Former U.S. Senator Al Franken
4 hrs ·
Sean Spicer, who served President Trump for a very limited amount of time, described Paul Manafort as someone “who played a very limited role for a very limited amount of time” in the Trump campaign.
That “very limited role,” of course, was “campaign chairman.” And during Manafort’s “very limited time” with the campaign (actually, he spent more time with the campaign than either Steve Bannon or Kellyanne Conway), he helped Trump secure and then accept the Republican nomination, and made sure that the convention platform dropped a plank that called for providing arms to Ukraine in its fight against Russia. And Manafort was there for Get-Dirt-on-Hillary meeting with the Russians at Trump Tower.
Of course, Manafort’s time with the campaign wouldn’t have been so limited had the media not zeroed in on his wildly lucrative consulting deal with brutal, Russian-backed Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych and on Manafort’s shady financial ties to Ukrainian and Russian oligarchs close to Vladimir Putin.
Now that he has been convicted on multiple counts of financial misconduct, Manafort stands to spend the rest of his life in prison. As he girds himself for his next trial, most people believe that Manafort is expecting a pardon down the line from President Trump. My wife doesn’t think so.
Franni has been saying for months that Trump won’t pardon Manafort—because he doesn’t have to. Her theory is simple and chilling. Manafort knows that if he talks, the Russians will seek retribution. Trump knows this too, Franni believes. Perhaps, even, he and Putin discussed this in Helsinki.
PUTIN: Have no worry about Manafort talking. He knows is dead man if takes plea.
TRUMP: Wow! Good to know.
PUTIN: Same goes for interpreters. You hear me, you two?! Yuri, tell American interpreter I am serious.
RUSSIAN INTERPRETER: He means it. He’ll have us both killed.
PUTIN: Very painful death.
RUSSIAN INTERPRETER: Very painful. Most likely a nerve agent.
Okay, I don’t know if that actually happened. Maybe they just talked about adoptions. The point is, under Franni’s theory, Trump doesn’t have to pardon Manafort to keep him quiet. So, he won’t.
Which would be pretty telling. Look, I don’t like Donald Trump. Like many of us, I am sickened by his words and actions on an almost daily basis. And, in the grand scheme of things, his behavior towards the other sickening people he has surrounded himself with since getting into politics isn’t the biggest deal. I mean, separating children from their parents at the border is infinitely worse than letting your former campaign chairman spend the rest of his life in prison. For one thing, Manafort kind of deserves it.
But, if, down the road, Trump starts pardoning every other player in this collusion scandal who didn’t cop a plea, but not Paul Manafort, it will say something so deeply disturbing about Donald Trump.
I wrote in my most recent book that Trump’s behavior leading up to his inauguration (refusing to divest his business interests, installing a white supremacist as his chief strategist, making up a ridiculous lie about illegal voting in order to avoid admitting that he lost the popular vote, etc.) suggested “the kind of mental health problem that you would be disturbed to discover in your kid’s piano teacher, let alone the president of the United States of America.”
Months later, that still checks out. As Michelle Obama said, “Being president doesn’t change who you are. It reveals who you are.” Everything Donald Trump has done since becoming president tells us that he is selfish, callous, and cruel. And if Franni is right, we may be about to see just how deep the rot inside this man goes.
https://www.cnn.com/2018/08/21/politics/paul-manafort-trial-jury/index.html 
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