“Sure looks that way. But why keep delaying over one process crime? The judge was ticked off last spring about the delays. It would look really bad if they sentenced him and then it comes out he was setup. “
They are delaying it for a couple of reasons. One is if they get Trump because of Manafort and Cohen, they say, “oops, we bad” and drop charges on Flynn. The second is Flynn is watching all of this unfold and Mueller is hoping that Flynn decides to make a deal.
I don't think Manafort hurts trump at all. He nosed his way into the campaign to help his consulting business that no longer had any clients. He was gone once his Ukraine connections came to light. I don't see how Cohen hurts Trump. Setting up NDA's during a campaign may look bad but they aren't illegal if done properly. If they took the cash out of campaign contributions, that would be illegal. There was some precedent set at the John Edwards trial when he was found not guilty, but maybe the DOJ wants to go back and revisit that issue.