Former Trump fixer Michael Cohen was finally released from federal prison on Thursday, two weeks after he was initially supposed to be released into home confinement over coronavirus concerns.
NPR <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2020/05/21/860204544/michael-cohen-released-from-prison-due-to-coronavirus-concerns">reported</a> that it is unclear why Cohen was released this week, since his “release was originally granted in April but had been delayed.” Cohen was serving three years in prison after he pleaded guilty in 2018 to a host of campaign finance crimes and lying to Congress.
As The Daily Wire previously <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/michael-cohen-thought-hed-be-released-early-over-coronavirus-fears-that-deal-has-been-rescinded?fbclid=IwAR21diOV-woUTY2hc--vTY2nvWwTo6tUz8dZaaMkPn6dC2JmRFgzW_BeTmI">reported</a>, Cohen was supposed to be released on May 1, but his adviser and friend Lanny Davis said at the time the release had been delayed without explanation.
“We are disappointed not only that there was this delay but that no explanation has been offered to him or his family as to the reason for the delay,” Davis said. “We also hope that authorities at the Justice Department and the Bureau of Prisons remain committed to implement the Attorney General’s humane policy during this Covid-19 pandemic crisis, and that no political influences are allowed to interfere that might lead to any further delay.”
At the time, Davis hinted that political meddling may have been the reason for the delay, since President Donald Trump was allegedly “visibly agitated” at Cohen’s Release. Why? Because Trump’s attorneys with the Trump Organization have also sent the former “fixer” a cease-and-desist letter to stop him from writing a “tell-all” book about his time working for Trump. The attorneys said Cohen would be violating a non-disclosure agreement if he wrote the book.
Politico <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2020/05/02/michael-cohen-jail-release-delayed-230141">reported</a> at the time:
<blockquote>However, Cohen also appears to be caught up in a broader policy flip-flop by the federal Bureau of Prisons — and perhaps, Justice Department officials — about which of the roughly 170,000 federal inmates are eligible for home confinement because of the threat posed by Covid-19.
In the middle of last month, as the virus spread rapidly through some prisons, hundreds or more inmates were put into a 14-day prerelease quarantine after senior officials at the Bureau of Prisons indicated that standards for home confinement <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2020/04/11/federal-prison-release-criteria-coronavirus-179835">were being relaxed</a>. A requirement that prisoners have served 50 percent of their sentence was being reduced to 25 percent, officials said.
However, a little over a week later, some of those inmates were pulled out of quarantine and told they were not eligible because that decision had been reversed. After <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2020/04/21/trump-administration-reverses-prisoner-release-policy-198648">reports in POLITICO</a> and elsewhere about the shift, Attorney General William Barr issued a clarification that appeared to give the prisons the authority to drop the 50 percent requirement again.</blockquote>
It is still unclear whether Cohen’s release was due to the clarification from the DOJ.
Last week, former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, who had been imprisoned for financial crimes, was also released from prison over coronavirus concerns.

Michael Cohen

Michael Cohen Finally Released From Prison Amid Coronavirus Concerns

Donald Trump

Paul Manafort

Prison

Paul Manafort, President Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign manager who was sentenced to three years in prison for financial crimes, has been released from prison due to health concerns relating to the coronavirus.
The Associated Press <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2020/05/13/paul-manafort-released-from-prison-due-to-virus-concerns-254532">reported</a> that Manafort was released to home confinement due to his age – he’s 71 – and prior health conditions, which made him vulnerable to contracting COVID-19. Manafort was hospitalized in December for a heart-related condition, the AP reported.
The AP, however, ignored the real reason Manafort was in prison in the first place, connecting his conviction to Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russia to steal the 2016 election. The closest the AP came to admitting Manafort’s conviction had nothing to do with Russian collusion was a single sentence which read, “New York prosecutors have accused him of giving false information on a mortgage loan application.”
Instead, the AP repeatedly tied Manafort’s conviction to the Mueller investigation.
“Paul Manafort, Donald Trump’s onetime presidential campaign chairman who was convicted as part of the special counsel’s Russia investigation, has been released from federal prison to serve the rest of his sentence in home confinement due to concerns about the coronavirus, his lawyer said Wednesday,” read the articles lede.
The article then refers to his “conviction” without noting that it was for financial crimes that occurred before he was a member of Trump’s 2016 campaign and included defrauding banks and the government, as well as tax evasion.
Here’s the lengths to which the AP ignored the real reason behind Manafort’s conviction:
<blockquote>Manafort was among the first people to be charged in special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation, which examined possible coordination between the Trump campaign and Russia in the 2016 election campaign.
Manafort, who was prosecuted in two federal courts, was convicted by a jury in federal court in Virginia in 2018 and later pleaded guilty in Washington. He was sentenced last March and was immediately hit with state charges in New York that could put him outside the president’s power to pardon. New York prosecutors have accused him of giving false information on a mortgage loan application.</blockquote>
Usually, news outlets report what crimes warranted the convictions. Manafort was charged with the financial crimes (he was accused of failing to pay millions of dollars of taxes on money he made overseas) as well as violations of foreign lobbying lies and tampering with a witness during Mueller’s investigation. He pleaded guilty to the tampering and foreign lobbying violations.
These aren’t mentioned in the AP report.
While Manafort was released, another former Trump associate who was charged during the Mueller investigation, Michael Cohen, had his release <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/michael-cohen-thought-hed-be-released-early-over-coronavirus-fears-that-deal-has-been-rescinded">from prison rescinded</a>. Cohen was set to finish his sentence on home confinement, but that was denied at the last minute. Cohen pleaded guilty to numerous charges including violating campaign finance violations during his work for Trump’s 206 campaign and obstructing Congress’ investigation into whether Trump’s campaign colluded with Russia to steal the election (a special counsel investigation found no collusion).
The Daily Wire, headed by bestselling author and popular podcast host Ben Shapiro, is a leading provider of conservative news, cutting through the mainstream media’s rhetoric to provide readers the most important, relevant, and engaging stories of the day. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/subscribe">member</a>.

