Again - nothing to do with Russia.
The Skadden lawyers were hired to advance the cause of Russia’s Cats-paw candidate for President of Ukraine.
Well technically Ukraine is not Russia, but they are a bit...intertwined. What should be concerning to us is the pattern that has emerged from these guilty pleas. Papadopoulos, Flynn and now this lawyer have all admitted to making false statements material to a federal investigation. All of the lies concerned their interactions with agents of the Russian government. According to these 3 men they intentionally made statements they knew to be false regarding their own conduct. All of the lies involved their interaction with the Russian agents. There needs to be an answer as to why that would be. It is beyond implausible to suggest that while these men deliberately lied they were otherwise not engaged in any underlying untoward conduct. People just don’t lie to cover up their innocence, it just doesn’t make sense. And we need to dispense with the misconception that confusion as to something like the color trousers one wore on the morning of June 1, 2016 is sufficient to cause one to be indicated for making false statements. The key word in the statue is material. They made statements they knew to be untrue and they did so deliberately. By entering a plea of guilty they acknowledge they lied, therefore it is no longer speculation or allegation but cold hard fact. So why did they lie? If the whole Russia investigation is a hoax how do you get so many confessed criminals. How do you get so many lies all made to obscure interactions with the same entity? Our defense is fatally flawed, and yet we double down. If there was a deep state operation against the Trump campaign to fabricate Russian connections through the Steele dossier then there should be no other sources that suggest contact between the Trump campaign and Russia. We know there are many such sources. The Trump tower meeting, Papadopoulos running his mouth, and now the “unwitting” contacts alleged in the Friday indictments. If this was a deep state set up, then it has succeeded such that it is indistinguishable from the real thing. We need to protect the President and that protection needs to be based on reality. Manafort is the perfect fall guy, we should acknowledge Russian interference and pin it all on Manafort. Though honestly, we have dug ourselves such a deep hole it may be too late. Our strategy has been a house of cards built on sand and it is coming undone. Providence has blessed us with a once in a lifetime opportunity and we are squandering it by chasing after charlatans and deceivers. I pray that God will lift up the righteous around the President and that he will take heed of better counsel and fulfill the tasks God has appointed. For if we fail in this moment I despair of the judgement to come.