By Del Quentin Wilber
Los Angeles Times
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Paul Manafort, President Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman, has agreed to plead guilty to reduced charges and to cooperate with special counsel Robert S. Muller III in his investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential race, prosecutors said Friday, marking a dramatic about-face for the former Trump deputy.
The plea deal, announced Friday in federal court in Washington, will allow Manafort, 69, to avoid a second trial on charges stemming from his lucrative work for pro-Russian politicians in Ukraine before he joined the Trump campaign.
Andrew Weissman, one of the prosecutors, told U.S. District Judge Amy Jackson that Manafort would plead guilty to conspiring against the United States and conspiring to obstruct justice. He said Manafort had agreed cooperate with the special counsel investigation as part of his plea.
Weissman said the remaining five charges against Manafort would be dropped at sentencing or upon completion of his successful cooperation.
The plea deal is mixed news for the White House. It could provide Mueller with new evidence or leads to chase in a politically sensitive probe that President Trump has relentlessly denounced as a “witch hunt” but that already has led to more than two dozen indictments.
But it also avoids a federal trial, scheduled to start on Sept. 24, that would keep Manafort’s criminal charges in the headlines before the November midterm elections.
Manafort is the fourth Trump campaign aide or administration official to plead guilty as a result of the Mueller investigation.
The longtime Republican political strategist was scheduled to stand trial in Washington on charges of conspiracy to commit money laundering, acting as an unregistered agent of a foreign principal, making false statements and obstruction of justice.
He was convicted last month in Alexandria, Va., on eight charges of bank and tax fraud, also related to his work in Ukraine and could face up to 80 years in prison. The jury could not reach a verdict on 10 other counts.
Prosecutors alleged that Manafort failed to report tens of millions dollars in income he earned from 2010 through 2014 by working for pro-Russian politicians in Ukraine. He used that money to finance a lavish lifestyle and turned to lying on bank loans to keep the cash flowing after his Ukrainian business dried up, prosecutors alleged.
“Manafort cheated the United States out of over $15 million in taxes,” the government document filed Friday states.
The obstruction of justice charge stems from an effort by Manafort and a former business associate in Ukraine, Konstantin Kilimnik, a dual Russian and Ukrainian citizen, to “influence, delay and prevent the testimony” of two witnesses in the planned second trial. Mueller’s prosecutors have alleged in court papers that Kilimnik has ties to Russian intelligence services.
Manafort and his legal team have long said they were not interested in pleading guilty or cooperating in special counsel Mueller’s investigation of Russia’s interference in the 2016 campaign and related matters.
But Manafort has been under mounting financial pressure, which may have contributed to a change of heart. Legal defenses in financial fraud cases are costly, and his conviction in Virginia will probably result in a prison sentence of about 10 years, according to legal experts.
It is not clear how Trump would react to a plea deal by Manafort. The president has repeatedly called Mueller’s investigation a “witch hunt” and has lamented the prosecution of his former campaign chairman.
“It doesn’t involve me, but it’s a very sad thing,” Trump said after Manafort’s conviction last month.
Manafort’s team has been engaged in plea discussions with Mueller’s prosecutors since last month to avoid a second trial.
Rudolph W. Giuliani, Trump’s lawyer, told Politico late Wednesday that a guilty plea would not preclude Trump’s granting Manafort a pardon. “No, it doesn’t. I can’t speak for his exercising discretion on a pardon. But I don’t see why it would foreclose it, no.”
Several other former senior Trump aides, including Trump’s former national security advisor, Michael Flynn, have already pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate with Mueller as part of their plea agreements.
Trump’s former personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, pleaded guilty last month to campaign finance violations in a deal with federal prosecutors in New York City that did not require cooperation.
Since being appointed in May 2017 after the abrupt firing of FBI Director James Comey by the president, Mueller has been working at a brisk clip. He has obtained indictments of a dozen Russian intelligence officers on charges of hacking Democratic Party organizations and making sure the stolen information became public.
He also has charged three Russian companies and 13 Russian citizens in a widespread effort to wield social media messages, fake online personas and staged rallies to sow discord in the United States.
