A MANAFORT JUROR SHOWS WHY TRUMP IS SO DANGEROUS

…The Manafort Juror, and Trump supporter, Paula Duncan

Trump is a president surrounded by people of poor character and criminal minds.

So far, only one of the Paul Manafort’s jurors has spoken out and has been interviewed on camera, and the interview proved exactly how dangerous it is for having a Donald Trump in the White House.

Yes, it is true that they did find Paul Manafort guilty on 8 of 18 major counts.  But Ms. Paula Duncan, the interviewed juror #0302, made it clear that with the exception of one other juror that could not explain why she was holding back on voting “yes” on the other 10 counts, then Manafort would have been found guilty on all 18 counts against him.

But what is making Trump so dangerous is that Ms. Duncan is also a serious Donald Trump supporter.  Ms. Duncan stated that she is a die-hard, MAGA-cap-wearing President Trump supporter and that she agrees with Trump’s assessment that the "special counsel investigation into Russian collusion is a witch hunt and she will vote for Trump again in 2020”.

She also said that from her point-of-view, she had wanted Manafort, Trump’s former campaign manager, to be innocent, but the evidence and the boxes full of documents convinced her otherwise.

“Finding Mr. Manafort guilty was hard for me,” she said. “I really wanted him to be innocent, but he wasn’t. That’s the part of a juror; you have to have due diligence and deliberate and look at the evidence and come up with an informed and intelligent decision, which I did.”

The other issue with supporters such as Ms. Duncan, is that she and some others also agree with the president that people that “flip” to save themselves from more jail time are as the president says, “RATS”.

Duncan was disgusted by the prosecution’s star witness, Rick Gates, Manafort’s former business partner, who had entered a plea deal in which he agreed to testify against Manafort.  Duncan echoed Trump’s opinion about flipping turncoats, saying that Gates “deserves a special place in hell.”  Remember, Trump himself said that flipping “almost ought to be illegal.”  Duncan said she and the other jurors ignored Gates’s testimony as not credible and focused instead on the paperwork, and reading boxes of documents.

Actually, it’s not unusual for some jurors to not give credibility to turned witnesses.  “If they committed offenses, why should we believe them now for what they are saying just to save their ass!”

But the prosecution made the right approach by not calling on Rick Gates until after they had presented all the other written evidence and the witnesses such as the accountants, bank personnel and other professionals that helped present the hard evidence.  They did that before putting Gates on the stand.

Even those like Duncan that wanted Manafort to be innocent could not ignore the hard evidence and those that had just presented the evidence and were not included in the illegal events.

Another issue showing the danger of a Trump presidency is that this juror displayed a total nod to Trump’s “Trumpism” by taking a verbal jab at special counsel Robert S. Mueller III.

Duncan said: “Certainly Mr. Manafort got caught breaking the law, but he wouldn’t have gotten caught if they weren’t going after President Trump”.  In other words: “This is all Mueller’s fault”.

What she was saying was: If not for the ‘witch hunt’, everything would have gone along in its usual fashion. No special counsel, no probe, no trials, juries or guilty verdicts. Nothing but high-fives in Trump world.  In other words, they would have gotten away with breaking the law.

But the truth is, things turned out as they did not because of Mueller, but because of Trump’s big mouth, and from a president who has surrounded himself with people of poor character and criminal minds.

The reality of Mr. Trump for decades is his first reflex in any given situation is to cover up, lie, bully, pay off and deny, deny, deny.

Contrary to Trump’s single moment of compassion, “Manafort is not a very good person.” He’s a crook that wears $15,000 suits.  And so is Gates, who not only conspired with Manafort to rob others but who also stole from Manafort. 

As also is Trump’s former personal attorney, Michael Cohen, who pleaded guilty to violating campaign finance laws when arranging payments to two women.  One an adult-film star and the other, a former Playboy centerfold model, who both claimed to have had affairs with Trump years ago.  Cohen and Trump paid them off just so they’d keep quiet during the 2016 election.

It is appearing that the so called “witch hunt” may be nearing a close.  Even if Mueller can’t establish actual Russian collusion, he has contributed significantly to the health of the republic by doing what Trump is unable to do.  In a way, his actions are attempting to “drain the swamp”.

I am assuming that Ms. Duncan would not prefer people like Manafort and Cohen should  continue their criminal activities.  But that may be a wrong assumption.

As in the Manafort case, the evidence against Trump of campaign corruption and even more illegal activity is piling up.

Stay tuned to this station.

Copyright G.Ater  2018