Rudolph W. Giuliani, one of the president’s personal lawyers, acknowledged the arrangement on Tuesday and defended it as a source of valuable insights into the special counsel’s inquiry and where it was headed. Such information could help shape a legal defense strategy, and it also appeared to give Mr. Trump and his legal advisers ammunition in their public relations campaign against the special counsel’s office.

For example, Mr. Giuliani said, Mr. Manafort’s lawyer Kevin M. Downing told him that prosecutors hammered away at whether the president knew about the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting where Russians promised to deliver damaging information on Hillary Clinton to his eldest son, Donald Trump Jr. The president has long denied knowing about the meeting in advance. “He wants Manafort to incriminate Trump,” Mr. Giuliani declared of Mr. Mueller.

https://twitter.com/nycsouthpaw/status/1067665482629693440

Thread explaining that in the cooperation agreement for Gates, there was a gag order. In Manafort's, there was not. So when Guliani said Manafort was still in the JDA, he wasn't lying.

Of course, Mueller knew this. You have to wonder if it was some intentional strategy.

It wouldn't surprise me at all for Mueller to have fed Manafort a line of BS which he'd take to Trump, and Trump just submitted the written answers to Mueller's questioning. Interesting to see where that will run.

In other terms, this was not Paul Manafort:

Nice president you got there, gone berserk and tweeted this;

https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-and-jerome-corsi-have-a-defense-agreement-giuliani-confirms

Starting to look more and more likely that Trump is guilty.

SeCrEt TaLk Confirmed or nah ?

Breaaaking


Russian firm wants to disclose 'sensitive' US government info in court fight with Mueller

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/russian-firm-disclose-sensitive-us-government-info-court/story?id=59444605



Troll factory photo (unrelated);

random building with a "for rent" sign on it, collusion confirmed i think

I haven't seen anything affirmatively disproving The Guardian's story, but if Manafort visited Assange, there should be a video available somewhere to prove it. Since the story's release, The Guardian has weakened its own language and haven't demonstrated any proof for their claims. Their sourcing is thin and obscured at best, and I think skepticism is justified.

That said, if the story is true, it's devastating on the collusion front.