Five Notable Nuggets From Manafort Scandal

An analysis of the guilty plea Sept. 14 by the corrupt global strategist and former Trump 2016 campaign chairman Paul Manafort features five notable crime scenarios easy to overlook by busy readers or even reporters.

Paul Manafort admitted during his federal court plea deal too many crimes to mention here or in any other news commentary of reasonable length.

U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson told her courtroom in the nation’s capital that she had never previously heard such a long litany of crimes, which are reported here in a court filing.

This editor covered Manafort’s guilty pleas on Sept. 14 at the federal courthouse in Washington, DC and the defendant's trial last month at the federal courthouse across the Potomac River from the District in Alexandria, Virginia.

A Justice Integrity Project photo shows CNN’s Justice Department correspondent Evan Perez reporting on the Sept. 14 Manafort guilty plea

It's being widely reported that Manafort could now be sharing secrets deeply damaging to President Trump and his family on such topics as the 2016 Trump Tower strategy meeting with Donald Trump Jr. and Russian representatives and also the reasons why the Trump campaign made a pro-Russia change in the GOP campaign platform under Manafort's leadership at the Republican National Convention in 2016.

More generally, the public sees the remarkable number of high-level aides to Trump who have been indicted and convicted. These include Manafort's longtime aide Rick Gates. Gates was also the 2016 Deputy National Campaign chairman and a leader of the Trump Inaugural. Others indicted and convicted include former Director of National Intelligence Michael Flynn and Trump's longtime personal lawyer Michael Cohen.

Perhaps even more devastating to a Trump defense and other efforts to block an investigation are the massive documentation collected by Mueller's team and other federal and state prosecution allies.

These documents encompass White House and other federal records, nearly all of Cohen's professional records (possibly including tapes of conservations with Trump and others) and records kept by the Trump Organization's long-serving Chief Financial Officer Allen Weisselberg, shown at right, and likely including Trump's secret tax returns.

Yet there are other important aspects to Manafort's plea and forthcoming cooperation with prosecutors. Our picks as “notable news nuggets” are below, along with an appendix excerpting major news treatments published elsewhere.

• Hiring 'the Best': Manafort Is 'The Swamp'
• Manafort Admits To All Charges (Even those from the hung jury in Virginia)
• Guilt Includes $16 Million Fraudulent Loan From Would-be Army Secretary
• Mueller Probe Is Not a 'Witch-hunt' If Pro-Russian Party Paid Manafort To Hurt Hillary
• Forfeitures Now Meet or Exceed Mueller Probe's Cost

Looking Ahead:

• Forfeiture Precedent For United States To Seize Trump Assets Gained Via Crime?
• Real Reason Why Manafort Backed Mike Pence For Vice President

Hiring 'The Best': But Manafort Is 'The Swamp'

Donald Trump, as portrayed in a publicity photo for his hit show The Apprentice

Manafort's decades of high-level lobbying for some of the most corrupt and otherwise notorious autocrats in the world is the kind of background that can be missed when so much breaking news is occurring.

But that history remains highly relevant to Trump's "Make America Great Again" boast that he would hire "the best" staffers to clean up "The Swamp" of Washington corruption.

Trump's hiring of Manafort for the campaign in 2016 was supposedly in keeping with Trump's rigorous standards, as illustrated in keeping with his image as an astute and demanding boss on "The Apprentice" shows and otherwise.

Yet Manafort's remarkably corrupt past was already known / suspected by insiders at the time Trump hired him as a campaign consultant in early 2016 and was thoroughly documented at trial last month and by the plea agreement.

Manafort biographer Franklin Foer documented Manafort's career in The Atlantic Magazine's March issue (available earlier electronically) in  American Hustler / The Plot Against America. The article was subtitled Decades before he ran the Trump campaign, Paul Manafort’s pursuit of foreign cash and shady deals laid the groundwork for the corruption of Washington. It provides a remarkable and must-read insight into Manafort's career in Republican and international strategies.

Its reporting included a description that Manafort was being treated in a mental health clinic in early 2016 and was installed in a semi-private room, reportedly because of Manafort's liquidity crunch after blowing tens of millions of dollars in luxury living expenses and failing to secure new clients.

Evidence at trial show that he had earned some $60 million in previous years but only declared $13 million in income to the U.S. Internal Revenue Service..

Manafort Admits To All Charges (Even those from the hung jury in Virginia)

Prosecutors read a defendant-endorsed statement of fact during Manafort's plea proceeding on Sept. 14 in which authorities said that Manafort was admitting to all of the charges made against him in the proceedings in Virginia and the District, including the 10 charges which had resulted in a hung jury in Virginia, reportedly because one Trump-supporting juror refused to concur with the 11 other jurors.

It was this long recital of offenses that the presiding judge for the plea deal, Amy Berman Jackson described as the longest and most detailed such admission that she had witnessed as a judge. Berman, shown at right, was confirmed by the Senate in 2011.

Guilt Includes $16 Million Fraudulent Loan From Would-be Army Secretary 

The plea deal includes Manafort's admission of guilt for a $16 million loan in 2016 from the Chicago-based Federal Savings Bank that constituted one of the few sets of charges in Virginia that extended into Manafort's time working for the Trump campaign. The charges also involve one of the most brazen and indeed mind-boggling revelations from the trial, even though they resulted in part of the hold-out juror's reluctance to convict on all counts.

To recap from our trial coverage regarding the corrupt process at work:

Out of all this [trial evidence] few more spectacular examples of apparent corruption and danger to the public exist than the efforts by Federal Savings Bank CEO Stephen Calk to obtain a Trump administration post as, apparently, his just reward for career that perhaps most notably featured his bank's approval of $16 million in loans to Manafort.

