The FBI investigation into Russian meddling in the US election appears to have widened with a pre-dawn raid on the home of Paul Manafort, Trump’s former campaign manager who was present at the Don Jr/Russian lawyer meeting in June 2016. Manafort worked for years for rich pro-Russia Ukrainian politicians and an oligarch close to Putin. Global banks have also been subpoenaed for records of transactions involving Manafort and some of his companies, and according to the Wall Street Journal he’s being looked at for money laundering. All of which brings the scope of Mueller’s probe nearer to Trump’s finances, since several of his properties in New York were bought by Russians. (Though there appears to be no illegality in not checking the source of tainted money.) Part of the FBI strategy, it is thought, is to lean on Manafort to persuade him to be more co-operative.
The Trump camp are distancing the President from Manafort, saying it was a brief association and not close. Though the National Inquirer, which often acts as an attack dog for Trump, ran a sex-scandal story this week on Manafort about his liaison with a mistress half his age. When in a corner, lash out and smear.
Manafort, 1 April 1949, is an excitable, pro-active Sun Mars Venus in Aries; with Sun Mars opposition Neptune and trine Pluto – so definitely ambitious on a stratospheric level. His Jupiter in materially-ambitious Capricorn is on the focal point of a Yod to Uranus sextile Saturn – such a strained Jupiter can be brought low by an over-inflated sense of worth and rightness.
He looks understandably stressed at the moment with tr Pluto trine his Mars/Uranus midpoint; jammed in through Sept/October this year; and has some devastating downers from tr Neptune between now and early 2018.
His relationship chart with Trump has a hard, locked-together composite Sun Mercury square Saturn Pluto – so not an easy link to break. Plus an explosive Mars Uranus conjunction, which gets the undermining tr Neptune square Mars in 2019/2020.
Manafort’s stellium in Aries of Mercury, Venus, Mars, Sun all fall in Trump’s financial 8th – so a secretive relationship, much tied up with money. And Manafort’s Saturn is conjunct Trump’s Ascendant Mars – an aggravating interface with Trump feeling that Manafort has the potential to be a threat to his image.
The relationship charts between Manafort and Don Jr and Jared Kushner (all three at the June 2016 Russian meet in NY) are both at crisis point this month with their respective composite Suns opposing the Leo Solar Eclipse. Don Jnr’s relationship chart with Manafort oddly enough also has a Yod onto a focal point Jupiter, which tends to bring fateful changes of direction, stemming from wild over-confidence. Jared’s relationship chart also has a marked composite Jupiter in an ‘adventuring’ (i.e gambler’s) square to Uranus and Mars.
This scenario could run and run.
I am hoping that what ever Mueller finds, he lets the States, especially New York, have some of that evidence. Trump cannot pardon himself nor his cronies from State crime, only Federal crime.
Speaking of Kushner, he’s been subpoena’d for his Kushner family company selling green cards to the Chinese for $500,000 each. These EB-5 “golden tickets” are not vetted properly like other visas, and are “a magnet for fraud”.
Also would like to point out Marjorie’s astute choice of words when she said “that Manafort has the potential to be a threat to his [Trump’s] image”. That is the only chink in Trump’s armor, his image. Trump can pardon himself and his family of any crime, can pardon himself from impeachment, or use his crew of lawyers to block it in every way possible, but he can’t control his image. That’s in the hands of people now, and history later.