Insurrectionist-in-Chief to hire money-launderer?
“Trump is not being fair to the new generation of crooks, the new generation of fraudsters, the new generation of traitors.” – Van Jones on CNN
When former Trump campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, drew federal charges seven years ago this week writes Steve Benen, Donald Trump pretended to barely know him. Before leaving office, however, Trump pardoned him. Now it seems Trump is considering rehiring him.
Let’s review (via American Bar Association, March 2019):
Manafort had accepted a plea deal in the case in September 2018, admitting to money laundering, tax fraud and illegal foreign lobbying connected to his years working for Ukrainian politicians. Manafort also admitted lying to investigators and under oath before a grand jury about his contact with a Russian associate during the 2016 campaign, breaking the plea agreement.
Last week, he was sentenced in Virginia to 47 months in prison for financial fraud convictions. In D.C., Judge Amy Berman Jackson sentenced Manafort to 73 months, with 30 months to be served concurrently with his Virginia sentence.
The New Republic explains:
Donald Trump may soon bring back his former campaign manager Paul Manafort to help with the 2024 reelection campaign, a move that could resurrect accusations of Russian collusion in the former president’s favor.
Manafort was convicted of tax and bank fraud in 2018 under Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. Trump, who pardoned Manafort in the final days of his presidency, is expected to bring him back on board as a campaign adviser, The Washington Post reported Monday.
Manafort’s role will likely focus on the Republican convention in July and on fundraising for Trump’s campaign, the Post said, citing four anonymous sources. Those four people said that nothing has been officially decided yet, but Trump is determined to bring Manafort back onto his team and is widely expected to hire him.
Former Clinton administration official Van Jones responded to the news with mock allegations of ageism.
“Trump is not being fair to the new generation of crooks, the new generation of fraudsters, the new generation of traitors,” Jones told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins. “What about the young liars who are coming up who want to sell American secrets, who want to lie to judges? They deserve a chance.”
Marcy Wheeler responded with outrage, “Every single person who cares about democracy SHOULD be hyperventilating that Trump wants to hire a confressed money launderer to work on his cash-strapped campaign. This is insanity!”
Wheeler dashed off a thread:
Here’s a Q: If @maggieNYT, @jonathanvswan, @jdawsey1 don’t even MENTION that Paul Manafort is a confessed money launderer, if @kaitlancollins suggests we don’t have to start hyperventilating over his hire yet, how do they think voters would find out if Manafort did it again?
That is, if journos are provably incompetent in describing how Manafort engaged in money laundering in the past to hide that his influence operations were really paid for by RU-backed oligarchs, who would tell us if he did it this go-around?
The risk to Manafort joining the Trump campaign, in ANY capacity, is that he has proven adept in the past at hiding Russian & Ukrainian oligarchs bankrolling his political work, & he did so PRECISELY to pretend it was real democratic persuasion. He confessed to this!
And both Manafort and Trump walk into this relationship believing if they can pull off victory again, they’ll have impunity for any crimes they commit–including accepting foreign donations–to win. Hell, FEC has NEVER held Trump accountable for campaign finance crimes.
I get that some of you have relied on Manafort as a source before and that impairs your judgment abt what he actually confessed to, abt who he is. I get that at least one of you has downplayed his past crimes.
But show the least little concern about Russia running this election?
And y’all saying, “Well, if he only works the Convention, that’s not a big deal” are naive as fuck. For two reasons.
First, Trump doesn’t need help at the Convention this time. Never-Trumpers are worried abt assassination threats, not winning delegates.
Second the same journos who didn’t mention he’s a confessed money launderer ALSO falsely believe Manafort only came in, at first, 8 years ago, to run Convention.
That’s not what Ukrainian Oligarchs understood. They knew IN DECEMBER 2015 (per Sam Patten) he’d run the campaign.
Yesterday was a test of whether journalists would respond, appropriately, with flashing sirens 🚨🚨🚨 if Trump did something to show he might let Russia run his campaign. And NYT and WaPo failed that test, miserably. They’re not up to the job of defending democracy.
Are the rest of us?
Trump is in hock for half a million dollars and running for president. “I predict that Trump will become the first ex-president since Ulysses S. Grant to declare personal bankruptcy,” Timothy Noah believes. “No matter what happens, I think he’s going to go bust.” It’s just a matter of when. Unless his autocratic besties in Moscow and elsewhere can bail him out without us finding out. That seems highly unlikely.
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