Rick Gates testifies he committed bank and tax fraud at Manafort's direction - Polidicks

Holy shit, he's up to his eyeballs in debt. Can't imagine that would go over well with the people he's defrauded.

Welp, Paul is fucked beyond fucked. No wonder he was trying so hard to obstruct all this shit. Shoulda just tatted on Daddy Don for the plea deal, because this is looking like ‘dying in your prison cell’ levels of sentencing.

Either Paul is a moron or he has something so bad on Trump he's willing to get life in prison to protect it.

Hes banking that Trump will pardon him, which I think is bait at this point.

Well hopefully he gets life in prison but gives up whatever it is as well.

I'm pretty sure almost everything he's done can lead to state indictments, and Trump outright pardoning the federal charges would be inviting impeachment (says increasingly nervous man for the umpteenth time since 2016).

Judge Ellis and the prosecutors are not getting along well, jesus christ https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-08-07/manafort-judge-to-prosecutor-there-s-tears-in-your-eyes “Look at me when you’re talking to me,’’ Ellis said to Andres. “I’m sorry, judge, I was,’’ Andres said. “No, you weren’t,’’ Ellis said. “You were looking down.’’ “Because I don’t want to get in trouble for some facial expression,’’ the prosecutor said. “I don’t want to get yelled at again by the court for having some facial expression when I’m not doing anything wrong, but trying my case.’’ Ellis said to another prosecutor: “You must be quiet.’’ “I’m sorry, judge,’’ Andres said. “Well, I understand how frustrated you are. In fact, there’s tears in your eyes right now.’’ “There are not tears in my eyes, Judge,’’ Andres said. “Well, they’re watery,’’ Ellis said. “Look, I want you to focus sharply on what you need to prove -- to prove the crime. And I don’t understand what a lot of these questions have to do with it.’

He's a loose fucking cannon with the lawyers, but he seems to strive to treat the jury with sweetness and love. I imagine it's because he knows the lawyers are being paid the big bucks and should be goddamn professionals while the jury are regular folks missing out on their real jobs to get paid usually less than equivalent wages (while their workload piles up back in the office, if they aren't a line worker of some kind) to settle what is usually some kind of shitshow. But apparently he's also hardest on the side he favours because he tries to make his rulings literally bulletproof.

When Manafort is sentenced it better extinguish the Mueller investigation witch hunt narrative, it's gotten results.

The witch hunt narrative will literally never die.

There's still neo Confederates after all this time so you may be right.

I don't understand why Manafort just doesn't give up the ghost, you're fucked no matter what you do, so whats the point in protecting this asshole? He's going to be spending the rest of his life in prison anyway.

Because he sells out russian oligarchs with direct links to Putin, and puts his life at risk Or He sells out the president of the united states and becomes the focus of a new conspiracy that Trump will certainly roll out There's no winning for him. He's not going to co-operate because he's fucked.

He's not going to have much of a life after this is over, but I guess that just goes to show how loyal people can be, most likely out of fear.

Pretty much why they have Ellis so he can shit all over the prosecution and they can't call bias if/when Manafort is found guilty. They'll still figure out the mental gymnastics for the witch hunt narrative, all the while GOP members are getting hit on non-partisan corruption charges.

Checked front page of fox news and sure enough, looks like they've got some flipfloppin to do if he's found guilty https://i.imgur.com/3H5tEMP.jpg

Oh my fucking god that article in the bottom left, the state supreme court of Kansas already ruled the state spend an unconstitutionally low amount of money on schools, they will have zero money.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/local/wp/2018/08/08/paul-manafort-trial-day-7-live-coverage/ Highlights include Paulie disguising income as loans to reduce income tax burdens and then claiming those loans were 'forgiven' when he needed to take out actual loans because he wasn't making that Ukranian money anymore, and the judge yelling at the prosecution for using an expert witness who has been watching the whole trial from the audience... because the judge himself explicitly agreed on the record to allow him to testify. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/local/wp/2018/08/09/paul-manafort-trial-day-8-live-coverage/?tid=pm_pop Judge starts the day with apologizing and asking the jury to disregard him yelling at the prosecution yesterday because, on examining the record himself, he did allow them to call the guy as an expert witness so that's his mistake. Manafort claimed his condo was a residence in using it for loan collateral, while also renting it out on airbnb for several years and raking in mad dosh. This is a recurring story with Manafort: Wanting to have his cake and eat it too because he's above paying his fair share. - Making millions of dollars from the Russian-backed Ukrainian regime? Income tax is for suckers, hide that money in a shell game of offshore accounts, shell companies, and six-digit wire payments to rug stores. - Not going to get that loan you need (so you can pay off another loan) because you're using one of your properties or possessions as a profit source (like renting out your apartment)? Just lie! - Not making any money and unable to pay for the debts you've already taken out to continue to fund your lifestyle? Get a new loan! And if things don't look so good on the forms, fudge 'em, asshole! When consequences pile up this high the slap stings for (multiple) life (sentences).

how can someone be smart enough to game all these internecine financial systems while also being so astoundingly financially inept on every level

From Paul Manafort trial Day 6 --- THE WASHINGTON POST https://files.facepunch.com/forum/upload/143792/06cf2893-04f5-4b69-b2a6-6f608e6781c1/non-pdf_to_word_manafort.png

They aren't they just pay people to do it for them.

Remember that we're dealing with an administration/support base that has installed furniture sliders under the goal-posts, they move them so much.

The Gates Of Hell?

Screw that, they threw the goal posts off a cliff. On the race to rock bottom, it is nice that the goal posts practically move themselves.