Trump Timeline ... Trumpocalypse

There is a cost to compassion, a personal price tag to cultivating empathy in days when cruelty is trending. A collateral damage for those giving a damn when others do not.
We who care are in disbelief at how callous so many people have become.
We are incredulous witnessing our elected leaders and other people abandon any semblance of kindness, humanity and compassion.
Fortunately we are in good company, so we keep going.
The hardest part is to keep argumenting without losing our ability to keep a soft heart, even while so many people have become hardened.
The world is upside-down right now, but we can make it right - one act of decency at a time.
Thank goodness for the damn-givers, one day we will right-side the world.
Even if at a cost.
 


President Trump’s former campaign chairman Paul Manafort pleaded guilty Friday to two criminal charges under terms of a plea deal that includes his cooperation as a potential witness for special counsel Robert S. Mueller III.

That’s the news Trump never wanted to hear. The prospect of just such a deal is why his lawyers reportedly dangled the promise of a pardon in front of Manafort’s lawyers. A plea deal that could put the Russians inside Trump’s campaign blows to smithereens the notion that only low-level, non-players or those distantly related to the campaign had Russian connections. Trump, who was praising Manafort to the heavens just weeks ago, will find it hard (but not impossible) to now smear him as a liar.

“The relentless Mueller push continues — as does that of the rule of law,” observes former White House ethics counsel Norman Eisen. “The reported cooperation agreement could be devastating to the president — and those around him. Manafort for example could implicate not only the president in the Trump Tower meeting — but also others who were involved such as Don Jr. or [Jared] Kushner. The same is true on the mysterious [RNC] platform change, and indeed on all the possible collision offenses.”

The plea certainly explodes Trump’s claim that Mueller is engaged in a “witch hunt.” The only “hoax” here is the pretense that there was nothing out of the ordinary going on inside the Trump campaign or that it was too disorganized to have spent time colluding with Russians.

Trump was already crashing in the polls and Mueller’s approval rising, in large part due to, in August, the trial and conviction of Manafort and the plea deal with Michael Cohen. The recording of Trump discussing a payoff with Cohen surely didn’t help his credibility.

What we will find out in the days and weeks ahead is just how much Manafort knows and how much he can tell us about what Trump knew regarding Russian interference on his behalf. For Republicans who have been carrying water for the president, it might be time to put down the buckets and run for their political lives. Frankly, voting for impeachment and removal might be a good option for Republicans at some point. Before we get there, however, there are the midterms, which are shaping up to be a wipeout for the GOP.


MANAFORT INDICTMENT ALSO IMPLICATES TONY PODESTA, THE CLINTON-CONNECTED SUPERLOBBYIST




    • Clinton-connected lobbyist Tony Podesta knew he was working with Paul Manafort on behalf of a Ukrainian politician, according to an indictment released Friday by the special counsel’s office.
    • Podesta, Manafort and Mercury Public Affairs all failed to register as foreign agents of Ukraine for the work.
    • Manafort entered a plea agreement with the special counsel Friday.
Two lobbying firms, including one owned by Democratic superlobbyist Tony Podesta, knowingly worked with Paul Manafort at the direction of the Ukrainian government, according to an indictment released Friday by the special counsel’s office.

The indictment, which was released ahead of an expected plea deal for Manafort, the former chairman of President Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, says that as a part of his “lobbying scheme,” Manafort solicited two lobbying firms in February 2012 to lobby on behalf of then-Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych.

“Various employees of Companies A and B understood that they were receiving direction from MANAFORT and President Yanukovych, not the Centre, which was not even operational when Companies A and B began lobbying for Ukraine,” reads the indictment. The Centre is a reference to the European Centre for a Modern Ukraine, a Brussels-based non-profit that the government says was used to support Yanukovych.

Company A has been identified as Mercury Public Affairs, a lobbying shop operated by former Minnesota Republican Rep. Vin Weber. Company B has been identified as Podesta Group, the firm that Tony Podesta founded with his brother, John, the chairman of Hillary Clinton’s campaign.



Manafort pleaded guilty Friday to conspiracy against the United States and obstruction of justice. He was convicted in federal court in Virginia on Aug. 21 on bank fraud, tax fraud and money laundering charges. He was scheduled to face trial in Washington, D.C., on charges directly related to his consulting work for Yanukovych. (RELATED: Manafort Expected To Accept Plea Deal With Mueller)

Nobody from Podesta Group or Mercury Public Affairs has faced charges in the case, though the latest indictment suggests that the lobbying firms skirted federal law by failing to register as foreign agents with the Department of Justice (DOJ).