Paul Manafort Released From Prison Amid Coronavirus Concerns, Associated Press Ignores Real Reason He Was Convicted

Associated Press

COVID

Media Bias

The Department of Justice has released a memo written on August 2, 2017 that outlined the scope of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into whether President Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign colluded with Russia to steal the election. The investigation concluded that the campaign did not, in fact, collude with Russia.
The newly released document sheds some light on the scope of the investigation with regards to five individuals who were targeted: Carter Page, Paul Manafort, George Papadopoulos, Michael Flynn, and a fifth person whose name was redacted. The memo was released thanks to a request from Senate Judiciary Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-SC), which Attorney General William Barr granted. Barr provided an unclassified version of the “Scope Memo,” which can be viewed <a href="https://nypost.com/2020/05/07/doj-releases-memo-outlining-scope-of-robert-muellers-probe/">here</a>, thanks to The New York Post.
The original memo was written by Rod Rosenstein while he was the Acting Attorney General and noted that he had issued an order on May 17, 2017 that appointed Mueller as special counsel and authorized him to conduct an investigation that had been authorized by then-FBI Director James Comey during testimony to the House Intelligence committee on March 20, 2017. The May 17, 2017 order, Rosenstein wrote, was worded in such a way to “permit its public release without confirmed specific investigations involving specific individuals.” The August 2, 2017 memo that was just released provided specifics.
The memo outlines the allegations that “were within the scope of the investigation,” including “Allegations that Carter Page committed a crime or crimes by colluding with Russian government officials with respect to the Russian government’s efforts to interfere with the 2016 election for President of the United States, in violation of United States law.” As we now know, not only did Page not collude with Russia, but the FBI <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/ig-report-here-are-the-17-specific-inaccuracies-and-omissions-in-the-fbis-fisa-warrants-against-carter-page">left out</a> key exculpatory evidence to continue targeting him through FISA warrants.
The memo further outlines the allegations against Manafort, Papadopoulos, and Flynn:
Allegations that Paul Manafort:
<ul>
<li>Committed a crime or crimes by colluding with Russian government officials with respect to the Russian government&#8217;s efforts to interfere with the 2016 election for President of the United States, in violation of United States law;</li>
<li>Committed a crime or crimes arising out of payments he received from the Ukrainian government before and during the tenure of President Viktor Yanukovych;</li>
<li>Committed a crime or crimes arising out of his receipt of loans from a bank whose Chief Executive Officer was then seeking a position in the Trump Administration;</li>
</ul>
Allegations that George Papadopoulos:
<ul>
<li>Committed a crime or crimes by colluding with Russian government officials with respect to the Russian government&#8217;s efforts to interfere with the 2016 election for President of the United States, in violation of United States law;</li>
<li>Committed a crime or crimes by acting as an unregistered agent of the government of Israel;</li>
</ul>
Allegations that Michael Flynn:
<ul>
<li>Committed a crime or crimes by engaging in conversations with Russian government officials during the period of the Trump transition;</li>
<li>Committed a crime or crimes by making false statements to the FBI when interviewed about his contacts with the Russian government;</li>
<li>Committed a crime or crimes by failing to report foreign contacts and income on a Fonn SF-86 that he completed in anticipation of his being selected to serve as the National Security Adviser to President Trump;</li>
<li>Committed a crime or crimes by acting as an unregistered agent for the government of Turkey</li>
</ul>
All collusion claims against these individuals were unfounded, and recently released information appears to show that Flynn was set up in order to get him fired.
Following the release of the memo, Graham said it showed the “entire Mueller investigation was illegitimate to begin with,” according to a transcript <a href="https://cnsnews.com/article/washington/susan-jones/graham-declassified-memo-shows-entire-mueller-investigation-was">from CNS News</a>.

Michael Flynn

DOJ Releases Memo Explaining Why Carter Page, Michael Flynn, And Others Were Targeted In Mueller Probe

