Former campaign manager for President Trump, Paul Manafort, will be sentenced for his financial crimes, conspiracy and witness tampering on March 13, CNN reported Monday.
Manfort was suppose to be sentenced this week, until special counsel Robert Mueller’s team alleged that he lied after agreeing to cooperate with the government.
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Manafort: Hey dude where’s my pardon?
Somehow I don’t think current time served will fly.
I think the Ides of March would be a much more fitting date…
The Ides of March is a day on the Roman calendar that corresponds to 15 March. It was marked by several religious observances and was notable for the Romans as a deadline for settling debts. In 44 BC, it became notorious as the date of the assassination of Julius Caesar which made the Ides of March a turning point in Roman history.
That’ll be an interesting dilemma for Trump.
If Trump pardons Manafort, that voids Manafort’s fifth amendment right to not incriminate himself, because he can’t be sent to jail again for those crimes. So Manafort can pretty much be forced to testify.
If Trump only gives Manafort a commutation to preserve his fifth amendment rights, then Trump’s doing the same thing he criticized Bush for doing to Scooter Libby.
Either way, Trump ends up looking guilty as sin.
Finally, if Trump doesn’t pardon or commute Manafort, then everyone else with dirt on Trump knows they can’t expect a pardon from him, and will be rushing to make deals with Mueller - with Roger Stone probably at the head of the line.
It’s pretty much a lose-lose-lose situation for Trump.
Ain’t that sweet.