According to the indictment, Manafort knowingly avoided registering with the DOJ and lied to the government about his work for Yanukovych, who was forced to leave office in 2014.

The indictment lays out evidence that Manafort, his business partner Rick Gates, and employees at Mercury Public Affairs and the Podesta Group were aware they were working for Yanukovych.

The head of Company B, believed to be Podesta, told his employees “to think the President of Ukraine ‘is the client.'”

The indictment also cites evidence that an employee of the Podesta Group realized the European Centre for a Modern Ukraine was being used as cover for Yanukovych.

“An employee of Company B described the Centre as a fig leaf, and the Centre’s written certification that it was not related to the Party of Regions as ‘a fig leaf on a fig leaf,’ referring to the Centre in an email as the ‘European hot dog stand for a Modern Ukraine,'” the indictment reads. (RELATED: Mueller Referred Podesta Case To New York Prosecutors)

“Company B wrote in an email to its team about a ‘potential representation for the Ukraine,’ having been contacted ‘at the suggestion of Paul Manafort who has been working on the current PM elections.'”

The indictment also says Manafort, Gates, and “employees of both Companies A and B referred to the client in ways that made clear they knew it was Ukraine, for instance noting that the ‘client’ had an Embassy in Washington D.C.”

Working at Manafort’s direction, Mercury and Podesta Group lobbied dozens of members of Congress, their staffers, and White House and Department of State officials regarding a host of issues related to Ukraine, including the validity of its elections.

Manafort frequently briefed Yanukovych on Mercury and Podesta’s lobbying activities. He also tasked the companies to prepare reports that he could provide to Yanukovych.
Manafort Indictment Also Implicates Tony Podesta, The Clinton-Connected Superlobbyist

It's Tony Podesta that need to worry not Trump. Manafort is going to "flip" on Tony.




 
Federal prosecutors weighing charges against former Obama WH counsel: report”



Federal prosecutors in New York are considering criminal charges against Greg Craig, a former Obama White House counsel, as part of a investigation into whether he failed to register as a foreign agent, sources told CNN on Friday.

The charges are linked to a probe into Paul Manafort, the former campaign chairman to President Trump, CNN reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

Manafort on Friday pleaded guilty to two federal charges in a deal that includes cooperation with special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation.

An attorney for Craig told CNN that his client "was not required to register under the Foreign Agent Registration Act."

Craig was not immediately reachable by The Hill.

The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York is also considering action against law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP, where Craig was a partner during the period under examination, CNN reported.

The investigations into Craig and the law firm were transferred to federal prosecutors in New York by Mueller.


They stem from charges that Manafort in 2012 "solicited" a law firm on behalf of the then-president of Ukraine, Viktor Yanukovych, and Ukraine's Ministry of Justice.

CNN reported the firm was Skadden, citing the people familiar with the matter, which was hired to write a report on the trial of Yulia Tymoshenko, who served as prime minister of Ukraine and was a rival of Yanukovych.

A spokeswoman for Skadden didn't respond to a request for comment from CNN. The law firm did not immediately reply to a request for comment from The Hill.
Federal prosecutors weighing charges against former Obama WH counsel: report


a top Obama administration official was working as a foreign agent.
 
There is a cost to compassion, a personal price tag to cultivating empathy in days when cruelty is trending. A collateral damage for those giving a damn when others do not.
We who care are in disbelief at how callous so many people have become.
We are incredulous witnessing our elected leaders and other people abandon any semblance of kindness, humanity and compassion.
Fortunately we are in good company, so we keep going.
The hardest part is to keep argumenting without losing our ability to keep a soft heart, even while so many people have become hardened.
The world is upside-down right now, but we can make it right - one act of decency at a time.
Thank goodness for the damn-givers, one day we will right-side the world.
Even if at a cost.

You fuckers made not a peep about the destruction of lives and property due to Obama's and Hilary's ME wars, the rise of casual rape and slavery in those countries or the death and dismemberment of Americans fighting in good faith for their country. Your compassion is a fraud and always has been.
 
You fuckers made not a peep about the destruction of lives and property due to Obama's and Hilary's ME wars, the rise of casual rape and slavery in those countries or the death and dismemberment of Americans fighting in good faith for their country. Your compassion is a fraud and always has been.
I've always wondered wtf killary and the turd went after Libya for. Quadaffi paid the Lockerbie victims settlement, gave up his weapons programs and generally wasn't causing any problems. Yet killary was gun ho and in we went. Now its another Islamic shithole and will be for the foreseeable future.
 
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