Pierce: Paul Manafort May Have Something Much Worse Than Prison to Be Afraid Of

[mcar]

Paul Manafort May Have Something Much Worse Than Prison to Be Afraid Of
Or, perhaps, he's banking on a pardon. Why else would he cross Robert Mueller again?

BY CHARLES P. PIERCE
NOV 27, 2018

Paul Manafort is in trouble. No, really. He's in more trouble than he was before, which was considerable. A compulsive operator, he has managed to maneuver himself into a corner. Robert Mueller and his team believe that Manafort never has stopped lying to them, even in the middle of plea negotiations, and even after the plea was, you know, negotiated. ...

The question, of course, is whether Manafort is completely stupid, overwhelmingly confident that he will be pardoned, or simply frightened by something even more terrifying than the prospect of spending his declining years in the federal sneezer—something like, say, a lovely bowl of strontium-90, served up to him by a concerned former overseas client. I used to laugh the latter explanation off. I don't do that anymore. Something is happening in Manafort's brainbox that dwarfs in his mind anything Mueller can do to him....

Meanwhile, the Guardian found another spot on the coffin into which to drive a nail. This latest tale involves Julian Assange, onetime squatter-in-residence in the Ecuadorian embassy, and a man who exchanged his reputation as a messianic truth-teller for a career as a common ratfcker....

Well, if a foreign intelligence service goes out of its way to memorialize that you showed up at their embassy dressed like Ward Cleaver, you're really busted, I'd say. (Where was the ostrich jacket? At the cleaners?) At the very least, this brings the heat closer to Number One Son, Sluggo.

https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a25320514/paul-manafort-lie-robert-mueller-plea-deal/

[Achilleaze]

1. anti-American KGOP republican sleaze up the wazoo.

[Guppy]

2. Or as any mafia enforcer

would say. "It would be a shame if something happened to your family"

[AndJusticeForSome]

3. I don't think he's worried about being poisened

It's probably much more like "Nice family you got there. Be a shame if anything happened to them..."

[mcar]

5. I think so too

[Botany]

4. I think he is more worried about his family and dying in jail and keeping his mouth shut might ...

... buy 'em their lives. Putin does' mess around.

[Power 2 the People]

8. His daughters have already disowned him.

I believe she even had her name legally changed. His son-in-law flipped on him.

I think he cares much more about himself than his family. Manafort is afraid of Putin's henchman and how brutally they kill. He knows they can get to him in jail or on the street.

[muriel_volestrangler]

6. It has been suggested the Salisbury poisoning was meant as much as a threat to Manafort

and others outside Russia who might be tempted to cooperate with Mueller or other investigations, as to any other Russians similar to Skripal.

[mcar]

7. Interesting

[BlancheSplanchnik]

10. Makes sense

[Perseus]

9. "a lovely bowl of strontium-90" -- I wonder if this is what trump is terrified of as well?

"Never cross the family"...and once you are in bed with the Russians, you are family, disposable family when you cross it. The other thing for them to fear is that Russians don't seem to get rid of those who betray them in a nice way, the way they make them go is slow and painful, so yes there is a lot to fear.

Have the Russians mentioned anything about Ivanka? I would think that is the one thing, besides himself, that he wants to protect the most, and being that they are all complicit, Ivanka is a natural target for those thugs.