Carter Page

George Papadopoulos

Robert Mueller

The July 25 phone call that sparked the Democrats&#8217; impeachment inquiry famously included President Trump&#8217;s request that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky &#8220;look into&#8221; corruption allegations against former Vice President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter Biden. The call also included Trump&#8217;s request to look into alleged Ukrainian 2016 election interference.
In a January 2017 report, <a href="https://www.politico.com/story/2017/01/ukraine-sabotage-trump-backfire-233446">Politico&#8217;</a>s Kenneth Vogel and David Stern, citing multiple sources familiar with the matter, reported that the Ukrainian government attempted to &#8220;help Hillary Clinton and undermine Trump&#8221; in 2016.
&#8220;Donald Trump wasn’t the only presidential candidate whose campaign was boosted by officials of a former Soviet bloc country,” Vogel and Stern reported. &#8220;Ukrainian government officials tried to help Hillary Clinton and undermine Trump by publicly questioning his fitness for office. They also disseminated documents implicating a top Trump aide in corruption and suggested they were investigating the matter, only to back away after the election. And they helped Clinton’s allies research damaging information on Trump and his advisers, a Politico investigation found.&#8221;
&#8220;The Ukrainian efforts had an impact in the race, helping to force Manafort’s resignation and advancing the narrative that Trump’s campaign was deeply connected to Ukraine’s foe to the east, Russia,&#8221; Vogel and Stern wrote.
Trump&#8217;s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, whose contact with Ukraine is at the center of the Democrats&#8217; impeachment inquiry, recently met with a former Ukrainian diplomat who has accused his own government of colluding with the Democrats against Trump.
&#8220;While Congress heard closed-door testimony last week about President Donald Trump pushing Ukraine to investigate his opponents, Rudy Giuliani was holding his own private Ukraine meeting in his Manhattan office,&#8221; <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/trump-impeachment-inquiry/amid-impeachment-circus-pro-trump-search-dirt-ukraine-bidens-2016-n1075811">NBC News</a> reported Monday. Giuliani &#8220;met with former Ukrainian diplomat Andriy Telizhenko, who alleges that Ukraine&#8217;s government conspired with the Democratic National Committee to hurt Trump in 2016.&#8221;
&#8220;We discussed what&#8217;s happening in Ukraine, political updates, what the new (Ukrainian presidential) team is up to, what are the reforms going to be,&#8221; Telizhenko told NBC News.
&#8220;Giuliani has interviewed him for hours about his Ukraine allegations, although Telizhenko said their most recent meeting wasn’t focused on investigations,&#8221; the network reports. The two met several times in the past, including in May, August, and September, the network notes.
The meeting, NBC suggests, is evidence that Trump&#8217;s team is moving ahead with their &#8220;campaign to get Ukraine to investigate Trump&#8217;s political opponents.&#8221;
Though the left-leaning media has painted Trump&#8217;s request for Ukraine to &#8220;look into&#8221; the corruption allegations involving the Bidens as attempting to &#8220;dig up dirt&#8221; on his political opponent, as <a href="https://www.npr.org/2019/09/24/763502822/what-were-the-bidens-doing-in-ukraine-5-questions-answered">NPR</a> detailed, credible accusations of corruption against the Bidens date back to 2014 and stem from the Bidens&#8217; highly problematic roles in Ukraine that strongly suggest conflicts of interest. NPR reports:
<blockquote>In the spring of 2014, as Joe Biden began his trips to Ukraine, Hunter Biden took a position on the board of the country&#8217;s largest private gas company, Burisma. He was reportedly <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/01/us/politics/biden-son-ukraine.html">paid up to $50,000 a month</a>.
The question of a possible conflict of interest — with Hunter Biden profiting in a country where his father was actively working with the government — <a href="https://time.com/2964493/ukraine-joe-biden-son-hunter-burisma/">was raised publicly at the time</a>.</blockquote>
Biden famously boasted last year at the Council on Foreign Relations about forcing Ukraine to remove the prosecutor who had looked into Burisma. &#8220;I said, &#8216;You’re not getting the [$1 billion]. I’m leaving in six hours. If the prosecutor is not fired, you’re not getting the money.’ Well, son of a b****. He got fired,&#8221; said Biden.
As Politico&#8217;s 2017 report indicates, Trump&#8217;s concern over alleged Ukrainian meddling in the 2016 election is also well-founded. Some Ukrainian politicians agree that the issue needs to be looked into, including Ukraine&#8217;s president. In October, President Zelensky <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/ukraine-president-were-ready-to-investigate-ukraines-alleged-meddling-in-2016-u-s-election">announced</a> that his government is “ready to investigate Ukraine’s alleged meddling in the U.S. elections,” referencing the 2016 election.
As reported by NBC, a group of Ukrainian parliamentarians are &#8220;working to stand up a new investigative commission — the Ukrainian analogue to a congressional select committee — to probe what they say was a Ukrainian government campaign to smear former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort in a bid to take down Trump in 2016.&#8221;
The group also wants to investigate the Bidens&#8217; alleged corruption.
&#8220;Ukraine was involved in like the biggest scandal in recent U.S. political history, let alone Ukrainian. Definitely most of my colleagues here pretend it doesn&#8217;t exist,&#8221; said lawmaker Oleg Voloshin, who is also an associate of former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort, NBC reports. &#8220;It started here, and it should finish here.&#8221;
During his July 25 call with Zelensky, Trump asked for a &#8220;favor&#8221;: to look into &#8220;this whole situation with Ukraine&#8221; in 2016, including the role played by Ukrainian-based cybersecurity company Crowdstrike, which the Democratic National Committee used to review the hacking of its emails.
&#8220;I would like you to do us a favor though because our country has been through a lot and Ukraine knows a lot about it,&#8221; Trump told Zelensky. “I would like you to find out what happened with this whole situation with Ukraine, they say Crowdstrike… I guess you have one of your wealthy people… The server, they say Ukraine has it. There are a lot of things that went on, the whole situation. I think you’re surrounding yourself with some of the same people. I would like to have the Attorney General call you or your people and I would like you to get to the bottom of it. As you saw yesterday, that whole nonsense ended with a very poor performance by a man named Robert Mueller, an incompetent performance, but they say a lot of it started with Ukraine. Whatever you can do, it’s very important that you do it if that’s possible.&#8221;
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/impeachment-witness-told-congress-he-warned-about-biden-ukraine-problem-in-2015-got-shut-down-by-bidens-office">Impeachment Witness Tells Congress He Warned About Biden-Ukraine Problem In 2015, Got Shut Down By Biden’s Office</a>

Donald Trump Rudy Giuliani

Trump Lawyer Meets With Diplomat Who Says Ukraine Conspired With Democrats Against Trump

