Slow motion Mueller Report
by digby
Manafort’s been lying to Mueller and they are pulling his plea agreement. Mueller will be spelling our how he knows this in his filing. It’s unclear if we are going to see it soon or if the judge will keep it unders seal as the rest of the investigation continues.
Now, it is true that Trump can pardon Manafort (though that probably won’t happen right away). That’s the only sane explanation for doing what he did, that he is still certain he’ll be pardoned. But many of these charges can still be charged in state court.
Just about the only explanation for Manafort’s actions are that — as I suggested — Trump was happy to have Manafort serve as a mole in Mueller’s investigation.
But Mueller’s team appears to have no doubt that Manafort was lying to them. That means they didn’t really need his testimony, at all. It also means they had no need to keep secrets — the could keep giving Manafort the impression that he was pulling a fast one over the prosecutors, all while reporting misleading information to Trump.
And that “detailed sentencing submission … sett[ing] forth the nature of the defendant’s crimes and lies” that Muller mentions in the report?
There’s your Mueller report, which will provided in a form that Matt Whitaker won’t be able to suppress.
Manafort has been sharing information with Trump’s lawyers. It appears that information may not have been what Manafort or Trump’s lawyers thought it was. And Trump just submitted his “written interview” about collusion without knowing that.
Stay tuned.
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