Trump: Up is down, black is white, no collusion
by digby
During White House event, Trump — echoing Manafort's lawyer's lie — falsely claims Judge Amy Berman Jackson exonerated him of collusion.
"That was proven today — no collusion. There was no collusion… it was all a big hoax… Today, again, 'no collusion.'" pic.twitter.com/rGUwil2DyN— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 13, 2019
For the record, here’s what the judges have said:
“The ‘no collusion’ refrain that runs through the entire defense memorandum is unrelated to matters at hand,” [Judge Amy Berman]Jackson said. “The ‘no collusion’ mantra is simply a non-sequitur.”
“The ‘no collusion’ mantra is also not accurate because the investigation is still ongoing,” she added.
Jackson’s comments were similar to what Judge T.S. Ellis III said about collusion earlier this month, when he sentenced Manafort to 47 months in prison for tax and bank fraud charges that were also brought by special counsel Robert Mueller.
Ellis pointed out that Manafort was “not before the court for anything having to do with colluding with the Russian government.” His comments didn’t rule out that collusion happened, nor did it rule out that the Trump campaign may have been been involved in it.
And yet, he comes out and blatantly lies, saying that the judges found him innocent of collusion.
And his boot-licking henchmen in the US Congress back him all the way. And 90 percent of Republican voters still support him.
I still don’t know quite what to do with that.