Pavel Manafort's Trials and Tribulations

[GreyhoundFan]

 

[GreyhoundFan]

Pavel is going to be unhappy being transferred from his federal country club prison to Rikers:

 

 

[GreyhoundFan]

ARGH: "Paul Manafort was spared a stay in Rikers. We should ask why."

Spoiler

Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort’s legal troubles didn’t end when he was convicted on bank and tax fraud charges in 2018. He’s facing state-level mortgage fraud charges, and because his case is going to trial in New York City, he needed to be transferred between penitentiaries. That is a routine matter and regularly results in the defendant’s transfer to a state penitentiary, here Rikers Island.

But in this case, Deputy Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen intervened, forwarding to Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr. a letter from Manafort’s attorney suggesting that it would not be safe for Manafort to be held on Rikers Island. The result? Manafort will be housed at a federal penitentiary rather than going to Rikers. Should we really care?

Yes we should. If the decision was motivated by politics — and it is very hard to formulate a plausible alternative explanation — it’s an injustice in itself and an indication of rotten goings-on at the Justice Department.

Consider first the magnitude of the favor that the department provided Manafort. Any prisoner would greatly prefer incarceration in either of the two institutions where Manafort will remain to Rikers’ Island, which is a notorious hellhole. (Why Rikers continues to operate at all in its current state is a subject for another column.) Manafort would surely be kept in isolation for his own protection in Rikers, but the difference in the overall conditions at these facilities is enormous.

Now consider how rare it is that Manafort’s request was granted and the role that Rosen, the No. 2 official at the Justice Department, played in facilitating it. It is not simply unusual but unprecedented. I have canvassed colleagues with combined decades of service at the Justice Department, and to a person they aver that they have never heard of a similar situation.

That is not because prisoners don’t ask. It is, in fact, routine to field requests for placement in certain institutions; I did so regularly as a U.S. attorney. The standard-issue response is to let the defendant know that, by law, the decision was for the Federal Bureau of Prisons to make, and that at most, a Justice Department representative could transmit a recommendation.

Finally, consider the reasoning: A spokesman for the Justice Department said the decision was justified by Manafort’s “unique health and safety needs.”

This is bunk of the first order. No doubt Manafort is ill, and no doubt he requires special protection. But are his circumstances unique? Absolutely not. Manafort’s situation is not meaningfully different from dozens of others who are routinely, in fact invariably, resolved many levels below the deputy attorney general and in favor of state incarceration pending state trial.

So we have a one-of-a-kind decision, made at an unprecedented level and justified by fanciful reasoning. Some special factor was obviously at play. It is entirely possible that there were political implications in doing a good deed for Manafort.

It’s not hard to see what those implications might be. Manafort has been the closest thing to a stand-up wise guy in the Trump drama: He managed through squirrelly doublespeak to avoid giving special counsel Robert S. Mueller III the full book on President Trump, and he paid for it in added prison time.

In return, Manafort’s transfer makes it look as though Trump, or Attorney General William P. Barr channeling Trump, is showing him some love with a special favor nobody else ever gets. That’s good for Manafort in the immediate run, and at the same time, it would communicate even more strongly that the way to a pardon is continued noncooperation with federal authorities.

This is all very bad news coming from the Justice Department.

For starters, though we hardly remember this principle because it has been so thoroughly trammeled in the Trump years, it would be a serious breach of protocol if anyone at the White House even communicated with the Justice Department to urge special treatment for Manafort. Any such overture should have been immediately rebuffed.

If that didn’t happen, it would almost be worse because it would mean that the department acted out of subservience to the president’s political goals on its own motion. It is the antithesis of doing justice without fear or favor — rewarding a political ally of the president because he resisted pressure from the Justice Department.

The overall turning of tables could not be more dramatic. Manafort did his best to wriggle out from under the lawful Justice Department investigation of him and the president. Now that same department is acting as his friend, as well as the president’s friend; and friends look out for one another.

That suggests a final lesson from Manafort’s relatively sweet accommodations: Rosen, who was Barr’s handpicked choice, likely comes to the department with a staff that is already integrated with Barr’s. That happens in the case of particularly strong attorneys general. Barr is that, by virtue of his own force of character and his preeminent standing in the Trump universe. As long as Trump is president, Barr enjoys total dominion at the Justice Department. The department’s special treatment of Manafort illustrates why that state of affairs is so worrisome.

