
"Pardon us"?
Was that actually a joke, NYT?
8
Nixon at least had a few redeeming qualities. Trump has none.
20
Trump has said, “I love the poorly educated.” Actually, what he meant is “I love the stupid and the gullible”. He meant those who had bought his pitch for Trump Steaks, Trump Wines, Trump Airlines, and Trump University, each of which were momentarily successful but were ultimately failures.
I have no doubt that ultimately his most fervent supporters will realize that they have been had and will turn against him, just as the “alumni” of Trump University eventually did, I only wonder how long will it take, and how much damage will have been done to the prospects for future generations by then.
33
On the one hand, we have a methodical, rational, ultra-focused sleuth and on the other hand, we have a haphazard, irrational, unfocused, narcissist.
In the Orwellian America of the last two years, could it be that irrational beats rational; that the poles had reversed, North was now South and South, North?
No, the laws of Universe will not be mocked. Ignorance is not strength. No worries, as soon enough, the world will be spinning in greased-grooves once again.
7
Buckle up! The worst is yet to come. Narcissists don't go quietly into the night.
56
@DavisAgreed... no they don't and I fear that POTUS will become yet more suspicious, disorganized and create some type of crisis to rally support and once again distract, deflect and attack. Best case scenario, he'll blame who knows who and resign for the good of the Country, his way of saving face and avoiding shame... but then there is whack job Pence in the wings, hmmmm.
Manafort while on the road to Damascus has had his eyes opened. Sacrificing his future for the twitter in chief isn't in his best interests. Loyalty to the boss has been shown time and time again to be a fool's errand. trump knows the knot is getting tight. We Americans wait to see which of his offspring will be first under the bus. This along with other recent Fridays had beena great news day. Thank you Mr Mueller.
35
Now that all the president’s men are arrested, convicted, fined, and some are on their way to prison, what more does Mr. Muller needs to bring Justice to the fake President and put an end to this shameful period in American history?
25
Sad day, but one I did not see coming to fruition. Did Manafort have a choice with 8 felony convictions (should have been 18)?
And when I say sad day, I mean for our United States on this level of corruption.
I certainly look forward to what Manafort has to reveal.
23
If Mr. Manafort failed to pay federal income taxes, he probably failed to pay state income taxes as well, unless he was a resident of one of those states that do not impose income taxes.
Has Mr. Manafort been a resident of Alaska, Florida, Nevada, South Dakota, Texas, Washington State or Wyoming for ALL the tax years under possible question? If not, he may have a legal exposure that cannot be remedied by a federal pardon.
He is toast.
19
America needs to focus on ownership of news media . Murdoch has been discredited in the U.K. for the phone hacking scandal, perhaps its time the government looked at whether he is a fit and proper person to own national media outlets.
58
I'm coming to the realization that Special Council Mueller is not close to finishing this investigation, and has now just finished with the tip of the iceberg.
Now with Manafort's cooperation Mueller gets to look inside the lobbying network in D.C., and the influence peddlers of foreign powers. Not to mention the Trump campaign and all those involved.
It's hard to imagine the investigation wrapping up just after midterms, maybe an interim report to Rosenstein, but this thing is just getting out of first gear.
20
I read elsewhere that Manafort has accepted that he is finished, and is trying to salvage something from the remains of the millions he acquired to keep his family afloat while he sits in prison.
Can anyone out there imagine for even one second that Trump would think about anyone other than himself under any circumstances? Would he admit to his treachery against his country and willingness to cause damage to the world for personal gain, and take the consequences like a man?
Never. Trump isn't a man. He'd watch the bus drive over every one of his employees, every 'friend', every wife, and even his children in order to save himself. Or better yet, himself and his money. Paul Manafort was greedy, manipulative, and shameless, but Donald Trump is a true monster.
76
Unfinished business includes a subpoena for Trump to appear before the DC Grand Jury. Mueller must force him, under oath, to answer questions or exercise his 5th Amendment rights. Sell the rights to televise that on pay-for-view and we can begin to pay down the GOP-induced 2018 deficit.
37
Ignoring the obvious fact that Mr.Mueller keeps piling up one conviction after another in this all too real Witch Hunt; one has to wonder when Humpty Trumpdy is going to have his great fall. The tipping point cannot possibly be far off. If Bob Woodward has in fact exposed the TRUTH for the whole world to see in , "FEAR" as to the whole sordid cast of characters and what really went down in 2016; how can this farce of a Presidency go on much longer? Every day Trump remains in the White House; every day the U.S. becomes a pale shadow of what it once was. It is pathetically obvious most of these self serving low lifes are only out to line their own pockets by any means possible. Can the U.S. be Great again? Not with this den of thieves. Time to really clean house; once and for all on Nov.6!
64
This early comment won't bring me many accolades but what the heck.
First let me explain that i felt that Trump was not presidential material before he even ran for the presidency. My feeling about him turned negative when he started his foolish(and mean) remarks about President Obama along with being the first celebrity to bring up the birther issue. Trump's style was ugly from the first day of his interest in "running".
But i don't believe in throwing this "ugly baby" out with the bath water.
Trump is also. at times, right about a few things.
# 1 Keep your "enemies"close so you might know more about their thoughts. Even a possibility that you are not as far apart as you imagine which can cause dangerous build up of tension. The toughest guy in the room isn't always the smartest.
