the fifth... THE FIFTH... the 5th!!!
Following his conviction on eight criminal counts in a federal court in Virginia last month, President Trump’s former campaign chairman Paul Manafort faced a new trial on another full docket of charges. On Friday morning, we learned that the second trial would be short-circuited. Instead of facing a jury to evaluate whether he had laundered money or committed bank fraud or filed false reports on his lobbying, the office of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III announced that it had reached a plea agreement with Manafort. In addition to the original eight charges, Manafort admitted to another two, sparing him from another trial.
In so doing, though, Manafort increased a metric that efficiently summarizes the effectiveness of the Mueller probe. He became the fifth person linked to Trump’s campaign who admitted guilt to criminal activity after facing charges that stemmed in full or in part from Mueller’s work. The two additional charges to which Manafort agreed means that, as of writing, seven people have admitted to or been convicted of 24 criminal counts linked to the Mueller probe and/or the campaign. Another 26 people and three businesses, all in Russia or Ukraine, have been indicted by the Mueller grand jury.
Quite a witch hunt.
One of the two charges to which Manafort admitted guilt on Friday was a sweeping conspiracy charge, incorporating a slew of the numerous counts that he faced at one point. The other charge is a conspiracy charge related to obstruction of justice. This isn’t related to the president; Manafort, after the original charges were filed, had worked with a longtime business partner to try to bury evidence suggesting his guilt.
The eight counts on which he was convicted last month were mostly finance-related.
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Yep and he is still in the White House! We can thank the fucking GOP for that! ??