Illegal land occupation

[webfact]

Judge questions Trump ex-campaign chief's bid to dismiss all charges

By Sarah N. Lynch

 

Paul Manafort, former campaign manager for U.S. President Donald Trump, departs after a hearing at U.S. District Court in Washington, DC, U.S., April 19, 2018. REUTERS/Brian Snyder

 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. judge expressed scepticism on Thursday toward a bid by President Donald Trump's former campaign chairman to get a raft of charges dismissed, while a prosecutor said Paul Manafort was suspected of being a campaign "back channel" to Russia.

 

During a hearing, U.S. District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson questioned Manafort's attorney Kevin Downing's assertion that Special Counsel Robert Mueller overstepped his authority in bringing charges that Downing said fell outside of parameters set by the Justice Department's No. 2 official Rod Rosenstein.

 

Jackson signalled some willingness to consider whether at least one count in the indictment could be dismissed because the criminal action cited was covered by another charge.

 

Manafort faces indictments by Mueller in Washington and Virginia, accusing him of conspiracy against the United States and other crimes.

 

The hearing was the latest development in a special counsel investigation that could threaten Trump's presidency, looking into potential collusion between the president's 2016 campaign and Moscow. Downing asked Jackson to dismiss the Washington indictment.

 

"Here you have somebody who was a campaign official in the Trump campaign, where he had longstanding ties to Russia-backed politicians in the Ukraine," Michael Dreeben, a prosecutor on Mueller's team, said of Manafort. "What (was) the nature of those connections? Did they provide a means for surreptitious communications? Did they provide a back channel to Russia?"

 

Downing argued that Rosenstein's order appointing Mueller in May 2017 was overly broad and violated Justice Department rules on the naming of special counsels, and that Mueller exceeded even the wide latitude Rosenstein provided.

 

Jackson expressed doubts over arguments that Mueller should not have been able to bring charges Downing called unrelated to Russia or Moscow's potential coordination with Trump's campaign.

 

While Manafort has pleaded not guilty, Mueller has extracted guilty pleas from other former campaign figures including Manafort's former deputy and business partner Rick Gates.

 

Downing said the FBI in 2014 closed out an earlier investigation of Manafort's Ukraine business dealings without pursuing charges, meaning the matter cannot be covered by Mueller's probe.

 

Dreeben said the special counsel had explicit authority from Rosenstein to probe Manafort's Ukraine dealings based on an August 2017 memo.

 

"It is not a blank check," Dreeben said of Rosenstein's parameters for the probe.

 

The memo was written a month after the FBI executed a search warrant at Manafort's home in Alexandria, Virginia. Downing said Rosenstein's memo seemed to come "after the fact" to justify the investigation.

 

(Reporting by Sarah N. Lynch and Susan Heavey; Editing by Will Dunham)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2018-04-20

[Chomper Higgot]

Federal prison for the rest of his life. 

 

Think about that.

[Srikcir]

8 hours ago, webfact said:

Jackson signalled some willingness to consider whether at least one count in the indictment could be dismissed because the criminal action cited was covered by another charge.

So maybe Manafort who is on a "24-hour-a-day lock-down," instead of facing a maximum of 305 years in jail will only face something like 275 years?

I guess take whatever win you can get.

[riclag]

Well if anything comes out of this Manafort trail is that Judge Amy Jackson, somewhat considered,  the scope of Mueller's authority

"Judge raises doubts about scope of Mueller’s authority"

"During a two-and-a-half hour hearing in one of Mueller’s criminal cases against former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson questioned whether Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein’s directive appointing Mueller granted him more authority than Justice Department regulations appear to permit".

 

"Downing said that was at odds with Justice’s rules, which say a special counsel must be told of the “specific factual matter” in his or her mandate".

