About Garth Brooks

The Thunder Rolls: Yesterday, during his sentencing hearing Trump’s one time campaign chairman Paul Manafort finally apologized for his crimes saying “I am sorry . . . I am a different person. . . . I know that it was my conduct that brought me here today.” He asked for “compassion . . . if not for me, then for my family.” Judge Amy Berman Jackson didn’t buy it, she was also somewhat suspicious about the gout that he and his lawyers said was responsible for him speaking from a wheel chair, saying that no one had showed her any medical evaluation that indicated that he was all that impaired.  It wasn’t just the gout, she also didn’t buy into the short sentence that he had received from his Virginia Judge T.S. Ellis, but said that fixing that sentence wasn’t her job. Among other things she attacked Trump’s favorite “no collusion” mantra by pointing out that the case in front of her didn’t address collusion, that was something being investigated by Special Counsel Mueller and that we would all have to wait for his conclusions.   She criticized Manafort for “dissembling at every turn” and for the “amount of fraud” he committed and said that his behavior is “antithetical to the American values” he claimed to champion.  She very pointedly said that facts matters.  Despite her condemnation of Manafort, her sentencing wasn’t as harsh as it could have been.  On the first count against Manafort, she imposed a  sentence of  60 months, 30 months to run concurrent and 30 consecutive to the 47 month sentence imposed in Virginia. On his second count, she imposed a sentence of 13 months, to run consecutive to both count one and the Virginia sentence.  As a result Manafort’s prison time was doubled to about 7 ½  years. Despite Judge Jackson’s clear statement about collusion and the importance of speaking truth, Manafort’s lead lawyer Kevin Dowling’s first words to the press and crowd waiting outside the court room was that the judge had "conceded that there was absolutely no evidence of any Russian collusion in this case." He then added "So that makes two courts, two courts have ruled no evidence of any collusion with the Russians." Those words were a nod to Trump, part of Manafort’s continuing pitch for a pardon but the crowd outside the court wasn’t buying any of it, a number of them jeered in response. Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance didn’t buy it either, within an hour of Manafort’s sentencing he announced sixteen indictments against Manafort for a number of state financial crimes including mortgage fraud, an insurance policy intended to guarantee that Manafort stays behind bars even if he gets a Trump pardon for his federal crimes.  As to Trump yesterday he  remarked that he feels “very badly for Paul Manafort,” going on to assert that he had “not thought about” a pardon for him. Really?

Friends in Low Places:  Michael Cohen’s is the case that keeps on giving. Federal prosecutors are now looking into a series of “back channel” conversations and emails, because there almost always seem to be emails, between a lawyer  named Robert Costello and his “ally,” Trump’s current lawyer/fixer Rudy Giuliani.  Those conversations which took place shortly after Cohen’s office and home were raided by the FBI addressed the possibility of a pardon for Cohen. Although Giuliani told Costello that Trump was unwilling to discuss pardons at that time, after their conversation Costello emailed Cohen assuring him that he should “Sleep well tonight, you have friends in high places.” Adding in a postscript “Some very positive comments about you from the White House. Rudy noted how that followed my chat with him last night.” Costello now says that those statements were “misunderstood,” that they weren’t dangling a pardon, they were just referencing some Garth Brooks lyrics.  Though he didn’t specify his favorite country songs, Matt Whitaker who precipitously quit the Trump Justice Department a few weeks ago made a return appearance to Congress yesterday.  He testified in front of a closed door session of Democratic Chairman Jerry Nadler’s Judiciary Committee.  Immediately after that testimony ended Nadler reported that Whitaker contradicted the questionable testimony that he had delivered in an earlier public hearing.  Specifically Nadler said that this time Whitaker “did not deny” that Trump reached out to him to discuss the case against Michael Cohen.  Nor did he deny that he had been “directly involved in conversations about whether to fire one or more US attorneys.” He also did not deny that he had been “involved in conversations about the scope” of US Attorney Geoffrey Berman’s recusal from the Cohen case, and whether subordinate prosecutors in his office at the Southern District of New York “went too far” pursuing the campaign finance case in which Cohen has implicated Trump.  Nadler’s counterpart, ranking Republican Doulas Collins pushed back insisting that Nadler was misreporting Whitaker’s remarks, calling them just an “interpretation” and “overreach” and a Republican staff lawyer who was also present asserted that Whitaker simply could not remember ever conversing with Trump about Cohen’s case.  It’s hardly likely that the usually very precise Nadler misheard anything, and in any case it’s fair to assume that there will be official transcripts of the Whitaker session.  Whitaker, who in addition to having served as the acting Attorney General during the period between Sessions and Barr, was once a US Attorney.  He may be sleazy but he’s smart enough to have noticed that the other Trumpkins caught lying to the FBI and/or Congress have lost their licenses to practice law or worse.  If Nadler is correct, and he probably is, Whitaker was cleaning up the record, an effort to insure that he doesn’t end up as more Trump collateral damage.  Late Tuesday, in another indication that he is winding up his investigation,  Special Counsel Mueller filed papers indicating that though one time national security advisor Michael Flynn continues to cooperate with law enforcement authorities and could be called upon to testify in a case in front of the Easter District of Virginia, his cooperation with the core of the “Russia” investigation is otherwise complete.  Maybe former CIA guy Brennan had it wrong, maybe Mueller doesn’t fear the Ides of March?   

A New Way to Fly:  Yesterday by a vote of 54 to 46 the Senate approved a bill to end US support for the Saudi-led coalition war in Yemen.  Republican Senators Mike Lee, of Utah; Susan Collins of Maine; Steve Daines of Montana; Jerry Moran of Kansas; Lisa Murkowski of Alaska; Rand Paul of Kentucky; and Todd Young of Indiana joined all the Democrats in rebuking Trump.  Despite efforts by Republican leadership to come up with a work around that would peel one or more of the Republicans who plan to vote for the resolution against Trump’s declaration of a National Emergency over the migrant “invasion” the Senate is expected to deliver another defeat to Trump later today, this time with Senators Tillis, Collins, Murkowski and Paul joining with all the Democrats. To the extent that the reportedly wavering North Carolina’s Tillis stands firm, a number of other Republicans are likely to find the courage to join the voices against the Trumped up emergency.  On the aviation front, shortly after Canada announced the grounding of its 737 Max 8 planes, Trump appeared on camera to announce that the US was following suit.  Both Canada and the US cited newly available satellite-tracking data that suggested similarities between the crash in Ethiopia and the one involving a Boeing 737 Max 8 in Indonesia in October. Lastly, to virtually no one’s surprise one time Texas Congressman and Senate wannabee Beto O’Rourke is running for president.