A Judge Who Gets It

I have to think it's unlikely because all kinds of weird shit can happen for people who're really close to the top of the power pyramid, but there's a real probability that Paul Manfort will spend the rest of his life in prison, starting today.

WaPo:

A federal judge ordered Paul Manafort to jail Friday over charges he tampered with witnesses while out on bail — a major blow for President Trump’s former campaign chairman as he awaits trial on federal conspiracy and money-laundering charges next month.

“You have abused the trust placed in you six months ago,’’ U.S. District Court judge Amy Berman Jackson told Manafort. “The government motion will be granted and the defendant will be detained.”

The judge said sending Manafort to a cell was “an extraordinarily difficult decision,” but added his conduct left her little choice, because he had allegedly contacted witnesses in the case in an effort to get them to lie to investigators.

“This is not middle school. I can’t take away his cell phone,” she said. “If I tell him not to call 56 witnesses, will he call the 57th?” She said she should not have to draft a court order spelling out the entire criminal code for him to avoid violations.

“This hearing is not about politics. It is not about the conduct of the office of special counsel. It is about the defendant’s conduct,” Jackson said. “I’m concerned you seem to treat these proceedings as another marketing exercise.”

And we still have a "president" who's going to keep pretending for the rubes. It's not that he doesn't get it. And it's not that he's pretending not to get it. He intentionally creates a different "reality", and the rubes pretend it's the way things are.

Trump added that Manafort “worked for me for a very short period of time.”