Calk (shown at right in a file photo) proposed himself to become Secretary of the Army as his first choice. He was so confident of obtaining the post that, according to evidence introduced at trial, the Chicago banker asked for a Pentagon briefing on current developments during 2016. This was, of course, during the Obama administration as well as during Army deployments in a number of battle regions worldwide.

To Trump campaign and transition officials, Calk listed also the alternative jobs that he preferred, in ranked order. Here they are, as offered in evidence by the special counsel's office during the Manafort trial.

Among his qualifications, Calk listed, using the third person: “Mr. Calk willingly risked his national professional and personal reputation as an active, vocal, and early supporter of President-Elect Trump.”

He listed the “Perspective Rolls” [sic] that he would like in the administration, listing possible prospective jobs he sought, in order. Secretary of the Army was number one, followed by the chiefs of Treasury, Commerce, HUD, and Defense. He listed also several other executive branch agencies.

He said he would also be most interested an ambassadorship in the United Kingdom but would settle for France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Japan, Ireland, Australia, China, United Nations, the European Union, Portugal, the Vatican, Luxembourg, Austria, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Singapore, in that order.

For readers here, as for members of the public anywhere who care about these offices and their missions, imagine if their leaders are appointed via cronyism?

Obviously, however, this is exactly the type of probe that Mueller's office is undertaking, most publicly with its first trial, that of Manafort.

What appears to be a mind-boggling level of arrogance and corruption on Calk's part is underscored by several additional factors.

One is that the Treasury Department, responsible for federal income tax collection as well as the overall state of the economy and numerous anti-terrorism programs, was so high on the list of the banker.

Implicit, and yet clearly understood by those involved, according to email evidence, was that his key credential appeared to be loyalty to the Trump Team, as evidenced most obviously by his decision to override his bank subordinates and have the bank's shareholders issue Manafort such huge loans.

Another telling moment is that Calk repeatedly misspelled the word "role" in arguing that he could assume the various cabinet positions. He spelled the word "roll."

When Calk did spell the word correctly in one place, prosecutors told the jury that they became so suspicious they sought to learn why via an online search of words in the pattern that he used.

That search revealed, they said, that Calk had copied for his self-nomination from Wikipedia a long description of the Secretary of the Army's "role," thereby assigning those qualifications listed on Wikipedia to his own job application, which went to Kushner.

Mueller Probe Is Not a 'Witch-Hunt' If Pro-Russian Party Paid Manafort To Hurt Hillary

The prosecution statement of facts Friday cited Manafort's effort to smear with an anti-Semitism claim an unnamed member of President Obama's cabinet to please Manafort's pro-Russian Ukrainian clients in 2012. Manafort's client was the political party of the pro-Russian president of the Ukrainian, Viktor Yanukovych, who was overthrown during a U.S.-orchestrated coup in 2014.

The U.S. cabinet member targeted by Manafort's clients is widely reported to have been Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the 2016 Democratic presidential nominee.

Although that action by Manafort was in 2012, not 2016, Manafort's admission of involvement makes more credible the possibility of other evidence arising pertaining to Russian "collusion" in the 2016 against the Democratic presidential nominee Clinton. 

Forfeitures Now Meet or Exceed Mueller Probe's Cost 

Another favorite Republican complaint against Special Counsel Robert Mueller's team is that their probe has become too long and too expensive.

The complaint is absurd on its face to anyone who remembers the much longer and much more expensive Independent Counsel probes of the Clinton administration.

Most memorable among these probes was that of Whitewater investigator Kenneth Starr, whose team never filed charges against the Clintons for the Whitewater land development but instead went far afield to seize former White House intern Monica Lewinsky (shown in a file photo at right) and frighten her into providing evidence that she had been involved, beginning at age 22, in a consensual romantic relationship with Clinton that involved oral sex shortly after her White House internship ended.

The Mueller probe has been far shorter. With the Manafort plea agreement, the result is that every American defendant (excluding Russian nationals) so far indicted has been found guilty. Furthermore, the probe's estimated $26 million in costs (including $7 million from an initial official reporting period) appear to be exceeded by forfeitures in the Manafort plea deal.

A Washington Post report by Philip Bump, Robert Mueller may have just eliminated one of Trump’s biggest complaints, argues that "The Mueller probe may have just paid for itself" with property forfeitures valued at nearly $30 million and perhaps as high as $46 million.

These include Manafort's condo in Trump Tower in New York City, possibly creating the bizarre situation whereby the FBI owns a condo in Trump's building, a locale some of the events doubtless under Mueller and FBI investigation.

Forfeiture Precedent For United States To Seize Trump Assets Allegedly Gained Via Crime?

Special Counsel Robert Mueller, as portrayed in a graphic widely disseminated on the web with the slogan "Objects in Mirror are Closer Than They Appear"

Looking ahead, anyone who values money and possessions so much as President Trump must wonder after seeing Manafort's plight whether forfeitures of proceeds from any proven fraudulent activities might loom in Trump's future also as the Mueller investigation proceeds.

In other words, Trump's presidency and freedom are not his only risk.

Real Reason Why Manafort Backed Mike Pence For Vice President

Manafort's plea deal and apparent cooperation with Mueller endanger a host of other players, including Vice President Mike Pence, shown at right in an official photo.

Manafort had recommended Pence, then governor of Indiana, to become the vice presidential nominee on the ticket. Pence later replaced New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie as head of the Trump transition in later 2016. The evidence of Pence wrongdoing is scant according to official statements and mainstream media reporting.

But two columns from alternative media excerpted below show how a Manafort-assisted inquiry could seriously escalate pressure on Pence.

The authors are Wayne Madsen, shown at left in a file photo, a syndicated columnist, editor of the Wayne Madsen Report (WMR) subscription-only political intelligence blog and former Navy intelligence officer, and Bill Palmer, a liberal political commentator who publishes the widely read Palmer Report.

