TPM: You want a "smocking gun" ? How about this:

The investigation concerns Trump campaign collusion with Russia

Presidential candidate Donald J. Trump hired multiple people who had current ties to Russian operatives, politicos and intelligence.

ALL of those people met with those Russian operatives during the campaign.

ALL of those people then LIED about their meetings with those Russian operatives.

Nearly ALL of the indictments so far, of these campaign operatives, have to do with these meetings or lies about them.

Add to this, that a “peace plan” was discussed (quid pro quo)

Add to this, that stolen emails were shared from Guccifer 2.0, through Wikileaks, to Trump’s campaign

Add to this, that Donald J. Trump publicly asked Russia to find Hillary’s emails and that very same day, Russians hacked her accounts for the first time.

Add to this, that releases of these stolen emails were coordinated with the campaign

Add to this that President Trump has REPEATEDLY lied about all of this, and CONTINUES to “believe” Putin’s lie that they had nothing to do with the hacking





MORE:
https://www.cnn.com/2019/02/15/politics/read-paul-manafort-sealed-hearing-transcript/index.html
via:
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2019/2/16/1835203/-Josh-Marshall-Goes-Where-Few-Dare-Deep-into-the-Manafort-Hearing-Transcript-It-s-Must-read-Stuff?utm_campaign=trending

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& more from Emptywheel:

WE’RE ONLY SEEING HALF OF MANAFORT’S COOPERATION

First, we’re only seeing material relating to half of Manafort’s cooperation. In his declaration on the breach determination, FBI Agent Jeffrey Weiland described Manafort’s cooperation to include 14 sessions:

3 pre-plea proffer sessions: September 11, 12, and 13
9 debriefing sessions: September 20, 21, 25, 26, 27, October 1, October 5, October 11, and October 16
2 grand jury appearances: October 26 and November 2
If I’ve tracked everything properly, the descriptions of Manafort’s lies only include material from some of those sessions:

3 pre-plea proffer sessions: September 11, 12, and 13
5 debriefing sessions: September 20, 21, October 1, October 5, and October 16
1 grand jury appearance: October 26
That means there are three debriefing sessions and a grand jury appearance we haven’t heard anything about yet:

3 debriefing sessions: September 25, 26, 27, and October 11
1 grand jury appearance: November 2

https://www.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.dcd.190597/gov.uscourts.dcd.190597.476.0_4.pdf