I have a bad feeling about the Manafart trial...

[GetRidOfThem]

Defense is exuding onfidence, judge is berating prosecution, does not sound like a good picture...

Could become an embarrassment for Mueller, which is what we don't need right now...

(Hope I'm wrong...)

[lamp_shade]

1. Your concern is noted.

[NightWatcher]

2. Defense is posturing because they have nothing else

Their lack of a presentation for defense is a desperate measure I've seen attempted several times but never successfully.

Watch trump. If he loses his mind and does something crazy to distract, you'll know he's feeling the pressure.

[PaddyIrishman]

14. Defence 101

When the law is on your side, pound the law

When the facts are on your side, pound the facts

When neither law nor facts are on your side, pound the table.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

36. Desperation move to say nothing incriminating and thus hope for a pardon. . . nt

[GetRidOfThem]

3. The silver lining is that...

...if the jury does convict, it will so much more difficult to appeal...

[former9thward]

12. No it won't.

Appeals are made on disagreements on the law and court precedent. The jury does not decide those. The jury only decides the facts. Appellate courts do not revisit the facts.

[MaryMagdaline]

4. There are a lot of separate counts

Would be tough to beat even half of them.

If one or two jurors decide to hang the jury, they would have their work cut out (so many counts) and the other jurors could be tough to ignore.

[Yupster]

22. That's my thinking too

If he gets acquitted on 10 of 18 counts, that still leaves many, many years in jail.

[marylandblue]

5. The tax charges are especially hard to beat

He blames other people for messing up his taxes. But we all pay tax and we know what it means when you sign your tax form.

[former9thward]

13. Nope.

Income tax law is different than many other types of law. To violate the law the prosecution must show the defendant knew what he was doing when the tax forms were submitted. The must show he knew he was violating the law.

[marylandblue]

20. Yes, I understand but I am just thinking from common sense

Jurors have experience with taxes and accountants. They know their own income, they prepare their own taxes or they know what they told their accountant, so they are starting with the assumption that Manafort should do the same. They are not so experienced with shell corporations and international wire transfers, so other charges may be harder for them to understand.

[DeminPennswoods]

24. Absolutely. Manafort had 31 foreign bank accounts

He used wire transfers from them to pay for many of his purchases. It's hard to argue that he "just forgot" to check off the Form 1040 box that asks if you have any foreign financial accounts. Manafort's accountants testified they were not told/did not know of his foreign bank accounts. When you sign your federal tax return, you are saying that what's in it is true and accurate. We all have that shared experience.

[pnwmom]

23. He did know what he was doing. He's not an idiot, and he deliberately hid the accounts.

He deliberately signed forms that included a check in a box indicating he had NO accounts.

Once might have been an error. But he did this over and over -- on purpose, as part of a pattern.

[spooky3]

28. Agree. And the fact that he characterized a substantial amount of $ as income on day X,

and as a loan on day Y, when it would benefit him to do so, suggests strongly that he knew exactly what the implications were of underreporting income on his tax forms.

[bettyellen]

31. They showed he knew. He talked (emailed) about and used those accounts often.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

6. Kabuki theatre. You ALWAYS want to act like you're exuding confidence

no matter how shitty you really think the trial went. Lawyers are also actors.

[PunksMom]

8. This is exactly right!

tRump does this on a daily basis.

[bigbrother05]

7. Think the defense is posturing for a pardon or a deal with Mueller

If they put Manafort in the witness box, all kinds of things would have come out in open court that are much more valuable to them as leverage.

Rudy has effectively dangled the pardon in recent ramblings, but the Feds have the threat of NY state charges to entice him with a coordinated plea/immunity deal that will keep him from dying in prison.

They are now waiting for the "best & final" offers.

[PoliticAverse]

29. The best time for a deal is before trial, an after-conviction deal isn't going to be with good terms

[ADX]

9. Relax...

...Manafort is going to be convicted, period.

[manor321]

10. Why do people post garbage like this?

[LAS14]

17. Why do you call posts expressing opinions and asking for responses "garbage?"

Isn't DU supposed to be a place where things are discussed?

[GetRidOfThem]

25. The reason why I post "garbage like this" is because I am worried

A lot of things don't go the way they should. And a lot of things don't appear the way they should.

Otherwise Agent Orange would never have been inaugurated. See, he was never going to win...

And the institutions are going to protect us from him...

The same institutions that allowed him and his Cabal to get to power....

[kentuck]

11. He won't be acquitted...

The best he can hope for is a re-trial. It would be a win for him, I suppose, since he will have bought more time.

[rainbowsnunicorns]

15. It doesn't matter

It really doesn't matter what the outcome is. He's going to be pardoned either way.

[bettyellen]

34. Exactly how Trump wants you to react. There are more trials to come....

And Trump can’t pardon on state charges. He could spring him for a while and then he’ll be back for tampering w witnesses again.

[Lee-Lee]

16. Too many charges on the table for him to walk on all

It may not be all we hope for, but he will get convicted of at least some of them.

[PatSeg]

18. I think you're wrong

Doesn't look good for Manafort. The worst thing I can imagine is possibly a hung jury.

[GetRidOfThem]

26. I hope you are right...

...I am just get adjusted to the fact that we are living in a topsy-turvy world where anything can happen...

[spooky3]

32. I agree that DUers have been disappointed or shocked before and so it makes

sense to be cautious. But as I've posted in several places, one source of some comfort that may be helpful for you to remember is that jurors from Alexandria are likely to have AT LEAST bachelor's degrees, and both sides were able to strike a number of prospective jurors that gave clues that they might be biased.

Research in general shows that jurors do work hard to do a good and fair job.

I had jury duty in a neighboring county last spring. I was amazed as one prospective juror after another were asked questions about their occupations, and heard "doctor"; "lawyer"; "investment banker"; "nurse practitioner"; "physical therapist"; "teacher"; etc., etc. These people are going to take these charges very seriously.

And only about 18% of the voters in Alexandria City voted for Trump in 2016. Also 50% of the jurors are female per the WaPo. I don't know about minority membership on the jury.

This is NOT to say that people without degrees aren't also smart and conscientious. Many are. It is just that as a group, they are more likely to support Trump, if they are also white.

[PatSeg]

37. Yes, I know what you mean

I'm feeling a little less confident right now. Such an roller coaster ride every day.

[Adrahil]

19. They didn't put up any defense for a number of the charges.

They pretty much only could go after Gates.

And there is SOOOO much evidence corroborating Gate's testimony.

[maryellen99]

21. I'm in the metro Detroit area when Kwame Kilpatrick was on trial for fed charges

People thought he was going to be acquitted of all charges. He wasn’t and there were people on the jury who voted for him twice.

[riversedge]

27. After Nov. 2016, I, too am not all that confident.

[underthematrix]

30. I see it differently. I don't think

jury nullification will occur in this case as some alleged happened in the OJ Simpson trail. The jurors are required to follow the judge's instructions and because jurors take the honor and responsibility of jury duty seriously, I believe they will follow his instructions which is to use the evidence.

Now if the judge, the defense attorneys, the defendant did anything to tamper with the jury then they will be prosecuted.

[saidsimplesimon]

33. The "winning" is over in the legitimate courts

of our democracy for tramps and thieves.

[Demsrule86]

35. We will see.

[GetRidOfThem]

38. So it did not happen, but nearly did...

One Trumpian juror holdout prevented the conviction on all 18 counts. Geez maneez...