TRUMP SAID HE WOULD ONLY GET “THE BEST PEOPLE”…DID HE?

…This was Trump’s Campaign Manager, Paul Manafort, before going to prison

It’s Hard to find people close to the president that haven’t been indicted.

Let’s take a look at some of the individuals that have closely surrounded our president before and since he became president.

On Thursday of this week, the first individual that was the Executive Campaign Manager and Chief Strategist for Trump’s 2016 election campaign, Stephen Bannon, was arrested on federal fraud charges. He’s alleged to have been part of a scheme that redirected private donations intended for building a privately financed wall on the border with Mexico to himself and others.  He’s charged, in other words, with having warped Trump’s 2016 calls for a wall on the border, which Trump had lied about Mexico paying for.  Instead, Bannon, the grifter, and company, had apparently made building the wall idea into a personal enrichment scheme.

These allegations will be tested in a court of law, and Bannon, out on $5 million bail, is presumed to be innocent until proven guilty.  (And what was Bannon doing on a 150ft Yacht, owned by a Chinese billionaire, when he was arrested?.)

Now, that’s not the case for Paul Manafort, the second person that led Trump’s election campaign, who is now under house arrest after being released from prison out of concern for the coronavirus pandemic.

In March 2019, Manafort was sentenced to more than seven years in prison after being convicted or pleading guilty to a broad array of charges including bank and tax fraud, witness tampering and conspiracy against the United States. The charges Manafort faced stemmed in part from an investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller, which dug into his business practices and questioned his ties to Russian political interests. On Tuesday, those connections earned more scrutiny with the release of a bipartisan Senate committee report documenting Manafort’s sharing of Trump campaign material with a colleague referred to as a Russian intelligence officer.

The Mueller inquiry also led to criminal charges against other people linked to Trump and his campaign.

Rick Gates served the campaign as the deputy campaign chairman and, after the election, he worked for Trump’s inaugural committee.  Gates, who had worked with Manafort for years, was similarly charged with financial crimes and conspiracy. He agreed to cooperate with investigators and was sentenced to 45 days in jail last year.

The president’s longtime adviser Roger Stone, who both the Mueller and Senate reports indicated was in regular contact with Trump during the campaign, he was sentenced to prison this year after being convicted on seven counts of witness tampering and lying to investigators. Trump commuted Stone’s sentence in July saying that the jury that found him guilty of all charges was “treated Stone unfairly”.

Trump’s adviser and first national security adviser, Michael Flynn, was arrested in 2017 on a charge that he misled investigators about conversations he had had with Russia’s ambassador during Trump’s transition. The Justice Department later tried to withdraw the charge, despite Flynn’s admitting that he had lied to the FBI “twice”.. That request to withdraw, made by the Attorney General in support of the president, has spurred a legal fight that is still underway.

Now, Trump’s personal lawyer Michael Cohen was sentenced to prison for tax evasion and fraud, as well as for lying to congressional investigators about his efforts on Trump’s behalf to do business in Russia in 2015 and 2016. (Remember, that the president was referred to as the individual #1 that was responsible for having Cogen’s violate the law.  But since he is the president, he cannot be indicted while in office.)  

Cohen also pleaded guilty to federal campaign finance violations for his role in helping Trump bury allegations that the then-presidential candidate had engaged in extramarital affairs with an adult film actress as well as a former Playboy Bunny/Model.

It's worth noting that Cohen's pleas on those hush-money payments did implicated Trump , which the authorities can then come after Trump, if he loses the election.

Other people less closely linked to Trump have similarly faced criminal charges by the federal government or Mueller’s team.

Alex van der Zwaan, an associate of Manafort’s and Gates’s, served time in jail and was deported.

George Papadopoulos, who was an adviser to Trump’s campaign, served time for lying to investigators. That associate of Manafort’s who was linked to Russian intelligence, Konstantin Kilimnik, who also has an outstanding warrant centered on alleged obstruction of justice.

And we can’t forget the two employees of Trump’s personal lawyer Rudolph Giuliani, who were both indicted in October on campaign finance violations.

Oh, and Rudy Giuliani himself is reportedly the subject of a federal investigation by the same office that Giuliani had once himself run.  The Southern District of New York (SDNY), the local district Federal Court that tends to operate under their own rules.

One takeaway from the Bannon indictment, is this: Each of the three people primarily responsible for helping shepherd Trump into the White House has, at some point since he announced his candidacy in June 2015, faced criminal charges. And those three people constitute less than half of the close Trump allies to have pleaded guilty to or been indicted on or convicted of criminal charges.

Last month, Trump was asked about his decision to reshuffle the leadership of his re-election team. He took the opportunity to praise both Corey Lewandowski and Steve Bannon.

“We have Corey, and we have all the people,” Trump told Fox News’ Chris Wallace. “And, actually, Steve Bannon’s been much better not being involved. He says [I’m] the greatest president ever. I mean, he’s saying things that I said, ‘Let’s keep Steve out there, he’s doing a good job.’ ” “But,” he added, “they’re all being — they’re all involved.”

We’ll I guess I  don’t have to say anything further.  Trump has said it all, and he thinks these guys are great.

Copyright G. Ater 2020