I'm beyond angry at this.

[GreyhoundFan]

I didn't realize Pavel and Sasha were such good buddies: "‘I cannot allow them to win’: Through federal case, Paul Manafort found ally in Sean Hannity"

Spoiler

The day news broke that Paul Manafort’s condo in Alexandria had been raided by federal agents, an influential friend reached out.

“Please know you are in my prayers,” Fox News host Sean Hannity wrote Manafort in August 2017, one of hundreds of text messages unsealed Friday by D.C. federal court Judge Amy Berman Jackson.

From the inception of the fraud and conspiracy case against Manafort to the eve of his trial in Alexandria federal court last year, the former Trump campaign chairman regularly traded opinions and information with the conservative television personality regarding special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s investigation. Manafort put Hannity in touch with his defense attorney Kevin Downing, and Hannity relayed information from President Trump’s orbit.

“I won’t sell out,” Manafort promised. “I cannot allow them to win . . . it would empower them to go after [Trump] and lots of others.”

He added: “Plus i plan on helping on the re elect!”

The conversations first came to the judge’s attention when prosecutors included them as part of their sentencing papers earlier this year, arguing Manafort was unrepentant and should be dealt with harshly.

The newly unsealed filings show that Jackson asked why Downing and his client should not be found in contempt of a gag order she imposed in the case. The transcript of a sealed hearing at which Downing addressed Jackson’s concerns is not yet publicly available.

The text messages illustrate how enmeshed Hannity was in Manafort’s defense, regularly checking in on developments big and small. The longtime lobbyist asked Hannity for help promoting his legal defense fund and keeping his case in the news. Hannity, in turn, encouraged Manafort to “stay strong.”

[Read the texts between Manafort and Hannity here]

The messages also provide another example of the extraordinarily close relationship between Hannity, Fox News’s biggest star, and the president and those in his circle.

Hannity has offered unwavering support of Trump and his allies, both on his prime-time TV program and his widely syndicated radio program. Trump, in turn, has helped boost Hannity’s TV ratings by granting him numerous interviews, including one on Wednesday after Trump announced his reelection campaign.

Although Manafort had promised Hannity he would be “first and regular as we go public,” the gag order kept him or his attorneys from appearing on television despite Hannity’s persistent requests.

“Building a plan B,” he told the host after the gag order was imposed. He pointed Hannity toward material he felt would be favorable to his case if publicized on television. He also told Hannity he was using material uncovered by the Fox News host in his legal arguments. At one point he said he needed to put his lawyer in touch with Gregg Jarrett, another Fox News host.

But he did connect Downing with Hannity for a phone call in January 2018. Hannity responded enthusiastically, “I asked him to feed me every day.”

In a tweet, Hannity said his “view of the Special Counsel investigation and the treatment of Paul Manafort were made clear every day to anyone who listens to my radio show or watches my TV show.” Fox declined to comment directly; a spokeswoman, Carly Shanahan, responded to an inquiry by referring to Hannity’s tweet.

Hannity also seemed to act as a conduit of sorts between Manafort and Trump. In February 2018, Hannity told Manafort, “I can tell you Potus is disgusted too.” Manafort, whose trial was then fast approaching, responded: “I live in a nightmare every day. But I won’t give in.”

In May, after Trump had hired Rudolph W. Giuliani to represent him, Hannity told Manafort he had “Brought up u case with Rudy.”

“Rudy seems to get it,” Manafort responded.

The texts also offer a window into Manafort’s thinking as he faced a potential life sentence, including why he refused to let prosecutors consolidate his two cases in D.C. federal court.

“I chose the two fronts” to put pressure on Jackson and the special counsel, Manafort explained, saying that “it was key to my strategy.”

Throughout, Manafort expressed optimism that the case against him was weak and that he would prevail. When the media reported that his former deputy Rick Gates, who had been indicted alongside Manafort in October 2017, had changed lawyers and was considering cooperating against him, Manafort assured Hannity that the reports were false.

“Gates is in for [long] haul,” Manafort wrote, adding that Gates was totally “united with Trump.”

The next day, Hannity texted Manafort to alert him that The Washington Post was reporting that Gates had made a deal with the government and was preparing to plead guilty. “He gave u no heads up at all?” Hannity asked. Manafort did not respond.

