Trump lawyer: Manafort said nothing damaging in Mueller interviews

[grantcart]

Source: Reuters

(Reuters) - Under an unusual arrangement, Paul Manafort’s attorney has kept Donald Trump informed about the former campaign chairman’s meetings with prosecutors investigating Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. election and, according to Trump’s lawyer, Manafort has not said anything damaging about the president.

Rudy Giuliani, who represents Trump in the Russia probe, told Reuters that he had spoken with Manafort’s lawyer, Kevin Downing, as recently as last week. Manafort pleaded guilty on Sept. 14 to violating foreign lobbying laws and trying to obstruct justice. He was convicted at trial in another case in August.

Giuliani said the conversations were occurring under a so-called joint defense agreement, which allows lawyers who represent different clients to exchange information without violating attorney-client privilege.

Legal experts said it was unusual for such an agreement to remain in effect after a person pleads guilty and agrees to cooperate with prosecutors as Manafort has done.

Manafort is talking to Special Counsel Robert Mueller “about a lot of things, none of which are incriminating with regard to the president,” Giuliani said in one of several conversations with Reuters this month.


Read more: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-giuliani/trump-lawyer-manafort-said-nothing-damaging-in-mueller-interviews-idUSKCN1MW2U8

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Very distressing

Why would they allow this alliance between the two sets of attorney's to continue.

[SHRED]

1. Rudy lies

So there's that.

[grantcart]

2. Right but I suspect he is telling the truth about the join defense agreement

and can't believe that they would allow it to continue, especially since Trump can still pardon him.

Really bums me out.

[SHRED]

3. It is very strange

[pnwmom]

4. Why should we believe a word RG says?

[grantcart]

9. The existence of the JDA was widely reported. People just assumed that it ended.

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/trump-manafort-joint-defense-agreement

[pnwmom]

11. You're talking about "Truth isn't truth" Rudy G. Here are 2 attorneys who don't believe him.

This is the opinion of a former criminal defense attorney.

Link to tweet

Seth Abramson
✔
@SethAbramson
Percentage true Rudy's statement will turn out to be: 0.0%

This isn't how this works; you don't give Manafort a sweet cooperation deal and talk to him for 54 hours so you can get "nothing" incriminating on the only guy above him in the campaign hierarchy

And a law professor from Tulane.

Link to tweet

Manafort’s lawyer is trying to thread the needle. Keeping prosecutors happy with cooperation in hopes govt supports lower sentence; giving Rudy blanket assurances that cooperation hasn’t damaged Trump; but not giving Rudy info that would piss off Mueller.

[grantcart]

15. Two reasons

1) If Rudy made public statements that were fictitious about the existence of a JDA he could and probably would be sanctioned by the court and probably the bar.

2) Neither of the tweets that you have posted argue that the JDA isn't still in effect.

a) Seth is saying that if he has an agreement with Mueller then he has to be giving incriminating information to Mueller about Trump. He is not saying that the JDA is no longer in place.

b) Garber is saying that Manafort's lawyer is threading the needle, i.e. trying to keep both sides happy. The premise for that would be that the JDA was still in effect because if it wasn't then Manafort's attorneys wouldn't be able to discuss it with Guiliani.

Your tweets tend to confirm the continued existence of the JDA but suggest that Guiliani is lying about what Manafort is giving Mueller on the one hand and trying to placate both sides on the other.

[pnwmom]

20. I'm not disputing the existence of a JDA. I'm disputing RG's description of what

he's learning from Downing -- that Manafort hasn't been giving Mueller anything that will hurt Trump.

This is an interesting article, and it doesn't come to any firm conclusion, but did you know that Rudy claimed a JDA with Don McGahn that his attorney disputed?

https://www.politico.com/story/2018/10/08/trump-attorneys-talk-mueller-877373

Claims of who’s in and who’s out of the Trump legal team’s JDA arrangements aren’t so simple, either. Giuliani told Reuters in August that the president maintained a joint defense agreement with White House counsel Don McGahn. But Bill Burck, the defense lawyer for McGahn, said he never signed on to any JDAs with the president’s attorneys.

