
So yesterday was day two of testimony from Rick Gates, Paul Manafort’s former business partner.
And this time he was questioned by Manafort’s defense team.
And damn did things get interesting.
Courtesy of the AP:
Gates implicated himself in broad criminal conduct on the stand, an apparent strategic decision by prosecutors to take some of the steam out of defense questioning. He told jurors he embezzled from Manafort by filing false expense reports. He also said he committed credit card and mortgage fraud, falsified a letter for a colleague involved in an investment deal and made false statements in a deposition at Manafort’s direction.
Prosecutors summoned Gates to give jurors the first-hand account of a co-conspirator they say helped Manafort carry out an elaborate offshore tax-evasion and bank fraud scheme. Gates testified that he and Manafort knew they were committing crimes for years, saying they had stashed money in foreign bank accounts and falsified bank loan documents.
“In Cyprus, they were documented as loans. In reality, it was basically money moving between accounts,” Gates said.
Gates also copped to having an extramarital affair and embezzling from his boss, Paul Manafort.
Manafort’s attorney tried to paint Gates as noncredible based on his criminal past, to which Gates gave this response courtesy of WaPo:
Many of Downing’s questions sought to buttress Manafort’s central defense strategy: that Gates, not Manafort, is the real villain, a man who told so many lies and stole so much money he could not remember all of his illegal activity.
In one of the most heated exchanges, Gates compared himself favorably to Manafort, suggesting he had chosen a better path by cooperating with the FBI.
“After all the lies you’ve told and fraud you’ve committed, you expect this jury to believe you?” Downing asked.
“Yes,” Gates responded flatly.
“I’m here, to tell the truth,” Gates said. “Mr. Manafort had the same path,” he said, adding later: “I’m trying to change.”
(Downing, is Kevin Downing, Manafort’s lawyer.)
There were a number of reports that Manafort was giving Gates the evil eye all during his testimony and cross-examination, but Gates did not falter. After all his freedom depends on him telling the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
There was this other nugget that Rachel Maddon picked up on.
As crazy as it has seemed from the beginning, it really does look like Donald Trump’s campaign chairman sold the promise of a job running the U.S. Army in exchange for cash. pic.twitter.com/Ws5GnZWgjb
— Maddow Blog (@MaddowBlog) August 8, 2018
Here is more courtesy of CNN:
Paul Manafort recommended a banker who allegedly loaned him money under false pretenses be nominated as President Donald Trump’s Army secretary, Rick Gates testified Tuesday.
Gates, who was working on Trump’s transition team, testified that Manafort had suggested Stephen Calk as a candidate for Army secretary two weeks after Trump was elected.
Manafort was Trump’s campaign chairman in summer 2016 but resigned before the election. Gates, Manafort’s longtime business partner and Trump’s deputy campaign chairman, was working on the transition team and the inauguration.
“We need to discuss Steve Calk for Sec of Army,” Manafort wrote to Gates on Nov. 24, 2016, in an email prosecutors showed the jury. He signed the email as “P.”
Manafort emailed Gates again two days before Christmas in 2016. He told Gates he had attached contact information for various people he wanted to go to Trump’s inauguration. That list included Calk and his son.
Ultimately Calk did not get that Secretary of Army gig, but he was named to Trump’s Economic Advisory Council in August 2016.
So are we really to believe that Donald Trump knew none of this was going on, or about Manafort’s criminal tendencies, or was that the actual reason that he felt so comfortable having him head up the campaign?
Well, I know what I think.
https://www.politicususa.com/2018/08/08/chris-collins-indictment-democrats.html
https://www.rawstory.com/2018/08/6-republicans-connected-insider-trading-scandal-just-exploded-trump-loving-congressman/
Tom Price-John Culbertson-Mike Conway-Doug Lamborn-Markwayne Mullin-Billy Long
https://www.rawstory.com/2018/08/completely-idiotic-dumbest-insider-trading-crime-ive-ever-seen-cnn-analyst-examines-allegations-chris-collins/
“According to prosecutors, Collins was at the White House when he learned that a drug trial from a firm he invested heavily in had failed, and so he called his son seven times trying to alert him. The son sold his stock the next day.”