But a couple weeks later, Manafort said that, unlike Gates, he would never cooperate, because the special counsel would “want me to give up [Trump] or family,” especially the president’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner.

When Hannity asked what Kushner had done, Manafort clarified that it was “nothing.”

At various points, Hannity implied to Manafort that he was in contact with former national security adviser Michael Flynn, who had by then pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI and was cooperating with the special counsel’s office. In March 2018, Hannity wrote to Manafort that Flynn intended to withdraw his guilty plea. He did not.

Despite his confidence, Manafort repeatedly expressed frustration with then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions for not intervening in the special counsel investigation.

“Sessions is totally worthless,” he wrote Hannity a few months before his trial.

The last message was dated June 5, 2018, days before Manafort was charged with witness tampering and jailed pending trial.

Manafort was found guilty at trial in Alexandria federal court of bank and tax fraud and went on to plead guilty in D.C. federal court to conspiracy and trying to tamper with witnesses. He was sentenced to a total of 7½ years in prison.

An attorney for Manafort did not return a request for comment Friday.

 

[Howl]

Just read a fascinating Twitter thread that lays out a point by point case for Kushner as the main contact person for Russians, rather than Manafort, although Manafort did play a role.   

[fraurosena]

On 6/24/2019 at 4:43 PM, Howl said:

Just read a fascinating Twitter thread that lays out a point by point case for Kushner as the main contact person for Russians, rather than Manafort, although Manafort did play a role.   

Link please! 

[fraurosena]

I see prison life is agreeing with him.

 

[AmazonGrace]

Has he got soap and a blanket?

[GreyhoundFan]

Everyone should have been yelling:

 

[GreyhoundFan]

"Paul Manafort hospitalized in stable condition, attorney says"

Spoiler

Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, who is serving a federal prison sentence for crimes related to his lobbying work in Ukraine, has been hospitalized since Thursday and is in stable condition, his lawyer said Tuesday.

Attorney Todd Blanche said he and his client’s family first learned about Manafort’s medical condition from a reporter at ABC News and have been unable to get information from the Bureau of Prisons.

“Of course, his family and friends are extremely concerned about his health and still do not have a full understanding of his medical condition or well-being,” Blanche said. “We were relieved to learn this afternoon that Mr. Manafort’s condition is stable, and we are hopeful that he makes a speedy recovery.”

The longtime lobbyist is serving a 7 ½-year sentence in a Pennsylvania penitentiary after being convicted as part of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s investigation into interference in the 2016 election. His former deputy, Rick Gates, who testified against Manafort at trial, was sentenced Tuesday to 45 days in jail.

In a statement, a spokesman for the BOP said that “for safety and security and privacy reasons, we cannot provide specific information about an inmate’s medical condition.”

At times over the past year Manafort has come to court hearings in a wheelchair; his attorneys say he developed gout while behind bars.

Manafort will not appear Wednesday in New York State Court for a scheduled hearing in a fraud case stemming from much of the same conduct, Blanche said. He said the hearing is expected to go forward. At issue is whether the state charges against Manafort are unconstitutionally duplicative of his federal convictions. While federal crimes are subject to presidential pardon, state crimes are not.

 

[fraurosena]

8 hours ago, GreyhoundFan said:

"Paul Manafort hospitalized in stable condition, attorney says"

  Hide contents

Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, who is serving a federal prison sentence for crimes related to his lobbying work in Ukraine, has been hospitalized since Thursday and is in stable condition, his lawyer said Tuesday.

Attorney Todd Blanche said he and his client’s family first learned about Manafort’s medical condition from a reporter at ABC News and have been unable to get information from the Bureau of Prisons.

“Of course, his family and friends are extremely concerned about his health and still do not have a full understanding of his medical condition or well-being,” Blanche said. “We were relieved to learn this afternoon that Mr. Manafort’s condition is stable, and we are hopeful that he makes a speedy recovery.”

The longtime lobbyist is serving a 7 ½-year sentence in a Pennsylvania penitentiary after being convicted as part of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s investigation into interference in the 2016 election. His former deputy, Rick Gates, who testified against Manafort at trial, was sentenced Tuesday to 45 days in jail.

In a statement, a spokesman for the BOP said that “for safety and security and privacy reasons, we cannot provide specific information about an inmate’s medical condition.”

At times over the past year Manafort has come to court hearings in a wheelchair; his attorneys say he developed gout while behind bars.