Madsen is the author of 15 books (including on CIA front companies and partners and, separately on The Christian Mafia). He has published also a Donald Trump / Jared Kushner / Paul Manafort chart showing their relationships with some 3,000 of their entities and business partners, with a heavy focus on those figures like Trump associate Felix Sater and Manafort associate Oleg Deripaska with Eastern European backgrounds and suspected hidden ties to the Trump, Kushner or Manafort networks.

Madsen focused most recently on Pence in a WMR column on Aug. 23, Pence tied to Manafort's offshore business cabal; Is there an Agnew future ahead for Pence? Parts of the column are excerpted below with permission and in our appendix at bottom:

Former Donald Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort, convicted in the U.S. Court for the Eastern District of Virginia on eight criminal counts, including bank and tax fraud, was the chief promoter of Vice President Mike Pence while Trump was deciding on a running mate.

Pence's brother, Ed Pence (shown at right0, is a retired executive with engine manufacturer Cummins, Inc., headquartered in Columbus, Indiana. During Ed Pence's 36 years with the firm, he was promoted to vice president in charge of strategic initiatives. Ed Pence retired in December 2017. Ed Pence was largely responsible for developing a close relationship between Cummins and Russian truck manufacturer KAMAZ, based in the Russian autonomous Republic of Tatarstan.

WMR previously reported that Cummins's chief lobbyist in Washington was Prime Policy Group (PPG), headed by Manafort's erstwhile lobbying partner, Charlie Black. Black, Manafort, and Trump associate Roger Stone formed Manafort, Black, Stone & Kelly in 1980, a lobbying firm that represented some of the world's most notorious dictators, including Mobutu Sese Seko of Zaire, Ferdinand Marcos of the Philippines, and Mohammed Siad Barre of Somalia.

In the midst of the 2016 campaign, Manafort convinced Trump to select Pence over New Jersey Governor Chris Christie because of Pence's "Christian values," which Manafort said was necessary to unite the evangelical wing of the GOP around Trump.

In fact, Manafort's sponsorship of Pence had more to do with the connections of Mike and Ed Pence to Manafort's key clients in Russia.

In addition to Russian oligarchs Oleg Deripaska and Viktor Vekselberg, who have investments in Tatarstan industries, including KAMAZ, Pence, through Manafort, is linked to Sergey Roldugin, a major shareholder of Cummins's partner, KAMAZ. Roldugin is also a famed Russian cellist and the godfather of Maria Putina, the daughter of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Yevgeny Roldugin, Sergey's brother, served in the Soviet KGB with Vladimir Putin.

Pence is a perfect Trojan horse in right-wing Republican politics. A "born-again" evangelical Christian, along with his wife, Pence is viewed as someone who possesses solid Republican values. In fact, Pence, through his and Ed Pence's connections with Manafort and his Russian lobbying network, is very much a part of Eurasian organized crime's operations to buy off American politicians, and, in the case of Trump and Pence, the White House.

Palmer also has long reported on Pence's possible liability for nefarious aspects of the Trump-Pence campaign and administration. On Sept. 15, the Palmer Report noted a new development in a column entitled: Laurence Tribe says Mike Pence is in big trouble – and he’s right. It began:

On Thursday, as the news was surfacing that Paul Manafort was in the process of cutting a plea deal, Palmer Report pointed out that this could end up having a very ugly outcome for Mike Pence. Among other reasons, it was Manafort – who was under Kremlin control the entire time – who pushed Donald Trump into picking Pence to begin with. Now that Manafort has indeed flipped on everyone, it turns out one of the nation’s foremost legal experts agrees with us about Pence.

Here’s what Harvard Law Professor Laurence Tribe had to say on Twitter after the Manafort cooperation agreement was revealed: “Anyone recall who hand-picked Pence as Trump’s VP? Paul Manafort. And recall who led the squirrely transition? Mike Pence. Watch what unfolds as Manafort tells Mueller all he knows!”

Jennifer Rubin, a conservative reporter for the Washington Post, added this: “Who carried fake cover story on Comey firing? Pence. Who carried misinformation about Flynn’s convers with Russians? Same.”

Stayed tuned. Manafort's plea has many, many ramifications.

Contact the author This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Related News Coverage

ABC News Justice Department correspondent Pierre Thomas, center, told his viewers on Sept. 14 that Manafort’s guilty plea provided the important and unexpected news that Manafort would cooperate with the ongoing investigation of Russian influence into the 2016 elections by Special Counsel Robert Mueller III (Justice Integrity Project photo).

Sept. 16

Washington Post, Guilty plea exposes hardball tactics Manafort used to thrive in ‘swamp,’ Rosalind S. Helderman, Tom Hamburger and Matt Zapotosky, Sept. 16, 2018 (print edition). Before he was the Trump campaign chairman, the lobbyist went to extreme lengths in a secret effort to help a Ukrainian politician, court papers show.

Before he was Donald Trump’s campaign chairman, Paul Manafort embraced extreme tactics in his lobbying efforts: He schemed “to plant some stink” and spread stories that a jailed Ukrainian politician was a murderer. He enlisted a foreign politician who was secretly on his payroll to deliver a message to President Barack Obama in the Oval Office. And he gleefully fueled allegations that an Obama Cabinet member who had spoken out against his Ukrainian client was an anti-Semite, according to court papers.

With his guilty plea Friday, Manafort admitted the lengths to which he went to manipulate the American political system and the media for massive profit, exposing how he thrived in the Washington swamp that Trump railed against during his campaign.

The president has dismissed the allegations against his former campaign chairman as run-of-the-mill lobbying — and has even contemplated pardoning him. But new details revealed Friday show how far beyond the law Manafort went in pursuit of his goals.

By pleading guilty, Manafort agreed that he knew he was required by law to publicly report that a pro-Russia Ukrainian political party was paying him and his stable of lobbyists, which included former leaders of Austria, Poland and Italy.

