Trump and Trumpists have been quick to rail against the $30M+ spent by the investigation, but it appears this is more than offset by Manafort's forfeiture of $42M for tax evasion. See this.
Apparently his total net worth is $28m. Also Manafort was a nice side net that had nothing whatsoever to do with Trump-Russia.
Using Manafort so as to say "It wasn't a total waste" is the biggest pile of crap ever, and will be believed/disbelieved on partisan lines. No, I don't think it was worth it because Manafort was on their radar as early as '09. Using Manafort as justification ended up being early proof of what the Mueller report actually was.
No one has made that assertion. Personally, I think the investigation was $30M well spent, certainly more worthwhile than the $100M spent on Trump's golfing. You may disagree the investigation was worth the money, but at least do the math right and note the NET cost.
See whut? Imagine if Mueller and his team were working for the Treasury full time, having the power to investigate people at random? We'd be done with our deficit in no time!
So the measure for enforcement and judicial success is a positive cash flow by seizure? Sweet, what could possibly go wrong?
They got lucky, but the point is that the Mueller investigation was a partisan witch hunt to prove Trump colluded with Russia, and they failed. The Mueller investigation was not a tax evasion fishing expedition. Just because they got lucky and uncovered Manafort's tax evasion, it in no way justifies the time, money, and resources wasted on the failed partisan witch hunt. They failed at their objective (proving Russian collusion) but accidentally struck oil in the process (Manafort's tax evasion.) That doesn't change the fact that their objective was a failure, it just means it stings less because they lucked into Manafort.
Let me know when anything is actually collected...we are spending more fighting banks and other creditors currently. I in no way have a problem doing that...but to suggest taxpayers are gonna make a profit is comical
A revenue surplus and 199 criminal charges... lets do whatever we can to prevent another investigation like this from ever happening again
You're parrotting Trump, and making a purely partisan judgment. Hindsight is 20-20; the decision to investigate (by Republican appointee Rosenstein) was based on the evidence available at the time. In actual witch hunts, the witch's guilt is pre-determined. Yet somehow, this didn't occur - which is indicative of an objective. It's not Mueller's fault that Trump behaved like he was guilty, frequently lying and trying to falsify evidence. Regardless, the investigation is being investigated - and I hope it is done as objectively as Mueller's. If that investigation is indeed done properly, and it determines crimes were committed in the lead-up to Mueller, I'll be among the first to accept that and demand accountability. I assume you'd agree that any Dems who had pre-judged Trump's guilt at conspiracy were wrong to do so (FYI, I was not among them), so I recommend you guys refrain from pre-judging the outcome of THIS investigation.