Manafort will not appear Wednesday in New York State Court for a scheduled hearing in a fraud case stemming from much of the same conduct, Blanche said. He said the hearing is expected to go forward. At issue is whether the state charges against Manafort are unconstitutionally duplicative of his federal convictions. While federal crimes are subject to presidential pardon, state crimes are not.

 

Am I the only one that finds his secretive (his family wasn't even aware!) hospitalisation a little... curious?

[GreyhoundFan]

"Paul Manafort’s fraud case in New York was dismissed, blocking local prosecutors’ effort to undercut a potential Trump pardon"

Spoiler

President Trump’s former campaign chairman is serving a federal prison sentence in Pennsylvania after his conviction in special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s investigation of interference in the 2016 election. At issue in New York was whether the state charges Manafort faced amounted to being prosecuted twice for the same crimes. Authorities there brought the case against Manafort in a move widely seen as an effort to ensure he would serve a substantial prison sentence even if Trump pardoned him for the federal crimes.
This is a developing story. It will be updated.

 

[fraurosena]

 

[GreyhoundFan]

 

[GreyhoundFan]

"Paul Manafort granted home confinement due to coronavirus fears"

Spoiler

President Trump’s former campaign chairman Paul Manafort has been released to serve the his term under home confinement because of coronavirus fears, his lawyer confirmed.

Manafort has been confined since June 2018 when he was indicted by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III on a charge of witness tampering while awaiting trial on bank and tax fraud charges, for which he was convicted that summer. He later pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud the United States and obstruct justice related to his undisclosed lobbying for a pro-Russian politician and political party in Ukraine.

Manafort, serving a seven-year term, was released to his home in Alexandria, Va., from the minimum security Lorretto Federal Correctional Institution in central Pennsylvania. His term was set to end November 2024. His release was first reported by ABC News.

Manafort’s attorneys last April argued that, in light of the covid-19 pandemic, Manafort should be released to serve out at least a portion of that sentence with his wife in their Northern Virginia condominium. His release was confirmed by attorney Todd Blanche.

“Mr. Manafort is 71 years old and suffers from several preexisting health conditions, including high blood pressure, liver disease, and respiratory ailments,” his lawyers wrote.

Manafort was hospitalized for several days in December due to heart problems, they noted, and in February contracted both influenza and bronchitis. Given that history, they said that if he became infected with covid-19 “Mr. Manafort is at a significantly higher risk for serious illness or death.”

Attorney General William P. Barr in late March directed the U.S. Bureau of Prisons to release to home confinement more vulnerable prisoners not considered a danger to the community.

The bureau has said they are “prioritizing for consideration” inmates who had served more than half their sentences or had 18 months or less remaining; Manafort is not in either category.

The U.S. Bureau of Prisons reported as of Tuesday that 2,818 inmates and 262 staff in its 140,000 prisoner system have tested positive for the virus, and 50 inmates have died. There have been no confirmed infections at the Loretto complex, according to the bureau.

Manafort’s release comes as the Bureau of Prisons has struggled to implement Barr’s directive to release inmates to home confinement, issuing shifting guidance that has not seemed to be applied uniformly. At times, the bureau has insisted inmates must serve half of their sentence before being eligible for release — even pulling back some people who had been told they would be let go and put in mandatory, prerelease quarantine.

More recently, the bureau issued guidance saying it would prioritize for release those who either had served half of their sentence, or just 25 percent, if they had less than 18 months remaining. Former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen, who had been expecting his own release early this month, was prevented from departing because of those criteria, though he is still expecting to get out later this month, people familiar with the matter said.

The Justice Department has insisted, too, that the Bureau of Prisons has discretion to release inmates who do not meet those markers, particularly if they are at high risk of complications from coronavirus.

The Bureau of Prisons did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment.

Manafort’s former deputy and co-conspirator, Rick Gates, had also asked to serve the rest of his 45-day intermittent prison term in home confinement. A federal judge instead suspended Gates prison sentence in light of the pandemic.

Both Gates and Manafort landed in federal custody because of illegal lobbying work they did for Ukraine, taxes they failed to pay on $15 million in unreported income and bank fraud they committed when the business dried up. Gates pleaded guilty and testified against Manafort at trial; Manafort accepted a plea deal in D.C. federal court after being convicted on some charges in federal court in Alexandria.

