Former Trump campaign boss Paul Manafort has agreed to plead guilty in a deal to resolve charges filed by special counsel Robert Mueller, but it is wasn't clear whether the longtime Republican operative would cooperate with prosecutors against President Donald Trump.
Read more: Paul Manafort pleads guilty, agrees to cooperate with Justice Department
Manafort could prove to be a significant witness for Mueller, who is investigating Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, as well as possible collusion by members of Trump campaign with Moscow.
Jury selection for Manafort's second federal criminal trial was scheduled for Monday in Washington. Revised charges filed against him on Friday accuse him of a myriad of criminal acts related to his consulting work in Ukraine.
The charging document, while accusing him of just two criminal counts, appears to be designed to resolve not only the entire case in Washington, but the prosecution in Alexandria, Virginia, where Manafort was convicted of eight counts last month.
The new document alleges Manafort engaged in a conspiracy involving money laundering, tax fraud, failing to report foreign bank accounts, violating rules requiring registration of foreign agents, lying and witness tampering.
Criminal informations are routinely filed in federal cases when a defendant has agreed to plead guilty. The charging document will replace an indictment that had been pending against Manafort in Washington court, where the 69-year-old defendant is scheduled to appear later Friday morning.
Blze001 on September 14th, 2018 at 17:10 UTC »
His track record for hiring the best people is astounding.
JeanLafitteTheSecond on September 14th, 2018 at 16:42 UTC »
"Don't fool yourself. That money we have is blood money. You know he has killed people in Ukraine? Knowingly. As a tactic to outrage the world and get focus on Ukraine. Remember when there were all those deaths taking place. A while back. About a year ago. Revolts and what not. Do you know whose strategy that was to cause that, to send those people out and get them slaughtered." - Andrea Manafort Shand (Paul Manafort's Daughter), March, 2016
"Mom told me [TRUMP] was going to call dad. She told me to get ready for Trump to be president and pick the position in the White House I want." - Andrea Manafort Shand (Paul Manafort's Daughter), March 17, 2016
"Yup. Perfect allies. Trump probably has more morals than my dad. Which is really just saying something about my dad. My dad is a psycho!!! At least trump let his wives leave him. Plus, Trump has been a good father." - Andrea Manafort Shand (Paul Manafort's Daughter), April 7, 2016
EDIT: Links below
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/paul-manafort-daughter-trump-texts_us_59f748b6e4b03cd20b832fe0
https://people.com/politics/paul-manafort-email-password-bond007-daughter-text-messages/
https://www.politico.com/story/2017/02/manaforts-ukrainian-blood-money-caused-qualms-hack-suggests-235473
And if you want to know how Manafort made millions by accepting blood money, check out this documentary on Netflix:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5IPyv4KgTAA
and
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8135494/
slakmehl on September 14th, 2018 at 15:23 UTC »
The text of the plea, which takes the unusual step of walking through the evidence for each count - 37 pages long with multiple exhibits - including FARA violations, money laundering and obstruction of justice/witness tampering. Mueller appears to be taking the approach of filing his "report" in the form of indictments and guilty pleas. This is the 5th member of the Trump campaign to plead guilty to criminal charges related to the Mueller probe, in addition to two other guilty pleas and 26 indictments.
One other fun fact: since the plea includes the forefeiture of $46 million in assets which cannot be pardoned away, the Mueller probe is now operating in the black, up $30 million from this plea alone against $16.7 million in costs. Turns out probes that bring charges against people knee deep in money-laundering can be very profitable for US taxpayers.
Update - Prosecutors just announced in court that the plea includes a 17 page cooperation agreement. This is highly unexpected. Manafort has to this point appeared to be all-in on a pardon. If this is actually a full cooperation agreement, it will entail withdrawal from the Joint Defense Agreement with Trump (as happened with Michael Cohen in July), which would mean orange fireworks on twitter are inbound.
Update 2 - The relevant section of the cooperation agreement. It is full cooperation, everywhere on everything, and Manafort has already begun proferring information. Mueller is now, at a minimum, inside the room at the Trump Tower meeting.