“My guys are there to be witnesses,” Burck told POLITICO in January. “They’re there to tell whatever it is they’re supposed to tell, to answer questions truthfully. They’re not coordinating strategy with the White House."

SNIP

Annemarie McAvoy, a former defense attorney and media consultant for Gates, said Giuliani’s remarks about JDAs may be aimed more at influencing the “court of public opinion” ahead of the midterm elections and with the prospect that Democrats could soon be armed with Mueller’s findings and launch impeachment proceedings.

“They’re trying to quash any thought that Trump is somehow at risk by coming out right away saying we don’t think he has any information that’s workable about Trump,” she said. “I’m sure they want to keep a positive face on it.”

[riversedge]

6. Seems to me that Trump is getting special treatment! damn.

[Jarqui]

23. That's a major consideration for to me.

I'm not going to get sucked into hand-wringing by a chronic liar

Mueller will deal with this

[lancelyons]

5. They won't cut him a deal for nothing. How stupid is Rudy.

[BumRushDaShow]

7. And right on queue

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100211292380

[bluestarone]

8. I DO NOT

Believe a fucking thing they are saying!!!!

[blm]

10. He's lying to give voters worried about Russia fallout a reason to stick with Trump

and continue to vote for Republicans.

[grantcart]

17. With so many other things going on its rather stupid on Rudy's part to say anything that reminds

people of Russia, especially after Trump went to such great lengths to pretend to be angry at Russia and pull out of a treaty with them.

But I suspect you are correct.

[Honeycombe8]

22. Maybe. They're throwing everything against the wall to see what sticks.

I hope that's it.

[2naSalit]

12. Perhaps

the lawyer for Manifort isn't being forthcoming with Rudy. Rudy does have a reputation after all. And how is it that there is such an arrangement? I think this will be looked into by the likes of Rachel Maddow or someone with a brain.

[LiberalFighter]

13. Why are they so concerned with what Manafort might say?

If he is innocent. Hah!

[Progressive Jones]

14. Even if Greasy Rudy is telling the truth, which is doubtful,

Mueller isn't necessarily needed to get rid of Trump.

[Botany]

16. And how can you tell a lawyer is lying?

His or her lips are moving. Mueller would not have spent all the time w/Pauli Walnuts
if he was getting nothing in return any more then Putin would have spent millions and
millions of $s and all those years of effort to rig our elections if he wasn't getting any
results.

[Honeycombe8]

18. I was afraid of this. None of this may result in charges against Trump.

I hope there will, since I believe he is guilty of conspiring with Russia to turn the election, as well as obstruction of justice, not to mention illegal money schemes...and violation of emoluments clause.

[grantcart]

19. Mueller's standard of evidence may be too high

He may only want to move against Trump if he was in the room

Yelling it on TV won't count

I am beginning to think that you are correct.

What a second rate country this is.

[Equinox Moon]

21. Rudy does not know. More lies.

[Atticus]

24. If this is true---and with Rudy Doody being the source, who knows?---it portends

a more dangerous situation than the Trump camp is prepared to face. If "there are no rules" is the new paradigm for Trump and company, then some who oppose him may adopt the same approach to politics.

Rules, laws, norms---are what have kept the lid on the just-below-the-surface hostility felt by both of the main "tribes" now facing off for control of our collective future. If both sides sweep these aside we will be on the precipice of real, actual open civil war in this nation.

"Blood in the streets" may soon be more than an unsettling figure of speech.

[FSogol]

25. Why would anyone believe a Trump lawyer? Why would anyone believe Rudy?

[sharedvalues]

26. Bullsh*t. He's a liar. And he doesn't know what Manafort said anyway.

Manaforts plea agreement notes he may coopoerarw with Mueller with no lawyer present. So even his own lawyer doesn’t know who he incriminated.

Anyways, why are we believing Rudy or any Trump minion? They all lie. Make them prove to us they are not lying: otherwise assume it’s a lie.