#2 Trump happens to be right about Crimea. We put in our usual sanctions on Russia because of Crimea but Russia will not give up Crimea. Modern history will explain why
Russia will finally keep their previous hold of Crimea.
Crimea will fall to Ukraine the day after we give Chicago back to the indigenous peoples of the Americas.
Trump says lets now hold for a while on North Korea. Better than our old War games and the "North" shows some signs
of cooperation.
"Let's Do Something to get even" produced for us
Iraq,Afghanistan,Vietnam,Cambodia, Laos.
My least favorite president is wrong a lot.
But, It's up to our citizens to sense when he just happens to be right.
And another domino falls! Trumps is threatened by his own personal hurricane, a category 5 storm called corruption. Sooner or later the winds of truth and honesty will force his evacuation. The cleanup will take years but the country will right itself and dispose of him and the debris surrounding him.
29
Every week begins the same way:
"THIS time we got Trump! Oh boy-oh-boy-oh-boy! There's no WAY he's getting away with it this time! We got him now!"
By Wednesday, doubt gives way to denial:
"But . . . Hey! No! But . . . but . . . we GOT him. We DID! He can't . . . No! Nooo!
Thursday is spent gnashing teeth and rending garments, and by Friday, Monday's promise is long forgotten and a new attempt is made.
Every week it's Lucy with the football and Charlie Brown convinced that THIS time, she won't pull it away. I'm surprised nobody has noticed this pattern.
2
The entire affair seems to be strikingly similar to the model of "The Producers," except without the comedy.
You have a bunch of criminals -- such as Michael Cohen and Paul Manafort and Roger Stone -- all of whom thought they could use the Trump campaign as a fast way to make tens of millions of dollars peddling influence. It seems none of them thought the campaign would win and thus they would never be caught.
In the movie version, once the musical becomes a smash hit [spoiler alert], they resort to blowing it up, seeing no other way out. In the Trump version, the thing getting blown up is the structure and stature of this great nation.
42
The narcissist king thought he was an irresistible body. A universe unto himself pulling in others into secure orbits around his perfect gravitational pull.
Children learn their place in the world through such fantasies. As they mature they accept reality and their place in the world. They learn and demonstrate humility.
People who experience trauma as children have the potential to have their emotional development stop at a point before maturity. They are a mess of unmet needs. Such a person is Donald Trump.
He has amassed power to create a charade of omnipotence to salve his hurts. Normally, we should take pity, but this is a Greek tragedy. The stage is not a family drama, but the greatest stage in the world.
The president is doubling down on his fantasies of power and influence. Retreating to his base, he makes more and more outlandish claims against his many enemies. They are substitutes for those that once hurt the child. Because the players are so significant now, his fall will be a hard one because he is fully invested. But it is inevitable.
He will have a moment to realize his time is over. Failing that, I shudder at the damage he will do with millions willing to stay loyal to a man who sees loyalty as a one way street. Donor pleasing Republicans also have a choice: their country or milking this pathetic tragedy for every dollar they can steal.
Buckle your seat belts. Turbulence is ahead.
49
Mueller's investigation seems like a riptide, running beneath and against the other currents and disrupting them and whatever's living in them. In nature, a riptide is a destructive force. But in our unnatural climate of narcissistic leadership and sycophancy, it is purging and healing.
9
Manafort was prepared to work for lots of dubious characters when he was rewarded well. This is just another.
Manafort's business dealings were targeted because of his relationship with Trump and he was basically blackmailed into making this deal. For the average Trump supporter this is just another occasion where Liberals try to win in a dirty way.
1
There's been more flipping than pancake happy hour at an IHOP.
Thank you, Bob Mueller, for your courage and patriotism! They've maligned your reputation. Insulting your intellect. Attempted to eviscerate your investigation and our justice system. Trump and his posse of malcontents have done everything they can think of to derail you short of terminating your employment. And yet, you persisted!
We own Mueller and his team an enormous debt of gratitude.
93
So can we have a summary of all these people effective convictions ?
I mean does anyone actually go to prison while Trump is untouchable all the way except for a political switch ?
8
Donald Trump seems incapable of understanding the truth that in order to be effective, loyalty MUST be a two-way street. No rational adult in Trump's service can look at the way he's spoken of his own appointees and supporters - Cohen, Sessions, Tillerson, Wray, Christie, et al. - and come away with any hope that Trump has their backs. Truly, there is no honor among thieves in this, the most kleptocratic administration this country has ever suffered under.
50
@Bob Bunsen- He thinks they're all chumps who hang out with him for his genius pronouncements and to hopefully catch a few of the millions of dollars that are thrown up against Trump himself, but bounce off his magnificence...
Psychopathy acts like the eye of the hurricane, pulling in the hapless and like-minded and flinging out debris everywhere.
1
Now Manafort will try and lie his way through his talk with prosecutors by denying knowing much of anything that would implicate Trump. Hope that Mueller has the facts from others that he can use to squeeze Manafort when he plays dumb.
Next will come Trump’s Pardon of Manafort. Almost a guarantee it’s coming and will set off a crisis in the government. Right after the November elections.
6
Winning the election was the worst thing that could have happened to Trump. He will not be able to withstand the scrutiny that goes with the presidency.
