All-purpose news and politics thread: Two Steps Beyond!(Part II)

[PaulBullion]

In a normal administration, the commerce secretary being accused of stealing 120,000,000 bucks would probably the biggest scandal.

[InformationGeek]

Remember how Trump insulted McCain for being captured and saying he's not a hero for doing so? Well guess what? It's not the first time he said.

What a find by @JakeSherman - Trump talking about McCain's service in Vietnam during an interview with Dan Rather in 1999!

"He was captured...does being captured make you a war hero? I'm not sure, I don't know."

I know WBE is only updating Trump's profile for recent events... but I'm sure he can squeeze this in there.

[BeastieRunner]

...is it just me, or does the judge not sound... impressed by this case? He seems to have a problem with Mueller's team.

Weird right? I think he thinks that he has to push hard against them in order to combat public opinion weighing in on this case.

I imagine if I was the guy put in charge of this nightmare, I'd be pretty sour too.

I'd imagine that any judge tasked with this would try to keep the "Gopher Rodeo" aspect of it to a minimum, and keep the whole thing moving along.

I assume the judge in the Manafort trial is in Trump's pocket.

Yeah, a few of his comments sound like he's already made up his mind.

He’s a judge, he shouldn’t sound impressed.

Judge Ellis is known for tearing apart EVERYBODY.

I read several case notes on him and interviews from lawyers.

I read about a case where the prosecution thought they lost, badly, but ended up winning.

He tolerates very little.

Ellis has a long standing hatred for Special Counsels.

He asked for the current one to be bipartisan and admonished the GOP for their failure to appoint somebody more neutral.

He gave a seminar about how to fix Special Counsel appointments.

He views Mueller as a rubber stamp for the GOP.

It's up to the jury to decide the outcome, not the judge anyway.

Ellis has had an alarming rate of appeals to the 4th Circuit by the defense.

It should be noted that Team Mueller doesn't back down from the admonishments but the defense has cowered and given up arguments after he admonishes them.

This case is about fraud and tax evasion, not Russia and those connections. That's the criminal case in September. Ellis is getting annoyed with the amount of Russian things coming into a case about whether somebody committed fraud and paid taxes. Although, it's get plainer by the day that Team Trump is deeply in bed with Russia.

FYI.

Pretty much means that if Team Mueller wins this case, a snowball of the big mo will be running downhill. Trump will be powerless to stop it.

This case is bigger than most people are making it out to be.

If Team Mueller wins, they set precedence, meaning it will be cited in further cases.

They need a win and having a judge that is tough and doesn't like Mueller is actually in their favor. IF .... IF ... they win.

[BeastieRunner]

Before I get too into my trial updates today ... I'd like to point out that Trump's Hollywood star is getting permanently removed.

[Gray Lensman]

Before I get too into my trial updates today ... I'd like to point out that Trump's Hollywood star is getting permanently removed.

Not quite yet - there are still several more steps to go through before removal.

[PaulBullion]

Not quite yet - there are still several more steps to go through before removal.

And the BBC thinks it's gonna stay.

But it's the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce, not the city, that maintains the popular tourist destination.

The mayor acknowledged the council had no direct authority over the Walk of Fame, saying: "It's up to them."


The council has never before asked for a particular star to be removed.

[PaulBullion]

This is America:

New Poll: 43% of Republicans Want to Give Trump the Power to Shut Down Media

[PaulBullion]

This is America:

New Poll: 43% of Republicans Want to Give Trump the Power to Shut Down Media

[ZombieHavoc]

That anyone is even entertaining the idea that Ohio goes for a dem in today's special election is so laughably annoying. Trump is gonna be getting another win today.

As always, I hope I'll be eating my words, but as always, I doubt I will be.

America dies a little more.

[BeastieRunner]

Manafort Trial AM Updates:

After some evidence shuffling, Gates explains how Ukrainian billionaires paid Manafort.

“He [Manafort] indicated that the Ukrainian businessmen wanted us to set up Cyprus bank accounts.”

The Ukranian businessmen already had accounts there and could easily wire money that way.