Manafort served with Trump’s campaign from spring until August 2016, when he resigned as chairman amid disclosures of his Ukraine role. He was later indicted in October 2017 by Mueller’s team, which investigated — but did not charge him in connection with — his ties with Russian oligarchs and employment of an aide assessed by U.S. authorities to have links to Russian intelligence.

After his conviction in Virginia, Manafort pledged to cooperate with the Russia investigation. But a judge found he lied repeatedly to the special counsel team and prosecutors sought prison time.

 

[fraurosena]

Today really is a happy dance day.

 

 

[GreyhoundFan]

Next we're going to find out that he went to North Korea:

 

[fraurosena]

*Muttley sniggers*

 

[Cartmann99]

KNEWZ EXCLUSIVE: Paul Manafort Denied Flight To Dubai Over Revoked Passport

Quote

New York (Knewz) — Former Donald Trump presidential campaign chair and once-convicted felon Paul Manafort was removed from a Miami flight bound for Dubai on March 20, officials confirmed.

Manafort was convicted in federal court of tax and bank fraud and ordered to serve a term in prison. He was released in May 2020 and pardoned by Trump before he left office in December 2020.

Officials with Miami-Dade police confirmed to Knewz.com that Manafort was denied travel by the Customs and Bureau Protection at Miami International Airport. Police said he could not take the flight and his U.S. Passport was revoked.

Miami-Dade police stressed they were not involved in the situation and there was no further incident from his removal.

Customs and Border Protection declined to comment on the situation.

“U.S. Customs and Border Protection is unable to discuss a specific individual’s arrival or departure into or from the United States,” officials said in a statement to Knewz.com.

The flight was scheduled to leave around 9:10 p.m. and left at 9:45 p.m. It arrived in Dubai around 7:50 p.m. local time on March 21, according to flight records.

A Republican-led Senate group found that Manafort was a “grave counterintelligence threat,” according to USA Today. He had longstanding ties to people affiliated with Russian intelligence and had a willingness to share information with them during the 2016 presidential race.

The panel found that Manafort’s presence on the campaign created opportunities for Russian intelligence to have influence over and inquire information about the Trump campaign.

 

 

[Dandruff]

1 hour ago, Cartmann99 said:

KNEWZ EXCLUSIVE: Paul Manafort Denied Flight To Dubai Over Revoked Passport

I have questions:

What was he doing in Miami?

Was Dubai his destination or a waypoint?

What stopped him from applying for a new passport?

[47of74]

2 hours ago, Dandruff said:

I have questions:

What was he doing in Miami?

Was Dubai his destination or a waypoint?

What stopped him from applying for a new passport?

Provably heading to Mother Russia since there’s connections there from Dubai.  As for why that fuck stick didn’t apply for a new passport I’m not sure. 

Edited March 23, 2022 by 47of74

[Howl]

His passport was revoked in 2017 after he was arrested.  Maybe he assumed his passport status was "reinstated" electronically after his pardon and the existing passport was still valid?  

According to CNBC, "Manafort is not legally prevented from leaving the country or from applying for a new passport to replace his old one. It was not clear why he had tried to travel on an invalid passport."

The interesting element is that he was headed to Dubai, which has connecting flights to Russia.  

[Cartmann99]

There's quite a few wealthy Russians cooling their heels in Dubai right now because of the war in Ukraine. Remember the stash of classified materials that Trump had at Mar-a-Lago? What if Manafort was traveling as Trump's agent in order to find a buyer for some of those materials? As @47of74 and @Howl have already noted, he could easily fly to Russia and try his luck there if he couldn't make the deal he wanted in Dubai.

[Howl]

1 hour ago, Cartmann99 said:

There's quite a few wealthy Russians cooling their heels in Dubai right now because of the war in Ukraine. Remember the stash of classified materials that Trump had at Mar-a-Lago? What if Manafort was traveling as Trump's agent in order to find a buyer for some of those materials?

In early February 2021, Biden barred Trump from receiving intelligence briefings, a courtesy extended to other ex presidents.  Biden noted that Trump was "too erratic" (i.e., untrustworthy and corrupt). 

That rules out Trump selling current state secrets via Manafort, but existing documents purloined from the White House?  Totally possible. 

 

[Cartmann99]

 Be sure and read the blurb underneath his pictures.

Spoiler