Tag: Paul Manafort

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News Round-Up: December 18, 2019

Some news items you might have missed: • InstaHunks: Here in Las Vegas, they do things a little differently during the holidays. For instance, a cactus could be used as a Christmas tree. But I could only find this pic (above) of a Chippendale and…what was I saying? Dangit – I know I had some point to make. Oh well 🙂 • The Daily Beast: Stonewall House, the first-ever LGBT-welcoming senior housing development in New York City has officially opened. The first residents are expected to move into the 145-unit building in Brooklyn before Christmas, with the rest of the residents moving in throughout January. • CNBC: A judge on Wednesday dismissed New York state criminal charges filed against Paul Manafort, the fallen Republican lobbyist who served for several months as President Donald Trump’s campaign chief in 2016. Judge Maxwell Wiley said during a hearing in Manhattan Supreme Court that New York’s double-jeopardy law barred the state indictment against Manafort. • Medium: Over 1,000 American historians have signed a letter supporting the impeachment of Donald Trump. “It is our considered judgment that if President Trump’s misconduct does not rise to the level of impeachment, then virtually nothing does.” • Reuters: Germany could become the first major European power to ban so-called ‘conversion therapy’ across the entire country. The legislation, which parliament is expected to pass by the summer, will punish violations with imprisonment of up to one year or a fine of up to 30,000 euros ($33,100). • Christmas Music: In its first 12 months, the 1984 all-star charity recording “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” raised £8 million to help efforts to ease famine in Ethiopia. The original recording remains one of the biggest selling singles in UK history.

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Manafort Sentenced To Additional 3.5 Years In Prison, Plus Indicted By New York State On 16 New Charges

Former Trump campaign chair, Paul Manafort

Donald Trump’s former campaign chair, Paul Manafort, will now serve seven and a half years in prison after Judge Amy Berman Jackson of Federal District Court in Washington added 3.5 more years to his sentence on Wednesday.

In issuing her ruling, Judge Jackson said Manafort “spent a significant portion of his career gaming the system.”

From the New York Times:

Judge Amy Berman Jackson of Federal District Court in Washington sentenced Mr. Manafort, 69, on two conspiracy counts that encompassed a host of crimes, including money-laundering, obstruction of justice and failing to disclose lobbying work that earned him tens of millions of dollars over more than a decade.

“It is hard to overstate the number of lies and the amount of fraud and the amount of money involved,” she said, reeling off Mr. Manafort’s various offenses, rapid-fire. “There is no question that this defendant knew better and he knew what he was doing.”

Each charge carried a maximum of five years. But Judge Jackson noted that one count was closely tied to the same bank and tax fraud scheme that a federal judge in Virginia had sentenced Mr. Manafort for last week. Under sentencing guidelines, she said, those punishments should largely overlap, not be piled on top of each other. Mr. Manafort was also expected to get credit for the nine months he has already spent in jail.

Per Judge Jackson’s sentence, Manafort received for Count One 60 months, of which 30 months will run concurrent with last week’s sentence.

For Count Two, he received a sentence of 13 months which will run consecutive to count 1 and the earlier sentence in Virginia.

He also forfeits $11 million in assets.

The Times reports that Manafort begged Judge Jackson not to add to his time in prison. “This case has taken everything from me, already,” he said as he listed the assets he’s forfeited. “Please let my wife and I be together.”

Donald Trump hasn’t said definitively if he will pardon the 69-year-old, but he’s repeatedly spoken well of Manafort calling him “a brave man.”

And then…

Immediately following the sentencing hearing, Manfort was indicted by New York state Attorney General Cyrus R. Vance Jr. on 16 state felony charges including mortgage fraud.

The new state charges against Mr. Manafort are contained in a 16-count indictment that alleges a yearlong scheme in which he falsified business records to obtain millions of dollars in loans, Mr. Vance said in a news release after the federal sentencing.

“No one is beyond the law in New York,” he said, adding that the investigation by the prosecutors in his office had “yielded serious criminal charges for which the defendant has not been held accountable.”

The indictment grew out of an investigation that began in 2017, when the Manhattan prosecutors began examining loans Mr. Manafort received from two banks.

This complicates Manafort’s life much more.

While Donald Trump may pardon Manafort for his federal crimes, and it’s appeared that Manafort is counting on that, Trump has no pardon power over state charges.

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Manafort Sentenced To 47 Months In Prison, Federal Guidelines Call For 19-24 Years

Paul Manafort

Paul Manafort, Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman, has been sentenced to 47 months in prison for five counts of tax fraud, two counts of bank fraud and one count of failure to disclose a foreign bank account.

Federal guidelines called for 19-24 years.

