I still don't get it

[SHRED]

How is it that people like Manafort and tRump can go decades committing crimes without consequence?

If tRump had not been selected or ran for pResident I have the sense that their crimes would never be prosecuted.

WTF is going on here?

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

1. Money is why.

Money and connections. I think most people in NYC knew Trump was crooked - he was in the commercial real estate biz, which was and probably still is infamously mobbed-up - but he was a celebrity who knew all the right people. Manafort wasn't as well-known but he, too, had money and connections.

[SHRED]

2. If the FBI can be bought

We've got a lot of work to do.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

5. Everybody can be bought if the price is high enough.

But if nobody complains, what's the problem? Trump was a big shot in NYC and he sued people for looking at him wrong. It was easier not to mess with him. The NYC branch of the FBI was said to be in the tank for him - who knows why?

[ancianita]

3. Stealth. Media Laziness. Voters coping with their lives. Three courses. It's what's for dinner.

[SHRED]

4. What about the FBI?

[ancianita]

6. I'm not sure what you mean.

[SHRED]

7. You didn't list the FBI

[ancianita]

8. Are you saying the FBI should have been on them before last year?

[SHRED]

10. They have been committing crimes for years

[ancianita]

11. Threat assessment is the FBI central mission. They had to have evidence from OTHER

intel agencies about hacking, meetings with foreign agents, before they could act.

Simply taking a call from an anonymous report on Manafort or Gates, who usually were traveling or living in other countries, didn't meet the level of threat. For awhile. Whereas, reports of Russian hacking and intrusion, along with meetings held during the campaign eventually did meet probable cause. Remember how long it's taken the rollout of surface info that journalists actually do know.

As it turns out, the Dutch Intelligence witnessed the Russian hacks in real time, as it was happening. That's a recent reveal.

Before the FBI can act, turnaround time requires the patient examination of records, gathering of evidence procured through the IRS criminal division, forensic accounting agents, other agencies, foreign intel agencies, the writing of warrants for seizing info, subpoenas, etc., before the whole picture of money laundering, hacking, and other activities can merit case building for legal action.

The FBI cannot be some pre-crime investigator.

[moondust]

9. Widespread corruption?

Partly the result of a gradually progressing, amoral, corporate/Wall Street economic system in which many people tacitly encourage corrupt behavior if it boosts their stocks but only have limited liability for it? I suspect there could be a lot of corruption surrounding Wall Street and if the politicians rein in the SEC well...

Maybe Rudy looked the other way for his pals back when he could have done something? Spitzer seemed to be doing some good but foolishly did himself in.

Maybe the corruption has become so widespread and normalized that it can no longer be tracked and contained?

[oberliner]

12. Money?

[Baitball Blogger]

13. In the business world money corrupts.