Impeachment proceedings against Trump

Manafort is in some deep doo-doo, and Assange's day is coming.

Paul Manafort breached plea deal by repeatedly lying in Russia inquiry, Mueller says
Former Trump campaign chairman’s lies amount to new crimes and deal no longer stands, according to special counsel
Jon Swaine @jonswaine
Mon 26 Nov 2018 19.56 EST First published on Mon 26 Nov 2018 19.27 EST

Paul Manafort repeatedly lied to investigators even after agreeing to cooperate with the investigation into Russia’s interference in the 2016 election, the special counsel Robert Mueller said late on Monday.

Manafort, Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman, breached a plea agreement he signed in September by “lying to the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the special counsel’s office on a variety of subject matters”, Mueller said in a court filing.

Mueller did not specify what Manafort lied about, but said the lies amounted to new crimes. Investigators are no longer bound by their side of the deal, which included a reduced sentence for crimes Manafort previously admitted, Mueller said.

The “detailed sentencing submission” promised by Mueller on Monday could also allow him to disclose any evidence of collusion he has uncovered without needing to go through a formal process of reporting to the attorney general.

Manafort held secret talks with Assange in Ecuadorian embassy, sources say
Luke Harding and Dan Collyns
Tue 27 Nov 2018 09.23 EST Last modified on Tue 27 Nov 2018 13.29 EST

Donald Trump’s former campaign manager Paul Manafort held secret talks with Julian Assange inside the Ecuadorian embassy in London, and visited around the time he joined Trump’s campaign, the Guardian has been told.

Sources have said Manafort went to see Assange in 2013, 2015 and in spring 2016 – during the period when he was made a key figure in Trump’s push for the White House.

Federal judge delays decision on unsealing ‘interesting’ Julian Assange case
By Rachel Weiner
November 27 at 11:40 AM

The charges against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange will remain sealed for now, with a federal judge in Alexandria saying she would hear more before ruling on whether the public has a right to see the documents.

“This is an interesting case, to say the least,” Judge Leonie M. Brinkema said Tuesday. “Obviously, some kind of mistake has been made.” That mistake by the government, she noted, exposed Assange’s name and “the fact that he has been charged” in a filing for an unrelated case. “Given the fact that this statement does appear in a government filing, and given that everybody knows where this man is, what is the rationale for sealing the charge?”

But Brinkema said she knew of no other case in which the government had been compelled to unseal a charging document before the defendant’s arrest.

THREAD: What does today's news that Manafort held a secret meeting with Julian Assange at the Ecuadorian embassy in spring 2016 tell us?
Renato Mariotti @renato_mariotti 6 hours ago

Michael Cohen has previously entered into a plea deal with federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York and now Robert Mueller just this morning. He's a pathological liar, but Mueller has all of his records and evidence seized from his house to corroborate or dismiss whatever he tries to claim. Edit to add from Lawfare Blog: Michael Cohen Plea Documents in Mueller Probe

This is huge. Cohen worked for Trump for ten years, was his personal lawyer. Paid off women who had affairs with Trump and reportedly were asked to get abortions. He knows of his business dealings, and all about the finances of the Trump Organization.

On top of this news, the Deutsche Bank was raided this morning. More on that in a following post.

Michael Cohen pleads guilty to lying to Congress in new deal with Mueller in Trump-Russia probe
By GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS, ELIANA LARRAMENDIA JAMES HILL
Nov 29, 2018, 9:56 AM ET

Special counsel Robert Mueller has reached a tentative deal with Michael Cohen, the former personal attorney and long-time fixer for President Donald Trump, sources told ABC News.

Cohen appeared in federal court in Manhattan Thursday where he entered a guilty plea for misstatements to Congress in closed-door testimony last year about his contacts with Russians during the presidential campaign.