Judge TS Ellis said he believes he gave Paul Manafort “a just sentence for that conduct.”

The judge also ordered Manafort to pay at least $6 million in restitution and a $50,000 criminal fee.

Additionally, Judge Ellis gave Manafort for nine months served already. So his sentence will begin at a little more than 3 years.

It’s important to note that Manafort will receive a second sentence next week from a different federal judge for the two crimes he pleaded guilty to last year.

Judge Amy Berman Jackson of United States District Court for the District of Columbia will sentence him for the two conspiracy charges, which each carry a maximum penalty of five years. The sentences can run consecutively or concurrently. We’ll see what Judge Jackson decides.

People are stunned at the excessively short sentence.

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News Round-Up: February 23, 2019

Austin Wolf (via Instagram)

Some news items you might have missed:

• Self-professed ‘fitness obsessed’ InstaHunk Austin Wolf pumped up his arms. I wrote about it. That’s why he looks like he does and I look like me LOL… #HappySaturday

• New York state prosecutors are reportedly prepping a new set of charges against Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, should the president decide to pardon him. Presidential pardons only help those convicted of federal – not state – crimes.

• R&B star R. Kelly has been charged with 10 counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse in Chicago, Illinois.

• Billionaire Robert Kraft, owner of the New England Patriots, was charged Friday with two counts of soliciting prostitution in a Florida massage parlor. Kraft, a huge Donald Trump supporter, says he’s innocent of all charges although police say there is video evidence of Kraft on two occasions.

• This bisexual teacher came out to help a suicidal student, and then his school fired him.

• I often get questions about how I like living in Las Vegas, Nevada, and I do love it. But, this surprised us this week:

A post shared by Randy Slovacek (@randyslovacek) on Feb 21, 2019 at 8:17am PST

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Judge Finds Former Trump Campaign Chair Lied To Investigators

Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort lied to prosecutors with special counsel Robert S. Mueller III about matters close to the heart of their investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, a federal judge ruled Wednesday.
Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort

Big trouble for former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort.

From The Washington Post:

Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort lied to prosecutors with special counsel Robert S. Mueller III about matters close to the heart of their investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, a federal judge ruled Wednesday.

The judge’s finding that Manafort, 69, breached his cooperation deal with prosecutors by lying after his guilty plea could add years to his prison sentence and came after a set of sealed court hearings.

Manafort had denied intentionally lying after his plea deal, but U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson of the District found he lied in three of five areas alleged by prosecutors. She said she would factor in his deception on other topics at sentencing March 13.

The special counsel’s office “has established by a preponderance of the evidence that the defendant intentionally made multiple false statements to the FBI, [Mueller’s office] and the grand jury concerning matters that were material to the investigation,” Jackson wrote.

This means any leniency for Manafort is out the window as Judge Jackson will take these lies into account when considering sentencing.

CNN’s Jeffrey Toobin said last night 70-year-old Manafort could expect to get 10 years in prison.

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Special Counsel Has Emails Between Trump Allies Discussing WikiLeaks Emails Before They Happened

Special Counsel Robert Mueller apparently has email correspondence between Trump ally Roger Stone and InfoWars' Jerome Corsi discussing the release of DNC emails by WikiLeaks before it happened.
Donald Trump

Special Counsel Robert Mueller apparently has email correspondence between Trump ally Roger Stone and InfoWars’ Jerome Corsi discussing the release of DNC emails by WikiLeaks before it happened.

From NBC News:

Two months before WikiLeaks released emails stolen from the Clinton campaign, right-wing conspiracy theorist Jerome Corsi sent an email to former Trump campaign adviser Roger Stone anticipating the document dump, according to draft court papers obtained by NBC News.

“Word is friend in embassy plans 2 more dumps,” Corsi wrote on Aug. 2, 2016, referring to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, according to the draft court papers. “One shortly after I’m back. 2nd in Oct. Impact planned to be very damaging.”

The email was revealed in a draft court document, known as a statement of the offense, sent to Corsi by special counsel Robert Mueller’s office. Mueller also sent Corsi a draft plea agreement stipulating that the special counsel would not oppose Corsi requesting a sentence of probation if he agreed to plead guilty to one count of lying to federal investigators.

As NBC News reported on Monday, Corsi said he has rejected the deal. He has described Mueller’s team as “thugs” and insisted that he did not “intentionally lie” about his communications related to WikiLeaks.

NBC News goes on to note that Corsi SCRUBBED his computer between Jan. 13, 2017, and March 1, 2017, deleting all email correspondence that predated Oct. 11, 2016, including the messages from Stone about WikiLeaks.

Corsi denies all of this saying it was all an educated guess.

