Josh Marshall does a very good job of explaining why it is now beyond doubt that Paul Manafort, while serving as the campaign chairman of the Trump campaign, actively colluded with the Kremlin in their efforts to get Donald Trump elected president. What this means is that the president will probably have to fall back to a position he should have taken from the beginning. He’s going to have to argue that he knew nothing about what Manafort was doing and that he’s appalled to learn the details. What’s not clear is why he didn’t take that position from the beginning.
It’s a point I made back in November, and again and again and again and again before that. Even going back as far as the day Manafort was forced to resign, I made the point that Manafort had been so deep in Putin’s pocket that he’d changed the Republican platform on Ukraine to suit him. Trump did force Manafort out once it became clear that he was compromised by the Russians, so why did he never opt to use this in his own defense?
For me, Trump’s decision to vouch for Manafort and to dangle pardons before him has been the single most self-incriminating decision he’s made. But even after all this time, I doubt Trump will have any shame about reversing course and pinning everything he can on the man he hired to work for no pay. The real question is whether that’s ever been an option for him. If Manafort can prove that Trump was witting in his Russian collusion, then it won’t be possible for Trump to escape.
I’ve come to the conclusion that this must be the case or Trump would have sold Manafort out long ago. I guess we’re about to find out.
The argument that Manafort’s defenders are struggling to make is that the polling data was handed over not just to ‘make himself whole’ but to give himself credibility in the eyes of the Russians for future work after the election. They argue it wasn’t meant to necessarily seal a conspiracy deal between Trump’s campaign and the Russians. Like I said, ‘struggling to make’.
But the polling data could have been the data that is handed over to a candidate after he cinches the nomination. It’s been described as wonky and held secretly. That data could also not just cover the info regarding the Presidential race, but other lesser offices. Thus it could compromise races across the board or at least hand over the keys to allow the Russians to compromise races.
It’s often been said that Trump is a micro manager. That he knew everything that was going on by all his underlings which surely would include his campaign manager.
It’s pretty clear at this point that Manafort’s reluctance to remember clearly has been his last hold out to protect the one guy who could pardon him. But he and his lawyers have bungled his holdout so profoundly he’s got no cards left.
And that means that Trump is pretty much out of cards, even if he starts dealing off the bottom of the deck.
You write:
I do not believe this for a second. If anything, he is a macro-manager. He doesn’t have the wonk-type of mind to “micro-manage.” He deals in the big picture…his own big picture. He hires others to take care of the details. If those details do not work out in his favor…for whatever reasons…he fires them and hires another toady.
He used Manafort for as long as the results were positive. For him!!! When they went negative?
Figuratively speaking, of course…so far, anyway.
You also write:
Really, mainsailset!!!
Dealing off of the bottom of the deck is the only way he deals!!!
Bet on it.
AG
The NYT has made a correction to their story. Apparently they had the wrong oligarch(s). Josh Marshall has updated the story Boo links to above.
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/the-times-oligarch-switcheroo
Somehow I don’t think that, “Well this guy who once advised Bob Dole in 1996 after working for Saudi Arabia, Ferdinand Marcos, Mobutu Sese Seko and Pakistan’s ISI, showed up one day and offered to work on my campaign for free, and I had no idea he was in debt” would have played any better.
I mean, all this stuff was going to come out about Manafort eventually- he’s a dumb crook who messed with the wrong people. I can see no reasonable explanation that gives Trump a good excuse for hiring this individual.
For a while, now, I’ve felt it obvious that Manafort has the good on Trump. I suppose he could still play possum in the hope of a pardon, depending on whether any state AG has a case worth making. As others have pointed out repeatedly, Manafort also may be afraid to come clean because the Russian organized crime cartel is seriously-no-shit violent.
Paul Manafort? I might have met him, I don’t know.
I heard that he might have worked for me or something, I don’t know. No one liked him. It was just for a few weeks anyway.
He wasn’t very good at all and he didn’t do anything important and we had to let him go. Now someone told me he was working with the Russians, I don’t know. I certainly never asked him to go to Russia.
Good thing I never paid him or anything. How could he have worked for me if I never paid him any money? You see how this is all made up? A lot of people are saying he was really being paid by Hillary, did you hear that?
It’s un believable how awful Hillary is. Did you know she was working with the Russians? But I beat her anyway. So amazing, the most amazing election winner ever. People still come up to me and say how amazing it is that I beat Hillary. On my first try, no one’s ever done it in history.
. . . and disturbing to me to realize I could get into Trump’s head to the point I could channel him this well.
Jus’ sayin’.
Some nights I find myself waking up in a cold sweat.
Holy crap, well done!
There is a quote from Trump out there now about he “knew nothing” about what Manafort did with the polling data.