Joe Biden

Rudy Giuliani

Ukraine

The Blaze has released an audio recording that they recently obtained that appears to show Artem Sytnyk, Director of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine, admitting that he tried to boost the presidential campaign of Hillary Clinton by sabotaging then-candidate Donald Trump&#8217;s campaign.
The connection between the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and the Ukrainian government was veteran Democratic operative Alexandra Chalupa, &#8220;who had worked in the White House Office of Public Liaison during the Clinton administration&#8221; and then &#8220;went on to work as a staffer, then as a consultant, for Democratic National Committee,&#8221; <a href="https://www.politico.com/story/2017/01/ukraine-sabotage-trump-backfire-233446">Politico</a> reported.
Chalupa was working directly with the Ukrainian embassy in the United States to raise concerns about Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and, according to Politico, she indicated that the Embassy was working &#8220;directly with reporters researching Trump, Manafort and Russia to point them in the right directions.&#8221;
The Ukrainian embassy political officer who worked at the embassy at the time, Andrii Telizhenko, stated that the Ukrainians &#8220;were coordinating an investigation with the Hillary team on Paul Manafort with Alexandra Chalupa&#8221; and that “the embassy worked very closely with” Chalupa.
The Blaze highlighted an email from WikiLeaks from Chalupa to Louise Miranda at the DNC:
<blockquote>Hey, a lot coming down the pipe. I spoke to a delegation of 68 investigative journalists from Ukraine last night at the Library of Congress, the Open World Society forum. They put me on the program to speak specifically about Paul Manafort. I invited Michael Isikoff, who I&#8217;ve been working with for the past few weeks, and connected him to the Ukrainians. More offline tomorrow, since there was a big Trump component you and Lauren need to be aware of that will hit in the next few weeks. Something I&#8217;m working on that you should be aware of.</blockquote>
<a href="https://www.theblaze.com/glenn-radio/dnc-ukraine-collusion-sytnyk">The Blaze</a> then reported that Sytnyk, who eventually &#8220;was tried and convicted in Ukraine for <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/ukrainian-officials-meddled-in-2016-election-by-leaking-secret-manafort-ledger-court-says">interfering</a> in the U.S. presidential election in 2016,&#8221; released a &#8220;black ledger&#8221; on Manafort during the 2016 presidential election that eventually led to Manafort&#8217;s downfall.
&#8220;So here he is. He is admitting to tampering with our elections. Admitted working with the Hillary Clinton campaign,&#8221; Glenn Beck said during a <a href="https://youtu.be/kuvfYE7ZdL0">2-hour special presentation</a> by The Blaze on Ukraine&#8217;s interference in the U.S. election. &#8220;He is actually convicted in the highest court in the land in Ukraine. This is all front page news in Ukraine, while we are saying, &#8216;Was there anyone tampering with the election?'&#8221;
In audio exclusively obtained by The Blaze, Sytnyk appeared to admit that he worked to boost Clinton by harming Trump&#8217;s campaign by releasing the &#8220;black ledger.&#8221; Sytnyk also essentially admitted that Trump was better for America than Clinton was because Clinton belonged to the establishment while Trump&#8217;s focus was solely on promoting America.
WATCH:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
&#8220;I don&#8217;t know how, but the Americans got an audio recording of Mr. Sytnik&#8217;s conversation: He is resting with his family &amp; friends &amp; discussing how he would like to help Hillary.&#8221;<a href="https://twitter.com/glennbeck?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@glennbeck</a> reveals the Ukraine transcript the media isn&#8217;t talking about.<a href="https://t.co/fZHzqMCZbV">https://t.co/fZHzqMCZbV</a> <a href="https://t.co/9jyMLVwdEB">pic.twitter.com/9jyMLVwdEB</a>
— BlazeTV (@BlazeTV) <a href="https://twitter.com/BlazeTV/status/1180309130164109312?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 5, 2019</a></blockquote>
Transcript of the translated Ukrainian tape:
<blockquote>Kolya: Did they, those Russians, help Trump? Your people?
Sytnyk: I think they did. Yeah. I helped him, too. Not him, but Hillary. I helped her.
Kolya: Yeah. Right. Then her position tottered, right?
Sytnyk: Well, this is how they write about it, right.
Ivan: Hillary&#8217;s humanitarian aid &#8230; [indiscernible.]
Kolya: Well, I&#8217;m about &#8230; the commentaries. At the time, we were not [indiscernible.]
Sytnyk: Trump &#8230; his purely inner problem &#8230; issue &#8230; they dominate over the external matters. While Hillary, she is – how shall I put it? She belongs to the cohort of politicians who comprise the hegemony in the U.S. Both in the U.S. and the entire world, right? For us, it&#8217;s &#8230; sort of &#8230; better. For Americans &#8230; what Trump is doing is better for them.
Kolya: Well, we have lots of those American experts here now &#8230; [indiscernible.]
Sytnyk: Well, there, you see why Hillary lost the elections? I was in charge of the investigation of their &#8220;black accounting&#8221; records. We made the Manafort&#8217;s data available to general public.
Kolya: So what?
Sytnyk: He was imprisoned. Manafort then was the head of the Supreme Headquarter of Trump, right? Then he was dismissed, too, including due to the &#8220;black accounting.&#8221; After that, he was sentenced to 80 years of imprisonment term. How about Trump? Did he not give a s***. They have their system working there and it works smoothly.
Kolya: Everybody worked smoothly there.
Sytnyk: And when they carried out the elections, a week before the elections, the FBI reopened the investigation in respect of Hillary. So her rating dropped for 7 percent and that&#8217;s why Trump managed to win the elections at a pinch. I&#8217;m still unable to understand why he&#8217;s fighting with the FBI. They try to catch him on the hand. If it were not the FBI, he would not have won the elections. They torpedoed Hillary&#8217;s ratings for 7 percent.</blockquote>

Hillary Clinton

BOMBSHELL: Audio, Email Evidence Shows DNC Colluded With Ukraine To Boost Hillary By Harming Trump, Report Says

Democratic National Committee

Glenn Beck

Earlier this month, it seemed President Donald Trump&#8217;s former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/48016/paul-manafort-being-moved-solitary-confinement-ashe-schow">would be sent to solitary confinement</a> at notorious Rikers Island long before what is considered normal for most prisoners in his circumstance.
Manafort was, until recently, being held in a minimum security facility in Pennsylvania, where he was sent after being sentenced to seven years in prison for fraud, including hiding income from the IRS and obtaining millions of dollars in fraudulent bank loans, and for failing to file under the rarely enforced Foreign Agents Registration Act while working as a lobbyist. None of his crimes occurred in relation to his duties for the Trump campaign.
A New York State Judge ordered Manafort moved to Rikers at the request of New York City District Attorney Cyrus Vance, Jr. before his trial over additional fraud charges. A New York grand jury previously brought 16 counts against Manafort, &#8220;including residential mortgage fraud, falsifying business records and other charges,&#8221; Fox News <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/judge-orders-paul-manafort-to-be-transferred-to-new-york-citys-notorious-rikers-island">reported</a>.
Attorney Alan Dershowitz wrote in <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/alan-dershowitz-why-is-paul-manafort-off-to-rikers-prepare-to-be-shocked-and-outraged">an op-ed</a> that Manafort was being &#8220;treated differently and more harshly because of his past connections to President Trump.&#8221; Dershowitz said inmates in Manafort&#8217;s case aren&#8217;t moved &#8220;until the eve of their state trials.&#8221;
Dershowitz theorized at the time that Manafort was being treated this way to try to get him to cough up dirt on Trump that could be used to indict the president.
The New York Times now <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/17/nyregion/manafort-rikers.html">reports</a> that Manafort is not going to Rikers yet, framing the story as an intervention from U.S. Attorney General William Barr&#8217;s top deputy Jeffrey A. Rosen. Rosen told Manhattan prosecutors he&#8217;d be watching where Manafort was held in New York. Federal prison officials reportedly stepped in on Monday to stop Manafort&#8217;s transfer to Rikers.
In attempting to make it seem like Manafort is now receiving special treatment thanks to Barr, the Times neglected to mention what Dershowitz said about an inmate not being transferred &#8220;until the eve of their state trials&#8221; and that Manafort is now getting the same treatment as other inmates in his situation.
Manafort has been moved from his federal prison in Pennsylvania to the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Lower Manhattan. He could remain at this prison or return to the prison in Pennsylvania while awaiting trial, the Times reported.
Todd Blanche, one of Manafort&#8217;s lawyers, told the Times that his client shouldn&#8217;t even be facing state charges for crimes already included in two federal convictions.
&#8220;You&#8217;ll find no example of someone like Mr. Manafort being prosecuted by the feds and then by the district attorney for exactly the same conduct,&#8221; he said.
DA Vance responded to a letter from Blanche saying state prosecutors had no position on whether Manafort was held at Rikers, but that keeping him in Pennsylvania wasn&#8217;t an option under the law.