“That’s a fair point,” Jackson said, adding later: “I don’t think that, as good as he is, that the deputy attorney general can see into the future.”

https://www.politico.com/story/2018/04/19/robert-mueller-appointment-authority-manafort-case-537491

[mrwebb8825]

It's all moot anyway or, at least in the real world it would be. Comey already said he used the disproven dossier in a falsified FISA warrant application by withholding information from the FISA judge to get the surveillance on Gates. Therefor, all evidence gathered from that warrant and subsequent warrants becomes inadmissible in a real world court of law. But then again, nothing that goes on in Washington DC these days can be considered the real world. 

[Jingthing]

6 minutes ago, mrwebb8825 said:

It's all moot anyway or, at least in the real world it would be. Comey already said he used the disproven dossier in a falsified FISA warrant application by withholding information from the FISA judge to get the surveillance on Gates. Therefor, all evidence gathered from that warrant and subsequent warrants becomes inadmissible in a real world court of law. But then again, nothing that goes on in Washington DC these days can be considered the real world. 

Pure fantasy Fox News propaganda that. 

The dossier, BTW, is most certainly not disproven.

Portions of it have been confirmed and other parts may or may not be confirmed in future. Yes, Virginia, the infamous "pee pee tape" still might really be real. 

[Andaman Al]

1 hour ago, mrwebb8825 said:

It's all moot anyway or, at least in the real world it would be. Comey already said he used the disproven dossier in a falsified FISA warrant application by withholding information from the FISA judge to get the surveillance on Gates. Therefor, all evidence gathered from that warrant and subsequent warrants becomes inadmissible in a real world court of law. But then again, nothing that goes on in Washington DC these days can be considered the real world. 

Can you let the less well informed of us know which parts of the dossier have been "disproven", I would be most grateful thank you. I am only aware of the parts of the dossier that have now been proven, I simply have not heard of any part of it being disproven.

[bristolboy]

2 hours ago, mrwebb8825 said:

It's all moot anyway or, at least in the real world it would be. Comey already said he used the disproven dossier in a falsified FISA warrant application by withholding information from the FISA judge to get the surveillance on Gates. Therefor, all evidence gathered from that warrant and subsequent warrants becomes inadmissible in a real world court of law. But then again, nothing that goes on in Washington DC these days can be considered the real world. 

Dossier has lots of stuff in it much already borne out. And as for withholding info, on the judge was told it was paid for by partisan political interests and if the judge wanted to ask who, that could have been done.   Not just that, the original grounds for the FISA warrant were not the dossier at all, but the claims by George Papadopoulos re his contacts with Russian intelligence agents.

[Andaman Al]

35 minutes ago, bristolboy said:

Dossier has lots of stuff in it much already borne out. And as for withholding info, on the judge was told it was paid for by partisan political interests and if the judge wanted to ask who, that could have been done.   Not just that, the original grounds for the FISA warrant were not the dossier at all, but the claims by George Papadopoulos re his contacts with Russian intelligence agents.

Don't let the truth get in the way of a good partisan rant or mrweb will disappear for another few months.

[Srikcir]

On 4/20/2018 at 5:19 PM, riclag said:

Well if anything comes out of this Manafort trail is that Judge Amy Jackson, somewhat considered,  the scope of Mueller's authority

"Judge raises doubts about scope of Mueller’s authority"

"During a two-and-a-half hour hearing in one of Mueller’s criminal cases against former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson questioned whether Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein’s directive appointing Mueller granted him more authority than Justice Department regulations appear to permit".

 

"Downing said that was at odds with Justice’s rules, which say a special counsel must be told of the “specific factual matter” in his or her mandate".

“That’s a fair point,” Jackson said, adding later: “I don’t think that, as good as he is, that the deputy attorney general can see into the future.”

https://www.politico.com/story/2018/04/19/robert-mueller-appointment-authority-manafort-case-537491

Continuing:

"Manafort’s attorneys insist he can use violations of those rules to challenge the legitimacy of the indictment, but [Judge] Jackson gave little indication Thursday that she agrees with them.

