I am there. If it is out Christmas day, I am in the theater Christmas day to see it.This is gonna be a must see.
RUSSIA/РОССИЯ THREAD—ASSANGE CHRGD W/ SPYING—DJT IMPEACHED TWICE-US TREASURY SANCTS KILIMNIK AS RUSSIAN AGNT
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COHEN LAWYERS' SENTENCING MEMOS:
THEY REQUEST TIME-SERVED ON BEHALF OF COHEN
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Prosecutors ramp up foreign lobbying probe in New York
By ERIC TUCKER, DESMOND BUTLER and CHAD DAY37 minutes ago
FILE - In this May 23, 2018, file photo, Paul Manafort, President Donald Trump's former campaign chairman, leaves the Federal District Court after a hearing, in Washington. Spinning off from the special counsel’s Russia probe, prosecutors are ramping up their investigation into foreign lobbying by two major Washington firms that did work for former Trump campaign chairman Manafort, according to people familiar with the matter. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, File)
WASHINGTON (AP) — Spinning off from the special counsel’s Russia probe, prosecutors are ramping up their investigation into foreign lobbying by two major Washington firms that did work for former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, according to people familiar with the matter.
The investigation had been quiet for months since special counsel Robert Mueller referred it to authorities in Manhattan because it fell outside his mandate of determining whether the Trump campaign coordinated with Russia.
But in a flurry of new activity, Justice Department prosecutors in the last several weeks have begun interviewing witnesses and contacting lawyers to schedule additional questioning related to the Podesta Group and Mercury Public Affairs, the people familiar with the inquiry said. They spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the ongoing work.
The New York work underscores the broad effects of Mueller’s investigation, extending well beyond the central question of President Donald Trump and collusion. Mueller has made clear he will not turn away if he discovers alleged crimes outside the scope of his inquiry; instead, he refers them out in investigations that may linger on even after the special counsel’s work concludes. Other Justice Department referrals from Mueller have ended in guilty pleas, including the hush money payment case of Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen.
The investigation reflects how Mueller, in latching onto an obscure law, has shined a light on high-dollar lobbying practices that have helped foreign governments find powerful allies and advocates in Washington. It’s a practice that has spanned both parties and enriched countless former government officials, who have leveraged their connections to influence American politics.
In New York, Mueller’s referral prompted a fresh look at the lobbying firms of Washington insiders Tony Podesta and Vin Weber, who have faced scrutiny for their decisions not to register as foreign agents for Ukrainian lobbying work directed by Manafort.
Podesta is a longtime Democratic operative whose brother, John Podesta, ran Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign; Weber is a former Republican congressman from Minnesota. Neither man has been charged with any crimes. Their firms have defended the decisions by saying they relied on the advice of outside attorneys.
Mueller’s referral also involved Greg Craig, a former White House counsel for President Barack Obama. Craig supervised a report authored on behalf of the Ukrainian government, and Mueller’s team has said Manafort helped Ukraine hide that it paid more than $4 million for the work. CNN reported in September that prosecutors were weighing charges against Craig.
It’s unclear if the renewed interest will produce charges or if prosecutors are merely following up on Mueller’s referral.
Lawyers for Weber and Craig and a spokeswoman for Podesta declined to comment. The U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan didn’t return an email seeking comment.
Mercury spokesman Michael McKeon said the firm has “always welcomed any inquiry since we acted appropriately at every step of the process, including hiring a top lawyer in Washington and following his advice. We’ll continue to cooperate as we have previously.”
Foreign lobbying work was central to Mueller’s case against Manafort and his longtime associate Rick Gates, two high-profile Trump campaign officials who pleaded guilty earlier this year and have been interviewed extensively by prosecutors.
The Podestas have been frequent targets of Trump and his associates, who have repeatedly demanded to know why Tony Podesta has not been arrested and charged. Trump confidant Roger Stone, for instance, has insisted a 2016 tweet of his that appeared to predict the release by WikiLeaks of John Podesta’s emails — “Trust me, it will soon the Podesta’s time in the barrel” — was instead a reference to the brothers’ foreign lobbying activities getting them into the hot seat.
In September, Manafort admitted to directing Mercury and the Podesta Group to lobby in the U.S. on behalf of a Ukrainian political party and Ukraine’s government then led by President Viktor Yanukovych, Manafort’s longtime political patron.
While carrying out the lobbying, neither the Podesta Group nor the Mercury Group registered as foreign agents under a U.S. law known as the Foreign Agents Registration Act, or FARA, which requires lobbyists to declare publicly if they represent foreign leaders, governments or their political parties.
The Justice Department has rarely prosecuted such cases, which carry up to five years in prison, but has taken a more aggressive tack lately.
To secretly fund the lobbying and to avoid registration with the Justice Department, Manafort said he along with unidentified “others” arranged for the firms to be hired by a Brussels-based nonprofit, the European Centre for Modern Ukraine, rather than the Ukrainian political interests directly.
Mercury and Podesta, which were paid a combined $2 million on the project, then registered under a less stringent lobbying law that doesn’t require as much public disclosure as FARA.
Both firms have said they registered under the Lobbying Disclosure Act, rather than FARA, on the advice of lawyers at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, Craig’s former firm.
Mercury has also said Gates lied to its employees about the project. The Podesta Group has said it was misled by the European Centre for Modern Ukraine, citing a written certification from the nonprofit stating it wasn’t directed or controlled by the Ukrainian Party of Regions, one of Manafort’s clients.
Both firms have since registered under FARA. But in court papers filed alongside Manafort’s plea agreement, Mueller’s prosecutors suggested the firms were aware they were working on Ukraine’s behalf.
