Posted on 12/12/2018 10:50:50 AM PST by roses of sharon
Paul Manafort thought he was in the clear in the summer of 2014 after meeting with federal prosecutors and FBI agents about his Ukrainian income, bank records and income tax returns.
Michael Cohen was charged so quickly he never got a chance to meet with the Justice Department’s Tax Division to negotiate a non-criminal solution to his tax evasion, a court filing says.
Today, both men stand convicted of tax cheating in indictments brought by special counsel Robert Mueller and the U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan in 2017-2018.
The two have other similarities.
Manafort and Cohen worked closely with President Trump, as campaign manager and personal attorney, respectively. Both men didn’t come under investigation until the FBI opened its Russia probe in July 2016. A Manafort friend said that if the political consultant hadn’t gone to work for Mr. Trump, he never would have faced charges in a 2014 probe that had gone dormant.
Conservatives see decisions to prosecute them — on tax charges not remotely connected to Russian collusion — as the Justice Department’s and Mr. Mueller’s strong-arm tactics. They wanted to force guilty pleas and then gain cooperation, with a goal of getting evidence against Mr. Trump.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
Now a convicted felon and jailed, Manafort had been an international political consultant and property investor with a taste for fine dining and well-tailored suits. He earned huge sums for his work for the Party of Regions, a pro-Russia group in Ukraine.
Based on suspicious bank transfers, Manafort was summoned July 30, 2014, to the Justice Department, where he met with lawyers and FBI agents. He presented financial documents and identified his overseas banks accounts.
“During the interview, Mr. Manafort provided a detailed explanation of his activities in Ukraine, including his frequent contact with a number of previous U.S. Ambassadors in Kiev and his efforts to further U.S. objectives in Ukraine on their behalf. He further discussed his offshore banking activity in Cyprus,” Mr. Downing said in his court filing.
Manafort associates say he never heard from the agents again — that is, not until Mr. Mueller was appointed special counsel and recruited Andrew Weissmann from Justice’s fraud division.
Next, Manafort was under criminal investigation, with Mr. Weissmann leading the prosecution.
“The Office of the Special Counsel charged Mr. Manafort with the very conduct he voluntarily disclosed to DOJ almost three years prior to the appointment of Mr. Mueller as Special Counsel,” Mr. Downing said in his motion to disqualify Mr. Mueller’s office.
It’s just so the MSM can repeat a million times a day every day ,”Trump’s Men”
Exactly.
And they can couch their reports to infer that they did it in conjunction with him.
This is sick twisted stuff, the media, and the Democrats...
“was charged so quickly he never got a chance to meet with the Justice Department’s Tax Division to negotiate a non-criminal solution to his tax evasion”
That’s what the juror Paula McDonald said too. She couldn’t understand why it wasn’t just an audit matter between him and he IRS.
Is it tax evasion or tax avoidance?
Mueller wasn’t about to allow the concept that it could be the latter. He just wanted somebody to squeeze, so he makes up crimes where there aren’t any....like giving in to a shakedown by some lowlife dumbslut.
The Judiciary is supposed to see through this crap.
Its good for Cohen that he was not a lawyer for the Clintons. If he were he would probably have enjoyed a walk in the park, bench press work outs, a fight to Germany or not surviving a walk on the stairs.
The title succinctly describes the sham.
Using criminal tactics in civil matters is a tool meant to punish for political reasons, not mete out or achieve justice.
“Using criminal tactics in civil matters is a tool meant to punish for political reasons, not mete out or achieve justice.”
So Cohen is a political prisoner.. political prisoner in the United States... We’ve come a long way baby. Muller needs to be stopped.
Manafort was with the Trump campaign for about 90 days
And did a magnificent job of beating back the Bushie- Cruz- Ryan- GOPe strategy of stealing the GOP nomination via technical manipulation of delegates and rules
Thats his real “ crime”
Democrats are scum.
Appeal it to the Supreme Court under the equal protection clause.
(more scum)
“We will use every area of the law to investigate President Trump and his business transactions and that of his family as well,” Letitia James, a Democrat, told NBC News in her first extensive interview since she was elected New York Attorney General last month.
>
“Using criminal tactics in civil matters is a tool meant to punish for political reasons, not mete out or achieve justice.”
So Cohen is a political prisoner.. political prisoner in the United States... We’ve come a long way baby. Muller needs to be stopped.
>
P-L-E-A-S-E. We’ve had debtors prison and (economic) slavery (2x-down w/ the welfare state) since the passage of the 16th.
“We’ve come a long way” a LONG time ago...IMO, we didn’t “(if you can) keep it” for long.
Doubt you he can appeal a plea agreement that he agreed to. Those are done to avoid trial. Now if he’d gone to trial, made his arguments - including due-process - and lost, then he could attempt an appeal on Constitutional grounds.
This is lawfare, not justice. They want to inflict maximum damage on anyone connected to Trump.
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