Thoughts On the Papadopolous Plea - Josh Marshall

[DonViejo]

By JOSH MARSHALL Published OCTOBER 30, 2017 12:06 PM

We can’t know these things for sure. But it certainly seems like Mueller was sending a message and sending a shock to the Trump White House by releasing the Papadopolous charges mid-morning. The Manafort/Gates charges are very serious as crimes and bring heavy punishments. They’re a big deal. But they do not connect directly to the campaign’s ties with Russia or even the campaign itself. The White House can accurately say that these are crimes that do not relate to them, as they have. (Set aside for the moment that they are serious crimes undertaken by the campaign chairman while the campaign was underway and that they provide Mueller with immense leverage to extract more information from Manafort.) The Papadopolous plea is quite different.

It shows a Trump foreign policy advisor in active communication with what appear to be Russian government officials or spies trying to get dirt on Hillary Clinton, arrange meetings with Russian government officials (even Vladimir Putin, rather ludicrously) and solicit Russian support. That an active foreign policy advisor was taking these actions while in active communication with the campaign about those actions is quite damning. An unnamed campaign official sent back word that a meeting with Trump himself was not happening.

Papadopolous was arrested in July and has apparently been cooperating since. I see no purely legal reason why the news of his arrest in July and guilty plea in early October had to be revealed today, other than keeping the news from Manafort. One other potential reason is that one of the ‘campaign officials’ referenced in the Papadopolous plea appears to be Manafort. It sends two clear messages. First, we’re not at all done with collusion and we’re making progress. Second, we arrested Papadopolous in July and he pled out in October and no one knew. So don’t think you have any idea what we have.

This may be projecting too much. But in revealing the Manafort news early, giving time for the White House to respond as you’d expect (nothing to do with us or Russia or the campaign) and then following up by revealing this Papadopolous indictment certainly has the feel of sucker punching the White House.

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http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/thoughts-on-the-papadopolous-plea

[marylandblue]

1. Marshall may have missed one thing

Papadopolous was said to be in contact with a senior campaign official in March 2016. This is not necessarily Manafort. It could be someone else like Kushner or Jr. This could be a signal to that person- you are next.

[VermontKevin]

3. He missed another. That quite possibly, he wore a wire in July, August, September.

[DonViejo]

4. Did you miss that in the last sentence of the first paragraph and the entire second paragraph...

of the OP?

[marylandblue]

6. Didn't miss it, just think it has a greater significance than it appears

If that senior official is Jared or Jr., then the circle around Trump is already very tight, and this is much further along than anybody thought yesterday.

[DonViejo]

8. Ah, okay. Thanks for responding.

[highplainsdem]

2. Agree completely -- and what a great sucker punch!

[kentuck]

5. The White House doesn't know when the next shoe is going to fall..

They have to be scared shitless.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

7. This ties into Don Jr's collusion with 4 or 5 Russian at the Trump tower on Papadopoulos dirt

Papadopoulos was promised dirt on Clinton via her hacked emails.

Don Jr., almost as smart as his father, was promised dirt on Clinton. So he agreed to the meeting. Enthusiastically.