Paul Manafort arrives for a hearing at US District Court on June 15, 2018 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Brendan SMIALOWSKI / AFP) (Photo credit should read BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images) Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort leaves Federal Court on December 11, 2017 in Washington, DC. In October, Trump's one-time campaign chairman Paul Manafort and his deputy Rick Gates were arrested on money laundering and tax-related charges. Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images Paul Manafort, advisor to Donald Trump, is seen on the floor of the Quicken Loans Arena at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio, July 19, 2016. CLEVELAND, OH - JULY 17: Paul Manafort, campaign manager for Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, is interviewed on the floor of the Republican National Convention at the Quicken Loans Arena July 17, 2016 in Cleveland, Ohio. The Republican National Convention begins tomorrow. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images) Paul Manafort, former campaign manager for Donald Trump, exits the E. Barrett Prettyman Federal Courthouse, February 28, 2018 in Washington, DC. This is Manafort's first court appearance since his longtime deputy Rick Gates pleaded guilty last week in special counsel Robert MuellerÕs Russia probe. Drew Angerer/Getty Images (CNN) — After months of vowing to fight for his innocence, former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort conceded to committing several federal crimes and agreed to cooperate with the Justice Department, including in special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. Manafort pleaded guilty in federal court in Washington, DC, on Friday to one count of conspiracy against the US and one count of conspiracy to obstruct justice due to attempts to tamper with witnesses. Friday’s court activity signals Mueller’s investigation will continue and delve deeper into what Manafort knows. Even in lessening the charges against Manafort, prosecutors still have significant leverage over him if he isn’t helpful to their investigation. Manafort’s decision to cooperate with Mueller comes just weeks after President Donald Trump called Manafort a “brave man” who would not “make up stories in order to get a ‘deal’” after he was convicted in a separate trial in Virginia. He also admitted to all the other crimes Mueller accused him of since last October – from money laundering and bank fraud to foreign lobbying violations related to his work for pro-Russian Ukrainians. Those charges will be dropped if he completely complies with the cooperation agreement. “I plead guilty,” Manafort said to the judge near the end of the hour-long hearing. Special counsel’s office senior prosecutor Andrew Weissmann told the judge that under Manafort’s plea agreement, the other charges will be dropped after he is sentenced in both Virginia and DC “or at the agreement of successful cooperation.” Manafort was separately convicted of eight crimes by a Virginia federal jury last month. The 69-year-old now faces a likely prison sentence of almost 20 years when the two convictions are stacked consecutively. But for now, his sentencing is on hold. Manafort’s cooperation deal means he will have to meet with the special counsel’s office when they want to speak with him about other criminal activities, turn over all documents relevant to the investigation, testify when needed and never lie to them. The terms don’t prevent other parts of the Justice Department or state and local authorities from bringing new charges. He also could face administrative claims from the government, the agreement says. “Your client shall testify fully, completely and truthfully before any and all Grand Juries in the District of Columbia and elsewhere, and at any and all trials of cases or other court proceedings in the District of Columbia and elsewhere,” the plea agreement, which Manafort signed a day before, says. Trump world reacts While Trump is not mentioned in Friday’s filing, nor is Manafort’s role in his campaign, the news of the cooperation comes as the President continued to lambast the Mueller investigation on Twitter this week. In a statement to CNN after the news of Manafort’s cooperation, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said, “This had absolutely nothing to do with the President or his victorious 2016 Presidential campaign. It is totally unrelated.” Wearing a purple tie beneath his dark suit, Manafort looked glum as the hearing unfolded, standing next to his attorney, Richard Westling, with a court security officer standing immediately behind him. Manafort answered the judge’s questions about himself, his plea and rights he will waive, including his rights to a trial and to any appeals. “I do,” he said repeatedly in a soft voice, waiving each right. As a prosecutor