Posted on 08/01/2018 6:20:45 PM PDT by Beave Meister
Mere seconds into the first words spoken to a jury from the special counsel team investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election, Judge T.S. Ellis III interrupted.
“Focus on the elements of the offense,” the 78-year-old jurist interjected Tuesday as Assistant U.S. Attorney Uzo Asonye described Paul Manafort as a man who believed he was above the law.
Soon after, Ellis interrupted again, as Asonye sketched for jurors Manafort’s luxurious lifestyle.
“It isn’t a crime to be profligate in your spending,” Ellis said.
He soon admonished defense attorney Thomas Zehnle in a similar fashion.
“I take it you plan to offer evidence?” he asked as Zehnle extolled Manafort’s contributions to American politics. Then say so, Ellis suggested.
As the federal judge in Alexandria oversees the trial of President Trump’s onetime campaign chairman on tax and bank fraud charges, his sharp demeanor comes as no surprise to lawyers who appear before him often.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Great to know! Do you have any of the other retorts by this Judge today? He sounds very very good. Sorry I won’t go to the Washington Post.....hope it’s okay to say that.
I believe Ellis has something called “wisdom” in addition to his legal talents.
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A wise badass.
Mega thanks!!!!!
Love your posts and don’t mean to nitpick but in 2001-2009 it was the Bush police state doing the spying.
“Where’s the evidence that Manafort did not report income on his tax forms.”
And why isn’t this in some administrative IRS tax court? They should be nicking him for tax avoidance, not a conspiracy.
here’s my question....If he wired money from these accounts, how is the money “hidden” or “laundered”.
“here’s my question....If he wired money from these accounts, how is the money “hidden” or “laundered”.”
Great question. How do you move $60 million into US accounts?? That’s way more than the $10 k reporting limit. So if fraud is involved, they should have enough evidence to hang him long ago.
Mueller is failing badly
What a man that judge is. He doesn’t give a crap!! Our turn.
After all, this is only about Manafort and his dealings in Ukraine. And we all know that Soros owns Ukraine and that the coup was at his direction.
We actually overthrew an elected government in Ukraine!!! That is what they wanted to do here. They failed.
Mueller knows this case was a loser. That’s why Asonye was assigned to prosecute it. He is disposable.
Good point. But mueller couldn’t prosecute a traffic violation. He is a fricking political hack.
I hope this judge hand Mueller’s minions their heads and dismisses outright or instructs the jury in such a way that they have to reach a verdict of not guilty.
The only way the whole special prosecutor thing can end well in history books is if Mueller falls on his own sword, which is what I hope happens.
See the indictment.
It seems Manafort's scheme was, have the Ukes pay his consulting fees to certain Cypress corporations, which then wired money directly to various US vendors to pay for goods and services provided to Manafort here in the US. Manafort claimed the payments were loans, but Mueller disputes that, claiming the payments are unreported income. The indictment lists specific amounts paid to specific payees, who were apparently proving goods and services to Manafort.
According to Judge Napolitano, Manafort is claiming he was investigated and exonerated for this stuff eight years ago and that the government lawyer who cleared him is none other than Mueller's current boss Rod Rosenstein! Mueller will claim the evidence was all in FinCEN's database, and his boss just didn't look hard enough eight years ago. At least, it better be there, or Mueller's case falls apart.
He sounds like a great judge but is he aware of the 2005 dropped charges? by the FBI? we shall see won’t
I respect Navarro more: She threw out the Bundy case with prejudice.
Ellis is starting to remind me of Gowdy and Issa. Not good.
Interesting, Liz.
And I take it that the prosecutor is responsible for handing over these evidences if the defense attorney requests them? (Not a lawyer.)
Couldn’t Mueller hold back pieces of evidence and at the last minute drop them at a pivotal point in the trial?
Sadly, its NOT finished! Mueller will NOT finish until he has BANKRUPTED and RUINED everyone around Trump, including Trumps and his family!!
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