Question on MSNBC right now..

[SummerSnow]

Why would Manafort risk a life sentence by lying to federal prosecutors


Is he afraid of the Russians coming after him?

What are your thoughts?

[onenote]

1. Since we don't know what he lied about, how can we possibly have any idea why.

Plus, as I recall, he was already facing up to 80 years for the eight convictions in the Eastern District of Virginia. Which for a 69 year old is the same as a life sentence.

[SummerSnow]

2. 80 years. Everything Trump touches fails.

[912gdm]

3. for what its worth

I would think he would be afraid for his family.

[YessirAtsaFact]

7. Either his family's safety or he's like Trump

Maybe he figures he’s toast either way, so why not protect his family.

Maybe he’s such a pathological liar he couldn’t help it.

[Liberty Belle]

4. He may be counting on a pardon from Trump

if he protects him.

But a pardon can't protect him from going to prison for state crimes, if there are any, and also a president pardoning a co-conspirator might be open to a legal challenge.

[Maeve]

5. Because he thought he could get away with it

Maybe he thinks someone will pull strings and get him out. Maybe he just thinks he's that good at skating on thin ice--he's been doing it for years, decades, even.

He's so crooked if he swallowed a needle he'd cough up a corkscrew. Maybe he doesn't know what the truth is anymore.

[bronxiteforever]

6. He's betting on a pardon. He deep sixed himself as a witness

He is showing loyalty and gambling that cheetolini will bail him out.

[marble falls]

8. I think a fate simular to what happened to Whitey Bolger awaits him if he thinks going into ...

federal lockup will save him from the Russian Mafia. He lost a lot of their cash in his fall from grace. Like the Prizi's, the Russian mob would rather eat their children than lose their money and they really, really love their children.

Manafort better get his bid in on a new deal and this time be forthright.

[onenote]

11. He's going to prison with or without the deal

In fact, he faces up to 80 years (effectively a life sentence) for the eight counts he was convicted of in the Eastern District of Virginia.

I think all of the speculation about his safety being an issue is hokum. On the one hand, folks say he wouldn't be safe in jail. On the other hand, folks say he wouldn't be safe out of jail. Both are true if someone really wants to risk doing him harm (for what? retribution? because he didn't lie? because he did lie?) And neither is true if no one really wants to risk doing him harm.

For what its worth, he has gone to great expense trying to stay out of jail, even before he was tried (which arguably would have been his greatest period of risk if you think folks wanted to silence him).

[pnwmom]

9. Because he is a narcissist like Trump and has always succeeded by lying. n/t

[Whiskeytide]

10. I think it is a simple as ...

... he believed Mueller didn't know as much as Mueller knows, and thought he could get away with lying. It's a good bet his "lies" were more akin to not telling everything rather than an outright, black & white untruth (I'm just assuming he'd try to make it as gray as he could since, though corrupt as hell, he doesn't seem to actually be that stupid).

He could be hoping for a pardon (trump's increasingly hostile anti-Mueller tweets suggest that trump has some kind of a plan that is not in any way dependent upon Mueller's good will, and a stack of pardons could be a part of that - he's certainly ramping up his efforts to legitimatize Mueller). But I suspect trump believes he can only get away with so many pardons before he really starts to lose favor with congressional republicans and possibly even less strident members of his base. He's saving the pardons for people closer to him.

Manafort could actually be doing it in cooperation with Mueller as a way of keeping his family and himself safer from possible retribution. (Real tin-foil hat stuff there, but I suppose it's possible).

But I really think he just didn't realize what Mueller had. When you live life lying and scheming about everything, you tend to forget when and where you dropped breadcrumbs. Getting your lies crossed up is the logical result.

[MineralMan]

12. He's a criminal. He has things to fear.

They're all criminals. We are being governed by a crime family right now. I hope we can survive it.

[kozar]

13. was listening to this while running errands,

and my first take was the "experts" on MSNBC were coming to the same conclusion that Manafort is simply a pathological Liar, and therefore unable to tell the truth.
My immediate 2nd thought was,,,, didn't they just give DipShit an out to get off the hook? As a patho Liar, cant Dipshit use that as a proven defense.
Sorry for tin foiling, it just all sounded weird to me while I was listening.

Koz