Quote:

Judge in Manafort Case Orders Govt to Hand Over Unredacted Rosenstein Memo Within 2 Weeks The Federal Judge in the Manafort case is not messing around. Judge T.S. Ellis lost his temper Friday in a Manafort hearing and accused Mueller’s prosecutors of using the case against Trump’s former campaign chairman to oust the President from office. (BOOM)  :) Mueller’s wheels are falling off. CNN reported: “You don’t really care about Mr. Manafort’s bank fraud,” District Judge T.S. Ellis said to prosecutor Michael Dreeben, at times losing his temper. Ellis said prosecutors were interested in Manafort because of his potential to provide material that would lead to Trump’s “prosecution or impeachment,” Ellis said. “That’s what you’re really interested in,” said Ellis, who was appointed by President Ronald Reagan. Judge Ellis also ordered the government to hand over the unredacted Rosenstein memo. The Judge told Mueller’s prosecutors, “We don’t want anyone with unfettered power.” Mueller’s prosecutors argued they have certain authorities given to them which were laid out in Rosenstein’s August 2017 memo. Judge Ellis scoffed at Mueller’s prosecutors who argued the memo has to be kept a secret because of ongoing investigations and ordered the unredacted memo to be released within a two week time frame. Fox News reported: Mueller’s team says its authorities are laid out in documents including the August 2017 scope memo – and that some powers are actually secret because they involve ongoing investigations and national security matters that cannot be publicly disclosed. Ellis seemed amused and not persuaded. He summed up the Special Counsel’s Office as, “We said this was what [the] investigation was about, but we are not bound by it and we were lying.” He referenced the common exclamation from NFL announcers, saying: “C’mon man!” The judge also gave the government two weeks to hand over the unredacted “scope memo” or provide an explanation why not — after prosecutors were reluctant to do so, claiming it has material that doesn’t pertain to Manafort. “I’ll be the judge of that,” Ellis said.  ;D On Monday, the Assistant Attorney General said in a letter that the DOJ would not be handing over the unredacted Rosenstein memo detailing Mueller’s scope. In response, Freedom Caucus Chairman, Mark Meadows drafted “articles of impeachment” against Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein as a “last resort.” On Tuesday, Rosenstein freaked and referred to the impeachment threat as “extortion.”  ::) On Wednesday morning, in response to the stonewalling by the DOJ, Trump threatened to use his presidential powers in order to get the unredacted Rosenstein memo.

so yes aia...

the walls of the Law are closing in... but not on who you would like them to close in on..

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Quote:

If Federal Judge Rules in Favor of Manafort, Case Would be Handed Over to Trump Appointee The Federal Judge in Paul Manafort’s case cast doubt on Friday over Mueller’s bank fraud case against the former Trump campaign manager. Judge T.S. Ellis lost his temper and blasted prosecutors, saying he believes Mueller is using the Manafort case to provide material that would lead to Trump’s “prosecution or impeachment”. If Judge T.S. Ellis rules in favor of Paul Manafort, the case will be handed over to Trump-appointed US Attorney Tracy Doherty-McCormick.  [smiley=thumbup.gif] Rosenstein and Mueller got raked over the coals on Friday by Judge T.S. Ellis.  ;D The Federal Judge accused Mueller’s hack prosecutors of lying and ordered the government to hand over the unredacted Rosenstein memo detailing Mueller’s scope. Judge Ellis asked why Manafort’s case is with the special counsel and not with prosecutors in Virginia.  [smiley=thumbup.gif] The Judge then suggested Manafort’s case could be handed over to the US Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia. Currently, Tracy Doherty-McCormick is the acting US Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia; she was appointed in February of 2018. WaPo reported: But the judge did question why an investigation into Trump attorney Michael Cohen was handed over to federal prosecutors in New York while the Manafort case was kept with the special counsel. Ellis suggested that if he ruled in Manafort’s favor, the case could simply be returned to the U.S. attorney’s office for the Eastern District of Virginia. It is precisely because the probe into Manafort’s financial dealings began years ago with federal prosecutors in that office, Manafort’s defense attorneys argued, that the special counsel should not be involved. Judge Ellis also accused Mueller’s prosecutors of lying and ordered the government to hand over the unredacted Rosenstein memo detailing Mueller’s scope. The Judge told Mueller’s prosecutors, “We don’t want anyone with unfettered power.” Mueller’s prosecutors argued they have certain authorities given to them which were laid out in Rosenstein’s August 2017 memo. Judge Ellis scoffed at Mueller’s prosecutors who argued the memo has to be kept a secret because of ongoing investigations and ordered the unredacted memo to be released within a two week time frame.

:)

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President Elect, The Mechanic wrote on May 5^th, 2018 at 8:02am:

[quote][b]Judge in Manafort Case Orders Govt to Hand Over Unredacted Rosenstein Memo Within 2 Weeks The Federal Judge in the Manafort case is not messing around. Judge T.S. Ellis lost his temper Friday in a Manafort hearing and accused Mueller’s prosecutors of using the case against Trump’s former campaign chairman to oust the President from office. (BOOM)  :) Mueller’s wheels are falling off. CNN reported: “You don’t really care about Mr. Manafort’s bank fraud,” District Judge T.S. Ellis said to prosecutor Michael Dreeben, at times losing his temper. Ellis said prosecutors were interested in Manafort because of his potential to provide material that would lead to Trump’s “prosecution or impeachment,” Ellis said. “That’s what you’re really interested in,” said Ellis, who was appointed by President Ronald Reagan.

“You don’t really care about Mr. Manafort’s bank fraud,” District Judge T.S. Ellis said


So the judge has basically ruled that there is bank fraud ?

Ellis said prosecutors were interested in Manafort because of his potential to provide material

Here Ellis is condemning the prosecutors for using this to get at the truth ?

Maybe a truth that the judge does not want exposed ???

This is a method that has been used in the USA for over half a century at least, doing a deal with one criminal in order to catch others.

This is the problem with judges being political appointments, a republican appointed judge will often rule with his / her loyalty. We seen this demonstrated in the Bush Gore election debacle where 95% of judges made findings along party lines aligned with their appointment.

The US judicial system is politically corrupt by design.

So, despite Mechanic's wanky sources, the judge did NOT in fact order the memo released in unredacted form. Also, he did a lot of complaining but did NOT in fact rule against Mueller.

Lots of right-wing Republican noise, but no real changes. The judge knows that if he tries anything stupidly partisan, Mueller will just appeal to a higher court and get it easily over-turned. After all, the defence is claiming nothing more substantial than that Mueller shouldnt have been able to find out about Manaforts crimes - not a defence of any kind. And besides, if the motion succeeded, Meuller would simply pass the case file over to the FBI who would then charge him all over again.