Gates named wealthy politicians who paid Manafort through Cypriot accounts, including Borys Kolesnikov, who was minister of transportation in the pro-Russian Party of Regions when Viktor Yanukovych was president; and Serhiy Lovochkin, who was Yanukovych’s chief of staff.

Telmar Investments, the source of payments to Manafort, was controlled by Lovochkin.

Gates explained that he and Manafort would work out consultancy agreements and a payment structure with the billionaires backing the Party of Regions.

Manafort or another employee, Konstantin Kilimnik, would draft an agreement that would be approved by their Cypriot law firm.

That same firm, Chrysostomides, helped set up their Cypriot bank account.

“Georgia Chrysostomides” signed a loan forgiveness letter Laporta testified was fraudulently drafted by Gates.

Gates also testified that some of the payments were for a “lobbying campaign in the U.S. and the U.K.” — an issue not in this case but in Washington, D.C., federal court, where Manafort is accused of failing to register as a foreign agent.

Judged asked for that to be stricken, as it does not pertain to this case but ended up allowing it.

Gates gave a primer on shell companies or as Manafort coined them, "shelf-companies."

Powerful Ukrainian businessmen would set up a company in Cyprus and use that company to pay a different company set up by Manafort in Cyprus.

But neither the Ukrainians or Manafort would sign the documents governing the payments. Paid Cypriot directors signed for both sides.

“Did these companies sell a product?” ... "No."

“Did they have any employees?” ... "No ... the purposes of the companies was to accept payments and to make payments."

Gates walked throw about 7 different instances of doing this, with Manafort's paying ranging from ~€3M to ~$1.1M.

Gates told the jury that neither Manafort’s bookkeepers nor the company that prepared his taxes were made aware of the companies.

Team Mueller showed Gates an example of a loan agreement between 2 of Manafort’s Cypriot entities.

Gates: “At the time, I believe [Manafort] was trying to decrease the amount of taxable income for that particular tax year.”

Gates then explained that Manafort’s fees rose to $4M, then €4M after Yanukovych took office and Manafort’s company served as policy advisers to his new government.

When Yanukovych lost power, Gates told the jury that Manafort’s fees began to dry up.

Gates said Manafort worked for a time for the Opposition Bloc, the party that replaced Yanukovych’s Party of Regions after popular protests caused Yanukovych to flee to Russia in 2014.

Gates said the new party was out of power, which meant it had less access to cash to pay Manafort and his team.

Gates said that Manafort’s last payment in Ukraine came in late 2014.

Gates then went on to describe how the money dried up.

Gates stated the income streams became more “difficult to come by” after Yanukovych’s ouster, and their effort to create work through a new Ukrainian political party, called the Opposition Bloc, was not completely successful.

While the party won a few seats in Parliament, Gates testified it never achieved power, and sometimes it did not pay Manafort’s bills in full.

Team Mueller showed jurors an August 2015 email sent to Gates about payments from the opposition bloc, which were overdue.

Manafort was “upset” because their previous financial situation was “substantially decreased,” said Gates.

Gates testified that Manafort grew worried when his name appeared on account.

Gates testified that he and Manafort used a Cypriot lawyer, who he referred to in court as “Dr. K,” and that lawyer’s firm to open various accounts.

The firm “handled everything,” and Gates and Manafort had no interaction with the bank.

“I believe [Manafort] understood his name would not be represented, nor would mine.”

Gates said they set up various accounts to accept payments from the Ukrainian businessmen for whom they worked.

At one point, Gates said, when Manafort learned that his name was connected to an account, he became worried.

Gates said he asked for his own name to be removed from an account to which it was connected.

Gates testified at one point the men encountered trouble with their Cyprus accounts, so they moved money, again using Dr. K’s law firm, to accounts in the Grenadines.

Gates made clear that no matter the name on the accounts, they were ultimately controlled by Manafort.

Jurors were shown one 2011 email in which Manafort explicitly approved a money transfer from one of the accounts to his company, DMP International.

Gates testified that he and Paul Manafort were asked to come in for voluntary interviews as part of a joint FBI and Ukrainian “forfeiture investigation” in 2014. His understanding was that neither he nor Manafort were under investigation.

Questioning turned to Gates' and Manafort's FBI interviews in 2014.