The same can be said for his "advisors" and "friends." He touches them and they find their lives destroyed.
Even Fox is getting a bit nervous about its sycophancy.
All we need is a blue wave in November and the end of this national nightmare will be in sight.
72
@Mark
Agree that Trump would have been much happier if he had lost. He only entered the race to build his “brand” anyway, and he succeeded at that. Now he has to act like a grownup as well, and he can’t pull it off.
Alas for us all, that “hurt people hurt people”.
18
It would be naive to think Manafort was the Lone Ranger of influence peddlers raking in millions from forighners to influence our government. From drug companies to arms dealers influence pedderling is lucrative. The public is the one getting the short end of the stick because the public is the only one not being represented. Nations and companies do not spend these massive sums because they are Altruistic. Vows of draining the swamp by the swamp is laugable. Manafort is just the tip of the iceberg of Rats living large while the working people get stifed by those elected to look out for their interest.
37
The noose is tightening. It won't be long before the Republicans in Congress who are complicit, by their silence to challenge Trump, will begin walk away. If they don't know may of their chances for re-election will evaporate, which will be due justice in its own right.
20
After Paul Manafort agreed to cooperate with the Mueller investigation yesterday, the president hasn’t uttered a word via Twitter. No outrage, no screaming, no upper case characters to highlight that he a victim of a deep state conspiracy to dethrone him. The rule of law will hold him accountable for crimes he committed because now he’s finding out that he isn’t above the law. Republicans gave him that impression for 20 months in spite of his many attempts to diminish the courts, law enforcement agencies and democratic institutions.
For all their criminal activities and the harm they did to America, these men who pleaded guilty have the capacity to show remorse and own up to what they did. The president has no such compunction. He cares only about himself and has no loyalty to the nation that foolishly elected him as its president.
The irony here is that after a career of defrauding investors and business associates with no regard for ethical behavior, the president is being exposed as a master grafter on the world’s most prominent stage. He makes Richard Nixon look like an honest man.
57
@silver vibes
"He cares only about himself and has no loyalty to the nation that foolishly elected him as its president. "
This sentence is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. The Democrats have to go after Trump and the enabling Republican party like they are the enemies of democracy, because they are.
34
Just idly speculating. Who would have thought that being utterly corrupt would qualify someone for such important and high paying jobs?
Save Mattis, McMaster, and Kelly, there appears to be no one at the senior advisory or Cabinet level who hasn’t misled, lied, and grifted.
Perhaps we’ve got it wrong that hard work, integrity, and perseverance will be recognized as the merited indicators of success.
44
I am heartened by the news of Manafort’s guilty pleas and cooperation agreement. But some responses I’ve seen make this sound like it’s the be-all and end-all. There’s still a lot to come down. Hark back to the timeworn saying: “Chickens counted prematurely may not always hatch.”
8
Mr. Manafort dragged out the legal process as far as he could. His exposure mounted to a point he couldn't handle. He folded and flipped. Mr. Trump could have pardoned Mr. Manafort. He realized he couldn't handle the political heat if he did. So he folded and left Mr. Manafort twisting in the wind.
Mr. Guiliani indicates that Mr. Manafort has no dirt on the president. Maybe true, maybe not. But Manafort clearly has dirt on the president's son and son-in-law.
Surely Mr. Trump will pardon them when necessary.
9
Trump feels threatened. Yesterdays news headline, "Do you really want Pence for President?" Not really, but if Trump is not indicted stupidity will become the only qualification for Vice President.
My hope: people will start taking elections seriously, like their lives depended on it. Elections will be fair and protected from intrusion. The electoral college will be abolished. If your argument can't stand up to scrutiny, that doesn't mean you get a weighted voting system so you get your way regardless.
Trump has exposed so many flaws in our voting system. Now, if he'll just go away. We'll continue to push for democratic values, Pence will just have to deal.
42
If our democracy can withstand the onslaught of this loosely organized crime family we should all consider ourselves lucky. But don’t think this period won’t set back America (& the entire planet) for years to come. The sooner Trump is gone the better but it has to be done within the confines of our democratic legal system even though Trump in his fantasy world thinks he is an autocrat.
America and its way of life are worth fighting for - and to quote Winston Churchill:
“Democracy is the worst form of government - except for all the others.”
66
@Andrew
Churchill also said, “You can depend upon the Americans to do the right thing. But only after they have exhausted every other possibility.”
23
The rats are understandably deserting the sinking Trump ship.
Donald Trump is a myth; an illusion with a preposterous facade projected in defiance of observable truth and facts.
Trump's collapse is as inevitable and predictable as all other human activities constrained by the laws of physics. The collapse will be spectacular, and he will likely try to take as many people down with him as he can. Get ready for the spectacle.
104
@Alan R Brock
Thank you so much. After two years of parsing words to adequately capture the essence of Trump and those who support him, you've unearthed the precise essence of it all...
preposterous
I can sleep now.
1
Manafort is only the soft entry into the Trump/Russian money quagmire. Even if he had not been caught in Mr. Mueller's net, there are probably other avenues to follow.
Other than finding out if Mr. Putin's Russia influenced our elections to get Mr. Trump into office, the Russian money into the Trump "empire" has been going on for several years, allegedly. We want to know the sources.