read a long statement of what Manafort admitted to, Manafort sat near the courtroom wall with his eyes closed. Kevin Downing, Manafort’s lead attorney, said as he exited the courthouse that Manafort wanted to make sure that “his family was able to remain safe and live a good life. He’s accepted responsibility, this is for conduct that dates back many years and everybody should remember that.” Manafort had proffered information to the government on Tuesday, and his legal team signed the deal on Thursday. In recent days as the Manafort plea talks were ongoing, the President’s legal team expressed confidence that if Manafort signed a cooperation agreement it wouldn’t have anything to do with the President, according to a source briefed on their thinking. In a statement Friday, the President’s attorney Rudy Giuliani reiterated that confidence. “Once again an investigation has concluded with a plea having nothing to do with President Trump or the Trump campaign. The reason: the President did nothing wrong,” said Giuliani. It was the second version of the statement. The initial version, which was quickly revised, included “Paul Manafort will tell the truth” as part of the quote. The amended version removed the phrase. A legal source, supportive of the President and familiar with the Manafort case, said the Trump team does not believe Manafort has anything significant on the President to share with the special counsel. The White House had previously distanced itself from Manafort and downplayed his time leading the Trump campaign. But last month, Trump expressed sympathy for him and encouragement that he hadn’t flipped. “I feel very badly for Paul Manafort and his wonderful family,” the President tweeted the week of Manafort’s conviction in his Virginia trial. “‘Justice’ took a 12 year old tax case, among other things, applied tremendous pressure on him and, unlike Michael Cohen, he refused to ‘break’ - make up stories in order to get a ‘deal.’ Such respect for a brave man!” Full admission In their filing, prosecutors describe Manafort’s scheme to take in more than $60 million from pro-Russian Ukrainians and launder that money to avoid paying taxes. His admissions include his use of offshore bank accounts to move the money, deceiving his accountants and bookkeeper and then spending the money on lavish purchases and real estate. He also admitted to lying to banks about his assets to gain millions of dollars in loans as a way to supplement his income, according to the filing. “Manafort cheated the United States out of over $15 million in taxes,” the filing states, adding that in order to commit the crimes, he relied on help from both his longtime deputy Rick Gates and the Russian Konstantin Kilimnik. Generally, Manafort’s guilty plea centers around his foreign lobbying crimes. His plea filing gives extensive detail about his political work for the Ukrainians, specifically the Party of Regions and former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, whose government jailed a political rival and who now lives in exile in Russia. Manafort admits to his client group being a pro-Russian political party in Ukraine, the filing says. Manafort used a politics center in Belgium, called the European Centre for a Modern Ukraine, as a “mouthpiece” for his Ukrainian clients, the filing says. The organization lobbied in the US and Europe, but “effectively ceased to operate” in 2014, when popular revolution swept Yanukovych out of power. Manafort sought to prevent US legislators from imposing sanctions against Ukraine and condemning Yanukovych after the jailing of Yulia Tymoshenko, a political rival and former Ukrainian prime minister. At one point, Manafort pushed damaging stories about Tymoshenko in the US, including an allegation that she had “paid for the murder of a Ukrainian official,” the court filing said. Manafort said his “goal is to plant some stink on Tymo,” according to the filing. He and his subcontractors were paid more than $11 million for their work, which they did not disclose to the US federal government as required by law. In a second illegal lobbying effort, Manafort assembled a group of influential former politicians in Europe – including the former Austrian chancellor, Italian prime minister and Polish president – to pose as independent voices before US lawmakers, when they in fact worked for Ukraine. Manafort directed them to be paid more than 2 million euros between 2012 and 2014, the filing said. He also cultivated the former Polish president to push positions favorable to Ukraine in the European parliament, where the former president had oversight of Ukraine. In 2012, Manafort orchestrated a supposedly independent report by the prominent US law firm Skadden Arps about the trial of Tymoshenko. He paid the firm largely out of his offshore accounts more than $4.6 million for its services, the filing said, while