Cohen’s earlier plea deal with federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York implicated President Trump in campaign finance felonies. Since then, Cohen has spent more than 70 hours in interviews with Mueller's team. The questioning has focused on contacts with Russians by Trump associates during the campaign, Trump’s business ties to Russia, obstruction of justice and talk of possible pardons, sources familiar with the discussions have told ABC News.

Cohen’s interviews with Mueller’s team have also been attended in part by federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York and by lawyers from the office of the New York State Attorney General, who are investigating the Trump family’s charitable organization.

Michael Cohen pleads guilty to lying to Congress
Victoria Bekiempis and Jon Swaine
Thu 29 Nov 2018 09.29 EST Last modified on Thu 29 Nov 2018 09.46 EST

Michael Cohen, one of Donald Trump’s closest advisers for more than a decade, pleaded guilty on Thursday to lying to Congress about plans to build a Trump tower in Russia.

Cohen, who has been cooperating with special counsel Robert Mueller’s Trump-Russia investigation, admitted one count of making a false statement during a hearing at the federal court in Manhattan.

A source familiar with the case said Cohen would admit that efforts to construct a Trump development in Moscow, the Russian capital, continued for several months more than he has said previously.

Last year, Cohen told the House intelligence committee in a statement that in January 2016 it was decided that the “proposal was not feasible for a variety of business reasons and should not be pursued further”.

As a reminder:

“WE CAN ENGINEER IT”: TRUMP ASSOCIATE BRAGGED ABOUT USING DEAL WITH PUTIN TO HELP WIN ELECTION
E-mails between Felix Sater and Trump’s personal lawyer reveal efforts to build a Trump Tower in Moscow.
BY ABIGAIL TRACY
AUGUST 28, 2017 10:17 AM

Throughout his campaign for president, Donald Trump repeatedly denied having anything to do with Russia. “I have nothing to do with Russia, nothing to do, I never met Putin, I have nothing to do with Russia whatsoever,” he said during an interview in July 2016. He was even more emphatic on Twitter: “For the record, I have ZERO investments in Russia.” It was obvious, relatively early on, that this wasn’t, strictly speaking, true. The president’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., bragged in 2008 that “Russians make up a pretty disproportionate cross-section of a lot of our assets. We see a lot of money pouring in from Russia.”

As The Washington Post reported on Sunday, the Trump Organization was actively pursuing real-estate opportunities in Russia in late 2015 and early 2016 to build a Trump Tower in Moscow. The project was spearheaded by Russian-born developer and longtime Trump associate Felix Sater (who helped build Trump SoHo) and Michael Cohen, an executive vice president at the Trump Organization and the president’s longtime personal attorney.

On Monday, The New York Times followed up on the Post report, releasing portions of the e-mail exchanges between Sater and Cohen, which the Trump Organization turned over to Congressional investigators . “I arranged for Ivanka [Trump] to sit in Putin’s private chair at his desk and office in the Kremlin. I will get Putin on this program and we will get Donald elected,” Sater wrote in an e-mail to Cohen on November 3, 2015, the Times reports. “I know how to play it and we will get this done. Buddy our boy can become president of the USA and we can engineer it. I will get all of Putin’s team to buy in on this,” he continued.

The Deutsche Bank ties into the Trump Organization, Russian mafia, and money laundering all over the world. Just look at the businesses that Trump has been involved in and follow the money...

German police raid Deutsche Bank over suspected money laundering
A money laundering probe stemming from the "Panama Papers" has led police to Deutsche Bank, according to authorities. Prosecutors believe the bank helped clients "transfer money from criminal activities" to tax havens.
November 29, 2018

Federal police on Thursday raided the Frankfurt offices of Deutsche Bank. The Frankfurt prosecutor's office said the raids stemmed from an investigation into suspected money laundering at the German bank.

About 170 law enforcement agents took part in the operation. The investigation revolves around multiple Deutsche Bank employees, including two believed to still be working at the financial institution.

Deutsche Bank said it was "fully cooperating" with authorities. "The case is related to the Panama Papers," a spokesperson said.