There are several suspicious transactions that are already public... the mansion in Florida that was resold by the Trump org (allegedly) for at least double the amount it was worth as one example, or the monies directed via Deutsche Bank to the Trump org.
Forget the petty stuff like the rent the Secret Service pays in Trump towers or the golf cart rental laughers, the major list seem endless but not known to us. This swamp, even if shallow has to be drained. If the Justice Dept is not working on that it would be a dereliction of duty.
We have to restore our faith in Government of the people, badly damaged by the inaction of at least one co-equal branch of government. We are still not a monarchy. Isn't that what the founders left behind and fought wars to reject monarchy?
20
The noose is tightening on Trump’s neck and maybe the full truth will be revealed. If it is just, maybe Trump will be exposed as a criminal who not only obstructed justice, but conspired with a hostile foreign power to influence his Presidential election. His complicated business organization may be shown to be a money laundering operation and his tax and financial records to be fraudulent. I believe that the President should not be above the law and if implicated he should be eventually indicted and face justice in a criminal court for his entire
career of breaking multiple laws.
In my opinion, Trump is illegitimate and will need to be impeached. Hopefully the voters will see the truth and vote the enabling and corrupted Republican Party out of Office so that justice can be served.
20
It is curious to me why Mr. Trump expects his employees and associates to put his well-being above their own.
57
How disappointing that a great nation is being dragged through the mire of corruption by its leaders and cohorts, have they no shame.
We all have the expectation that those appointed to govern us are beyond reproach but here we see that the little man in the street is made to feel the full force of the law while the rich and powerful can get away with anything.
Not good.
24
Finally, justice is being served. The pace is not what we would hope for, but Mr. Trump's actions will be uncovered, and exposed for Americans to judge. The issue becomes what will Congress do, and when will they do it? If we continue to vote for a Republican controlled Congress you know the answer. No matter what the special counsel uncovers, the current Republican leadership of the House will protect Trump. He will not be impeached. He will not be tried. Consider that when you vote in November where ever you live. Mr. Trump should be absolved by the special counsel, or he should face the same justice that his underlings and toadies have faced. So far, we do not know if our President is involved in this illegality. If he is, he needs to be held accountable. Vote for the Democrat in every House race, and lets get to the end of this story!
18
That Trump had expressed confidence to his aides that Manafort would not "flip" says it all. If he were innocent, and if he had confidence in the judicial process and the rule of law, he would have nothing to worry about regardless. So it is painfully and tragically obvious that the so-called president is guilty as all get out, and that he well knows it. Illegitimate president, illegitimate administration, and illegitimate Supreme Court nomination. And if all this goes for naught, then we're living in an illegitimate democracy controlled by an illegitimate party.
87
As there's quite a gap between the lip and the cup, much more is hidden between Paul Manafort's guilty plea deal with the Robert Mueller panel and the actual court trial. It should turn out to be a great suspense thriller.
41
@Prof. Jai Prakash Sharma, am sure Hollywood has already started to write the script...Who is going to play Paul Manafort? Paul Sorvino?
1
Paul Manafort, the good, honest, fine, upstanding Trump loyalist, who believed in Trump's integrity and decency so much that he worked as his campaign manager for free, now finds himself working for Mueller for free. I can't stop smiling.
375
@Frank Oh, I believe it cost him something like $46 million in forfeited assets, including his apartment in Trump Tower, so not quite free.
8
@Erin Neathery Even better! I stand corrected and I'm smiling even more.
@Frank
Mr. Manafort is very generous.
2
And what if Manifort's testimony brings down this president? How is Pence some kind of restitution for whatever crimes or foreign interference led us to this point? No: the election was rigged (the one point I agree with Trump on) and is invalid. So too is the composition of SCOTUS. We will have to go outside the Constitution, beyond anything the founding fathers envisaged. I suggest some sort of Regency comprising the last three Presidents (Clinton, Obama and Bush) to right the ship, administer the laws, and expansion of the Supreme Court to nine justices. Just handing things over to Pence is not a solution: his election as VP was just as tainted as Trump's.
341
@Andrew It’s very possible Mueller has the goods on Pence too. Remember Flynn was the first flipper.
2
@Andrew
Tonight on Bill Maher Richard Clarke pointed out that Pence was Manafort’s choice as VP. So the plot keeps on moving, keep yer chin up...
1
@Andrew: "I suggest some sort of Regency comprising the last three Presidents (Clinton, Obama and Bush) to right the ship, administer the laws, and expansion of the Supreme Court to nine justices." Why not give the presidency to the woman who rightly won it?
1
Let's all get some sleep until November the 7th.The day after the election will be filled with dramatic news.
42
@Brad
No. No time to sleep now.......we must keep working tirelessly to get people to the polls......to vote Dem.
Then you can sleep, Brad.
14
@Brad
We can't get sleep as long as Kavanaugh looms.
1
Dominos are falling and at ever faster rate. The domino size is also steadily increasing: Papadopoulos -> Cohen -> Manafort. It cannot be soon enough for me, till the last and the fattest domino falls.
194
I love the last sentence of this editorial. Brilliant! What I also find so deliciously funny is that this may be the only reality show around that's actually real.
187
It has been said for millennia that one should not put one’s trust in princes, for they have no loyalty. But it’s always been understood that one should never put one’s trust in rats, either, for their only real interest is in cheese, obtained by what means are available.