Instead, he operated in the dark, working diligently to keep his lobbying for Ukrainian politician Viktor Yanukovych, right, a secret and pocketing millions routed through offshore bank accounts to hide his work and avoid paying taxes.

“This is extraordinary,” said Michael McFaul, a Stanford University professor who served as U.S. ambassador to Moscow.

“I was well aware at the time that Manafort was making efforts to present Yanukovych in the best light,” McFaul said, but added that he had no idea of the extent of Manafort’s elaborate schemes.

Washington Post, Opinion: I was a prosecutor. Here’s what stands out to me about Manafort’s deal with Mueller, Deanna Paul, Sept. 15, 2018. What’s clear is that Paul Manafort was out of cards to play. Unlike the other criminally charged former Trump aides, Manafort’s problem was that he was facing a functional life sentence.

Under federal sentencing guidelines, a prison term is determined by a defendant’s criminal history and his conduct during the charged crime.

In the D.C. plea deal, that calculation did not work out well for Manafort, handing him a particularly onerous sentence. In addition to a court-imposed fine, according to court documents, the range for Manafort was 210 to 262 months imprisonment, or 17 to 20 years.

On Friday, he pleaded guilty to two federal charges — conspiracy to defraud the United States and conspiracy to obstruct justice, encompassing a range of crimes from money laundering and tax fraud to lying to the Justice Department. One conspiracy count covered the time he worked for the Trump campaign.

With the plea, he avoided the D.C.-based trial, which would have dealt with seven federal crimes, including an obstruction of justice charge added to a new indictment in June, after he allegedly contacted two potential witnesses.

Sept. 15

Washington Post, Guilty plea exposes hardball tactics Manafort used to thrive in ‘swamp,’ Rosalind S. Helderman, Tom Hamburger and Matt Zapotosky, Sept. 15, 2018. Before he was the Trump campaign chairman, the lobbyist went to extreme lengths in a secret effort to help a Ukrainian politician, court papers show.

Before he was Donald Trump’s campaign chairman, Paul Manafort embraced extreme tactics in his lobbying efforts: He schemed “to plant some stink” and spread stories that a jailed Ukrainian politician was a murderer. He enlisted a foreign politician who was secretly on his payroll to deliver a message to President Barack Obama in the Oval Office. And he gleefully fueled allegations that an Obama Cabinet member who had spoken out against his Ukrainian client was an anti-Semite, according to court papers.

With his guilty plea Friday, Manafort admitted the lengths to which he went to manipulate the American political system and the media for massive profit, exposing how he thrived in the Washington swamp that Trump railed against during his campaign.

The president has dismissed the allegations against his former campaign chairman as run-of-the-mill lobbying — and has even contemplated pardoning him. But new details revealed Friday show how far beyond the law Manafort went in pursuit of his goals.

By pleading guilty, Manafort agreed that he knew he was required by law to publicly report that a pro-Russia Ukrainian political party was paying him and his stable of lobbyists, which included former leaders of Austria, Poland and Italy.

Instead, he operated in the dark, working diligently to keep his lobbying for Ukrainian politician Viktor Yanukovych, right, a secret and pocketing millions routed through offshore bank accounts to hide his work and avoid paying taxes.

“This is extraordinary,” said Michael McFaul, a Stanford University professor who served as U.S. ambassador to Moscow.

“I was well aware at the time that Manafort was making efforts to present Yanukovych in the best light,” McFaul said, but added that he had no idea of the extent of Manafort’s elaborate schemes.

Washington Post, Analysis, Robert Mueller may have just eliminated one of Trump’s biggest complaints, Philip Bump, Sept. 15, 2018 (print edition). Trump likes to complain about the cost of the Mueller probe. It might just have paid for itself.

If we assume the same cost-per-day for the investigation that was reported through March of this year, the probe has so far cost the government about $26 million. That’s the $17 million through March and another $9 million since.

But here’s the thing, pointed out by journalist Marcy Wheeler on her personal site: The Mueller probe may have just paid for itself.

Why? Because part of the plea agreement reached between Mueller and former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort includes forfeiture of certain property to the government. While it’s not clear how much value will be extracted from that forfeiture, there’s reason to think that it could more than pay for what Mueller has incurred so far.

Palmer Report, Opinion: Laurence Tribe says Mike Pence is in big trouble – and he’s right, Bill Palmer, Sept. 15, 2018. On Thursday, as the news was surfacing that Paul Manafort was in the process of cutting a plea deal, Palmer Report pointed out that this could end up having a very ugly outcome for Mike Pence. Among other reasons, it was Manafort – who was under Kremlin control the entire time – who pushed Donald Trump into picking Pence to begin with. Now that Manafort has indeed flipped on everyone, it turns out one of the nation’s foremost legal experts agrees with us about Pence, shown at right.

Here’s what Harvard Law Professor Laurence Tribe had to say on Twitter after the Manafort cooperation agreement was revealed: “Anyone recall who hand-picked Pence as Trump’s VP? Paul Manafort. And recall who led the squirrely transition? Mike Pence. Watch what unfolds as Manafort tells Mueller all he knows!” Jennifer Rubin, a conservative reporter for the Washington Post, added this: “Who carried fake cover story on Comey firing? Pence. Who carried misinformation about Flynn’s convers with Russians? Same.”

Here’s what Palmer Report wrote about the matter on Thursday: “There was no legitimate reason for Paul Manafort to have zeroed in on Mike Pence, whose approval rating as Governor of Indiana was so low, he wasn’t even bothering to seek reelection. If Manafort believed that Donald Trump needed an evangelical running mate, there were better options than Pence. The move simply made no sense at the time … If the Kremlin told Manafort to go with Pence, then Manafort is about to tell Mueller why.” But Tribe brings up another good point.