Prosecutors say employees of both companies “referred to the client in ways that made clear they knew it was Ukraine.” One Mercury employee said the nonprofit was the client “in name only,” likening the situation to “Alice in Wonderland.” A Podesta employee referred to the nonprofit’s certification that it wasn’t related to the Ukrainian political party as a “fig leaf on a fig leaf.”
Mueller’s team also noted that “the head of” the Podesta Group, an apparent reference to Tony Podesta, told his team to think the President of Ukraine “is the client.”
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palmbeachpost.com
End to Manafort plea deal could put Palm Beach Gardens home at risk
Christine Stapleton
6-8 minutes
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Paul Manafort will be allowed to keep his home in BallenIsle as part of a plea agreement with federal prosecutors.
By Christine Stapleton
@StapletonPBPost
Tuesday
Posted Dec 4, 2018 at 8:40 AM Updated Dec 4, 2018 at 4:33 PM
Paul Manafort’s efforts to make sure his wife could continue living in the couple’s Palm Beach Gardens home should he go to prison fizzled after special counsel Robert Mueller III filed court papers last week asking a judge to throw out the deal because Manafort lied.
The special counsel in the Russia investigation in November accused Manafort, President Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman, of violating his plea agreement by repeatedly lying to federal investigators, according to court records filed by the special counsel’s office last week. One of Manafort’s lawyers is also suspected of briefing Trump’s lawyers on his client’s discussions with federal investigators, according to the New York Times.
At a court hearing in September, Manafort pleaded guilty to years of financial crimes intended to hide his money from the IRS. And he promised to tell the government about “his participation in and knowledge of all criminal activities,” including his work on the Trump campaign as well as his Ukrainian political work.
Also in the plea deal, Manafort agreed to forfeit his $22 million real estate portfolio. The 5,231-square-foot home in BallenIsles — legally the couple’s homestead — was the only property in Manafort’s property holdings that prosecutors had agreed not to seize.
With that promise, Manafort went a step further to protect his wife’s interest and took his name off the deed on Oct. 30 — leaving her the sole owner of the homesteaded residence
But that move and the homestead exemption now may not be enough to keep prosecutors from seizing the home, experts say. Although Florida has some of the strongest safeguards for homeowners, property — including those with homesteads — can be seized if the government can prove it was purchased with the proceeds of a crime.
“If the government can show the property was purchased from illegal activity, then the government can go against the property,” said attorney Frank Rubino, a Miami, criminal defense lawyer who specializes in federal white-collar cases. “The homestead (exemption) is not protection.”
Ruth Madoff, wife of Bernie Madoff, faced a similar predicament in 2009 when federal prosecutors went after the couple’s assets to compensate victims of her husband’s $65 billion Ponzi scheme. The same year, Mrs. Madoff, the sole owner of the couple’s 8,800-square-foot home in Palm Beach, put a homestead exemption on the property.
The Manaforts paid $1.5 million for their home in BallenIsles in 2007. The same year Manafort’s consulting firm received a $455,000 wire transfer from the party of Ukrainian Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych. Manafort, who failed to register to represent a foreign government, had been hired to improve the image of Vladimir Putin-backed Yanukovych.
Proving Manafort used illegal money to purchase the home could be difficult. It could be easier to prove that Manafort used money he laundered through overseas shell companies and banks to pay for extensive renovations to the home.
A 31-page indictment against Manafort filed in 2017 accused Manafort of using money he laundered through banks in Cyprus, the Grenadines and United Kingdom to pay for his lavish lifestyle, including unnamed vendors in Florida. At about the time he withdrew $432,487 from a bank in Cyprus, the couple paid a Palm Beach Gardens contractor to redesign their master bathroom and build an addition to a guest house, according to court records.
Even if dirty money was used to purchase or renovate the home, there is still the question of whether Mrs. Manafort knew. If she did not, the government could still attempt to seize Manafort’s half-interest in the home, Rubino said. But they would not be able to collect that interest as long as Mrs. Manafort owns the home.
What are the chances of that?
“I think in the eyes of the court she would be an innocent third party,” said John Tierney, Palm Beach Garden criminal defense attorney who specializes in federal court cases.
Either way, the status of the Palm Beach Gardens home was secure — until Manafort angered crossed the Mueller team by allegedly lying to investigators. Now, it remains a question mark until a judge decides whether to vacate the plea deal.
Unlike the misery Madoff inflicted on the more than 2,000 victims who sought reimbursement from the sale of Madoff’s assets, in the Manafort case, the IRS and federal government are the victims, Tierney said.
“There was a time when the federal government was more aggressive about forfeitures,” Tierney said. “Even if they could prove the money was tainted, once they took all the other properties ... I don’t believe they will ever go after that even if they could.”
While the government may spare Manafort’s home, he likely won’t be so lucky when it comes to his sentence, Tierney added. Mueller’s team has until Friday to disclose how they say Manafort lied.
“The worst thing you can do is to double-cross them,” Tierney said about plea deals that hinge on cooperating with prosecutors. “You not only don’t get the reduction, you can get charged with obstruction and you get an enhancement.”
cstapleton@pbpost.com
@StapletonPBPost
88m3
Fast Money & Foreign Objects
Washington Post
27 mins ·
Let's revisit that Comey memo, shall we?
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WASHINGTONPOST.COM
Opinion | Mueller’s new Michael Flynn memo strengthens obstruction case against Trump
Let's revisit that Comey memo, shall we?
Lock him up. Ted Devine too while you're at it.
What is Trump waiting on 
he knows he is going down and his family why is he not doing nothing????
he knows he is going down and his family why is he not doing nothing????
Clayton Endicott
Superstar
DaKidFromNoWhere
Superstar
Off topic but watching MSNBC and I miss seeing Melissa Harris-Perry