Monday, October 30, 2017

You Three are the first contestants on The Indictments Are Right..

Did anyone else take a step back sometime today, look at the big news story and say to themselves, "Whoa!"  Maybe it's just me.

Obviously I'm talking about the indictment of former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort and his assistant Rick Price and multiple charges of money laundering and conspiracy against the US.  Now, many people thought when news trickled out over the weekend that the first charges would be filed that Manafort would be in the cross hairs.  Some thought it would be related to collusion, some thought it was financial, but he was an easy guess to anyone who paid a slight bit of attention. 

Rick Gates' indictment was only slightly less of a shock.  Given that he worked closely with Manafort, that can be an easily understandable choice upon thinking about it.  However, the big shock was campaign advisor George Papadopoulos.  Papadopoulos surprised everyone on multiple counts.  One, almost nobody knew who he was.  Also, as we found out more it turned out he not only was indicted but plead guilty to charges of lying to the FBI in a plea deal...three weeks ago.  Yes, the Mueller probe not only had a guilty plea from someone but kept it under wraps for three weeks, which is almost a miracle in electoral vote winner Donny's Washington.

Now, Papadopoulos is admittedly a smaller player than Manafort or Michael Flynn or any of the family members (Jared Kushner, Don Jr).  However, it turned out he  brought up the possibility of meetings with a professor with ties to the Kremlin in search of dirt on Hillary Clinton.  This alone is a new hit to the side of the good ship Donny and his allies.

Electoral vote winner Donny and his minions, of course, who tried to downplay this, claiming Papadopoulos an unpaid advisor who didn't have a real role with the campaign.  The problem with that is who else was at the soon to be infamous meeting where he brought up meeting Russia.  It wasn't just small campaign types, but his current attorney general Jeffy Sessions and Donny himself.  Yup, both somehow were there.  This adds fuel to the fire that there just maybe might have kinda sorta been collusion between the campaign/administration of now electoral vote winer Donny and Russia.

Admittedly Papadopoulos is a low level player but his plea deal had him cooperating right under everyone's smug noses.  I have a feeling that pressure will be put on Manafort and Price to flip and turn over information.  Whether that's successful or not remains to be seen since many believe Manafort could just as likely stay silent, get convicted, and then get pardoned by Donny.  However, things are up in the air right now on that front.


There's still a lot to be discovered as the indictment is examined and poured over by everyone from legal experts to your average newshound.  What I do know is that any suggestion that the Mueller probe is over and that nothing will come from it is shattered.  There's still a lot to know and we're a long way from done in this long and twisted journey.

I expect we'll be commenting more ont his and news develops.