Paul Manafort No Longer Heading To Rikers. At Least Not Yet.

New York

The sadistic treatment of Paul Manafort illustrates something I have believed since I attended graduate school in the 1970s and saw the behavior of left-wing students: Leftism makes people meaner.
There are kind and mean conservatives and kind and mean liberals. Neither liberalism nor conservatism makes people kinder or meaner. But this is not the case with leftism. With the handful of exceptions that accompany every generalization, leftism makes people meaner, even crueler.
Take the transfer of Manafort, the one-time Trump campaign manager, from a federal prison to New York&#8217;s Rikers Island prison. Rikers Island is universally regarded as a wretched place. As Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz wrote:
&#8220;The decision to move Paul Manafort &#8230; from the decent federal prison to which he was sentenced to solitary confinement to the dangerous hell hole that is New York City&#8217;s Rikers Island seems abusive and possibly illegal.
&#8220;I know Rikers well having spent time there visiting numerous defendants accused of murder and other violent crimes. It is a terrible place that no one should ever be sent to.&#8221;
Mass murderers and torturers are among those incarcerated at Rikers Island.
Moreover, Manafort, found guilty solely for white-collar crimes, will be placed in solitary confinement &#8212; &#8220;for his own safety.&#8221;
Virtually everyone who has written about solitary confinement, both on the right and the left, deems it torture. Manafort will therefore be tortured after being sentenced to seven years&#8217; imprisonment for fraud and, in the words of the Daily Wire, &#8220;a little-known law that requires lobbyists to report that they are working on behalf of a foreign government (in Manafort&#8217;s case, Ukraine).&#8221;
Angry over the possibility that Manafort may be pardoned by President Trump, the Manhattan District Attorney, Cyrus Vance, charged Manafort with additional crimes based on state law. That way, if found guilty of state offenses, he cannot be pardoned by Trump, as the president&#8217;s power to pardon applies only to federal &#8212; not state &#8212; crimes.
Everyone knows this prosecution is politically motivated. Vance hates the president and wants to use solitary confinement in a hellhole with violent criminals to squeeze Manafort into testifying against the president.
As Dershowitz said to me on my radio show, what Vance is doing reminds him of Stalin and Beria &#8212; the infamous state prosecutor, a man Stalin referred to as &#8220;my Himmler.&#8221; Dershowitz, a lifelong liberal Democrat and supporter of Hillary Clinton, does not use Stalin analogies loosely.
To her credit, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez tweeted: &#8220;A prison sentence is not a license for gov torture and human rights violations. That&#8217;s what solitary confinement is. Manafort should be released, along with all people being held in solitary.&#8221;
I might add that my opposition to Manafort&#8217;s treatment is not partisan or new. On a number of occasions over the years, I have cited favorably New York Review of Books articles describing the horror of solitary confinement.
Despite its history of opposition to solitary confinement, The New York Times article reporting the plan to relocate Manafort said nothing against the unnecessary transfer but did comment on the expensive suits Manafort used to wear.
Solitary confinement is &#8220;basically a deathtrap,&#8221; former New York City Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik wrote when Manafort was placed in solitary at his federal prison. Manafort should never have been sentenced to solitary confinement. But Robert Mueller (and Judge Amy Berman Jackson) sought it for the same political reason Vance has: to break the man.
As former federal prosecutor Sidney Powell wrote: &#8220;When a witness or defendant from whom prosecutors want &#8216;cooperation&#8217; does not do as they demand, they put him in solitary confinement. And it works. It literally breaks people.
&#8220;Solitary does have a place in our prison system, but only for those people who are simply too dangerous to be placed around others at all. However, the torture of solitary confinement should never be used as it is now to break people to prosecutors&#8217; will &#8212; to torture them until they will say or do anything to get out.
&#8220;Solitary is also called the &#8216;hole.&#8217; It&#8217;s a small space, barely large enough to stand, with a slit for light, to which prisoners are confined/caged for 23 hours a day. &#8230;
&#8220;Paul Manafort, seventy years old, has endured this torture for eight months. He&#8217;s now in a wheelchair, while Judge Amy Berman Jackson mocks his rapidly deteriorating health. Where is the outcry from the ACLU?&#8221;
So, then, what enables Vance, Mueller and Jackson to engage in such evil?
The only answer is their politics &#8212; the politics of the Trump-hating left. Cyrus Vance, Robert Mueller and Amy Berman Jackson may well be good parents, loving spouses, loyal friends and charitable individuals. But leftism has given them permission to act vilely and mercilessly while thinking of themselves as fine people &#8212; just as evil doctrines have done throughout history.
As noted at the beginning of this column, when I was at Columbia, I witnessed this leftist mean-spiritedness firsthand in the personal cruelty of left-wing agitators against professors and others with whom they differed.
Here&#8217;s a question perhaps millions of parents will be able to answer: If your child returned home from college a leftist, was he or she a kinder or meaner person than before he or she left for college?
The question is rhetorical.
Dennis Prager is a nationally syndicated radio talk-show host and columnist. His latest book, published by Regnery in April 2018, is &#8220;The Rational Bible,&#8221; a commentary on the book of Exodus. He is the founder of Prager University and may be contacted at dennisprager.com.