If Trump really believed that Manafort, given his demonstrated nature after so much investigation and a trial, was going to serve decades in prison as punishment for his proven crimes, then he’s been at the Diet Coke too intensively. Manafort took his best shot at trial, won some but lost enough that some kind of deal became inevitable. The real question is what it all means.
If “flipping” means he admits that he took a meeting with Russkies who claimed to have dirt on Hillary, then this will not stick to Trump unless it can be proved that Trump knew of it beforehand and that he was willing to trade something to Russia for the dirt that was inimical to U.S. interests. Otherwise, it’s nothing but a candidate in a hotly-contested and already over-the-top campaign on BOTH sides seeking speculative ammunition against his opponent – and no such transaction is even alleged to have closed.
Of such political peccadilloes “high crimes and misdemeanors” are not made.
But if the editors’ charge is that Manafort is a rat, then there hasn’t been much doubt of that for some time. My only question is where he’s supposed to find the $46 million in ill-gotten cheese that he’s supposed to forfeit. Sell his suits?
9
@Richard LuettgenDear, it comes from his bank accounts and properties. 46 million is a good piece of change for those in the heartland.
72
@Harold Johnson
Actually, it was said that he was cash-broke, or near-so, and was seeking to rebuild his credentials as a lobbyist by serving as Trump's campaign chairman, provided Trump won, so he could accumulate a new fortune. I imagine he has property in real estate, though.
@Richard Luettgen
Valuation of his homes, that were seized, along with bank accounts, I believe.
17
I would say that it is less 'the demand for justice', than self preservation. I don't know if it has sunk through Trump's hairdo yet, but when you demand loyalty and then treat your people with contempt, that has big negative consequences.
Note to Trump, about now Nixon was negotiating his exit terms. If YOU wait too long, you won't have that option.
233
@Bruce1253
I remember those hearings while living in Kill Devil Hills!
My workday was flexible enough to adapt to take breaks for the live broadcasts.
The Republican Party was mostly honorable then ~ clearly not the case now.
1
@Bruce1253 The day the jailhouse doors close behind Trump, all of Washington and the world, will heave a huge sigh of relief. There will be however, 3 people who will not be relieved: Putin of Russia, Kim of North Korea, and Duterte of the Philippines, will be laughing!
1
To those who complain that the Mueller Inquiry is a waste of the taxpayers money, "Mr. Manafort also agreed to forfeit $46 million in cash and property derived from his crimes".
The $46 million is going back to the treasury and that's far more than what the Mueller Inquiry has cost the taxpayer so far.
1236
@Thomas-This is a far cry from the Paul Manafort who--prior to his "closed-door, not-under-oath-testimony" to the Senate Intel Committee--said that he'd be "willing to provide ONLY a single transcribed interview to Congress, which WOULD NOT be available to the Judiciary Committee members or staff." Manafort gets to dictate the terms of his testimony to a U.S. Senate investigative committee? At the time I thought: He must have be convinced he has mighty powerful friends. Let's hope that his agreement to the special counsel to tell the truth completely and forthrightly is sincere, quick, valid, valuable and readily evident!
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/19/us/politics/paul-manafort-russia-trum...
35
Not to mention that the Justice Department now owns an apartment in Trump Tower. That would have to make for a couple of amusing elevator rides, at least.
2
@Thomas
How does Manaforte have 46 Million $? I thought he was broke to years ago? Is it overseas?
"O, what a tangled web we weave...." My head is buzzing, my neck whip-lashed, my heart weary, my emotions confused. But is that justice I see making its way from the shadows? Is it true that this nation which has withstood so much turmoil not only now but also in the past remains strong, that our democracy can indeed survive? For the first time in so many, many months I think I see that light at the end of the tunnel. And who would think that it would be among, let us say, the most questionable of characters who would help lead the way out of corruption, chaos, and, well, downright insanity. This is the time now for those Republicans in Congress to stand up for our country not their pocket books or power or self-serving ideologies. Now is the time that they, and we, must support Mueller and the law. Let us not question Manafort et al's motives for cooperating with the Special Counsel. Let us just begin to exhale those breaths we have been holding for too long. Prayers and gratitude to Mr. Mueller. We have your back. And thank you, Times, for your superb coverage of all things Trump, and, well, for pretty much everything else relevant to our lives.
539
@Kathy Lollock
Great comment Kathy. When this all started, I subscribed to the NYT and WAPO; both those subscriptions have auto-renewed. That was my contribution to the cause of truth and integrity because only the truth can set us free from these thieves and there are only a few really serious newspapers left standing.
When the facts are laid bare for all to see, I believe there will be many Republicans in Congress who are, at best, shown to be taking money from the crooks for their campaigns and, at worst, did so as part of a quid quo pro arrangement.
Everyone needs to vote on Nov 6th and also keep supporting the NYT in their mission to out these charlatans.
4
@Kathy Lollock
I concur with all the energy I can muster. And through the distorted, wavering shadows I hear the threatening hiss of sycophants chanting "Lock her up!" fading into a dull, grating murmur as demagogeury begins to dissipate, overtaken, at last, in the march toward justice. Building from a whisper, with hope, into an anthem to carry us through Mueller's investigation: "Lock THEM up!" Hark! And yes, much gratitude to Mueller and team. And yes, also to the NYT. We are counting on you -- as always.
