10-30-2017, 11:35 AM
(10-30-2017, 11:26 AM)Sociopathicsteelerfan Wrote: Interesting, although I don't think anyone is surprised by Manafort being named. To me there are two possibilities, either this is as deep as it goes and these indictments are the end of it or, IMO far more likely, they're hoping to put the screws to Manafort and Gates and hope they flip on someone higher up/closer to Trump.
I do find it interesting that the Manafort indictment doesn't seem to be related to activities while engaged with Trump. This could get very interesting in an unexpected way.
I was expecting either Manafort or Flynn (those two had the best Vegas odds, as well). I don't think there will ever be an indictment regarding actual campaign collusion from Trump's inner circle, but I do think there will be one for someone from this. Michael McFaul put it this way in a podcast not too long ago, that Russia just a few years ago did not understand our electoral system, so their specific targeting of ads in certain areas points to someone here with greater knowledge of the political system. Granted, I don't know how true this is, but given his expertise on Russia, I'd tend to defer to him on this. Whether that person was with the campaign or not, though, I have no idea.
I have also felt like the ties to Russia within the Trump campaign inner circle, even if not campaign related, were going to be the weight around their neck on this. I don't think this would have been such a big deal if they would have been open and honest about their business dealings with Russia. But, because of the friendliness towards Putin, the inaccurate/misleading statements, and the lack of public tax returns, it has caused the public to speculate. When the public speculates, it gets crazy.