PRAGER: Leftism Makes People Meaner: Reflections On The Torture Of Paul Manafort

Crime

Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort is being transferred to New York City&#8217;s Rikers Island and will be put in solitary confinement.
Fox News <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/judge-orders-paul-manafort-to-be-transferred-to-new-york-citys-notorious-rikers-island">Reported</a> that a &#8220;source close to Manafort&#8221; told the outlet the transfer was ordered by a New York State Judge at the request of New York City District Attorney Cyrus Vance, Jr. Manafort is currently being held in a minimum security facility in Pennsylvania.
He&#8217;s being sent to Rikers, a dangerous prison, and put into solitary confinement &#8220;for his protection,&#8221; the source told Fox.
As Fox noted, Rikers Island has held some of New York&#8217;s most violent criminals, including &#8216;Son of Sam&#8217; David Berkowitz and John Lennon&#8217;s murderer Mark David Chapman.
This is where Manafort is being transferred after being sentenced to seven years in prison for fraud and failing to file under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), a little-known law that requires lobbyists to report that they are working on behalf of a foreign government (in Manafort&#8217;s case, Ukraine). As to the fraud, Manafort pleaded not guilty to 18 counts that included charges of hiding income from the IRS and securing millions in fraudulent bank loans. He was ultimately found guilty.
Since his sentencing, Manafort has been charged by a New York grand jury with &#8220;16 counts including residential mortgage fraud, falsifying business records and other charges,&#8221; Fox reported.
Famed attorney Alan Dershowitz called the transfer &#8220;abusive and possibly illegal.&#8221;
Dershowitz wrote in <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/alan-dershowitz-why-is-paul-manafort-off-to-rikers-prepare-to-be-shocked-and-outraged">an op-ed</a> for Fox that criminals in federal prisons aren&#8217;t transferred to a state prison &#8220;until the eve of their state trials,&#8221; suggesting Manafort is being &#8220;treated differently and more harshly because of his past connections to President Trump.&#8221; As Fox noted, Trump cannot pardon Manafort for state crimes.
&#8220;Whatever the reason for the transfer, it seems like the selective application of the law for partisan purposes,&#8221; Dershowitz wrote. &#8220;The tactic of squeezing a potential witness by making his imprisonment unbearably harsh is generally reserved for mafioso, terrorists and other violent criminals who may have evidence against their bosses.&#8221;
Dershowitz theorized that Manafort may be transferred early in the hopes of getting him to turn on President Donald Trump and accuse him of state crimes.
&#8220;It is entirely inappropriate in the political context. It is yet another example of the weaponization of the criminal process for partisan advantage,&#8221; Dershowitz concluded. &#8220;All civil libertarians, regardless of party affiliation, should be outraged at this abuse. It sets a dangerous precedent that could be used by overzealous prosecutors against any American.&#8221;
The New York Times <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/04/nyregion/manafort-rikers-island-solitary-confinement.html">reported</a> that high-profile inmates, such as Manafort, &#8220;are generally held in protective custody on Rikers Island, a network of nine jails with a total of 7,500 inmates, including pretrial detainees and convicts serving sentences of a year or less.&#8221;
A law-enforcement official told the Times that Manafort would likely be held &#8220;in a former prison hospital on the island.&#8221; As the Times noted, that &#8220;is where most high-profile detainees are held, including police officers, those accused of killing police officers, politicians and celebrities.&#8221;

Paul Manafort Is Being Moved Into Solitary Confinement At Rikers Island

The Obama White House brought in Ukrainian authorities to help jumpstart the Russian collusion narrative and to help then-Vice President Joe Biden&#8217;s son out of a jam.
John Solomon, an opinion contributor to The Hill, <a href="https://thehill.com/opinion/white-house/440730-how-the-obama-white-house-engaged-ukraine-to-give-russia-collusion">lays out</a> the results of a meeting between Obama White House officials and the Ukrainian authorities. Solomon spoke to multiple participants in the meeting and viewed memos from the time to bring us the story.
&#8220;The agenda suggested the purpose was training and coordination. But Ukrainian participants said it didn&#8217;t take long &#8212; during the meetings and afterward &#8212; to realize the Americans&#8217; objectives included two politically hot investigations: one that touched Vice President Joe Biden&#8217;s family and one that involved a lobbying firm linked closely to then-candidate Trump,&#8221; Solomon wrote.
Andrii Telizhenko, who was at the meeting, told Solomon that the Obama officials &#8220;kept talking about how important it was that all of our anti-corruption efforts be united.&#8221; Telizhenko at the time was a political officer at the Ukraine&#8217;s embassy in Washington, D.C. He said U.S. officials said during the meeting that they wanted to see a 2014 investigation into payments made from Ukraine&#8217;s Russia-backed Party of Regions to U.S. citizens, including Paul Manafort, reopened. At the time of the payments, Manafort was a lobbyist. Manafort would be hired to then-candidate Donald Trump&#8217;s campaign in March 2016.
The 2014 investigation was closed without charges filed against Manafort. Telizhenko told Solomon he didn&#8217;t remember if Manafort&#8217;s name was mentioned during the meeting with White House officials, but he remembers the investigation being brought up.
&#8220;It was definitely the case that led to the charges against Manafort and the leak to U.S. media during the 2016 election,&#8221; Telizhenko said.
Another participant in the meetings, Nazar Kholodnytskyy, told Solomon he didn&#8217;t attend all the meetings in January 2016 and couldn&#8217;t remember the specific cases that were mentioned. But he did say he thought it &#8220;was extremely suspicious&#8221; that after these meetings, a ledger showing payments to Manafort from the Party of Regions suddenly became public knowledge. The existence of the ledger was released 10 days after Manafort was promoted to Trump&#8217;s campaign chairman.
&#8220;Somebody kept this black ledger secret for two years and then showed it to the public and the U.S. media. It was extremely suspicious,&#8221; he said.
He also said he had told the investigators who leaked the ledger not to do so.
&#8220;I ordered the detectives to give nothing to the mass media considering this case. Instead, they had broken my order and published themselves these one or two pages of this black ledger regarding Paul Manafort,&#8221; Kholodnytskyy said.
&#8220;For me it was the first call that something was going wrong and that there is some external influence in this case. And there is some other interests in this case not in the interest of the investigation and a fair trial,&#8221; he continued.
Solomon wrote that a Ukrainian court ruled the ledger&#8217;s leak &#8220;was an illegal attempt to influence the U.S. election.&#8221; Further, &#8220;a member of Ukraine&#8217;s parliament has released a recording of a NABU official saying the agency released the ledger to help Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton&#8217;s campaign.&#8221;
And this was all started by the Obama White House.
The <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/45438/vice-president-joe-biden-bullied-ukraine-firing-ashe-schow">other investigation</a> discussed at these meetings involved Biden&#8217;s son, which Solomon <a href="https://thehill.com/opinion/white-house/436816-joe-bidens-2020-ukrainian-nightmare-a-closed-probe-is-revived">reported on earlier this month</a>. Biden had bragged about getting Ukraine Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin fired, leaving out the part that Shokin was investigating corruption involving Biden&#8217;s son&#8217;s company.

