This first count #Manafort admits to is violation of 18 USC § 371, "Conspiracy Against the United States."
What does that mean? He conspired to commit a crime against the US or to defraud the US:
A conspiracy, definitionally, requires more than one conspirator. Who did Manafort conspire with? The first paragraph dealing with Count 1 names Richard Gates and Konstantin Kilimnik "and others"
As we've seen, violation of 18 USC § 371 ("Conspiracy Against the United States") requires either defrauding the US or committing crimes against the US. Manafort admits to committing crimes against the US, 1st up, violation of the Foreign Agents Registration Act
Manafort orchestrated secret lobbying activity on behalf of Ukraine and President Viktor Yanukovych (a dude who seems to have sold-out his country, Ukraine, to Vladimir Putin, is wanted by Ukraine for treason, and is hiding out in Russia). How? by buying four high ranking pols:
Just to be really clear: Paul Manafort admits he was secretly working for the (now former) Prez of Ukraine, a Vladimir Putin stooge, and secretly hired a former Austrian Chancellor, Italian Prime Minister, and Polish President to run a secret influence op in the USA
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hey, #medtwitter, if anyone knows who this guy is, slide into my DMs. (I'll provide a Signal # if you want encryption & disappearing messages) I'll file the complaint with the board of medicine myself, your fingerprints won't be anywhere on it.
Yesterday, @cosetthetable publicly named a UNH athletics employee who sexually harassed her & submitted Title IX complaints to both USA Fencing & UNH. In deciding to speak out, she had to weigh the risks, including the risk of legal action against her (ie. defamation) 1/
When Trump calls for "strengthening" libel laws, it's because he wants to silence those survivors who wish to come forward. He wants to turn defamation into an even sharper weapon to cut down those who dare defy the violence of patriarchy. 2/
I've seen, in just the last hour, two authors discussing being forced to make redactions to their stories by publishers. The truth is libel law already silences survivors. That's why the @TIMESUPLDF is so vitally important – but we haven't gone far enough
But here's the thing: without healthcare I'm dead pretty quickly. This raging asshole, Kavanaugh, will overturn the ACA. I'll die - along with many, many other chronically ill disabled folx.
So call your senators anyway.
Be cynical.. BUT ask your Arizona people to call Jeff Flake, and tell him to vote no. Your Alaska people to call Murkowski, your Maine people to call Collins. (202) 224-3121.
Acquiescing guarantees them a victory. And so I am begging you to please keep fighting to #StopKavanaugh.
There are so, so, so many of us who will die if he overturns the ACA – and he .will. overturn the ACA.
Our federal courts have largely held. They've been slowly eroded as a POTUS who is, in all likelihood, a Russian plant, has nominated judges picked by fringe extremists & approved by a Senate that represents a radical minority of the population. But they've mostly held– until now
I've used some of the precious little good time I get to pursue an advocacy strategy of mobilizing comments on administrative regulations. I know that sounds geeky af – that's because it is. POTUS acts mostly through agencies & departments. That bureaucracy has to issue rules
By law those rules must be open to public comment & those comments form part of the record when rules are challenged in court
Bottom line: my strategy has been to do what little I can to help the lawyers challenging bad Trump rules win in court.
I’ve traded away my privacy around my own deeply personal medical issues for the chance – the mere hope really – that maybe someone will listen, will learn.
I was being worked up in the ED one night for a small bowel obstruction, the imaging was _very_ concerning.
The surgical team came through, reviewed the EMR, peppered me with questions, felt my abdomen, and then left.
Except the surgical resident came back in a minute later.
She saw how scared I was, felt my unasked questions as her team treated me like a talking, anatomically interesting, mannequin that they were subjecting to a rapid-fire pit-stop...
And so she came back in to make sure I was ok. I wasn’t.