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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman Paul Manafort will cooperate with Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s probe of Russian election meddling as part of a plea deal, prosecutors told a federal court in Washington on Friday.

Manafort, 69, also pleaded guilty to two criminal counts, becoming the most prominent former Trump campaign official to plead guilty in Mueller’s investigation.

In a statement, the White House distanced Trump from the veteran Republican operative who helped get him elected against the odds in 2016.

“This had absolutely nothing to do with the president or his victorious 2016 presidential campaign,” White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said of the Manafort news on Friday. “It is totally unrelated.”

The probe has cast a shadow over the Republican’s presidency. Manafort’s decision to cooperate deals a political setback to Trump ahead of congressional elections on Nov. 6.

Manafort made millions of dollars working for pro-Russian Ukrainian politicians before taking an unpaid position with Trump’s campaign for five months.

He led the campaign in mid-2016 when Trump was selected as the Republican presidential nominee at the party convention.

Moscow has denied interfering in the 2016 election and Trump has said there was no collusion.

Manafort on Friday pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy against the United States and one count of conspiracy to obstruct justice brought by Mueller’s team. Other counts were dropped.
GUILTY PLEA

A Virginia jury convicted Manafort last month on bank and tax fraud charges. Prosecutors had accused him of hiding from U.S. tax authorities $16 million he earned as a political consultant in Ukraine to fund an opulent lifestyle and then lying to banks to secure $20 million in loans.

The jury in that case deadlocked on 10 counts that on Friday were dropped as part of the plea deal.

Jury selection was due to begin on Monday in a second Manafort trial on charges including conspiring to launder money, conspiring to defraud the United States, failing to register as a foreign agent and witness tampering.

Instead Manafort entered the plea.

Trump last month praised his former aide for not entering into an agreement with prosecutors, as the president’s former personal lawyer Michael Cohen had.

On Twitter on Aug. 22, Trump wrote: “Unlike Michael Cohen, he refused to ‘break’ - make up stories in order to get a ‘deal. Such respect for a brave man!”

Quote (ofthevoid @ Sep 14 2018 12:26pm)

No, I’m just not a dweeb and knew right off the bat that this is a polital play. I don’t know a single detail about this nor do I care to know, it’s an absolute waste of time. In a few months or a year or whatever you guys are going to be happy about some “victory” when some nobody gets charged with a completely unrelated crime like money laundering or perjury and pretend like it was all worth it.

Quote (Ghot @ Sep 14 2018 09:36am)

Quote (Ghot @ Sep 14 2018 12:36pm)

As I posted 2 weeks ago, they couldn't re-try him for those ten counts without seriously bending the double jeopardy laws.

Quote (IceMage @ 14 Sep 2018 16:27)

Evan Pérez
‏@evanperez
Prosecutor Andrew Weismann says there is a cooperation agreement with Manafort
8:24 AM - 14 Sep 2018

https://media.giphy.com/media/rl0FOxdz7CcxO/giphy.gif

Quote (Beowulf @ 14 Sep 2018 16:37)

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Prosecutors said the Manafort's own deal, which will require him to forfeit an estimated $46 million in assets, includes a 17-page cooperation agreement with Mueller.

Under that agreement, Manafort must participating in interviews with investigators, prove documents and testify, if needed.

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Rudy Giuliani, Trump's lawyer for the Russia probe, said: "Once again an investigation has concluded with a plea having nothing to do with President Trump or the Trump campaign."

"The reason: the President did nothing wrong and Paul Manafort will tell the truth," Giuliani said.

Within minutes of Giuliani issuing that statement, another Trump lawyer, Jay Sekulow, sent a "corrected statement" to reporters that said the same thing but omitted the words "and Paul Manafort will tell the truth."

Quote (Horford @ Sep 14 2018 01:12pm)

Some interesting details on the Manafort Plea deal:

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/09/14/trump-campaign-chief-paul-manafort-pleads-guilty-to-conspiracy-charges.html



&



AHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHA

Only the best lawyers!

Quote (Ghot @ Sep 14 2018 11:15am)

One of these days, we hope, you will realize that the issue at hand is not whether Manafort was a bad boy. He was. But that doesn't mean that Trump was a bad boy.

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Paul Manafort's cooperation agreement with the special counsel does not include matters involving the Trump campaign, according to a person familiar with the case, @johnson_carrie reports.

Quote (IceMage @ Sep 14 2018 11:22am)

https://twitter.com/nprpolitics/status/1040640794091237376



Seems strange. If it's not concerning the campaign, what is he cooperating on? Tony Podesta?

I'm skeptical of this reporting.