In my opinion this part of the investigation has been under reported.

[shockey80]

When Flynn and Gates were charged they turned quickly. Flynn and Gates were both part of Trumps inner circle. They know everything.

They were both facing many years in prison and they knew it. Mueller dropped most of the charges after they turned. Mueller would not have done this unless they told him everything. Mueller has the goods and he is going shock a lot of people.

The mystery yet to be explained is, why hasn't Manafort turned? He is facing life. I 'm just guessing, but maybe he wants too turn and Mueller said no deal. Mueller does not make deals with spies.

[lark]

1. I've been wondering bout that exact thing.

Your last line could be the answer, and I hope it is because it makes so much sense.

[manor321]

2. Putin

Maybe Manafort has seen what happens to people who turn on Putin.

[fierywoman]

3. Yup.

[jberryhill]

4. Manafort can't really make a deal

They have him dead to rights on many serious charges.

His best play is to hold out for a pardon. There's no deal that would really make a lot of sense for him or for prosecution.

[LiberalFighter]

13. I'm wondering...

If they can get him for being a Russian spy. Would DT still be willing to give Manafort a pardon? Would that be enough for Republicans and Americans to support impeachment?

[Tatiana]

5. He'll die. And probably his family too.

Look what the Russians did to the father and daughter in London... right at their very doorstep.

He danced with the devil and now another payment is due.

I think he's trying to protect his family. His life is pretty much over at this point.

[Hoyt]

6. The mystery to me is that if Mueller has something that is collaborated and provable on trump or

even his kids, why the heck hasn't he released a report to Congress, the public, or whomever?

It's not going to do any good to carry this thing out forever just so every dot is connected.

If Flynn or Gates turned on trump sufficiently and it is believable, why not issue a preliminary report. Heck, that's more than they had on Clinton when Comey put the last stake in her chance for a fair general election.

For some reason, we believe -- or want to believe -- that every morning Mueller wakes up bent on putting trump in prison. I'm not so sure of that at this point. Maybe I'm just skeptical after Fitzgerald had me waking up several times a night to see if they arrested bush and cheney.

[CrispyQ]

8. I remember Fitzmas, too.

But my hope is that Mueller is working on taking out the rot of GOP leadership. If they take down Trump but leave McConnell & crew in place, we'll be back here again & nothing will get fixed. McConnell recently bragged that he's making "generational changes" to the judiciary & he is. OTOH, you never forget what it's like to find out that there is no Santa.

[MiniMe]

9. No mystery

At this point in time, the only remedy is to take it to Congress. This house won't impeach. And even if they did, the Senate wouldn't convict. Even after the November elections, we won't have enough votes in the Senate to convict imho.

[Hoyt]

14. So might as well release a report. Isn't going to do any good in 3 years or so.

Not only is Congress not going to impeach, I don't think a court of law with find most of the criminals guilty. There will always be one or two white wingers on any jury who will hold out for a hung jury.

At least a preliminary report says -- we have something -- if they do. No report says we have nothing on trump after a year of digging into everything. And that is how the GOPers will play it -- they have nothing.

[Downtown Hound]

10. My thinking is that Mueller keeps uncovering more and more all the time

It would be like if you found King Tut's tomb. I understand they spent months studying it and uncovering it before they even went inside. Mueller is systematically taking the whole thing down a piece at at time.

[Hoyt]

15. I read/hear you. But by this point, there has to be some evidence that implicates trump other than

trump -- or his handlers -- failed to exercise good judgement in selecting aides.

Not disagreeing, just feel that the longer this drags out the more people are going to say it's just a political investigation.

[Downtown Hound]

18. And whenever you hear somebody say that, just say:

Watergate- 2 years
Benghazi- 4 years
Hillary's emails- 2 years

[Hoyt]

19. We don't have to years to end up with nothing like Benghazi and Emails. Watergate was good,

but we don't have two years.

Besides, Nixon resigned just a little over two years from the break-in at Watergate. The collusion, etc., occurred in Summer of 2016 -- if not before -- leading up to general election. We are almost at the two year mark just like Watergate. Time to either report or fire this thing up to report by mid-summer at latest. Voters deserve to know. Hopefully it will make a difference.

[hlthe2b]

7. Either he 1. hasn't been offered a "good" deal (given they have him "dead to rights"; 2. Fear...

given the number of "strange" deaths that befall those who antagonize Putin and his "old KGB guard" connected oligarchs; or 3. he still believes Trump will pardon him and is not yet convinced that several states may have the goods on him as well which could not be pardoned.

Number 3 shows a level of arrogance and naivete' that wouldn't surprise me, but number 2 seems probable as well. It may be a combination of these, leading him to just bide his time hoping for circumstances to change.

[cilla4progress]

11. ALSO -

not hearing enough about Cohen's role as RNC Finance Chair.

Whole RNC implicated!

[Cicada]

12. Why deal when gates already turned info over

A prosecutor does not want to give a crook a break but does so to get into. If both gates and Manafort offered the same info make a deal with the lesser crook

[shockey80]

16. You can't release a report until the investigation is complete.

Watergate took 18 months. This is much bigger. Mueller has been in place one year.

[kentuck]

17. Manafort has only one hope...

that he will be able to get a pardon from Donald Trump. Nothing else is acceptable to him.