BREAKING: Manafort Agrees to Plead Guilty in Second Set of Charges

• President Donald Trump’s former campaign manager, Paul Manafort, will reportedly plead guilty to federal crimes at a hearing this morning, according to the Washington Post.
• Manafort is charged with money laundering and lobbying violations.
• A judge still needs to accept the plea, the terms of which are not immediately clear, including whether Manafort will provide information to special counsel Robert S. Mueller III.
• Manafort was convicted last month on separate charges of bank and tax fraud.

Why it matters

Mueller is investigating the Trump campaign and its possible ties to Russian interference in the 2016 election.

It remains to be seen whether Manafort has and will provide any information that could implicate the Trump campaign. His previous conviction does not appear to have yielded such information.

Trump’s former personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, also pleaded guilty last month in a federal investigation. The information he provided as part of his plea may have been somewhat more damaging to the president.

According to the Washington Post:

“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.”

What do you think?

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—Sara E. Murphy

(Photo Credit: Victoria Pickering / Creative Commons)