Last December, Palmer Report brought you the story of how Special Counsel Robert Mueller had been sitting on the emails from the Trump transition team all along. Mike Pence was the head of the transition team. It was separately reported that the transition team knew at the time that Michael Flynn was coordinating with the Russian Ambassador. So unless the rest of the transition team went out of its way to prevent Pence from knowing about this, Pence knew. That would further confirm that Pence lied about Flynn in early 2017, which would constitute felony obstruction of justice.

Sept. 14

Former Trump Campaign Manager Paul Manafort, left, and Deputy Campaign Manager Rick Gates, a former aide and business partner to Manafort for a decade.

CBS News, Paul Manafort will cooperate with special counsel, Paula Reid, Clare Hymes, Steven Portnoy and Jeff Pegues, Sept. 14, 2018 (4:16 min. video). Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort entered a guilty plea to two felonies Friday. He will also be cooperating with the special counsel in its Russia investigation, prosecutor Andrew Weissman told the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. Friday.

Weissman referred to Manafort's plea deal as a cooperation agreement in court Friday, which could jeopardize his chances of a presidential pardon. In late July, an attorney for Manafort told CBS News' Paula Reid that there was "no chance" his client would cooperate with the special counsel in its Russia probe. It is not yet clear whether Manafort's cooperation is related to President Trump or whether he would provide information on some other aspect of the investigation.

Manafort appeared at the hearing with three attorneys, including Kevin Downing, who said nothing during the hearing. The government brought a large contingent, though special counsel Robert Mueller was not present. Several lawyers, FBI and IRS agents who had worked on the case attended the hearing, occupying two-and-a-half rows in the audience. They were all hugging and congratulating each other at the end of the hearing.

The president's attorney, Rudy Giuliani, was asked by Reid (CBS Washington correspondent) whether he had been told by Manafort's attorneys that the cooperation deal will not require him to share anything related to the president. "I'm confident," he replied, without saying whether Manafort's lawyers had given him this assurance.

Manafort is pleading guilty to charges the special counsel filed Friday on conspiracy against the U.S. and conspiracy to obstruct justice. The former includes money laundering, tax fraud, failing to file Foreign Bank Accounts, and the latter includes the charge of witness tampering.

In August, Manafort was found guilty on eight out of 18 counts of financial crimes in his first trial in Virginia. The jury was deadlocked on the remaining 10 counts, which ended in mistrial. As part of his plea agreement, Manafort has admitted his guilt to the rest of the bank fraud counts in Virginia, and in return, the government will not retry the other counts in which a mistrial was declared.

Manafort is still subject to whatever sentence is imposed in the Virginia trial. And the judge may decide to run those sentences consecutively or concurrently. In Washington, Judge Amy Berman Jackson, right, said that based on the guidelines, which are determined based on factors such as Manafort's involvement and the nature of the crimes, he faces a range of 210 to 262 months and a $400,000 fine. But that is more than the statutory maximum which is five years, which the judge cannot exceed.

The charges were filed in a superseding criminal information -- a formal criminal charge -- which lays out the facts of the offense and is often the precursor to the announcement of a deal.

In the courtroom, Manafort stared straight ahead, while Weissman read a condensed version of the litany of illegal acts to which Manafort is pleading guilty. Jackson called it the "longest and most detailed" reading of criminal information she had ever heard.

The Atlantic, What Paul Manafort Knows, Franklin Foer, Sept. 14, 2018. What kind of threat does Paul Manafort now pose to Donald Trump? Robert Mueller’s indictment of the fallen lobbyist is a masterful portrait of a craven man and his methods.

But the chronology contained in the document filed this morning takes us right up to the eve of Manafort joining the Trump campaign, and then leaves the reader bursting with curiosity about what comes next. While Mueller has tied up all sorts of narratives about Manafort’s strange career in Ukraine, so many strands of the Manafort story remain maddeningly untidy.

Perhaps not even Mueller fully knows what Manafort has to offer about his time in the Trump campaign. But in the unresolved threads of the tale, there are hints of the subjects that Manafort could clarify.

Washington Post, Manafort to plead guilty to second set of charges in Mueller probe, Spencer S. Hsu and Devlin Barrett, Sept. 14, 2018. The signal of a plea by Paul Manafort, President Trump's former campaign chairman, came not long before his trial in D.C. on charges of money laundering and lobbying violations and after his August conviction in federal court in Virginia.

• Read the new court filing in Manafort’s case, with excerpt at the top below. Some conduct extended into 2017, according to the plea document:

 PAUL J. MANAFORT, JR. (MANAFORT) served for years as a political consultant and lobbyist. Between at least 2006 and 2015, MANAFORT conspired with Richard W. Gates (Gates), Konstantin Kilimnik (Kilimnik), and others to act, and acted, as unregistered agents of a foreign government and political party.

Specifically, MANAFORT conspired to act and acted as an agent of the Government of Ukraine, the Party of Regions (a Ukrainian political party whose leader Victor Yanukovych was President from 2010 to 2014), President Yanukovych, and the Opposition Bloc (a successor to the Party of Regions that formed in 2014 when Yanukovych fled to Russia).

MANAFORT generated more than 60 million dollars in income as a result of his Ukraine work. In order to hide Ukraine payments from United States authorities, from approximately 2006 through at least 2016, MANAFORT, with the assistance of Gates and Kilimnik, laundered the money through scores of United States and foreign corporations, partnerships, and bank accounts.

Sept. 13

ABC News, Paul Manafort and special counsel reach tentative plea deal: Sources, Katherine Faulders, Trish Turner, John Santucci and Matthew Mosk, Sept. 13, 2018. Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort has tentatively agreed to a plea deal with special counsel Robert Mueller that will head off his upcoming trial, sources familiar with the negotiations tell ABC News.

The deal is expected to be announced in court Friday, but it remains unclear whether Manafort has agreed to cooperate with prosecutors or is simply conceding to a guilty plea, which would allow him to avoid the stress and expense of trial, according to three sources with knowledge of the discussions.