Obama White House Sought Ukraine’s Help In Taking Down Trump: REPORT

Barack Obama

On Thursday, a federal judge shredded Robert Mueller&#8217;s &#8220;<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/44401/judge-smacks-muellers-excessive-request-sentences-james-barrett">excessive</a>&#8221; sentencing recommendations for Paul Manafort, slapping the former Trump campaign chairman with only about a fifth of the recommended prison sentence. Rather than the 19 to 24 years in prison the special counsel was pushing for, Judge T.S. Ellis III gave Manafort only 47 months, with 9 months already served &#8212; amounting to a little over three years in prison.
While Democrats began preemptively warning President Trump against pardoning Manafort, the president weighed in on Manafort&#8217;s sentencing Friday morning by pointing out the key takeaway &#8212; at least from his perspective.
&#8220;Both the Judge and the lawyer in the Paul Manafort case stated loudly and for the world to hear that there was NO COLLUSION with Russia,&#8221; Trump tweeted Friday. &#8220;But the Witch Hunt Hoax continues as you now add these statements to House &amp; Senate Intelligence &amp; Senator Burr. So bad for our Country!&#8221;
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Both the Judge and the lawyer in the Paul Manafort case stated loudly and for the world to hear that there was NO COLLUSION with Russia. But the Witch Hunt Hoax continues as you now add these statements to House &amp; Senate Intelligence &amp; Senator Burr. So bad for our Country!
&#8212; Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1104011577718640641?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 8, 2019</a></blockquote>
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As Trump emphasized, Manafort&#8217;s lawyers and Judge Ellis underscored that while Mueller&#8217;s mandate is to investigate Russian interference in the 2016 election, the case against Manafort had nothing to do with it.
During the pre-trial hearing, Ellis called out prosecutors over this glaring issue, asking why the special counsel was bringing charges unrelated to the Russia investigation against Manafort. As the <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/the-navy-fighter-pilot-judge-who-shot-down-mueller">Washington Examiner</a> notes, Ellis suggested his view on what Mueller&#8217;s team was up to: they were trying to dig up information &#8220;that would reflect on Mr. Trump or lead to his prosecution or impeachment or whatever.&#8221;
In their sentencing memo, Manafort&#8217;s lawyers slammed the special counsel for trying to &#8220;vilify&#8221; their client and spread &#8220;misinformation&#8221; about him. The defense maintained that the prosecutors were out of line and their recommendations extreme. Ellis made clear that he largely agreed with the latter point, dismissing the sentencing recommendations as &#8220;excessive.&#8221;
&#8220;To impose a sentence of 19-24 years on Mr. Manafort would clearly be a disparity,&#8221; he <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/44401/judge-smacks-muellers-excessive-request-sentences-james-barrett">said</a>. &#8220;In the end, I don&#8217;t think the guidelines range is at all appropriate. I think what I&#8217;ve done is sufficiently punitive, and anyone who disagrees should spend a day in a federal penitentiary.&#8221;
Manafort, 69, was charged with a long list of financial crimes, including &#8220;defrauding banks and the government, and failing to pay taxes on millions of dollars in income he earned from Ukrainian political consulting,&#8221; <a href="https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/paul-manafort-sentencing/index.html">CNN</a> reports.
&#8220;Manafort acted for more than a decade as if he were above the law, and deprived the federal government and various financial institutions of millions of dollars,&#8221; the prosecutors said. &#8220;Manafort chose to do this for no other reason than greed, evidencing his belief that the law does not apply to him.&#8221;
The prosecutors also accused Manafort of failing to adequately cooperate with the special counsel&#8217;s investigation, telling the judge that he &#8220;never gave meaningful help during his cooperation with the special counsel&#8217;s office, despite spending 50 hours together.&#8221;
Manafort still faces another sentencing for charges of foreign lobbying violations and tampering with a witness during the investigation, crimes for which he pleaded guilty.