2
@Kathy Lollock: If enough savvy people don't vote Democratic in November, the light at the end of the tunnel will be the headlight of an oncoming express train.
It's looking more and more like Trump will get what's coming to him, but what about all the spineless, greedy, corrupt, Republicans who have enabled him?
1511
@Lynne Shook They hopefully get dumped next election. Our Prime Minister, knowing who and what he is dealing with on NAFTA negotiations has decided to stick to a plan of fairness and not be bullied by a soon to be crooked president and he is being rewarded handsomely in recent polls.
19
@Lynne Shook Lock them up, or vote them out. One Nation One Goal: From now until Nov 7 work 24/7 to disable the entire Republican network of corruption, greed, disenfranchisement, and fear mongering.
2
We, the voters, have to bust the gop at the polls to end their egregious criminality.
2
Manafort appeared to be the hardest nut to crack.
With that accomplished, Mueller has wealth of new info regarding the campaign, Russian influence, money laundering and the role of the Russian oligarchs.
This is when Trump must know that there is no way out.
323
I hear a loud, high pitched whirring noise. It must be the White House spinmeisters hard at work.
I just can’t wait to hear the lame excuses they come out with after this latest guilty plea. Just when does it stop being ‘fake news’ and a ‘witch hunt’ and start becoming a genuine leadership crisis? What more will it take?
Perhaps about the same time the wildfires, hurricanes, floods and various and sundry pestilences become real harbingers of destructive climate change, and not a Chinese hoax exacerbated by ‘environmental terrorists’?
213
@chambolle Well, yesterday they went after John Kerry...
It's a simple matter of time before Trump looks at his legal counsel and they tell him it's over. Oh sure, he will throw a tantrum, curse the Dems, claim that it's everyone else's fault but his own, and then slump into a chair and begin to ponder his demise. He might have a few more tirades in him but they wont last long and his merry band of sycophants will begin their exodus leaving him with his loser family and a few people who will try and leech off of his weakness as the world crashes down on him. I hope he ends up in prison in New York or Florida for the rest of his life. I don't believe in Karma, but if I did, jail would be a good start.
487
@Magan-I too am hopeful. I hope that enough pressure is on Manafort to force him to be completely truthful, forthcoming, and detail all he knows. I also hope that Guilani's comment wasn't a signal to Manafort to hold out in an attempt to gain a pardon. Finally, is there anything legally that prevents Manafort or his lawyers from disclosing Mueller investigation information to Trump and his lawyers? Hopefully, the NY Times will address this.
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2018/09/paul-manafort-donald-trump-pardon
22
I doubt he will go to jail, there is no sense in creating a political martyr. He has too much support for that.
It still remains SN open question whether anything will happen to him.
He may still get reelected, especially if the midterms go sideways.
3
@Magan. Do you really think this man will accept defeat? He has given every indication he will fight to the finish, no matter how much damage he does to the country in the process. This is always and only about him and hm alone, and self-preservation is his strongest instinct.
6
Firing Mueller will be almost irresistible to Trump now; fasten your seatbelts. Resigning is Trump's best option--let's hope he takes that option soon. The sooner America moves on from this mess, the better.
189
Mr. Mueller knows full well the chance that he'll be fired. As a officer in the Marine Corps, he has the ethic of insuring the mission is successful, come what may to himself and his staff.
We can be assured that he already has in existence a very lengthy document that describes the work his team has done and their findings. In this electronic age, that document exists in multiple locations. It is being updated on a regular basis.
The idea that "shutting down the investigation" would involve locking the file cabinets forever is naive. Touch Mr. Mueller and his team and that document appears within 48 hours.
Others will then take up the mission. DPD
114
@Debra Walker
America won't be able to move on until the utterly corrupt and subversive GOP is either reformed or destroyed. The GOP assembled the basket of deplorables that made Trump possible. The GOP disenfranchised millions of Americans. 3 of the past 4 GOP administrations have been criminal. Nixon. Reagan (Iran-Contra). Bush II (lied us into the Iraq war.) Need I go on?
15
@Daniel P. Doyle
Don't forget Trump has state crimes in NY State that are not covered by a Federal Pardon!
1
Mr. Manafort had better watch out for Mr. Putin and friends. With Russian spies poisoning Putin's enemies around the world, chances are that Manafort is on someone's hit list. 45 wouldn't even have to collude to get it done.
119
@Wilf Olson I believe that is what Manafort's lawyer was referring to today when he stated that he wanted to protect his family.
1
@Wilf Olson I concur...I think the Salisbury incident was a warning to Manafort....the timing is about right....but I cant think what has changed for him to make a deal.
7
@Wilf Olson I have been thinking for a long time that Manfort’s seeming reluctance to take a deal may be from fear of the Russians. He has said he did this to “protect [his] family”. Most think he meant it financially...I am not so sure.
19
Gee Whiz, Trump's Twitter account seems strangely silent.
287
Like in the Sherlock Holmes story where the key clue was that the dog DID NOT bark.
Woof.
@John
12
That won’t last long.
Manafort's offer to work for Trump's campaign without pay isn't looking so generous anymore.
