The trial court found probable cause that Paul Manafort would continue to commit crimes if left out on bail, and summarily revoked Manafort’s bail, sending him to jail today to await his trial scheduled to start July 25th.
The move sends a signal to everyone involved in the Trump case. It demonstrates just how close Mueller’s investigators watch these people, and it demonstrates how aggressive the court and the prosecutors will be when they find wrongdoing.
Now the heat really turns up on Manafort. It is one thing to deny options to cooperate while sitting in your $5,000 suit in your multi-million dollar condo. It is quite another to be contemplating that you might have just experienced your last day outside of a jail cell. Manafort has almost no case, because so much of the evidence against him is nothing but documents that are self-proving. The money was in his bank account, it didn’t get there properly, nor did taxes get paid on it – case closed, that’s tax evasion, without even getting into the fact that he worked for foreign governments without registering as an agent – as required by law.
He may well be counting upon a Trump pardon, but counting upon a Trump pardon is also a fool’s errand because it is counting upon loyalty from Trump, and/or counting upon Trump being in a position to grant a pardon, which Trump won’t be if he isn’t president, or if the political pressure is too great, or if Manafort gets charged with state crimes in addition to the federal charges he currently faces.
One thing for certain, Trump won’t be a fan of this move, and will surely declare this to be part of a hoax, witch-hunt, whatever, and skip over the fact that his former campaign manager was using crypto-communication with witnesses.
***Please follow me on Twitter, in our second week we’re spreading our wings, theoretical physics, U.S. Open golf, and more, it’s an honor to see each of you follow: @MiciakZoom