Manafort, shown in a mug shot, and his most senior defense attorneys spent more than four hours Thursday in discussions with a team of special prosecutors who are involved in the ongoing investigation into whether there was collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.

ABC News spotted the team arriving in a dark SUV Thursday morning, pulling into a secret entrance out of public view at the building where Special Counsel Robert Mueller is based.

Palmer Report, Opinion: Everything just went down the toilet for Donald Trump Jr and Jared Kushner, Bill Palmer, Sept. 13, 2018. Paul Manafort and Special Counsel Robert Mueller have tentatively agreed to a plea deal, and while we don’t yet know if that deal will officially require Manafort to cooperate with the Trump-Russia investigation, that part doesn’t matter. Manafort is doing this in the hope he might get out of prison before the end of his natural life, meaning he’s going to sell out everyone he can sell out. That’s an instant nightmare for at least two members of Donald Trump’s family.

Donald Trump Jr is in seventeen kinds of legal trouble over his Trump Tower meeting with Russian government representatives during the election. His own emails reveal that he went into that meeting seeking dirt on Hillary Clinton, which means he attempted to receive stolen goods, and he attempted to receive foreign items of value on behalf of a campaign – both felonies. But these kinds of criminal cases are always made much stronger by a cooperating witness.

Sept. 9

Bloomberg News via Accounting Today, Manafort emails cite control of Cyprus accounts, David Voreacos, Andrew Harris, Daniel Flatley and Sydney Maki, Aug. 8, 2018. Rick Gates, the star witness in Paul Manafort’s fraud trial, concluded his testimony Wednesday with high drama. After only eight minutes with defense attorney Kevin Downing, a prosecutor asked questions designed to restore his credibility in the eyes of the jury. Downing then stepped back in with a bombshell, suggesting Gates’s “secret life” included multiple extramarital affairs. After Gates finished, an FBI forensic accountant testified about Manafort’s accounts in Cyprus.

From the witness stand, Morgan Magionos, an FBI forensic accountant, read into the record email messages in which Manafort directed wire transfers from Cypriot bank accounts that he said belonged to him. With the emails, prosecutors sought to show that Manafort controlled undeclared accounts that took in money from his Ukrainian clients and sent money to the U.S. for his personal use.

Magionos also walked jurors through charts breaking down the movement of Cyprus money to specific vendors and for use in a series of New York real estate transactions.

Between 2010 and 2014, more than $15.6 million flowed from foreign accounts to Manafort vendors and the purchase of real estate in Virginia and New York, Magionos said.

“One could get lost with the movement of all these moneys,” Ellis mused from the bench. Several jurors could be seen busily jotting down notes as Magionos spoke. With her direct testimony concluded, the defense now has the opportunity to question her facts and figures.

31 Cyprus Accounts Tied to Manafort

Magionos testified that she reviewed 31 accounts tied to Manafort in Cyprus, St. Vincent and the Grenadines and the U.K., and Manafort was listed as the beneficial owner on at least some of them.

In several instances, Manafort signed documents to open accounts, and a copy of his passport was found in the files, she said. On some accounts, the beneficial owners were listed as either Manafort, Gates or his Ukrainian translator Konstantin Kilimnik, she said.

The evidence could be crucial for prosecutors who seek to prove that Manafort controlled foreign accounts that lay at the heart of tax charges against him. Prosecutors say he failed to disclose offshore accounts and income on his tax returns and didn’t report foreign accounts as required. Jurors have heard testimony that Manafort transferred money from those accounts to pay for cars, custom suits, landscaping services and other luxuries.

Magionos said she reviewed documents spanning from 2010 to 2014 from the Bank of Cyprus, Hellenic Bank, Royal Bank and HSBC Group AG accounts in the U.K.

Manafort closed his Bank of Cyprus accounts in 2013 and transferred the money directly to accounts at Hellenic Bank, Magionos said.

Before Magionos testified, the judge heard objections from Manafort attorney Richard Westling, who argued that the exhibits duplicated other evidence. Ellis questioned whether prosecutor Greg Andres could shorten his case and skip some of the evidence. Andres said it was crucial to help jurors understand the flow of Manafort’s money.

“Judges should be patient,” Ellis said. “They made a mistake when they confirmed me. I’m not very patient. So don’t try my patience, either of you.”

Jurors had previously heard testimony that several employees of a Cyprus law firm were listed as directors on accounts that paid for Manafort’s lavish lifestyle. Magionos testified that she reviewed bank records obtained through a treaty request and by issuing subpoenas to Manafort’s company and HSBC.

Aug. 23

Slate, Opinion: A Lone Holdout Juror Actually Made It More Likely That Paul Manafort Will Go to Jail Even if Trump Pardons Him, Jed Shugerman, Aug. 23, 2018. On Thursday, the Washington Post reported that President Donald Trump had recently discussed with his lawyers the prospect of issuing a pardon for Paul Manafort. The former Trump campaign chairman, who was convicted earlier this week on charges of bank fraud and tax fraud, remains under scrutiny by special counsel Robert Mueller for his work on the 2016 campaign and his connections to Russia.

In considering a pardon, Trump could be seeking to pre-empt a cooperation deal with another former top lieutenant after Michael Cohen pleaded guilty to campaign-related offenses this week and promised through an attorney to cooperate with the Mueller probe. A pardon would backfire, though, because Manafort would still face numerous state charges and his federal convictions this week would now be admissible in some of those states. Moreover, Trump would only be strengthening the criminal obstruction and the impeachment cases against him.

If Trump pardons Manafort, shown in a mug shot at left, on the charges from this month’s federal case alone, then he would still face prosecution in three very blue states (New York, Illinois, and California) and one increasingly blue-ish state (Virginia).

