Tornado Alley (PROG)

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The Manafort Guilty Plea, the Mueller Investigation, and the President

"Trump Goes Into Hiding After Paul Manafort Flips"

By Victoria Clark, Mikhaila Fogel, Matthew Kahn, Susan Hennessey, Quinta Jurecic, Benjamin Wittes
Friday, September 14, 2018, 7:14 PM

[...]

So what does all this mean about the state of the Mueller investigation generally? Again, don’t trust anyone who purports to answer this question confidently. Mueller’s cards remain close to his vest. The information asymmetry between the investigation and the public remains immense.

That said, we think it’s safe to say that the investigation isn’t wrapping up any time soon. Mueller is still seeking and receiving cooperation and thus learning new potentially relevant information. With Manafort’s plea, at least three defendants are subject to cooperation agreements without yet having been sentenced, suggesting that Mueller still thinks they have valuable contributions to make. This group includes former national security adviser Flynn, whose sentencing was pushed back for a second time in July, as well as Rick Gates, who testified last month at Manafort’s Virginia trial. George Papadopoulos and Alexander Van Der Zwaan have both been sentenced, apparently without providing “substantial assistance” to the investigation. The remaining wild card is Michael Cohen, who pleaded guilty in August under an agreement with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, not the Special Counsel’s Office. Cohen’s agreement did not have a cooperation component, but it is reasonable to suspect that he is in a cooperative posture with respect to any federal investigation that might wish to seek his help.

In just the past few weeks, there has been grand jury activity with respect to Trump advisor Roger Stone. There is also the obstruction-of-justice component of the investigation, which has been active since the firing of James Comey as FBI director but about which the public has not heard a word.

In sum, these are not the usual signs of an investigation that is drawing to a close, notwithstanding the insistence of Rudy Giuliani—like Ty Cobb before him—that the probe is concluding imminently. “He has to be winding down,” Giuliani said of Mueller in August. “What else is there?”

The president’s lawyer might want to ask Paul Manafort.

With links - https://www.lawfareblog.com/manafort-guilty-plea-mueller-investigation-and-president

See also:

Did Trump Just Admit to an Impeachable [obstruction] Offense?
[...]
On Sunday, Donald Trump’s lawyer Jay Sekulow admitted that his client, President Donald Trump, ghostwrote, and instructed his son Donald Trump Jr. to issue, a false statement to the press about an active criminal investigation. Then, after the falsity of Trump Jr.’s statement was uncovered, the president seemingly lied to Sekulow, telling his lawyer that he had played no role in drafting it, and thereby induced Sekulow to repeat that falsehood to the nation. While Sekulow argues that there was nothing illegal about the president’s conduct here, Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh has argued the opposite. According to Kavanaugh and his fellow authors of the Starr Report, actions like Trump’s could be criminal, and furthermore may constitute an impeachable offense.
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