Paul Manafort, President Trump’s former campaign manager, “made multiple false statements to the FBI, the OSC (Office of Special Counsel) and the grand jury concerning matters that were material to the investigation,” including interactions with a Russian contact, ruled federal judge Amy Berman Jackson on Wednesday. This ruling opens up the possibility of the man who once bought a leather jacket for $19,000 going to prison for the rest of his life.
However, maybe Manafort knows something we don’t know, such as a full pardon for him sitting on the desk in the Oval Office, just waiting to be signed.
But if that’s not the case, if there is no pardon-in-waiting, then what, pray tell, would cause someone to simply flat-out lie to a federal investigator? Is it that Manafort thinks that he’s smarter than the team investigating him or is it simply white privilege at play? Is it that this dude has gotten away with so much for so long over his career that he actually thinks that he’s bulletproof — that nothing can touch him because, hey, he’s a member of the white ruling class in America? Believe me, he wouldn’t be the first white guy to be so delusional.
In fact, Roger Stone is right there along with him. Stone, who attempts to be the bride at every wedding and the corpse at every funeral, is about to get all of the attention he ever desired, and then some. But he needs to bear in mind that once that federal prison cell door slams shut behind him, that’s it: They’ve just made him disappear; he no longer exists; he’s become a non-person. The media lights immediately go out, usually never to be turned back on again.
Do these clowns really believe that Trump is going to spend his political capital — capital he might soon need to get his own ass out of a sling — giving them a pardon? Have they done their homework? Don’t they know Trump would double-cross anyone — members of his own family included — to save his own hide?
Loyalty has never been this guy’s strong suit.
Even if federal pardons are stacked a mile high on Trump’s desk simply awaiting his signature, there are state charges that the president can’t pardon, waiting for just about anyone who escapes justice at the federal level. And after a few months in state prison, they’ll be begging to go to federal prison instead. Trust me; I know — I’ve served time in both.
Robert Mueller, in spite of Trump’s attempt to denigrate his work, is the consummate professional, and everyone in Washington knows it. That’s why you don’t hear any more talk of shutting his investigation down circulating. Mueller is tough, he’s fair, but most of all he’s not to be trifled with, as Manafort and Stone are about to find out. Their white privilege doesn’t count for shit with the special counsel, and neither does Trump.
From CoolCleveland correspondent Mansfield B. Frazier mansfieldfATgmail.com. Frazier’s From Behind The Wall: Commentary on Crime, Punishment, Race and the Underclass by a Prison Inmate is available in hardback. Snag your copy and have it signed by the author at http://NeighborhoodSolutionsInc.
2 Responses to “MANSFIELD: The Downside of White Privilege”
TL Champion(phone owner)
Manfield, this is smokin’ hot! Great coverage as always! Next week We might actually see Mueller’s report. I’m waiting on pins and needles.
Lydia Alphabet
Chickens coming home to roost.
Thanks again Mansfield.