So it looks like Manafort expects a pardon.

[demsocialist]

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 — they 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 Mueller mentions in the report?

https://www.emptywheel.net/2018/11/26/manafort-tests-the-theory-of-an-unpardonable-plea/

[RockRaven]

1. Or he's noticed all the totally "coincidental" dying people and doesn't want his family wiped out

by these Russian gangsters, which they WILL totally do if he squeals.

[Control-Z]

5. I believe this is his main impetus.

This guy won't even be safe in prison if he sings.

On that note, just about anyone else who is lying for Trump is probably worried about the same. Except for possibly his kids who aren't all that smart. Add their gross sense of entitlement to it and they are likely oblivious to the dangers.

[brush]

2. Big risk. If trump wins in 2020, God forbid, he won't pardon until...

the end of his term in 2024 so Manafort will have been in jail for 6-7 years.

What's his reasoning, that that's better than cooperating and getting a lighter sentence?

[demsocialist]

3. Emptywheel seems to infer he was some kind of

mole for Trump inside the investigation. I found that very interesting.

[brush]

4. Maybe that's why trump put Whitaker in to fire Mueller. The probe...

must be really devastating to trump and his sycophants.

Several state AGs just filed suit against Whitaker's legitimacy though so that should stop Whitaker from acting.