Those are four jury pools that would potentially be altogether worse for Manafort. If, in this month’s trial, Manafort could only persuade one juror out of 12 on about half of these charges, his chances would seem pretty low at running the table in four more trials in Manhattan, Los Angeles, Chicago, and northern Virginia. And we haven’t even discussed the charges in the second federal trial next month and whatever additional state criminal liability Manafort might face that has not been charged at the federal level. And Mueller still might be strategically holding off on other charges.

It’s also important to note that the Supreme Court has taken up a case called Gamble v. United States in which it could rule on double jeopardy and federal-state dual sovereignty for next term. This case could directly impact the Trump investigation if Manafort is pardoned. There are many reasons the Senate should delay confirming Judge Brett Kavanaugh. But there is no way Kavanaugh should be confirmed while he may be the deciding vote on a case directly impacting double jeopardy law and the Trump investigation. Ultimately, a Trump pardon wouldn’t benefit Manafort in any concrete sense, but it would build a stronger case for impeachment and removal. Such a pardon would only add proof of Trump’s obstruction, providing additional evidence of criminal corrupt intent. Finally, the same principle of state sovereignty to prosecute would apply to any crimes Trump himself may have committed. If Trump is foolish enough to try to pardon himself, there will be no holding back the state prosecutor.

Aug. 23

Washington Post, White House grapples with Cohen, Manafort convictions, Robert Costa and Josh Dawsey, Aug. 23, 2018 (print edition). Inside President Trump’s orbit, there is a debate: Some confidants see this week — in which two of his former aides were convicted in federal courts — as an unsettling inflection point. Others just see yet another round of problems that are not a danger to Trump.

Manafort juror Paula Duncan speakers out (screen shot from Fox News interview)

​Washington Post, Lone holdout on Manafort jury blocked conviction on all counts, juror says, Matt Zapotosky​, Aug. 23, 2018. A juror in the trial of President Trump’s former campaign chairman said she and most of her peers wanted to convict him on every charge.

Fox News via MSN, Manafort juror reveals lone holdout prevented Mueller team from convicting on all counts, Shannon Bream interview, Aug. 22, 2018 (11:47 min. video). Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s team was one holdout juror away from convicting Paul Manafort on all 18 counts of bank and tax fraud, juror Paula Duncan told Fox News in an exclusive interview Wednesday.

“It was one person who kept the verdict from being guilty on all 18 counts,” Duncan, 52, said. She added that Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s team of prosecutors often seemed bored, apparently catnapping during parts of the trial.

The identities of the jurors have been closely held, kept under seal by Judge T.S. Ellis III at Tuesday's conclusion of the high-profile trial. But Duncan gave a behind-the-scenes account to Fox News on Wednesday, after the jury returned a guilty verdict against the former Trump campaign chairman on eight financial crime counts and deadlocked on 10 others. Duncan described herself as an avid supporter of President Trump, but said she was moved by four full boxes of exhibits provided by Mueller’s team – though she was skeptical about prosecutors' motives in the financial crimes case.

“Certainly Mr. Manafort got caught breaking the law, but he wouldn’t have gotten caught if they weren’t after President Trump,” Duncan said of the special counsel’s case, which she separately described as a “witch hunt to try to find Russian collusion,” borrowing a phrase Trump has used in tweets more than 100 times.

“Something that went through my mind is, this should have been a tax audit,” Duncan said, sympathizing with the foundation of the Manafort defense team’s argument.

She described a tense and emotional four days of deliberations, which ultimately left one juror holding out. Behind closed doors, tempers flared at times, even though jurors never explicitly discussed Manafort’s close ties to Trump.

“It was a very emotionally charged jury room – there were some tears,” Duncan said about deliberations with a group of Virginians she didn’t feel included many “fellow Republicans.”

A political allegiance to the president also raised conflicted feelings in Duncan, but she said it ultimately didn’t change her decision about the former Trump campaign chairman.

“Finding Mr. Manafort guilty was hard for me, I wanted him to be innocent, I really wanted him to be innocent, but he wasn’t,” Duncan said. “That’s the part of a juror, you have to have due diligence and deliberate and look at the evidence and come up with an informed and intelligent decision, which I did.”

Duncan, a Missouri native and mother of two, showed Fox News her two notebooks with her juror number #0302 on the covers.

Her account of the deliberations is no longer a secret. And neither is the pro-Trump apparel she kept for a long drive to the federal courthouse in Alexandria every day. “Every day when I drove, I had my Make America Great Again hat in the backseat,” said Duncan, who said she plans to vote for Trump again in 2020. “Just as a reminder.”

Wayne Madsen Report (WMR), Pence tied to Manafort's offshore business cabal; Is there an Agnew future ahead for Pence? Wayne Madsen (shown below), Aug. 23, 2018. Former Donald Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort, convicted in the U.S. Court for the Eastern District of Virginia on eight criminal counts, including bank and tax fraud, was the chief promoter of Vice President Mike Pence while Trump was deciding on a running mate.

Pence's brother, Ed Pence, is a retired executive with engine manufacturer Cummins, Inc., headquartered in Columbus, Indiana. During Ed Pence's 36 years with the firm, he was promoted to vice president in charge of strategic initiatives.

Cummins, which has a joint venture, ZAO Cummins KAMAZ, with the Russian truck manufacturer KAMAZ, was a generous donor to Pence's campaigns for the U.S. House of Representatives and governor of Indiana. Cummins also donated to the Trump-Pence 2018 presidential campaign. Greg Pence, the vice president's older brother, is running for Congress to represent the 6th district, a seat once held by his brother, Mike. Greg Pence 's only experience in being a member of the U.S. House of Representatives has been running an antiques business in Columbus.

