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Paul Manafort's Virginia case has nothing to do with Trump/Russian election collusion. You are proving Darrins point.
Judge seems like a Trumpie. Might actually let Manafort off.
Paul Manafort's Virginia case has nothing to do with Trump/Russian election collusion. You are proving Darrins point.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2018...-cmon-man.htmlJudge seems like a Trumpie. Might actually let Manafort off.
Judge seems like a Trumpie. Might actually let Manafort off.
'I don't see what relation this indictment has with what the special counsel is authorized to investigate,' the judge says.
"There’s no mention in the indictment of any Russian individuals or any Russian bank or any payment to Manafort by the Russians,” the judge noted.
“Our investigative scope covers the activities that led to this case,” Dreeben said at one point.
“It covers bank fraud in 2005 and 2007?” Ellis replied incredulously.
https://www.politico.com/story/2018/...rt-case-568935
A federal judge expressed deep skepticism Friday in the bank fraud case brought by special counsel Robert Mueller's office against former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, at one point saying he believes that Mueller's motivation is to oust President Donald Trump from office.
Although Mueller's authority has been tested in court before, Friday's hearing was notable for District Judge T.S. Ellis' decision to wade into the divisive political debate around the investigation.
"You don't really care about Mr. Manafort's bank fraud," Ellis said to prosecutor Michael Dreeben, at times losing his temper. Ellis said prosecutors were interested in Manafort because of his potential to provide material that would lead to Trump's "prosecution or impeachment," Ellis said.
"That's what you're really interested in," said Ellis, who was appointed by President Ronald Reagan.
Ellis repeated his su ion several times in the hour-long court hearing. He said he'll make a decision at a later date about whether Manafort's case can go forward.
"We don't want anyone in this country with unfettered power. It's unlikely you're going to persuade me the special prosecutor has power to do anything he or she wants," Ellis told Dreeben. "The American people feel pretty strongly that no one has unfettered power."
When Dreeben answered Ellis' question about how the investigation and its charges date back to before the Trump campaign formed, the judge shot back, "None of that information has to do with information related to Russian government coordination and the campaign of Donald Trump."
At one point, Ellis posed a hypothetical question, speaking as if he were the prosecutor, about why Mueller's office referred a criminal investigation about Trump's personal attorney Michael Cohen to New York authorities and kept the Manafort case in Virginia.
They weren't interested in it because it didn't "further our core effort to get Trump," Ellis said, mimicking a prosecutor in the case.
https://www.cnn.com/2018/05/04/polit...ing/index.html
those are good questions. but we've seen the scope of special prosecutors expand quite a bit in the past too. starr went from real estate investment deals to monica lewinksy.
interested to see how the judge ends up ruling
I'm pretty sure the DOJ memo from Manafort's failed civil suit could be informative for the judge.
apparently, the judge isn't allowed to consider the prosecutor's motive in making this ruling, though. his decision has to purely be based on whether the indictment is within the scope of mueller's jurisdiction. it's quite possible (given his comments) that he ends up ruling against mueller on the merits, but if his statement of decision starts going into mueller's alleged motive to "get manafort to flip/sing" then that could be considered reversible error, since he's not allowed to take that in consideration.
yeah. that's the big mystery as its not publicly available, though yes, it ended up beating manafort's civil suit, like you said. judge ellis ordered them to file it with the court under seal. so it STILL wont be public, and even manafort's team won't see it. but if it was good enough to get the job done in civil, could do the same here. all speculation though.
cant imagine we get a ruling until after it's filed
It's an odd outburst tbh. The scope was spelled out in the memo. My conspiracy theory du jour is that its a ploy to get the redacted parts of the memo to enough people that it can get back to team Dennison. A couple House members have been demanding it, for example.
Can't imagine that if it's filed under seal, unless the judge literally faxes it over or somethin
Right. The judge here can only about it.Can't imagine that if it's filed under seal, unless the judge literally faxes it over or somethin
Which is exactly what this judge did.
It's weird.
Didn't the chyron say exactly what he was? What's your conspiracy theory here?
Judge in the bank fraud case against Manafort goes rogue, accuses Mueller of aiming for impeachment
U.S. District Court Judge T.S. Ellis said Mueller's team seemed to be pursuing the case — which involves bank and tax fraud — in order to "tighten the screws" on Manafort, in the hope that he will testify against others including President Donald Trump.
"I don't see what relation this indictment has with what the special counsel is authorized to investigate,"
Ellis said during an hourlong hearing in Alexandria, Virginia.
"You don't really care about Mr. Manafort's bank fraud. ...
What you really care about is what information Mr. Manafort could give you
that would reflect on Mr. Trump or lead to his prosecution or impeachment."
A Reagan appointee, Judge Ellis reiterated that accusation throughout Friday’s hearing,
Ellis committed both an ethical and
a legal error. The latter means that there’s a good chance that the most Ellis could do is delay rather than totally derail the bank fraud charges.
One of the most critical criteria for judges is what the American Bar Association refers to as judicial temperament. That includes “compassion, decisiveness, open-mindedness, courtesy, patience, freedom from bias and commitment to equal justice under the law.”
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/201...or-impeachmentAsha Rangappa
✔@AshaRangappa_
What a bizarre commentary from a judge.
Unless there is something legally amiss in the indictment,
speculating re motives of the SC is beyond the judge's purview
(and also seems to suggest that there is a connection bw Manafort's criminal bank fraud and Trump).
https://twitter.com/cnn/status/992428456171491328 …
10:45 AM - May 4, 2018
Ellis is the type of extremist, ideological right wing judges the Repug Senate is rail roading through approval by the bucket load, ing America for decades
No.
I don’t have one.
It called him a Comey adviser and former federal prosecutor.Is there a reason you posted it?I don’t have one.
He was working for the FBI as an SGE.
Oh, so he had a security clearance.
Turns out Comey outsmarted blog again.
Confidence level of the OP is at an all time low today. Good times.
Why do you say that, TSA?
Did blog say it?
djohn can correct me if I'm wrong but I believe his confidence in Trump getting impeached or lol imprisoned has hit rock bottom today.
Are you more confident today that Mueller will take Trump down than you were when Mueller was first appointed Special Counsel?
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