'Criminal activities'
According to prosecutors, Deutsche Bank is suspected of helping some 900 customers setup offshore shell companies in tax havens to "transfer money from criminal activities." They said some €311 million ($354 million) is believed to have been laundered, citing information gleaned from the so-called "Panama Papers."

How does this tie into the investigation into Trump's administration? Follow the trail from @LincolnsBible's thread here:

For #DeutscheBank raid day: this long thread on Mooch's money-laundering is an explainer on what money-laundering is, and how important Mossack Fonseca leak was for exposing the global laundromat. Ends with important reminders on Mueller's stellar team. #PanamaPapersGonnaGetcha

Additionally: There's a theme emerging in Mueller's Russia probe that could prove damning for Trump
Natasha Bertrand Jun. 16, 2017, 2:53 PM

The Trump Organization is also believed to have received loans from Russia when it was struggling in the 1990s, the report said.

The family's bank of choice has long been Deutsche Bank, which was the only bank willing to loan to Trump after he lost others money in a series of bankruptcies — something he figured "was the bank's problem, not mine," he wrote in his 2007 book, "Think Big: Make it Happen in Business and Life."

Deutsche Bank was fined earlier this year as part of a Russian money-laundering scheme that involved its Moscow, New York, and London branches. The bank refused earlier this month to hand over documents requested by five Democratic lawmakers related to the bank's relationship with Trump, citing the confidentiality of nonpublic customer information. But the FBI is likely to get ahold of them.

Trump, meanwhile, has denied having any ties — business or personal — to Russia.

Mueller is also reportedly looking into whether any of Trump's associates engaged in money laundering — a sensitive subject for the Trump Organization.

Hmmm...


P.S. Yes, the U.S. and Argentina have an extradition treaty. (Odds on the trip being canceled?)

So the question is: was this raid related to the Special Counsel's investigation into Trump, or something unrelated? Seems quite the coincidence that it happened today when Deutsche Bank was also raided...

Feds remain at Burke’s City Hall office after raid; wrapping up at ward office
ByFran Spielman @fspielman, Jon Seidel @SeidelContent, Mark Brown @MarkBrownCST
11/29/2018, 01:59pm

Federal agents showed up unannounced at the City Hall office of Finance Committee Chairman Ed Burke, kicked everyone out and papered over the windows Thursday morning.

The nature of their visit was not known, but Ald. Burke (14th) has dodged dozens of federal investigations over five decades in Chicago politics.

About 15 agents had arrived at City Hall about 7:30 a.m., bringing their own boxes. Some then went across the street to the underground parking garage at the Daley Center to find Burke’s car, but it wasn’t there.

About 1:40 p.m., the remaining agents left out the back door, with one cardboard file box, a computer and two computer monitors. Another carried up a giant wad of the brown paper that had covered the windows.

The Donald and The Alderman break up; Burke no longer doing tax work for Trump
ByTim Novak @tnovaksuntimes
06/09/2018, 12:23pm

“Irreconcilable differences” have led to countless divorces. Now, the same reason is being given for the breakup of President Donald Trump and Ald. Edward M. Burke (14th).

The powerful Chicago alderman’s small law firm had worked for Trump for 12 years, persuading Cook County officials to cut the property taxes on the president’s namesake downtown skyscraper by a total of more than $14 million.

But Burke announced his breakup with Trump in letters filed last month with the Cook County courts and the Illinois State Property Tax Appeal Board. He wrote that “irreconcilable differences” have led his firm to stop representing Trump’s company and step aside in five current cases that seek refunds of millions of dollars in property taxes the president’s company has paid.

I am not making any guesses as to timelines, but the people I've been following since the beginning of this say that the trials that will come out of OSC will last at least 3 years. Look up the history of Watergate and then compare that to this case which has hundreds more people involved that they are investigating and is international in scope - it's exponentially bigger. Making claims that this investigation is "taking too long" and "must have nothing" is nonsense - Mueller's team has already indicted and gotten more guilty pleas faster than Watergate, Whitewater, et al. (Not to mention it slows things up when your cooperating witnesses keep lying to you, *cough* Manafort *cough*).

