Posted on 09/20/2017 7:37:56 AM PDT by bitt
We already knew that Paul Manafort was in a heap of trouble. It was almost two months ago — July 26, to be precise — that his Virginia residence was raided by the FBI in the predawn hours.
As I said at the time, prosecutors do not obtain warrants to toss the homes of people they regard as cooperating witnesses. When they are dealing with cooperators, prosecutors politely request that documents be produced, expecting the witness (and his lawyers) to comply. If some coercion is thought necessary, they will issue a grand-jury subpoena — an enforceable directive to produce documents, but one that still allows the witness to hand over the materials, not have them forcibly seized. The execution of a search warrant, even if it goes smoothly, is a show of force. It is intimidating.
Read more at: http://www.nationalreview.com/article/451525/paul-manafort-legal-trouble-donald-trump-might-not-be-involved
(Excerpt) Read more at nationalreview.com ...
Thanks for teaching me a new term. Had to look that one up: Fruit of the poisonous tree is a legal doctrine according to which any secondary evidence obtained indirectly through illicit means is inadmissible in court. Examples of such sources include evidence gained through eavesdropping, illegal wiretapping, coercive interrogations, unwarranted searches, or improperly conducted arrests.
I get that. Manafort and everyone surrounding Trump is potential fodder for sick leftists.
The interesting thing is, they were surveilling him since 2014 and nothing until now. Funny how that works.
Nevermind law and order and what's best for the country. What's important is that we don't "humiliate" Sessions.
If the evidence has been gathered illegally, how can it be used to prosecute a case?
Well -- OK. Wake me up when that indictment comes.
I think Andrew McCarthy is reading too much into this raid. As I've speculated elsewhere, I suspect they raided his house in a desperate move because they can't use any of the evidence gathered through the FISA surveillance process.
We see a lot of discussion about evidence that was gathered "illegally," but I have seen no report anywhere suggesting that any such evidence has been used in support of a criminal prosecution.
I suspect the FBI raided Manafort's house because they know they can't use any of the evidence they had gathered previously.
I don’t know enough about Manafort to know if he has ever done anything wrong in his life. If they can go back to 2006, then the normal statute of limitations doesn’t apply. Mueller hopes to find something and threaten Manafort with spending the rest of his life behind bars unless he cooperates with bringing down Trump. Of course Trump still has the power of pardoning...but if he pardons Manafort after some bogus Scooter Libby-type conviction, then Paul Ryan will use that as an article of impeachment (”obstruction of justice”).
They raided his house because it generates very scandalous headlines and it lets the talking heads say “Oh my, Trump’s in big trouble! We haven’t seen this kind of thing happened since Watergate.” It’s all nasty politics.
Manafort was wiretapped for two years prior to joining the Trump campaign. I suspect that Obama used this as a pretext to spy on the Trump campaign during and after Manafort left the campaign. If there is no there there, i.e., collusion with the Russians by the Trump campaign, then what does Trump have to fear?
You’re right. It’s a very dumb sentence.
Does anyone think the FBI would break into John Podesta’s house at gun point to conduct a search?
Manafort was an insider, as you say, and as such, would actually never have been subject to any investigation - except that his association with Trump led them to hope they could get at Trump through him.
Your point is a good one about giving Trump a good response regarding his hiring, though. Maybe their secrecy and general all-over sneakiness will backfire on them. One can only hope...
Two comments:
First, Manafort was probably wiretapped because of the Obama backing of Ukraine turmoil, combined with the anti-Russian sentiment over Crimea.
Second, I don’t think Trump has anything to fear. My comment was about my thoughts that Manafort is probably getting more attention, and has higher costs defending himself, because of his brief stint working for Trump than if he hadn’t. So, for that reason, Trump turned out to be on net financial balance, a bad client for Manafort. Not Trump’s fault, not Manafort’s.
And yet, Manafort recently called on the DOJ to release any records from his calls that were picked up during the illegal wiretaps....
Little known fact. The Feds won’t serve search warrants on drug dealers during the hours the picked the lock on Manafort’s house.
That’s right....drug dealers get their door stuffed during waking hours not in the middle of their REM state.
This was purely to intimidate and embarrass Manafort.....had to have him standing in his underwear for the search.
If you are doing business with someone under criminal investigation you may well find yourself under scrutiny as well. If you are talking on the phone to someone who’s phone is bugged your conversations may well end up being recorded.
Neither of these indicate guilt on your part but they certainly give the investigating agency a reason to snoop and ask questions.
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