You know, Carter Page has been an awful lot of fun since he came to the surface. Like some kind of a political Mr. Bean, knocking shit over while he smiles and acts like it was just what he meant to do. Every time he opens his mouth to deny something, what every listener hears is “Guilty Your Honor”. But Carter Page, no matter his assertions, is not a seasoned political insider, he’s an idiot who got in over his head, and now he’s looking for a life raft.
Paul Manafort is not in this category. He is a seasoned political insider, and a veteran of multiple Presidential campaigns. So, the last thing that you would expect from Paul Manafort is that he would start doing a Carter Page, bumbling around and leaving a trail of bread crumbs back to his nest. But that seems to be exactly what he’s done. Carter Page may have feta cheese between his ears, but at least nobody has uncovered any contacts between him and the Trump campaign since his name started getting splashed all over the news. Which makes him smarter than Manafort apparently.
According to a new REPORT on Politico, Paul “I only worked legally for Ukrainians, not Putin” Manafort was distressed about the bad rap he was getting in the Christopher Steele “dossier” that got published, and he wanted to set the record straight, so he went right to the top;
Months after the FBI began examining Paul Manafort as part of a probe into ties between President Donald Trump’s team and Russia, Manafort called Trump’s chief of staff, Reince Priebus, to push back against the mounting controversy, according to four people familiar with the call.
It was about a week before Trump’s inauguration, and Manafort wanted to brief Trump’s team on alleged inaccuracies in a recently released dossier of memos written by a former British spy for Trump’s opponents that alleged compromising ties among Russia, Trump and Trump’s associates, including Manafort.
Just a quick refresher on the timeline here. Manafort was the effective campaign manager for Trump’s campaign, and basically ran the convention. In August the New York Times broke a story about a secret ledger belonging to the ousted pro Putin Ukraine President that showed unexplained payments to Manafort totaling $12 million. Just like the movie, Manafort was “Gone in 60 Seconds” from the Trump campaign.
When the Steele dossier broke, it not only referenced payments to Manafort in the ledger, but at least one source had some juicy additional information on the effect of that information becoming public on the Russian-Ukrainian side;
The dossier, prepared by former MI6 officer Christopher Steele, claims that the day after the Times’ report on the ledger, Yanukovych secretly met with Putin near Volgograd, Russia, to discuss the matter.
“Yanukovych had confided in Putin that he did authorise and order substantial kick-back payments to Manafort as alleged but sought to reassure him that there was no documentary trail left behind which could provide clear evidence of this,” one memo in the dossier claims. The memo continues that “Putin and others in the Russian leadership were sceptical [sic] about the ex-Ukrainian president's reassurances on this.”
Now remember, Manafort swore to the heavens that his work was all aboveboard, and that he worked exclusively on behalf of the Ukraine, Putin and Russia had nothing to do with his work. Then why did Yanukovych suddenly have to run to a secret meeting with Putin to account for his boneheaded bookkeeping? Fortunately Manafort had his Rice Krispies Ukrainian-US Political Doublespeak Decoder Ring on him, and was able to see what a lame bullshit dossier this was. And his rebuttal was so devastating that he just had to get a hold of his old buddy Rinsed Penis and tell him the true story, and how to counteract it;
In conversations with other associates, Manafort singled out the dossier’s use of the term “kickback,” explaining “Yanukovych would never use that term,” according to the operative. Additionally, Manafort questioned whether any of Steele’s sources would be in position to know the contents of a meeting between Putin and Yanukovych. “This stuff would never see light of the day,” Manafort told the associates, according to the operative.
There is so much here to unpack. I worked for 7 years in fraud security for a major online retailer, and I learned that foreigners, whether Russian, Vietnamese, Ghanian or from anywhere else love to use American idioms, they think it makes them sound like us, so why wouldn’t Yanukovych use the term. And how would Manafort know which term he would use? Yanukovych must have given them out, was Manafort there for the discussions to know what term he did use? And more importantly, if Manafort had absolutely no dealings with Putin or the Russians, how in the hell would he know what would or would not be said or disseminated in a Putin led conversation like that? Rumors? Innuendo? A lucky guess?
This is just another perfect example of the Keystone Kops mentality of the Trump campaign/administration as well as everybody who touches it. Paul Manafort has been under investigation by the FBI for months, calling Reince Priebus to complain about the Steele dossier is the last thing on earth he ever should have done. And considering that even the freakin’ newspapers were broadcasting the fact that Manafort was under FBI investigation, the last thing that Priebus ever should have done was to pick up that goddamn phone and so much as say “Hello” to Manafort.
Gee, ya think that either the FBI or any of the congressional committees might have a few new questions for Manafort if they ever get him to open up his already big, fat mouth? And you think the FBI might start looking a little closer for anybody else who might have overheard either side of the conversation, or hears either of the principals relate anything about it to assist them in their inquiries? In scandals they always say “It’s not the crime, it’s the coverup”. In this particular scandal it’s the brain dead incompetence of the coverup that’s going to sink the battleship.
My own personal feeling is that Paul Manafort has already flipped, and is singing like a birdie to the FBI. I say this for a couple of reasons. First, Rachel Maddow has confirmed that as of this date, Paul Manafort has not registered as a foreign agent, nor submitted the necessary corroborating paperwork. Second, again in response to daily questioning from the Rachel Maddow Show, the DOJ has refused to confirm one way or another if Sessions has recused himself from anything having to do with the Paul Manafort portion of the investigation. There is nothing definitive being said by anybody about Manafort.
I believe that all of the publicized subpoena serving for manafort’s records is a smoke screen to make it look like Manafort is still a stand up guy, and they’re holding his feet to the fire. Manafort didn’t work 5 US Presidential elections, and survive in a political cesspool like Putin backed Ukraine without learning long ago “when-to-hold-’em-and-when-to-fold-’em”. This would also be a good reason why nobody is already falling all over themselves to offer Flynn immunity, they don’t need him Trump is about to find out that going up against the investigative might of the United States government is a lot harder than screwing over Marla Maples in a divorce settlement, and right now Trump has the wrong closer in his bullpen. Stay tuned.