Gates said he was interviewed first and asked about their work in Ukraine.

At that point Gates said most of their Cypriot accounts were already closed.

Gates said Manafort asked him to meet with Lyovochkin to “notify him and determine the status of his Ukrainian company” because a lot of their payments came from him.

Lyovochkin agreed to start paying Manafort through one bank rather than through international wire transfers.

Gates testified that several apparently fake invoices from vendors who did work for Manafort were created for those for banks in St. Vincent and the Grenadines.

When Manafort moved his banking from Cyprus to the Grenadines, they required more documentation. “They asked for invoices” that had the name of the companies Manafort was using on them, Gates said. So at Manafort’s direction, he would make a “modified invoice.”

“The payment was legitimate,” Gates said. But “it had to have the name of the company itself,” and the vendors hadn’t provided those.

Gates said he took the information on the invoices from Manafort.

He suggested any typos were Manafort's fault.

The vendors never actually saw those invoices.

Gates said he directed wire transfers for Manafort from overseas companies to House of Bijan, Alan Couture, New Leaf Landscaping, Big Picture Solutions and other vendors.

Gates said Manafort directed him to make the payments and to hide them from the bookkeeper.

“The US. payments were reported to Ms. Washkuhn, the overseas ones were not. It was in essence diminishing the amount of money that would have been represented on the US.tax returns.”

Gates also wired payments to himself ... sometimes with Manafort’s authorization ... sometimes to embezzle money for himself.

Gates stated that Manafort actively hid accounts.

Gates told the jury that he helped coordinate with the accountants who prepared Manafort’s taxes on Manafort’s annual filings.

Gates said that he and Manafort would strategize how to reduce Manafort’s overall tax liability by classifying some income as loans.

Gates said that he and Manafort had discussions over the years about whether Manafort’s overseas accounts needed to be disclosed.

Gates testified that Manafort would tell him that because a Cypriot lawyer they referred to as “Dr. K” has signatory authority of the accounts, he did not believe they needed to be disclosed to the professional accountants.

Team Mueller asked Gates who actually had control over those accounts ... “[Manafort] always had control.”

“And whose money was in those accounts?” ... “Mr. Manafort’s money.”

Team Mueller then introduced agendas that Manafort wrote to guide conversations between himself and Gates on the phone and in person.

They included conversations about Manafort’s taxes and bills.

The agendas appear to show that Manafort had active involvement in these matters.

One of the agendas included a stray reference to Trump, an indication that Yankees tickets bought by Manafort should go to Trump.

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[BeastieRunner]

Part 2 of AM updates ... I wrote too much ...

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Team Mueller showed jurors a 2015 email in which one of Manafort’s accountants told Gates that to reduce a tax bill Manafort was facing, they would have to claim that Manafort had an outstanding loan. This was entered into evidence last week.

Gates told jurors that he had been “tasked” by Manafort with initiating the exchange because Manafort was upset about the taxes he would have to pay.

“We needed to determine how we could lower the taxes."

Team Mueller showed an email in which Manafort, confronted with an outline of what he might have to pay in taxes, wrote “WTF!”

Team Meuller then asked if the $900K listed as a loan in previous testimony was indeed, a loan.

Gates: "It was not."

Team Mueller asked why he had told Manafort’s tax preparers about the payment, Gates said, “Mr. Manafort’s direction.”

Gates then made another reference to Trump.

Gates was describing how in 2015 and 2016, Manafort’s work in Ukraine had dried up, and his company was in dire financial straits. He said the company, DMP International, did not acquire any new clients in 2015, and to his knowledge was not earning income in 2016.

In March of that year, Manafort went to work for “one of the presidential campaigns.” Gates stated Manafort hired him.

An audible sound came from Manafort.

Judge told the defense to calm their client.

Gates said he was one of 2 employees working for Manafort in the company during the campaign.

Gates stated that Manafort paid its bills via Manafort’s “savings and investment accounts.”

Gates said that in 2015 and 2016, vendors with which the company had worked reached out “indicating the bills had not been paid.”

Gates stated that Manafort began applying for loans.

