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发帖数: 5309 | 1 President Trump’s former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, has agreed to
plead guilty to federal crimes at a hearing Friday morning, officials said.
The planned plea, if accepted by a judge, would short-circuit his second
trial scheduled to begin later this month in the District on charges of
money laundering and lobbying violations.
The details of Manafort’s plea were not immediately clear, including
whether he would be providing any information to special counsel Robert S.
Mueller III as part of any deal.
People familiar with the plea discussions have previously said that Manafort
has no intention of cooperating with Mueller, so it’s possible any
prospective agreement could allow him to admit guilt without providing
information to investigators.
A hearing in the case scheduled for Friday morning was pushed back,
according to the federal court’s electronic filing system.
The move toward a guilty plea is another reversal for Manafort, who has
fought vociferously — but unsuccessfully — against Mueller’s probe. The
69-year-old political consultant was convicted last month in Alexandria
federal court on charges of bank and tax fraud.
In-person jury selection for his Washington trial was set to start Monday,
with opening statements scheduled for Sept. 24 before U.S. District Judge
Amy Berman Jackson. Any deal would not be final until Manafort admits guilt
before the judge, who would need to approve the plea.
Another conviction would cap a dramatic fall for the international power
broker and confidant of Republican presidents dating back to Ronald Reagan.
Manafort’s decision could be mixed news for Trump, who tapped the
consultant to serve as his campaign chairman in June 2016 as he was securing
the GOP presidential nomination.
If Manafort were to cooperate with Mueller, that could provide investigators
new evidence or leads to chase; a guilty plea, however, would prevent weeks
worth of headlines about the trial in the month before congressional
elections.
The longtime lobbyist resigned from his position as campaign chairman in
August 2016 amid increasing scrutiny of his work on behalf of a Russia-
friendly political party in Ukraine.
Over a 40-year career, Manafort redefined and expanded Washington’s
influence industry domestically and internationally, parlaying successful
campaigns into lobbying opportunities. But by the mid-2000s, there were
signs that his consulting career had slumped, and at times his finances
appeared to be shaky. It was in Ukraine that he revived both — in ways
prosecutors say violated the law.
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Both cases brought against Manafort by the special counsel stem from his
work in Ukraine. The jury in Virginia found that Manafort hid millions of
dollars he made in Ukraine to avoid paying taxes, and then lied to get loans
when the political party that was paying him was ousted from power and the
funding dried up.
In the trial scheduled in Washington, Manafort faces charges of conspiring
against the United States, money laundering, failing to register as a
lobbyist, making false statements and conspiring to obstruct justice by
trying to influence witnesses.
Manafort had the choice to consolidate both cases into one but declined. He
had been jailed since June as a result of the witness tampering charges.
He has yet to be sentenced in Virginia, where legal experts say he faces 8
to 10 years in prison under federal guidelines on the eight of 18 counts on
which he was convicted. A mistrial was declared on the remaining 10 charges
after jurors could not reach a unanimous verdict.
It’s unclear how a guilty plea might alter his ultimate sentence, and some
lawyers have questioned whether he is focused on winning a reprieve
elsewhere. Law enforcement officials have come to suspect that Manafort
hopes he will be pardoned by the president, according to people familiar
with the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a
sensitive issue.
Trump has sought advice from his lawyers on the possibility of pardoning
Manafort and other aides accused of crimes, his attorney Rudolph W. Giuliani
previously told The Washington Post, and was counseled against pardoning
anyone involved in the ongoing Mueller probe. The president agreed to wait
at least until the investigation concludes, Giuliani has said.
Several defendants have cooperated or pleaded guilty in connection with the
special counsel probe, including Manafort’s former right-hand man Rick
Gates; former national security adviser Michael Flynn; Alex van der Zwaan, a
lawyer who worked with Manafort; W. Samuel Patten, who admitted arranging
for a Ukrainian businessman to illegally donate to Trump’s inauguration;
and former Trump foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos, who was
sentenced to 14 days in jail last week after pleading guilty to lying to the
FBI.
The decision by Trump’s onetime personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, to plead
guilty last month in a federal investigation in Manhattan particularly
angered the president, who denounced him as a “flipper.”
[How Trump adviser Manafort revived his career-and business fortunes — in
Ukraine]
Earlier this year, Manafort derided Gates, his former business partner, for
striking a deal with prosecutors that provided him leniency in exchange for
testimony against his former partner.
“I had hoped and expected my business colleague would have had the strength
to continue the battle to prove our innocence,” Manafort said in February.
Kevin M. Downing, an attorney for Manafort, also said earlier this summer
there was “no chance” his client would flip and cooperate with prosecutors.
That posture drew plaudits from Trump, who praised his former campaign
chairman for his unwillingness to cooperate with the special counsel.
Prosecutors “applied tremendous pressure on him and . . . he
refused to ‘break’ - make up stories in order to get a ‘deal,’ ” the
president tweeted last month. “Such respect for a brave man!” |
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