“Why did I think they were coming out in October? Because I said to myself if I had these emails I’d use them as the October surprise,” Corsi told NBC News on Tuesday. “And why did I think they would come out serially, drip by drip? Because Assange is very strategic. He understands the news cycle.”

Earlier today, The Guardian reported that former Trump campaign chair Paul Manafort met with WikiLeaks’ Julian Assange at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London right before he took over the Trump campaign.

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Trump’s Epic Meltdown Over Mueller/Manafort/Wikileaks News

Donald Trump began his Tuesday ‘executive time’ by tweeting an epic rant over the latest news that Special Counsel Robert Mueller has announced former Trump campaign chair Paul Manafort repeatedly lied to his investigators after receiving a plea deal.

Mueller now says any request for leniency for Manafort is off the table.

I’m telling you now – Manafort is pulling his shenanigans because Trump has promised a pardon.

This may have something to do with the state of the matter: The Guardian is reporting today that Manafort held secret talks with Julian Assange, inside the Ecuadorian embassy in London, in 2013, 2015 and in Spring 2016, around the time Trump named him as his convention manager.

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Report: Mueller Says Paul Manafort Violated Plea Deal, Lied To Investigators

Major media outlets are reporting that former chair of Donald Trump's presidential campaign has lied Special Counsel Robert Mueller thus voiding his plea agreement for leniency in sentencing.
Paul Manafort

Major media outlets are reporting that former chair of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign has lied Special Counsel Robert Mueller thus voiding his plea agreement for leniency in sentencing.

From The New York Times:

Mr. Manafort’s “crimes and lies” during a series of interviews with prosecutors working for the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, and the F.B.I. relieve them of all promises they made to him in the plea agreement reached in mid-September, investigators wrote in the filing.

A jury in Northern Virginia convicted Mr. Manafort, 69, of eight counts of financial fraud in August stemming from his work as a political consultant in Ukraine. Faced with a second trial in the District of Columbia on related charges in September, he pleaded guilty to two conspiracy counts and to an open-ended arrangement requiring him to answer “fully, truthfully, completely and forthrightly” questions about “any and all matters” of interest to the government.

Without a motion from prosecutors asking for leniency, Mr. Manafort is expected to face a prison term of at least 10 years for his crimes. He is scheduled to be sentenced in the Northern Virginia case on Feb. 8.

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Manafort Ordered To Wear Orange Jumpsuit To Sentencing Hearing

Paul Manafort

Former Trump campaign chair Paul Manafort requested, through his lawyers, if he could be allowed to wear a suit to his sentencing hearing later this week.

The request was denied.

It looks like Manafort will be donning a crisp shade of orange for his next court appearance.

From Politico:

A federal judge on Wednesday rejected Paul Manafort’s request to wear a professional suit during a hearing later this week about his sentence, noting the former Trump campaign chairman is now a convicted felon who has lost the right to wear street clothing in all his court proceedings.

“This defendant should be treated no differently from other defendants who are in custody post conviction,” U.S. District Court Judge T.S. Ellis III wrote in a sharply-worded order.

The decision and its tone signals Manafort may be facing a very different environment when he returns Friday to the same Alexandria, Virginia, courtroom for a hearing to discuss his ongoing cooperation with special counsel Robert Mueller and to begin the process of setting a sentencing date.

I hear the president is fond of orange, no?

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Manafort Plea Deal Single-Handedly Pays For Special Counsel Investigation

Manafort will forfeit many of his assets as part of the deal, including money in several bank accounts, an apartment in Trump Tower, and one in downtown Manhattan; worth about $46 million, these assets single-handedly cover the cost of the Mueller investigation.
Donald Trump

For over a year, Donald Trump has ranted that the investigation by Special Counsel Robert Mueller is a “witch hunt” and an expensive waste of taxpayer money.

Actually, that “witch hunt” has now seen FIVE Trump associates plead guilty to felony charges.

A lot of witches out there, huh?

This week, former Trump campaign chair Paul Manafort joined that elite group of Trumpers who have copped to felony charges.

The previous four are: Michael D. Cohen, the president’s longtime personal lawyer; Michael T. Flynn, the former national security adviser; Rick Gates, the former deputy campaign chairman; and George Papadopoulos, a former campaign adviser.

And about that “waste of money” charge?

Check this from NY Magazine – a little nugget that was slightly overlooked by many in the heat of the news of Paul Manafort’s plea deal this week.

Manafort will forfeit many of his assets as part of the deal, including money in several bank accounts, an apartment in Trump Tower, and one in downtown Manhattan; worth about $46 million, these assets single-handedly cover the cost of the Mueller investigation.

Keep in mind, at last count, Trump’s excessive golf habit has cost the American taxpayers $77 million in less than two years.