Casual Observation

9 Comments

1. 

   Peale on August 19, 2016 at 11:19 am

   Maybe Imelda will let him hide out at her palace in the Philippines.

2. 

   janicket on August 19, 2016 at 11:31 am

   Thus driving the “Gosh, I’m sorry, I’ll never hit you again” apology to afterthought status on the media before it even gets 24 hours’ worth of coverage.  What?  They couldn’t wait another day or two for this?  Wait till Monday so the Sunday bloviators could solemnly celebrate how presidential Trump is becoming?

   Doesn’t anyone in that “campaign” know how to play this game?

3. 

   Jordan Orlando on August 19, 2016 at 11:41 am

   I remember that from MTV’s Liquid Television.

4. 

   on August 19, 2016 at 11:45 am

   Who’s going to write Manafort’s checks now?

   Oh… right.

5. 

   NoCal Carlo on August 19, 2016 at 11:52 am

   The Trump campaign is the gift that keeps on giving.  If you tried to bake all of this into a Hollywood script no one would buy it since it would be seen as too unbelievable.

   And we still have 12 days left in August!

6. 

   Marie3 on August 19, 2016 at 12:06 pm

   emptywheel

   Or maybe now that Manafort is gone we can look at what foreign stench the Podesta Group is swimming in?

   Probably not.  As long as Manafort was in the GOP elite club, he was safe.  Holding onto those “get out of jail free” cards and not one has done is how “justice” is administered for elites.  The AP has already reported on the other players:

   People with direct knowledge of Gates’ work said that, during the period when Gates and Manafort were consultants to the Ukraine president’s political party, Gates was also helping steer the advocacy work done by a pro-Yanukovych nonprofit that hired a pair of Washington lobbying firms, Podesta Group Inc. and Mercury LLC.

   The nonprofit, the newly created European Centre for a Modern Ukraine, was governed by a board that initially included parliament members from Yanukovych’s party. The nonprofit subsequently paid at least $2.2 million to the lobbying firms to advocate positions generally in line with those of Yanukovych’s government.

   That lobbying included downplaying the necessity of a congressional resolution meant to pressure the Ukrainian leader to release an imprisoned political rival.

   The lobbying firms continued the work until shortly after Yanukovych fled the country in February 2014, during a popular revolt prompted in part by his government’s crackdown on protesters and close ties to Russia.

   Among those who described Manafort’s and Gates’s relationship with the nonprofit are current and former employees of the Podesta Group. Some of them spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to reveal details about the work and because they remain subject to non-disclosure agreements.
   …
   The heads of both lobbying firms told AP they concluded there was no obligation to disclose their activities to the Justice Department. …
   …

   See, Podesta and Mercury can claim that they didn’t know the money was coming from Yanukovych and/or his political party.  They were just working on behalf of a country when the President was Yanukovych.

   After being introduced to the lobbying firms, the European nonprofit paid the Podesta Group $1.13 million between June 2012 and April 2014 to lobby Congress, the White House National Security Council, the State Department and other federal agencies, according to U.S. lobbying records.

   The nonprofit also paid $1.07 million over roughly the same period to Mercury to lobby Congress. Among other issues, Mercury opposed congressional efforts to pressure Ukraine to release one of Yanukovych’s political rivals from prison.

   That’s obviously a world of difference.  Sort of like the huge difference we saw in early 1999 when the extra-marital affairs of politicians were exposed.

   • 

     dada on August 19, 2016 at 12:54 pm

     it occurs to me that these <cough> actions <cough> to influence the u.s. gov might be construed as seditious in nature.

     wonder how that get out of jail free card would work in that case….

     l guess l can safely say: never gonna happen.

7. 

   Raypc800 on August 19, 2016 at 12:20 pm

   I wonder who Putin will put in Trump’s campaign now?

   • 

     nalbar on August 19, 2016 at 12:30 pm

     Dmitry Peskov?

     .