re: #172 dangerman

Trump knows everyone around him is up to their eyeballs in criminality. Every last one of them. He picked them for that express reason - their connections and loyalty to him. Everyone links back to him. They were all working for him.

And soon, they will be talking to investigators who are all angling to nail as many for as many criminal acts as possible, and leverage deals to get the people above them in the food chain.

Ultimately it means someone like Flynn or Manafort cutting deals to get Kushner or Pence or Tillerson or Trump himself. Or Kushner or Junior rolling on each other to avoid more serious charges.

No one is going to come out of this clean - even if there’s pardons handed out like candy by Trump. Accepting the pardon is an admission of guilt.

But here’s the kicker - there are states looking at Trump criminality, and they aren’t bound by Trump’s pardons (who can only act on federal crimes). States, like NY, could proceed on state charges against those involved if they have contemporaneous criminal acts and nail them for those instead.

For instance, Kushner or Manafort engaged in financial crimes. Trump pardons both on their federal crimes (including false statements, etc.), but that wouldn’t extend to the NY financial crimes.