“It’s all happening within the Executive Branch,” Jackson noted. “I want to know if these [regulations] are actionable at all.”

 

The judge is being fair in listening to the defendant's arguments without bias but points out the reality:

• it seemed likely that that scrutiny of Manafort’s business ties to Ukraine was already part of the broader Trump-Russia investigation when Mueller was appointed last May;
• suggested Manafort’s activities in Ukraine would qualify as part of Mueller’s announced mandate to look at all “links” between the Trump campaign and the Russian government.

Manafort is unlikely to prevail.

[mrwebb8825]

21 hours ago, Andaman Al said:

Can you let the less well informed of us know which parts of the dossier have been "disproven", I would be most grateful thank you. I am only aware of the parts of the dossier that have now been proven, I simply have not heard of any part of it being disproven.

You mean little things like the fact that President Trump never even spent the night nor used the hotel room for anything more than as a changing room to put on his tux?

[mrwebb8825]

16 hours ago, Srikcir said:

Continuing:

"Manafort’s attorneys insist he can use violations of those rules to challenge the legitimacy of the indictment, but [Judge] Jackson gave little indication Thursday that she agrees with them.

“It’s all happening within the Executive Branch,” Jackson noted. “I want to know if these [regulations] are actionable at all.”

 

The judge is being fair in listening to the defendant's arguments without bias but points out the reality:

• it seemed likely that that scrutiny of Manafort’s business ties to Ukraine was already part of the broader Trump-Russia investigation when Mueller was appointed last May;
• suggested Manafort’s activities in Ukraine would qualify as part of Mueller’s announced mandate to look at all “links” between the Trump campaign and the Russian government.

Manafort is unlikely to prevail.

since the FBI's initial investigation into these charges from 10+ years ago had been investigated and the investigation was closed with no charges being filed, I really don't see the connection between that and the Trump campaign some 10+yrs later. Especially when those original business dealings weren't with Russia but the Ukraine, but, then again, I don't watch CNN nearly as much as some on here.

[mrwebb8825]

19 hours ago, Andaman Al said:

Don't let the truth get in the way of a good partisan rant or mrweb will disappear for another few months.

Miss me? 

[Chomper Higgot]

23 hours ago, mrwebb8825 said:

It's all moot anyway or, at least in the real world it would be. Comey already said he used the disproven dossier in a falsified FISA warrant application by withholding information from the FISA judge to get the surveillance on Gates. Therefor, all evidence gathered from that warrant and subsequent warrants becomes inadmissible in a real world court of law. But then again, nothing that goes on in Washington DC these days can be considered the real world. 

You need to stop getting your information from Hannity.

 

1. Nothing in the Steele Dossier has been disproven, while much has been proven to be correct.

2. The Russia investigation and the related FISA warrants kicked off when George Papadopoulos, a foreign policy adviser to the Trump campaign, ran his drunken mouth off to and Australian diplomat. The Australian diplomat reported the conversation up the chain it kicked off the investigation.

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/30/us/politics/how-fbi-russia-investigation-began-george-papadopoulos.html

 

Evidence gathered has already landed one man in prison, and five others have pled guilty.

 

 

Now what where you saying about 'in the real world'.

[mrwebb8825]

2 minutes ago, Chomper Higgot said:

Evidence gathered has already landed one man in prison

Who's in prison? That dutch guy that got 30 days suspended sentence for handing them someone else they wanted?

[Chomper Higgot]

3 minutes ago, mrwebb8825 said:

Who's in prison? That dutch guy that got 30 days suspended sentence for handing them someone else they wanted?

https://edition.cnn.com/2018/04/03/politics/alex-van-der-zwaan-sentencing/index.html

 

He got 30 days in prison and a $20,000 fine for lying to FBI investigators - his lies revealed by the contradiction between what he told the FBI and what the FBI new from the evidence they have.

 

 

19 witches indicted

5 witches pled guilty

1 witch sent to prison

 

More to come.

