Paul Manafort pleaded guilty in federal court Friday to conspiracy against the United States and conspiracy to obstruct justice through witness tampering. Both single count charges arose from his work in Ukraine. Talking Points Memo:
Manafort’s decision to cooperate with Mueller is a potentially grievous blow to President Donald J. Trump, who had supported Manafort loudly and publicly, even as he also tried to distance himself from his onetime campaign manager’s Ukraine work.
The recent revelation by Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani that Trump and Manafort had a joint defense agreement further suggested that the legal and political fate of the President was inextricably tied to Manafort, the once high-flying GOP operative who made millions representing the pro-Russia regime in Ukraine.
The deal is the culmination of a federal investigation that has kept Manafort’s name in the headlines for more than a year, from summer 2017, when the FBI raided his residence in Virginia, through last October, when the charges first dropped, and into February, when his former business deputy and co-defendant Rick Gates reached his own plea
This is not good news for Donald “no collusion” Trump.
August 21 was considered the line of demarcation in the Trump Russia investigation. That was the day that split screen images of Manafort’s conviction and Michael Cohen’s guilty plea, which happened within the same hour, went all over the world. Now, three weeks later, Manafort has done the plea deal that Roger Stone and Rudy Giuliani had said was “impossible” and “would never happen.”
The impossible is becoming commonplace in Trumpworld, and things are starting to move fast.