“Given an unencrypted cell phone was apparently used from the grounds of the White House, the details almost defy believability, said CNN’s Dana Bash.
“If you saw this on House of Cards—so the president is going to be there and have the congressman over for a picnic,” said Bash. “He’s going to get the call from this CEO and call his son. You’d be like, ‘really?’ This would never happen. Nobody would do that.””<RIGHT
https://www.rawstory.com/2018/08/chris-collins-tells-supporters-plans-keep-dark-insider-trading-charges/
““Because my focus is to defeat these charges in Court, after today, I will not address any issues related to Innate Immunotherapeutics,” he claimed.
The GOP congressman will not be resigning from Congress. The letter claims Rep. Collins “will continue to work hard for the people of the 27th Congressional District of New York while remaining on the ballot for reelection this November.””
https://www.politicususa.com/2018/08/08/democrats-dreams-are-coming-true-as-gop-crime-spree-fuels-midterm-wave.html
” A bunch of members of Congress were also invested in this stock, but they have not been implicated. You have this major ProPublica story that talks about how President Trump’s friends were directing VA Policy, although they said they weren’t profiting from it.”
” Trump didn’t drain the swamp like he promised. Instead, he built a new bigger gold trimmed swamp and hung a Trump sign on the front. Democrats have an opportunity to make a great argument that Republicans are stealing money the taxpayers and giving to themselves and their friends through tax cuts while taking away health care, and making sure that working people can’t get ahead.
Voters hate government corruption”
BAD COMPANY
‘Completely idiotic — the dumbest insider trading crime I’ve ever seen’: CNN analyst examines allegations against Chris Collins
https://www.rawstory.com/2018/08/completely-idiotic-dumbest-insider-trading-crime-ive-ever-seen-cnn-analyst-examines-allegations-chris-collins/
https://www.rawstory.com/2018/08/star-witness-rick-gates-testimony-ends-paul-manafort-lawyers-attacks/
‘“The only answer I was told was to tell the truth,”’
Two guys with a lot of money living in Ukraine … would love to see photos of the local hookers they were banging every night. At least Manafort can dream of all the blow jobs while he sits in jail
OT? “the Mar-a-Lago Crowd.”
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/08/va-decisions-influenced-by-three-civilians-at-mar-a-lago.html
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2018/08/the-shadow-rulers-of-the-va/
“He looks like he isn’t up for the challenge of being interviewed and forthright on what happened and so that creates the impression that he is indeed hiding something,” “And Donald Trump does not want us to be seen as cowering from a fight,” Jordan added.
“If anything, we know his style throughout the entirety of the presidential campaign, and to this date, is to attack back and always keep pushing forward.”
” Tim O’Brien wrote the book Trump Nation and reported on Donald Trump’s finances and Donald Trump sued him for $5 BILLION for irreparable harm to his reputation, then they got Donald Trump in court — when he sat down for depositions — he told about 30 LIES and he said his INCOME fluctuated based on how he was FEELing,” Jordan reminded.
https://www.rawstory.com/2018/08/gop-strategist-trump-looks-like-hes-hiding-something-cowering-mueller-interview/
https://www.politicususa.com/2018/08/08/trumps-lawyers-worry-that-he-could-be-going-down-for-witness-tampering.html
https://www.politicususa.com/2018/08/08/ari-melber-rudy-giuliani-mueller.html
“Mr. Giuliani. The fact is he’s a former federal prosecutor. When he claims a prosecutor does not need to interview key subjects of a probe under oath, he knows he’s not telling the truth. He knows that’s absurd, and he knows there must be some other reason they want to shield their client, Donald Trump, from going in and telling the truth about what he did or didn’t do.””
https://www.rawstory.com/2018/08/ex-roger-stone-colleague-jullian-assange-ready-talk-not-trap/
Go Down on A White Rabbit Hole
https://www.thedailybeast.com/secret-life-affairs-drove-rick-gates-scheme-manafort-defense-lawyer
The Trump administration has it all, fraud, money laundering, extramarital affairs, and government jobs for bribes.
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fix the title for you.