It is noteworthy that one of the illegal activities for which the Russian mafia is particularly noted is black marketing stolen antiquities, especially from the Middle East. Steve Green, the president of Hobby Lobby, is a close friend of Mike Pence. When Green's Bible Museum officially opened in Washington, DC in November 2017 -- at a ceremony attended by Vice President Pence -- it was found to contain at least $201 million worth of stolen artifacts, mainly from Iraq. Hobby Lobby's settlement with the Justice Department included a $3 million fine and forfeiture of its stolen antiquities.

In the midst of the 2016 campaign, Manafort convinced Trump to select Pence over New Jersey Governor Chris Christie because of Pence's "Christian values," which Manafort said was necessary to unite the evangelical wing of the GOP around Trump.

In fact, Manafort's sponsorship of Pence had more to do with the connections of Mike and Ed Pence to Manafort's key clients in Russia.

In addition to Russian oligarchs Oleg Deripaska and Viktor Vekselberg, who have investments in Tatarstan industries, including KAMAZ, Pence, through Manafort, is linked to Sergey Roldugin, a major shareholder of Cummins's partner, KAMAZ. Roldugin is also a famed Russian cellist and the godfather of Maria Putina, the daughter of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Yevgeny Roldugin, Sergey's brother, served in the Soviet KGB with Vladimir Putin.

Aug. 21

New York Times, Cohen Pleads Guilty; Manafort Convicted

New York Times, Cohen: Trump Asked for Hush Payments to Women, Cohen Says, William K. Rashbaum, Maggie Haberman, Ben Protess and Jim Rutenberg, Aug. 21, 2018. Michael D. Cohen, President Trump’s former fixer (shown in a file photo in front of Trump Tower), made the extraordinary admission in court on Tuesday that he had arranged payments to two women at Mr. Trump’s behest to secure their silence about affairs they said they had with him.

Mr. Cohen acknowledged the illegal payments while pleading guilty to breaking campaign finance laws and other charges. He told a judge in United States District Court in Manhattan that the payments to the women were “at the direction of the candidate,” and “for the principal purpose of influencing the election” for president in 2016.

Mr. Cohen also pleaded guilty to multiple counts of tax evasion and bank fraud, bringing to a close a monthslong investigation by Manhattan federal prosecutors who examined his personal business dealings and his role in helping to arrange financial deals with women connected to Mr. Trump.

Mr. Cohen made the extraordinary admission that he paid a pornographic film actress “at the direction of the candidate,” referring to Mr. Trump, to secure her silence about an affair she said she had with Mr. Trump.

[Read more about Mr. Cohen’s appearance in court and his admission that he paid Stormy Daniels “at the direction” of President Trump.]

January

Shocking Profile Of Former Trump Campaign Manager Manafort

Former Trump-Pence 2016 Campaign Manager Paul Manafort (file photo)

The Atlantic, American Hustler / The Plot Against America, Franklin Foer, Jan. 29, 2018 (March 2018 Issue). Decades before he ran the Trump campaign, Paul Manafort’s pursuit of foreign cash and shady deals laid the groundwork for the corruption of Washington.

The clinic permitted Paul Manafort one 10-minute call each day. And each day, he would use it to ring his wife from Arizona, his voice often soaked in tears.

“Apparently he sobs daily,” his daughter Andrea, then 29, texted a friend. During the spring of 2015, Manafort’s life had tipped into a deep trough. A few months earlier, he had intimated to his other daughter, Jessica, that suicide was a possibility. He would “be gone forever,” she texted Andrea.

His work, the source of the status he cherished, had taken a devastating turn. For nearly a decade, he had counted primarily on a single client, albeit an exceedingly lucrative one.

He’d been the chief political strategist to the man who became the president of Ukraine, Viktor Yanukovych (shown at left), with whom he’d developed a highly personal relationship. Manafort would swim naked with his boss outside his banya, play tennis with him at his palace (“Of course, I let him win,” Manafort made it known), and generally serve as an arbiter of power in a vast country.

“I really need to get to” Trump, Manafort told an old friend, the real-estate magnate Tom Barrack (shown at right), in the early months of 2016. Barrack, a confidante of Trump for some 40 years, had known Manafort even longer. When Manafort asked for Barrack’s help grabbing Trump’s attention, he readily supplied it.

Once an indispensable man, he had not been missed in professional circles. He was without a big-paying client, and held heavy debts.

His attempts to prove his entrepreneurial skills had ended as expensive busts. “He has too many skeletons,” Andrea had written her sister soon after he had entered the clinic, noting that his work in Ukraine was legally dubious. “Don’t fool yourself,” she had texted Jessica a few months before. “That money we have is blood money.”

OpEd News, Analysis: Mueller's End Game: Maybe As Soon As Trump Wants, But Not How He'd Like, Robert Weiner and Kyle Fleck, Jan. 29, 2018. It's clear the pace of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election is rising to a crescendo.

It's important to note Mueller's history as an institutionalist. To protect the institution of the Presidency, he may call Trump (shown in a file photo by the White House) an "unindicted" co-conspirator for obstruction, paralleling the special prosecutor's charges against Richard Nixon in Watergate. He may do the same with violation of federal campaign law and money laundering.

But he's shown he won't be so kind to the people in Trump's orbit. Ty Cobb, Donald Trump's lead attorney, has a habit of making rosy predictions for when Mueller (shown above right in a file photo) will be wrapping up his inquiry into possible Russian collusion in the 2016 election. With the interview of AG Sessions and 20 White House advisors completed, Mueller is now scheduling interviews of Trump's closest associates and the President himself.

The latest act that Mueller will look at when building his obstruction case will be the push to release a memo written by Devin Nunez (R-Ca., shown at left) Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee.

Trump's latest push, to release the Nunes cherry-pickings memo despite the DOJ virtual "cease and desist" letter, where Assistant Attorney General, Stephen Boyd, emailed Nunes not to release the memo, saying the release would be "extremely reckless," is just more obstruction — and Mueller will see it that way too. He'll also see it as a violation of classified regulations.