Trump: Here’s The Big Takeaway From Manafort’s Sentencing

Russia

Trump Administration

Federal Judge T.S. Ellis III defied Robert Mueller&#8217;s &#8220;excessive&#8221; sentencing recommendation on Thursday and gave Paul Manafort only about a fifth of the prison time the special counsel wanted to see the former Trump campaign chairman serve.
Though Mueller has been tasked with investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election and potential &#8220;collusion&#8221; with the Trump campaign, Manafort&#8217;s charges have nothing to do with Russia or the campaign; rather they are a series of financial crimes, including &#8220;defrauding banks and the government, and failing to pay taxes on millions of dollars in income he earned from Ukrainian political consulting,&#8221; <a href="https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/paul-manafort-sentencing/index.html">CNN</a> reports.
Manafort, 69, was sentenced to 47 months in prison &#8212; which will turn out to be about 38 due to time served &#8212; and three years of supervised release. Mueller recommended Manafort be sentenced to 19 to 24 years. As CNN notes, the prosecutors &#8220;wanted more time&#8221; in part because &#8220;Manafort never gave meaningful help during his cooperation with the special counsel&#8217;s office, despite spending 50 hours together.&#8221;
&#8220;Manafort acted for more than a decade as if he were above the law, and deprived the federal government and various financial institutions of millions of dollars,&#8221; the prosecutors argued. &#8220;Manafort chose to do this for no other reason than greed, evidencing his belief that the law does not apply to him.&#8221;
But, as the <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/the-navy-fighter-pilot-judge-who-shot-down-mueller">Washington Examiner</a>&#8216;s Caitlyn Yilek reports, Judge Ellis &#8212; a Ronald Reagan-appointeee who is a former U.S. Navy aviator &#8212; dismissed the &#8220;excessive&#8221; 19 to 24-year request as being &#8220;clearly a disparity&#8221; with Manafort&#8217;s crimes.
&#8220;To impose a sentence of 19-24 years on Mr. Manafort would clearly be a disparity. In the end, I don&#8217;t think the guidelines range is at all appropriate,&#8221; the judge said, adding: &#8220;I think what I&#8217;ve done is sufficiently punitive, and anyone who disagrees should spend a day in a federal penitentiary.&#8221;
Along with the 47-month sentence with 9 months served, Ellis set Manafort&#8217;s restitution at a wide range &#8212; $6 million to nearly $25 million &#8212; pending clarification on how much he will have to relinquish in the forfeiture process, CNN reports.
Yilek notes that Ellis displayed impatience at times with the prosecutors in the pre-trial hearing, &#8220;question[ing] why the special counsel&#8217;s office had charged Manafort with crimes unrelated to their investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.&#8221; The judge also suggested that Mueller&#8217;s team was really trying to use Manafort to get Trump.
While Manafort certainly got off a lot easier than prosecutors had hoped, he still faces another sentencing for charges for which he pleaded guilty: foreign lobbying violations and the process crime of tampering with a witness during his attempt to reach a plea deal with prosecutors.
Democrats are not happy about Judge Ellis&#8217; decision to give Manafort less than four years, some taking to social media to decry the &#8220;injustice&#8221; of the sentence and float conspiratorial claims, including House Intelligence Committee Chair Democrat Adam Schiff, who has already sent out preemptive warnings against Trump pardoning Manafort.
&#8220;The statement by Paul Manafort&#8217;s lawyer after an already lenient sentence &#8212; repeating the President&#8217;s mantra of no collusion &#8212; was no accident. It was a deliberate appeal for a pardon,&#8221; Schiff wrote after the sentencing Thursday. &#8220;One injustice must not follow another.&#8221;
&#8220;Presidents can use a pardon to rectify an injustice. They may not use it to obstruct justice,&#8221; Schiff wrote earlier Thursday. &#8220;I just introduced legislation to ensure that if the pardon power is abuse to coverup crimes involving any President, his/her family or associates, Congress finds out.&#8221;
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The statement by Paul Manafort&#8217;s lawyer after an already lenient sentence &#8212; repeating the President&#8217;s mantra of no collusion &#8212; was no accident. It was a deliberate appeal for a pardon.
One injustice must not follow another.
&#8212; Adam Schiff (@RepAdamSchiff) <a href="https://twitter.com/RepAdamSchiff/status/1103824742790901760?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 8, 2019</a></blockquote>
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Presidents can use a pardon to rectify an injustice. They may not use it to obstruct justice.
I just introduced legislation to ensure that if the pardon power is abused to coverup crimes involving any President, his/her family or associates, Congress finds out: <a href="https://t.co/RQ3HjWOZhi">pic.twitter.com/RQ3HjWOZhi</a>
&#8212; Adam Schiff (@RepAdamSchiff) <a href="https://twitter.com/RepAdamSchiff/status/1103695804982804480?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 7, 2019</a></blockquote>
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Judge Smacks Mueller’s ‘Excessive’ Request, Sentences Manafort To Far Less Time Than He Recommended

Special Counsel Robert Mueller&#8217;s final filings against former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort are likely bad news for Manafort, but may be &#8212; oddly &#8212; good news for President Donald Trump.
Mueller and his team made their final required filing in Manafort&#8217;s case late Friday, submitting a &#8220;government sentencing memorandum&#8221; <a href="https://www.politico.com/f/?id=00000169-1bd3-d847-abe9-bbd3f6bc0001">to the United States District Court in Washington, D.C</a>., justifying their request for a harsh, 17-year prison sentence against Manafort.
In it, the government argues that Manafort &#8220;chose repeatedly and knowingly to violate the law&#8212; whether the laws proscribed garden-variety crimes such as tax fraud, money laundering, obstruction of justice, and bank fraud, or more esoteric laws that he nevertheless was intimately familiar with, such as the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA),&#8221; both before and after he was under scrutiny by the Special Counsel.
Manafort&#8217;s portfolio of crimes include incidents going back more than a decade to 2005, to when Manafort was a lobbying the federal government on issues involving Russia and Ukraine. They run all the way up to last year, when Manafort was discovered to have engaged in witness tampering, even after he was indicted on tax fraud charges.
But what the government sentencing document &#8212; and Manafort&#8217;s apparent list of transgressions &#8212; doesn&#8217;t include is evidence of actual collusion with Russia during the course of the Trump for President campaign, the actual focus of Mueller&#8217;s investigation. Instead, the filing simply says that Manafort committed some of his crimes while under the &#8220;spotlight&#8221; of the campaign.
&#8220;His criminal actions were bold, some of which were committed while under a spotlight due to his work as the campaign chairman and, later, while he was on bail from this Court,&#8221; Mueller&#8217;s filing says. &#8220;Given the breadth of Manafort&#8217;s criminal activity, the government has not located a comparable case with the unique array of crimes and aggravating factor.&#8221;
The document is by no means easy on Manafort, and it shouldn&#8217;t be. There does not appear to be an authority Manafort didn&#8217;t lie to, both before and during the Mueller investigation, and Manafort doesn&#8217;t appear to have much of an excuse as to why, except some stories about a particularly difficult childhood, which the government argues is no mitigating factor at all.
But Democrats will be disappointed to note that Trump&#8217;s campaign is almost never mentioned in the 25-page filing (although there are a few redacted portions that could demonstrate some connection to the president and his 2016 campaign). Russia is, of course, mentioned, but only in relation to Manafort&#8217;s lobbying work on behalf of Viktor Yanukovych, which ended before 2014, and well before Trump ever entered the 2016 presidential race.
Potential &#8220;collusion&#8221; between the Trump campaign and the Russian government is never mentioned.
One item does seem to be from the correct era &#8212; an instance of &#8220;false statements to the Department of Justice&#8221; in late 2016, just before the presidential election &#8212; but those statements appear, based on the filing, to relate to Mueller&#8217;s (and before him, the Justice Department&#8217;s) investigation of his work with Ukraine. Instead of lying about something new, it seems Manafort was still covering for actions he took years earlier.
Mueller&#8217;s report is expected in early March, but so far, it seems, may have little in the way of evidence that the Trump campaign is guilty of collusion, as a number of Democrats desire.

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