Indictment-O-Rama Megathread: Mueller indicts 13 Russians

[ProudModerate2]

I think this is most significant:

[ProudModerate2]

The Trump Presidency was good while it lasted, I guess.

[Doimper]

Trump has erased every mention of Manafort from his twitter account, save for the tweet from an hour ago.

[MasterJedi]

Trump has erased every mention of Manafort from his twitter account, save for the tweet from an hour ago.

He's certainly good at deleting official records, but I guess her emails are worse.

[Tender Branson]

All of this reminds me of the chaotic first years of the ÖVP-FPÖ coalition back in 2000, in which the far-right FPÖ was totally unprepared for government and cabinet members resigning after a few weeks (or in 2 cases they weren't even sworn in by the President because he thought they were incompetent). The coalition also led to huge corruption cases and a huge FPÖ defeat in 2002 and split 2 years later.

In a sense, the US lags some 16 years behind Austria when it comes to right/populist government experience. Today's coalition talks between ÖVP-FPÖ are much, much better prepared than the ones 16 years ago, everyone is much more competent and there's no chaos. They have learned from their mistakes it seems.

While bad for the US and its people right now, there could come a time in which right-populist Presidential candidates (or Presidents) will actually be prepared for office instead of being chaotic and actually govern effectively.

[Doimper]

Rick Wilson, of all people, actually had a spot-on take:

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[Joe Biden is your president. Deal with it.]

So....who is next? Trump?

[Pyro]

The SHS presser is unbelievable.
She stated Papadopoulos is a "volunteer", and Manafort's role was "extremely limited."
Each time she has been caught in a fib, she immediately transitions to the "REAL" story of Clinton collusion.

[ProudModerate2]

CNN : White House describes Papadopoulos as a "volunteer."

White House press secretary Sanders again described former foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos as a junior player on the campaign team, calling him a "member of a volunteer counsel that met one time over the course of a year."

"He was not paid by the campaign," she continued. "He was a volunteer on a counsel that met once."

She added that Papadopoulos "reached out and nothing happened beyond that. That shows one, his level of importance in the campaign and two, shows what little role he had within coordinating anything officially for the campaign."

[Hindsight was 2020]

The SHS presser was tough to watch poor girl

[Gass3268]

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[ProudModerate2]

BREAKING.

From CNN's Evan Perez

Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and former Trump campaign official Rick Gates entered not guilty pleas before a federal magistrate judge today. Lawyers spoke for them, entering the pleas.

Manafort and Gates did not speak other than to state their names.
Gates was represented by a public defender.
They walked in both wearing blue suits: Manafort wore a tie, Gates did not.

[TheSaint250]

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Good for him. Doesn't excuse his actions, but good for him.

[Pyro]

BREAKING.

From CNN's Evan Perez

Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and former Trump campaign official Rick Gates entered not guilty pleas before a federal magistrate judge today. Lawyers spoke for them, entering the pleas.

Manafort and Gates did not speak other than to state their names.
Gates was represented by a public defender.
They walked in both wearing blue suits: Manafort wore a tie, Gates did not.

They must be expecting pardons.

[Cactus Jack]

BREAKING.

From CNN's Evan Perez

Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and former Trump campaign official Rick Gates entered not guilty pleas before a federal magistrate judge today. Lawyers spoke for them, entering the pleas.

Manafort and Gates did not speak other than to state their names.
Gates was represented by a public defender.
They walked in both wearing blue suits: Manafort wore a tie, Gates did not.

They must be expecting pardons.

For all the good that did Joe Arpaio.

[Virginiá]

They must be expecting pardons.

Probably. I guess it depends on how long Manafort/others would be willing to hold out, and whether Trump will give the pardon(s) right away or maybe as part of the usual end-of-presidency pardon storm.

[Obama-Biden Democrat]

So....who is next? Trump?

I would guess next up will be J. Kush, Trump Jr and Flynn.

[TheSaint250]

If they get pardons there's no way he wins reelection. His credibility will be beyond repair.

I doubt he'd even make it that far.

[Cactus Jack]

If they get pardons there's no way he wins reelection. His credibility will be beyond repair.

I doubt he'd even make it that far.

More pressing, I think, would be the damage done to downballot Republicans. Anyone caught defending Trump in a remotely close state or district would be crucified.

Depending on how this plays out, this might actually turn into the October Surprise in Virginia.

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

The redirect...

Donald J. Trump‏Verified account @realDonaldTrump  24 minutes ago
Sorry, but this is years ago, before Paul Manafort was part of the Trump campaign. But why aren't Crooked Hillary & the Dems the focus??

Donald J. Trump‏Verified account @realDonaldTrump  21 minutes ago
....Also, there is NO COLLUSION!

Methinks the Donald doth protest too much.

He also needs to get over it and admit he won the election.

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

BREAKING.

From CNN's Evan Perez

Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and former Trump campaign official Rick Gates entered not guilty pleas before a federal magistrate judge today. Lawyers spoke for them, entering the pleas.

Manafort and Gates did not speak other than to state their names.
Gates was represented by a public defender.
They walked in both wearing blue suits: Manafort wore a tie, Gates did not.

They must be expecting pardons.

If they are, either they or Trump are dumber than they look. Which is possible.

Anyone car to bet that NY state charges will drop right after any federal pardon?

And Trump pardoned Arapio for his own benefit, to look tough for the fascists and racists who like Arapio. He gets nothing from pardoning people he's alread throwing under the wheels. Trump has never shown loyalty.

[pbrower2a]

Paul Man-O'-Fraud -- the Benedict Arnold of the 21st century.

[GeorgiaModerate]

Lawfare has an excellent as usual summary of this morning's developments.  IMO the money quote is:

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[GeorgiaModerate]

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Tick, tick, tick, and tick.

[pbrower2a]

It's telling that FoX Propaganda Channel has Sheppard Smith, who appears largely when FoX News must come clean about conservative politicians, on the air.