Mueller preparing endgame for Russia investigation
Michael Isikoff, Chief Investigative Correspondent, Yahoo News
December 3, 2018

WASHINGTON — Special counsel Robert Mueller’s prosecutors have told defense lawyers in recent weeks that they are “tying up loose ends” in their investigation, providing the clearest clues yet that the long-running probe into Russia’s interference in the 2016 election may be coming to its climax, potentially in the next few weeks, according to multiple sources close to the matter.

The new information about the state of Mueller’s investigation comes during a pivotal week when the special counsel’s prosecutors are planning to file memos about three of their most high profile defendants — former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn, former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and former Trump personal lawyer Michael Cohen.

A Flynn sentencing memo is due Tuesday, and memos about Manafort and Cohen are slated for Friday. All three documents are expected to yield significant new details on what cooperation the three of them provided to the Russia investigation.

Litigation Documents Related to the Mueller Investigation - Lawfare Blog

Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian election interference and related matters has so far yielded a range of prosecutions and appellate litigation. Lawfare will be collecting significant documents from these lawsuits on this page as the investigation and litigation moves forward.

Mueller's office to recommend sentencing for ex-Trump aide Flynn
Sarah N. Lynch, Reuters
December 4, 2018

Bad News for Trump? Judge in Russia Case Says Collusion Could Be Enough for Criminal Charge
by Ronn Blitzer | 1:40 pm, November 23rd, 2018

One rallying cry behind supporters of President Donald Trump when it comes to the Russia investigation is that even if there is evidence that the Trump campaign colluded with Russia, collusion itself is not a crime unless it was done through actions that were independently illegal. That means that if, for example, the Trump campaign was involved in the hacking of Democratic National Committee emails, that would be a problem because the hacking would be the illegal act. Merely talking to Russia or coordinating certain legal activities would not be a problem, the argument goes, because “collusion” itself is not illegal.

That last part may be true, but a recent opinion in case brought by Special Counsel Robert Mueller points out that there are situations where collusion in the form of even legal acts could still result in a criminal charge. Specifically, it’s the statute of Conspiracy to Defraud the United States.

How to Read Michael Cohen's Latest Plea and Its Revelations About the Trump Organization
By Mikhaila Fogel, Quinta Jurecic, Matthew Kahn, Benjamin Wittes Thursday, November 29, 2018

Before we dive into the weeds, let’s pause a moment over this. Because in important respects, the legalities—or illegalities—at issue here are secondary points. The primary point is that this is all utterly unacceptable. That a large swath of the public, and the legislative branch, has chosen to accept it does not make it more reasonable that a man seeking to be president of the United States would at the same time publicly cozy up to a foreign dictator and negotiate with his regime over a potential business opportunity—and then cover it all up. The story is likely to get worse.

As Trump Panic-Tweets, Putin Cracks His Whip and Shows Him Who’s Boss
By John R. Schindler • 11/30/18 1:21pm

The ridiculous hidden truth about Donald Trump’s run for the White House is that it was a publicity stunt, an effort by the reality TV showman to up his brand and cash in. Trump’s desire to make “his” Moscow tower happen during the campaign demonstrates what our 45th president’s real priorities were. Neither Trump nor any of his key advisers in 2016 actually planned to win the race. Yet, somehow, they did.

Worse, they involved Russians, many of them linked to the Kremlin, in their bizarre get-rich-quick scheme that masqueraded as a presidential campaign. That was their fatal error, since Muscovite footprints guaranteed a degree of scrutiny that Team Trump and its perennially shady deals had evaded for decades. Now it’s up to Team Mueller to unravel it all, as they are doing, one prosecution at a time, getting ever closer to people with the last name Trump.

fivethirtyeight.com/features/michael-coh...-the-most-important/