other court where he s facing charges, too. but here s the thing that i think is really going on here. here s why i think this sentencing document is actually really important here. i think it explains a whole bunch of what we have been seeing recently in this case. and i think it explains something important about how this whole thing with the president s campaign chairman, how it may end up playing at the white house. this manafort case in virginia is basically done now, right? all that s left in that case is for the judge to pass sentence. that s where this document tonight is manafort s lawyers telling the judge their client should get a very light sentence because he was an altar boy. and you ll remember, that case in virginia remember when he was convicted for, right? tax fraud, bank fraud, tabbing money overseas and overseas bank cuts without reporting it to the irs. those were the crimes in this case. nevertheless, throughout their argument to the judge tonight in this new
relatives what a good guy he is. we get a reference to paul manafort being an alter boy. there is the inevitable mention of his humble beginnings. there is that odd clanging assertion that paul manafort quote spent his life advancing american ideas and principles. that was in the other sentencing memo in the other court he s facing charges, too. but here is the thing that i think is really going on here. here is why i think this sentencing document is important here because i think it explains a whole bunch of what we have been seeing recently in this case, and i think it explains something important about how this whole thing with the president s campaign chairman, how it may end up playing at the white house. this manafort case in virginia is basically done now, right? all that s left in that case is for the judge to pass sentence. that s where this document tonight is manafort s lawyers telling the judge that their
thank you. what s your reaction to this sentencing document, the argument from his lawyers where they were talking about how there is no collusion. what do you make of that? it is reminiscent of the chant, the no collusion. did i mention there was no collusion? he pointed out when he was being prepped by donald trump before testifying donald trump would repeat remember there was no collusion. and i think it s code for manafort sending to the president that i m with him. there s no collusion and i never testified that there is. we can t let that distract us from the crimes manafort is convicted of and why he is going to go to jail which involved massive fraudulent schemes to hide foreign revenue in the
it s called a rule 35. and what it requires that a defend do defendant do is he be completely forthcoming and truthful with information that leads to the prosecution or investigation of others. so for the southern district of new york prosecutors to still be talking to cohen tells me that he still has stuff that they re interested in. it seems inevitable to me that they would want every bit of juice out of that lemon, and it seems inevitable to me that he has more juice. so while i don t think we re going to hear the details of it today, i imagine we re going to see it, nicolle, in some form, in some fashion down the road from federal prosecutors in manhattan. it s interesting too if you take your analysis and joyce s and paul s and lay over what we already know, the southern district of new york has already corroborated enough of cohen s testimony to describe the sitting president as individual one in cohen s sentencing
jim comey explained that once it shows up in a sentencing document, federal prosecutors have sponsored that information meaning they ve either corroborated it, jump in if i get any of this wrong, or verified it. yeah, we re putting our reputation on the line, when we file something with the court saying here are the facts as we know them. so, you know, once we saw some of that in the michael cohen pleadings, that s why i think we can be comfortable that there is sufficient corroborating evidence that, in fact, donald trump was a co-conspirator, is a co-conspirator, in the campaign finance violation. so the best criminal situation donald trump is facing right now is that mueller finds nothing and he is only accused of a felony offense by the southern district of new york in that case? yeah, i guess i don t know if i would call that the best but the best scenario for him at the moment, right? given where we are now, that would seem to be the optimal situation, right? he also,