112
Unsaid in this piece and all others I have read on the subject of this agreement is this: Manafort was dead in the water. Broke and already a convicted felon.
Robert Mueller is a brilliant man. He would not have cut Manafort a deal, as there would be no reason for him to do so, unless Manafort could deliver the head this crime syndicate, on a silver platter.
'When come at the king you must not miss.'
570
@two cents
Manafort was broke enough to hand over $48 million in cash and property so that his family can be secure in their future.
1
The wisdom of Omar Little. As good as Shakespeare.
2
Just watch and see the polls in the next few days, there will still be at least 30% of Americans who will refuse to believe Trump has done anything wrong and that this is all a "witch hunt." Sadly, unfortunately, leading the pack of sickos will be Robert Jeffress, pastor of First Baptist Dallas who was in youth group w me (I left the Baptist church a long time ago and have found comfort in the Episcopal Church where you don't have to check your brains at the front doors of the church ).
http://www.firstdallas.org/events/sean-hannity-at-first-baptist-dallas
158
Robert Jeffress stinks on ice!
@Dolly Patterson
If they are so publically supporting trump, shouldn’t they lose their tax-exempt status?
Perhaps Fox "News???" should also be put under Mueller's microscope for lying to and misleading the American public. Tucker and Hannity are two of the most vile, untrustworthy and deceitful personalities ever to occupy such positions. There shows are like live versions of the National Enquirer and their intent is not to inform but to unsettle and disrupt normal thought processes. Fox is definitely the Fake News champion. The owner should pull the plug on these clowns but I guess $$$ Trumps decency and integrity in the Murdoch empire.
414
@RJF
Agreed. All the noise about "Russian interference" on Facebook is nothing compared to the shameless and irresponsible propaganda spewed out by the Fox News network each and every day. Sadly, far too many Americans get their (mis)information from that totally unreliable and scandalous "news" source.
8
@RJF
Reinstate the Fairness Doctrine which would have blocked Hate Radio!
9
@RJF you have hit the nail on the head! Fox news is the reason why there is such division in our nation and it surprises me that it is never addressed by the sane branch of our media
1
A lot of the President's enemies make the point that the Mueller investigation is far from over. I hope that's true. The longer Mr. Mueller dithers, the longer President Trump has to fill the lower courts with conservative judges, eviscerate needless regulation, roll back taxes, build up the military, and, in general, make America great again.
Take your time, Mr. Mueller. America benefits from every day you and your team slow-roll this bogus investigation and chase meaningless plea deals for small fishes.
7
@Dave
Well, Dave, as my sainted mother used to say when I proclaimed some boyhood fable: "Well, a boy can dream . . . "
6
@Dave. Manafort is a small fish? Michael Flynn was a small Fish? Dithering? A trial with convictions in less than two years is extraordinary speed.
16
Hi @Dave. As an Australian, I wonder if you could help me out with some historical perspective on all this. I hope this question doesn't sound silly or naive, but at what point roughly did America lose the greatness that now needs to be restored? I ask because our two countries are similar in many ways and we can perhaps learn from each other.
7
Should have been prosecuted years ago. Another time the IRS was worrying more about discriminating against applicants for tax exemptions based on their viewpoints, than doing the job it's people where being paid to do, lois lerner ring a bell?
12
@Harif2 Well, read about that. The IRS was targeting groups of ALL political persuasions.
7
At the end of the day, it’s your own hide that matters, not whether you took an oath of loyalty to the president. What’s astonishing is how Trump stacked his early administration will an assortment of crooks and hangers-on and continued to do business with Cohen. Maybe those were the only “best people” he could find on such short notice?
91
@Peter ERIKSON Looks like the best chumps Trump hand-picked were just like him: money grubbers who were loyal to nothing and no one.
2
My grandmother would have said of Mr. Trump: "He's not a nice person". Our president is rude to our friends and grovels before our enemies. He called the alt-right folks in Charlotteville, "Fine people". He said of war hero John McCain: "He's not a hero. My heroes are the guys who weren't captured."
Grandma was right.
390
Wow; and all of this is only the stuff that has been made public. One shudders to think how much more there might be and probably is that Robert Mueller is pouring over right now.
BUT, none of it might matter unless people head to the polls in droves come November and throw the Republicans out of Congress.
The Republicans refusal to stand up to Trump can only be viewed as either cowardice or silent condonation, and in either case they no longer deserve to represent the American people.
966
@JHM
Absolutely right!
@JHM They never did.
@JHM cowardice or complicity
Hopefully this is the beginning of the end of a tawdry tale in American politics and history.
319
Manafort will connect the dots.
And there are a lot of odd dots to connect.
Case for obstruction of justice easily made.
Next: collusion to throw the election through Russian hacking into Dem
cell phone/computers brought to much more refined point at the least.
A circumstantial case of insurmountable persuasion will be made such
that finally the American public, we the people, will be moved to do
the right thing and impeach.
GOP's swan song is in the wind.
The vote is key. The people need to know these details several weeks
before the vote.
Let's move it along boys.
Kudus to Mueller and his crew. What prosecuters we have before us!.
Many kind thanks for saving America and it's sacred virtues.
140
Manafort and others knew a long time ago that "loyalty" is a one way street for Mr. Trump. That is making turning on him easy, and Trump's attempts at flattery ridiculous.
