When Rick Gates took the stand in Paul Manafort’s Virginia trial Monday, he quickly showed the power Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s team can wield if they can get witnesses to “flip” against former friends and colleagues, a particular obsession of President Donald Trump’s as the Russia investigation grinds on.
By Monday, the jury in Manafort’s trial had heard from an FBI agent, high-end menswear salesmen, accountants and financial experts, among other witnesses, to testify about the tax and bank fraud that Trump’s former campaign chairman had been charged with. But court watchers had been eagerly awaiting Gates, who both the prosecution and defense seem to be hoping will be at the center of their case.
Gates, who was also a senior Trump campaign official, was Manafort’s righthand man for years. The defense signaled in opening arguments that they’ll try to pin the tax and bank fraud crimes at issue in this case on him. Gates has already pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy against the U.S. and one count of making a false statement to investigators in the course of Mueller’s investigation.
Gates’s appearance in court marked a dramatic moment in the probe: the first visible case of a witness flipping, or turning on friends or colleagues in a case. Trump’s former adviser George Papadopoulos has reportedly been cooperating with Mueller, but the public hasn’t learned what he may have divulged. Trump is obsessed with loyalty in his inner circle, famously even demanding it of former FBI Director James Comey.
His preoccupation with the idea that confidantes or associates might turn on him came to the foreground recently when he fed rumors that his longtime lawyer Michael Cohen might flip, tweeting in April that journalists “are going out of their way to destroy Michael Cohen and his relationship with me in the hope that he will “flip”” and that “most people will flip if the Government lets them out of trouble, even if….it means lying or making up stories.”
Ho. Hum.
ReplyDeleteAll we're doing is destroying democracy. Which man who has experience to govern is so clean that all his dealings, colleagues' dealings, family dealings, friends' dealings can withstand the scrutiny that a rogue special prosecutor with virtually unlimited mandate and budget can bring to bear?
Who, with an ounce of desire for self preservation, will want to run for President? Leaving the field to the reckless and feckless.
I come to this website to read about:
ReplyDelete"Daas Torah - Issues of Jewish Identity"
Unfortunately, it has lost its vision, and a good part of the postings have nothing to do with the above.
להבדיל, בין הקודש ובין החול, ובין הטמא, ובין הטהור
Maybe you can devote a SEPARATE site to President Trump.