[Chomper Higgot]

Illiberals can now loose heart in the knowledge that Manifort's defence has gone from claiming innocence to attempts deny the legality of the investigation.

 

He's given up hope of evidence proving him innocent.

[xylophone]

1 hour ago, mrwebb8825 said:

You mean little things like the fact that President Trump never even spent the night nor used the hotel room for anything more than as a changing room to put on his tux?

Trump is a proven liar and is unable to tell the truth about anything.

 

"US President Donald Trump twice gave James Comey an alibi for why a salacious report about the 2013 Miss Universe pageant in Moscow couldn't be true.

 

He never even spent the night in Russia during that trip, Trump told the former FBI Director, according to Comey's memos about the conversations.

 

Yet the broad timeline of Trump's stay, stretching from Friday, November 8, 2013, through to the following Sunday morning, has been widely reported. And it's substantiated by social media posts that show he slept in Moscow the night before the Miss Universe contest.

 

Now, flight records obtained by Bloomberg provide fresh details". Read on…………..

 

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=12038477

[FritsSikkink]

2 hours ago, mrwebb8825 said:

You mean little things like the fact that President Trump never even spent the night nor used the hotel room for anything more than as a changing room to put on his tux?

Not a fact, just another lie:

Trump lied to the FBI (Comey) about his stay in Moscou:

 

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/flight-records-illuminate-mystery-of-trumps-moscow-nights/ar-AAwfeNQ?ocid=spartandhp

 

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-07-13/trump-s-two-nights-of-parties-in-moscow-reverberate-years-later  

[Chomper Higgot]

Get your eye bleach ready, the tapes are coming. 

[Srikcir]

34 minutes ago, FritsSikkink said:

Not a fact, just another lie

A useless lie at that.

Trump's bodyguard Schiller said testified before the House Intelligence Committee according to "sources" that while Trump was in Moscow that Schiller stood outside of Trump's hotel room in Moscow for a time and then went to bed.

Sources said that Schiller testified that he and Trump were aware of the risk that hotel rooms in Moscow could be set up to capture hidden video but Schiller was confident nothing happened.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/trump-bodyguard-testifies-russian-offered-trump-women-was-turned-down-n819386

One can tell the accuracy of these sources as the Republican-controlled HIC expressed anger over the leaks, not over Trump's lies.

Edited April 24, 2018 by Srikcir
grammar

[heybruce]

3 hours ago, mrwebb8825 said:

You mean little things like the fact that President Trump never even spent the night nor used the hotel room for anything more than as a changing room to put on his tux?

Already refuted from other sources, but I'll add one more:

 

" Yet the broad timeline of Trump’s stay, stretching from Friday, Nov. 8, 2013, through the following Sunday morning, has been widely reported. And it’s substantiated by social media posts that show he slept in Moscow the night before the Miss Universe contest. "    https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-04-23/flight-records-illuminate-mystery-of-trump-s-moscow-nights

 

When you rely on Fox and alt-right news sites for your news, your information is highly filtered.

[bristolboy]

2 hours ago, mrwebb8825 said:

Who's in prison? That dutch guy that got 30 days suspended sentence for handing them someone else they wanted?

So, according to you, if you plead guilty or are found guilty but aren't sentenced yet, that means you're not guilty?

[selftaopath]

On 4/20/2018 at 2:03 PM, Srikcir said:

So maybe Manafort who is on a "24-hour-a-day lock-down," instead of facing a maximum of 305 years in jail will only face something like 275 years?

I guess take whatever win you can get.

How about the other conspirators?  Might that be Ivanka and Jared?  I'm inclined to believe Pence is not clean either. But..... only hunches. 

[selftaopath]

On 4/23/2018 at 12:56 PM, Jingthing said:

Pure fantasy Fox News propaganda that. 

The dossier, BTW, is most certainly not disproven.

Portions of it have been confirmed and other parts may or may not be confirmed in future. Yes, Virginia, the infamous "pee pee tape" still might really be real. 