Gates said he altered some documents, including a profits and loss statement, for Manafort. In at least one instance, he did so by converting a PDF to a word document. Thus corroborating 4 previous testimonies and evidence.

Gates then detailed how he faked mortgage documents at Manafort’s request.

Gates said he gave a bank fraudulent home insurance documents at Manafort’s request, so that his Manafort could get a loan from Citizens Bank.

Manafort had told a representative from the bank that he had no mortgage on a townhouse he owned in Brooklyn.

Gates said that at Manafort’s direction, he asked an insurance lender (whom is slated as a witness later with an immunity plea) for the older insurance policy showing no mortgage on the home and sent that to Citizens Bank.

“Mr. Manafort asked me to submit the prior year’s policy.”

Gates said he also gave Citizens Bank false information about a condo Manafort owned in Lower Manhattan, saying it was a second home when it was not.

“He was looking for the most favorable terms in the mortgage interest rate.”

Gates said he was told by Manafort to lie to the bank for the 12th time.

Gates then testified to helping Manafort defraud banks while seeking loans in 2016 in a second way.

Gates said the bank flagged that Manafort’s income was not sufficient to support the loans. To increase his income for the year, Gates testified he and Manafort agreed to have one of Manafort’s companies, Peranova Ltd., forgive a loan that had been reported as previously made to Manafort.

Per previous testimony, when Manafort wanted to show lower income for tax purposes, he falsely called the Peranova income a loan.

In 2016, when Manafort needed to show higher income to qualify for the loan, Gates testified that they agreed Peranova would forgive the loan, resulting in the money being reclassified as income.

The loan had never been real and had never been forgiven.

Gates said he created a loan forgiveness document in February 2016 on behalf of Peranova and backdated it to July 23, 2015.

That made it appear that the loan had been forgiven in the previous year.

Gates then sent the document to the accountant Cindy Laporta, with the intention that it be provided to the bank to help Manafort qualify for the loan.

Team Muller combed the already submitted emails with Gates. He affirmed Laporta's accounting of the events. It was also noted, 86 times, that Manafort was cc'd on all the emails.

Judge asked Team Mueller how much time was left.

Team Mueller indicted they'd finish with Gates and one more witness today.

Team Mueller indicated that they intend to rest their case no later than Friday of this week.

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[zinderel]

BeastieRunner, I just wanna thank you for taking the time to do this. It's a real service to those of us who can't sit through the trial ourselves.

[Kevinroc]

https://twitter.com/SenatorLeahy/sta...94488797671426

Turns out Bill Burck, the political lawyer deciding which White House docs of Kavanaugh the Senate gets to see, actually reported to Kavanaugh during contentious years at the WH. This is the most partisan—and conflicted—vetting process I’ve ever seen for a Supreme Court nominee.

Burck is no stranger to apparent conflicts of interest. In Feb. I wrote to WH Counsel McGahn about Burck representing McGahn, Bannon, & Priebus in the Russia probe & letting one client shape the testimony of another. Releasing my letter on this Gordian Knot of conflicts HERE:

[BeastieRunner]

BeastieRunner, I just wanna thank you for taking the time to do this. It's a real service to those of us who can't sit through the trial ourselves.

You're welcome.

I don't mind doing it. It's been a riveting trial as opposed to most fraud trials.

I try to include all the admonishments and try not to color it. It's hard though, when things like PAUL MANAFORT'S TRANSLATOR WERE REVEALED TO BE A GRU OPERATIVE!!! come out ...

I plan to do it for all of the Trump trials except for his.

Everyone will be watching that one.

[worstblogever]

That anyone is even entertaining the idea that Ohio goes for a dem in today's special election is so laughably annoying. Trump is gonna be getting another win today.

As always, I hope I'll be eating my words, but as always, I doubt I will be.

America dies a little more.

It's a win-win, even if Democrats lose tonight... the GOP just wasted $3.7 million in the past month to try and stop their losing streak. In what amounts to a race for a seat in Congress for all of four months. The District is rated as a +7 Republican lean, and hasn't gone blue in over a generation. For this to even be close remains a big deal.

And if O'Connor does pull the upset? Holy f***, do Republicans hit the panic button.