A Judge Just Denied Paul Manafort's Motion To Dismiss The Indictment Against Him In DC

[Gothmog]

Source: Buzzfeed

A federal judge on Tuesday denied former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort's motion to dismiss the indictment returned against him by a grand jury in Washington, DC -- rejecting Manafort's challenge to special counsel Robert Mueller's appointment.

Read more: https://www.buzzfeed.com/zoetillman/a-judge-just-denied-paul-manaforts-motion-to-dismiss-the?utm_term=.ei2OxRJJna#.ee3pzvVVQq

[Gothmog]

1. From my twitter feed

Link to tweet

Link to tweet

[riversedge]

22. great to see the Judge note that the charge falls with Muellers authority.

[YessirAtsaFact]

2. Not a surprise

[Honeycombe8]

20. Yes. It's probably standard to move to dismiss. Always denied.

Then on appeal that is one of the things it will ask to overturn.

[YessirAtsaFact]

21. That's probably why the judge was hard on the prosecution

To show he isn’t biased.

He also knew full well that the motion was BS.

[sheshe2]

3. K&R

[jpak]

4. Yay!

Let the screws slowly turn on him.

[Stallion]

5. The Great "Right Hope" Goes down in Flames

the ReTrumplicans were so EXCITED about this "genius" judge-Trump even reported his hearing statements at a rally. Judges often ask tough question to test the side they eventually rule in favor of-makes it easier to write their opinion

[blugbox]

8. This is what people need to take away from this...

The judge asked very harsh, pointed questions, because he wants a direct and succinct answer. Like people have said, this is done because now Manafort can't argue any vagueness in Mueller's appointment or power.

This is very exciting news, even if not the most surprising! Made my day better!!

[Gothmog]

9. That was the second of the motions brought by Manafort

Manafort made the same argument in both cases. This is the ruling for the case in DC which was argued a week before the argument in the Virginia case. Manafort is going to trial in both DC on reporting issues and money laundering in DC and in Virginia for tax evasion and bank fraud. This ruling should have an impact on the Virginia court's ruling

[johnnyknj]

11. Different judge

[Gothmog]

6. This was the first of the two motions made by Manafort

Last week a judge asked questions about Mueller's authority to bring these charges. That was the second time that Manafort had made this weak arguments. This ruling is strong evidence that Mueller clearly has authority to bring these charges

Link to tweet

Link to tweet

[RandySF]

7. Is this the judge we worried about last week?

[Izzy Blue]

10. No, that was Manafort's Virginia indictments

Waiting on Judge Ellis to rule on that.
Good though that the DC ruling came out in time for Ellis to ponder if he had any doubts.

[Gothmog]

13. No

This is a different judge. This is from the judge in DC. Manafort made this argument two weeks ago. The other case is in Virginia and that judge has not ruled.

The judge in DC wrote a strong opinion and that should have some impact on the ruling in the Virginia case.

Here is a link to the opinion https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/4463449/ABJManafort.pdf

From the opinion

Manafort points to no legal requirement or Departmental policy, and there is nothing in any statute or the Special Counsel Regulations, that would require the prosecutor to look away if the duly authorized investigation into those links revealed evidence of a crime other than “coordination.” The Appointment Order specifically provided: “if the Special Counsel believes it is necessary and appropriate, the Special Counsel is authorized to prosecute federal crimes arising from the investigation of these matters.” Appt. Order ¶ (c); see also 28 U.S.C. § 515 (“[A]ny attorney specially appointed by the Attorney General under law, may . . . conduct any kind of legal proceeding, civil or criminal, including grand jury proceedings . . . , which United States attorneys are authorized by law to conduct.”); 28 C.F.R. § 600.6 (“[T]he Special Counsel shall exercise, within the scope of his or her jurisdiction, the full power and independent authority to exercise all investigative and prosecutorial functions of any United States Attorney.”). 10 Thus, the indictment was authorized by the portion of the Appointment Order that Manafort does not challenge. Since the investigation into and the indictment for the pending charges fell within the unchallenged first paragraph of the Appointment Order, Manafort’s motion to dismiss can be denied for that reason alone

[pnwmom]

12. This opinion was written by Judge Amy Jackson. Still waiting

to see how the judge in the other trial will rule, but I'm hopeful.

[.99center]

14. The Special Counsel would have been remiss to ignore such an obvious potential link

"Who had connections to the Russian government? Who attended meetings on behalf of the campaign?" Berman Jackson wrote. "Given the combination of his prominence within the campaign and his ties to Ukrainian officials supported by and operating out of Russia, as well as to Russian oligarchs, Manafort was an obvious person of interest."

"The Special Counsel would have been remiss to ignore such an obvious potential link between the Trump campaign and the Russian government," she wrote later in the opinion.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.cnn.com/cnn/2018/05/15/politics/manafort-special-counsel/index.html

[SkatmanRoth]

15. Manafort will plead to a lesser charge to stay out of jail

The deal will include testimony against President Trump.

Trump is going down!

[Bernardo de La Paz]

18. Dunno. Manafort pretty high up. It would be a mistake to limit jail time to tRump's inner circle.

Mueller may not need Manafort caving.

It would be a mistake to limit jail time to tRump's inner circle. The conspiracy is wider than that. People like Manafort need to go to prison even if they do cooperate. Give him one year if he cooperates instead of 45 years if he doesn't.

I would not be surprised if there is a sealed indictment or two against Manafort that are even more serious than "Conspiracy against the USA", though that is serious enough to receive serious jail time.

[Gothmog]

16. I fully expect the "mean" federal judge who got a lot of press in a separate Paul Manafort case out

Link to tweet

Link to tweet

[aeromanKC]

17. Oh, that's gonna leave a mark.

#MAGA (the Mueller one)

[BobTheSubgenius]

19. I'm sure it was recognized by all as being a Hail Mary.

If nothing else, it gives him some more shit to whine about. He and his gruesome cadre of "associates" find that valuable.