Man .... America better get rid of this garbage soon. He.... Lying Man.... is most likely plotting with his cabal 24x7 how to best America and destroy our institutions.  The clock is clicking IMO.  

[selftaopath]

3 hours ago, Chomper Higgot said:

You need to stop getting your information from Hannity.

 

1. Nothing in the Steele Dossier has been disproven, while much has been proven to be correct.

2. The Russia investigation and the related FISA warrants kicked off when George Papadopoulos, a foreign policy adviser to the Trump campaign, ran his drunken mouth off to and Australian diplomat. The Australian diplomat reported the conversation up the chain it kicked off the investigation.

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/30/us/politics/how-fbi-russia-investigation-began-george-papadopoulos.html

 

Evidence gathered has already landed one man in prison, and five others have pled guilty.

 

 

Now what where you saying about 'in the real world'.

Hannity it a joke. He didn't finish the Catholic college he attended but he does make 20 million annually to "talk shit" to the other America haters. Oh and there are credible reporters saying Trump meets the criteria for the title of TRAITOR. I totally agree. 

https://www.alternet.org/evidence-suggests-trump-traitor-pulitzer-winning-reporter-david-cay-johnston

[Andaman Al]

51 minutes ago, xylophone said:

2 hours ago, mrwebb8825 said:

You mean little things like the fact that President Trump never even spent the night nor used the hotel room for anything more than as a changing room to put on his tux?

Trump is a proven liar and is unable to tell the truth about anything.

 

"US President Donald Trump twice gave James Comey an alibi for why a salacious report about the 2013 Miss Universe pageant in Moscow couldn't be true.

 

He never even spent the night in Russia during that trip, Trump told the former FBI Director, according to Comey's memos about the conversations.

 

Yet the broad timeline of Trump's stay, stretching from Friday, November 8, 2013, through to the following Sunday morning, has been widely reported. And it's substantiated by social media posts that show he slept in Moscow the night before the Miss Universe contest.

 

Now, flight records obtained by Bloomberg provide fresh details". Read on…………..

 

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=12038477

Thank You Xylophone, you saved me the trouble. It is so interesting what's coming out in the wash isn't it.

 

 

[Kieran00001]

4 hours ago, mrwebb8825 said:

You mean little things like the fact that President Trump never even spent the night nor used the hotel room for anything more than as a changing room to put on his tux?

 

Where did you get that little one?  That's certainly not what his body guard told congress, are you saying his bodyguard lied and you know better somehow?  He told them Trump stayed the night but that he did not stay outside the door all night and so could not testify as to what had happened after he left.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/trump-bodyguard-testifies-russian-offered-trump-women-was-turned-down-n819386

[bristolboy]

10 hours ago, mrwebb8825 said:

You mean little things like the fact that President Trump never even spent the night nor used the hotel room for anything more than as a changing room to put on his tux?

Flight Records Illuminate Mystery of Trump’s Moscow Nights

 

 

Flight records obtained by Bloomberg shed new light on Trump's heavily scrutinized Moscow trip — and they seem to contradict what he told James Comey

 

• Flight records show that the plane President Donald Trump used to fly to Moscow in 2013 spent nearly 48 hours in the city.
• Trump told former FBI Director James Comey, according to his memos, that he did not stay overnight in Moscow.
• The trip in question was referenced in an infamous dossier about Trump's alleged ties to Russia. It alleged Trump of being present for a lewd sexual act involving prostitutes and urination in a hotel in Moscow.
• http://www.businessinsider.com/trump-moscow-flight-records-misled-james-comey-2018-4?r=UK&IR=T

 

 

[mrwebb8825]

18 hours ago, Chomper Higgot said:

You need to stop getting your information from Hannity.

I'd never even heard of Hannity until Cohen's lawyer apparently mentioned him as a possible (ex)client according to CNN, CBS, etc. a week or so ago.