Our President is clearly a criminal. The issue is whether our complex system of justice will find a remedy for our disaster of a President. Nixon didn't go down right away either, but when he did he retreated to Orange County, with at least a few followers.
Trump has nowhere to go. His family will soon face criminal charges, and not just Kushner, either. If the President resigns, he can't even retreat to one of his golf clubs in Scotland, where he is even more hated than he is here. The Saudis don't have time for chumps, and will drop him like an orange potato. As for his home in Manhattan, the last time I checked he had about a 20% popularity number in that borough, sure to have plummeted further lately.
His best move might be to park a yacht in Monaco or Seychelles, and live out the rest of his life there. Advice to Don: watch out for the crew.
548
@Mike Roddy-You may be right, but consider Trump's national security adviser, John Bolton, just declared the Hague Court--famous for bringing Nazi war criminals to justice--“ineffective, unaccountable, and indeed, outright dangerous,” and threatened sanctions against the court’s prosecutors and judges who pursued cases against Americans, according to the NY Times. I'm worried that this is a pre-emptive move intended to limit the chance that Trump and his criminal enablers will be exposed to this international court's justice if principled members of Congress refuse to impeach him here. Bolton hired Cambridge Analytica which not only widely (mis)used social media for Trump's benefit but also boasted of its ability to manipulate elections to it Russian (and other) clients.
53
@Mike Roddy There are some choice spots to park a boat in the Moscow River. Very pretty at this time of year. Of course it can get a little brisk at times.
32
@Mike Roddy
I think he'll defect to Russher on that rickety 757.
Which reminds me: real billionaires fly Gulfstreams and Falcons. Not rickety old 757s from a long-ago failed airline.
That should have been a big clue that the grifter was a giant fraud.
7
With the Manafort plea, now is not the time to start celebrating. We need to remember that as Mr. Mueller's noose tightens around Trump's neck, the more dangerous Trump becomes. These past two years have shown us that Trump is a hateful, mentally unstable man, even in his "best" moments (when he's surrounded by thousands of his adoring base), and a liar, a criminal, and a bigot at worst. Trump is capable of literally anything, as he sees his presidency threatened.
Trump could still pardon Manafort, despite the plea agreement. And there is no evidence that Manafort's exposure to state charges would affect Trump.
Every signal Trump has sent is that Sessions will be gone after mid-terms. Just as Trump picked Brett Kavanaugh to support his "get out of jail" card while in office, Trump will find a toadying Attorney General who will do his bidding and end Mr. Mueller's investigation.
It is possible that Mr. Mueller's findings will never see the light of day, unless some true patriot comes forward and discloses them. We are approaching the most dangerous time in Trump's term. Trump understands that he answers to no one. He has a large, armed, rabid minority of Americans who will also do his bidding, as he installs himself as our nation's first dictator.
Once Trump sees how easy it is for him to dispatch Mr. Mueller, he will then proceed on to manufacture yet another lie as a pretext to cancel the 2020 elections. Neither he nor his rabid followers will go quietly.
148
@Henry Hurt If Trump "dusts" Mueller after the mid terms in which the house is expected to have a change of control, he won't get away with it. A democratic house can rehire Mueller as a house special prosecutor if I understand the rules correctly.
45
If Mueller is compiling a case against Trump and his family anywhere near as thorough as his case against Manafort, there will be no way out for anyone with Trump DNA. Trump will only have three options:
1) Give Up (Admit everything in hope of leniency for his family)
2) Flee to Russia
3) Start a War (Civil, or World)
I have a hunch that Trump's first choice will be number 3
138
I’d bet on Door #2 - Trump crime family scurries in several directions, one or more get nabbed, one or more finds safe harbor somewhere odious, spews pathetically...great tv, huh?...tho’, really, think about it, maybe we should all just help create the clear impression that his best option is for ‘im to get on the Trumpjet and fly off to Moscow...
1
These days it doesn’t seem too far fetched to imagine that, at his next rally, he throws a total meltdown and calls on his base to take up their firearms, attack his enemies and so begins a civil war?
1
Sooner or later ( and many of us hope that it is sooner ) the truth will prevail , even with a president who thinks that he can protect himself by telling lies on a daily basis to the American people .
What we are watching is a rerun of the 70s in the Watergate era , only this time in a more insidious way. We are witnessing a battle between those who tell the truth and those who wish it not to be told .
102
Manafort sounds plausible when he says he want to make sure all is well for his family. Given the hands-on and widespread involvement of members of the Trump family in Russia-related endeavors, the question is whether or not the President has what it takes to make sure all is well for his family.
Other GOP Presidents have actually seen the light.
49
I went kayaking today at Waldo Lake in the Oregon High Cascades, one of the mot pristine and clear bodies of water in the world, but the highlight of the day was hearing that Manafort had flipped. Perhaps he can hasten the end to this nightmare.
439
@peckish
kayaking in a pristine body of water is an excellent thing to do! if even that was topped by hearing Manafort had flipped, then I salute you sir!
49
@peckish
¿Did you also flip your kayak? ;)
Oh, my. We can expect an 'executive order' outlawing flipping in the near future.
Unfortunately, this latest development might cause Trump to go over the edge. I hope the 'adults in the room' are prepared.
361