Holy cow — Paul Manafort just doomed Trump!
Paul Manafort, former campaign manager for Donald Trump, exits the District Courthouse after a motion hearing in Alexandria, Virginia, on Friday, May 4, 2018.
Andrew Harrer | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Paul Manafort, former campaign manager for Donald Trump, exits the District Courthouse after a motion hearing in Alexandria, Virginia, on Friday, May 4, 2018.
Paul Manafort, who once headed President Donald Trump’s campaign, pleaded guilty Friday to conspiracy charges and has agreed to cooperate with special counsel Robert Mueller’s ongoing investigations under a new plea deal.Manafort’s plea deal with Mueller, which dramatically ramps up the legal and political danger already facing Trump, came just three days before Manafort was set to begin jury selection for the second of his two federal criminal trials.
Prosecutors said the deal includes a 17-page cooperation agreement with Mueller.
Geez, you might just get the impression that Mueller just landed seventeen pages of doom for Russian malefactors, Trump campaign officials, and Ol’ Uncle Dotard von Tantrumtweet himself!
You can bet that there won’t be a pardon from his former client, game show host-turned-politician Donald J. Trump. Flashback to August 23:
In perhaps the most revealing moment [of a FOX News interview broadcast that day], [Trump] suggested that cooperating with prosecutors should itself be made a crime—and that anything his former associates are telling Mueller about him are lies to save their own skin. “I have seen it many times,” he continued, leaning in toward Earhardt. “I have had many friends involved in this stuff. It’s called flipping, and it almost ought to be illegal.”
The White House is already in full spin mode:
White House press secretary Sarah Sanders has released a brief statement on Manafort’s deal, per a pool report:
“This had absolutely nothing to do with the President or his victorious 2016 Presidential campaign. It is totally unrelated.”
Riiiight. Pigs are on the wing.
‘Nuff said!
