On Friday night, news was released that someone would be charged in the Trump-Russia investigation this morning. Many people guessed that it would be Paul Manafort. The surprising thing (at least to me) is that Manafort was hit with a conspiring against the United States charge. I think most people knew that he would have a money laundering charge and he would get hit for lying to the FEDS, but conspiring against the United States? That’s a serious charge that will probably carry a serious penalty if convicted. I’m guessing 30 years or more since that seems to be the FEDS favorite number. And also, there is a huge difference between the FEDS charging someone with a crime and the State charging someone with a crime. The State will charge a person without having enough evidence to convict. They hope to gather more evidence at a later time or convince a person to plead guilty. The FEDS usually won’t even charge a person until they have more than enough to convict, including cooperating witnesses. If we are just now hearing about someone being arrested, Mueller and his team probably already have ten or more cooperating witnesses who were facing other charges, but have already agreed to testify against Manafort and others to have their charges reduced or even dismissed. Word is beginning to spread on major news networks that Manfort’s arrest is just the very beginning of a huge conspiracy. With conspiracy against the United States charges on the table, this investigation and case could lead all the way to the White House. Now that we know that there was at least enough evidence for a grand jury to indict on conspiring against the United States charges, the only question left is will the president of the United States use his presidential power to pardon individuals accused of conspiring against the Country?
PAUL MANAFORT & RICK GATES HIT WITH 12 CHARGES, INCLUDING CONSPIRING AGAINST THE UNITED STATES
