Campaign volunteer
George Papadopoulos,
longtime fixer
Michael Cohen,
and short-term
campaign manager
Paul Manafort --
have all been convicted
of criminal activity,
but nothing related
to collusion or Russia !
Papadopoulos
was sentenced
to 14 days in prison
for lying to the FBI
about the timing of
perfectly legal contacts
with a Maltese professor,
Joseph Mifsud.
According to Papadopoulos,
Mifsud claimed to have
connections to Russia
and information that they
obtained Hillary Clinton’s
stolen e-mails.
In May 2016,
Papadopoulos
relayed vague details
about his conversation
with Mifsud
to Australian diplomat
Alexander Downer.
A tip from Downer,
about Papadopoulos,
allegedly sparked
(I don't believe that is true)
the infamous FBI’s
“Crossfire Hurricane”
investigation into alleged
Trump-Russia ties.
According to
special counsel
Robert Mueller’s
sentencing memo,
Papadopoulos
“did not provide
‘substantial assistance’”
during his interviews
in August and September
of 2017.
But he did not have much to offer.
The Trump campaign
repeatedly rebuffed
Papadopoulos’s proposals
to set up meetings
with Russian officials
to get "dirt" on Hillary.
Papadopoulos now says that
“I never met with a single
Russian official in my life.”
Mifsud was not detained,
nor has he been charged.
In his sentencing memo,
Mueller acknowledges
that Papadopoulos
“identified” Mifsud
to FBI agents voluntarily,
though “only after
being prompted
by a series of
specific questions.”
Papadopoulos pleaded guilty
to lying only about the timing
of his legal contacts with Mifsud.
Papadopoulos should be pardoned
immediately -- no one should go to
prison for lying, or stating something
in error, about an event that was not
a crime!
Martha Stewart went to prison for
the same reason -- she did not
commit insider trading, and was
never charged with that -- James
Comey was in charge of her
unjustified imprisonment.
Longtime Trump fixer
Michael Cohen
has recently emerged
front and center.
The co-chairs of the Senate
Intelligence Committee,
Richard Burr
and Mark Warner,
noted that
Cohen had testified to them last fall
that he has no knowledge
of any Trump-Russia collusion,
and that he didn’t even find out
about the Trump Tower meeting
with a Russian lawyer,
until it was publicly reported
in June 2017—one year after
it took place.
The only story
Cohen has affirmed
is the one
he shared in court:
that Trump,
in order to influence
the election outcome,
directed him to make
a hush-money payment
to cover up for
an extramarital affair,
which is legal -- Congress
used to have a secret
hush money fund
for sexual harassment
and other smarmy charges,
that had been used
by many Congressmen !
Paul Manafort’s
conviction on tax-evasion
and bank-fraud charges
related to political consulting
work in Ukraine,
over ten years ago.
Manafort’s former partner
- turned-prosecution-witness,
Rick Gates, testified that
Manafort pushed his client,
then–Ukrainian President
Viktor Yanukovych,
to align with the European Union
and away from Russia.
According to Gates,
Manafort was paid lucratively
to craft a policy known as
“Engage Ukraine,”
which “became the strategy
for helping Ukraine
enter the European Union.”
Prosecutors openly acknowledged
before Manafort’s first trial
that the case
had nothing to do with
“evidence or argument
concerning collusion
with the Russian government,”
while the judge in Manafort’s
upcoming second trial notes
that the collusion investigation is
“wholly irrelevant
to the charges in this case.”
Mueller has uncovered
criminal activity,
but not any conspiracy
with a foreign power,
because there was
no conspiracy.