Yanukovych’s government publicly said the report cost only $12,000. He also plotted a million-dollar public relations roll-out in the US of the report so that the report’s news coverage did not condemn Yanukovych for selectively prosecuting Tymoshenko. Two of the public relations firms Manafort employed on Ukrainian issues lobbied Congress, the White House and the State Department, he admitted. He also personally met with a member of Congress on Yanukovych’s behalf in 2013 – telling his Ukrainian client afterward the meeting “went well,” the plea filing said. Manafort then lied to the Justice Department in September 2016 about his, Gates’ and his consulting companies’ work for Ukraine. Other consequences The proceedings Friday were the second time in under a month Manafort had faced his own guilt in court. Even following his eight convictions in last month Virginia, Manafort still faced seven charges in Washington and another 10 possible charges in Virginia, which had been declared as mistrials after the jury hung on them last month. Westling agreed in court Friday that 10 charges in Virginia on which the jury hung would be dropped later. In DC, his seven criminal counts are rewritten as two–amounting to significantly fewer penalties if he had pleaded guilty to his earlier indictment. Manafort also agreed to forfeit millions of dollars in assets to the federal government. In all, Manafort will hand over five properties, including his Trump Tower condo and mansion in the Hamptons, three bank accounts and a life insurance policy. The value of the bank accounts and life insurance policy are not yet known, and it’s unclear how much money Manafort owes to banks after taking mortgages out on some of the real estate. The combined value of the real estate he’ll forfeit exceeds $22 million, according to prosecutors’ descriptions and public records of property sales and tax assessments. Manafort will return to jail following the hearing Friday. No sentencing dates are yet set, though the prosecutors will update the court on his status in mid-November. Jury selection was set to begin next week Friday’s plea deal preempts a trial that was set to start in three days with jury selection. The strain of the trial loomed large, threatening to push Manafort, his extensive political connections throughout Europe and several people and companies among Washington’s lobbying and law firm elite back into the spotlight. As part of the run-up to the second trial, Manafort’s lawyers filed hundreds of pages in court to fight prosecutors’ allegations – having brought two appeals unsuccessfully – and his legal fees mounted to more than $1 million, according to two people familiar with his case. Manafort, Trump’s top political operative from May to August 2016, has long been considered one of the bigger fish for Muller’s office. In addition to the financial and lobbying charges against Manafort, the special counsel’s team had said previously it was investigating allegations he colluded with Russia while working for Trump.<doc-sep>Paul Manafort cut a deal to cooperate with special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation Friday — weeks after President Trump praised the former campaign chairman for refusing to flip. The agreement averts a second trial for Manafort that would have begun Monday and seen him facing charges of acting as an agent of the pro-Russian Ukrainian government. Instead, he pleaded guilty in federal court in DC Friday to charges of conspiracy against the US and conspiracy to obstruct justice. At the hearing, prosecutor Andrew Weissman said Manafort had met with feds to outline what information he could offer. That meeting, Weissman told the judge, “led us to today,” ABC News said. Prosecutors didn’t divulge what info Manafort would share, but his role in the Trump campaign could make him a key witness in Mueller’s investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election. Manafort’s about-face came after Trump hailed him on Twitter as a “brave man” for his loyalty “under tremendous pressure” following his conviction on eight related bank- and tax-fraud charges last month. Reacting to Manafort’s pleas Friday, White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said, “This had absolutely nothing to do with the president or his victorious 2016 presidential campaign.” Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani echoed the denial in a similar statement that was quickly revised to remove the words, “Paul Manafort will tell the truth.” Under his plea bargain, Manafort faces up to 10 years in prison. The deal doesn’t cover the sentence he faces for last month’s conviction but includes a provision for prosecutors to help him seek leniency. As campaign chair, Manafort reportedly took part in the 2016 meeting at Trump Tower with Donald Trump Jr., Jared Kushner and a group of Russians. Manafort agreed to forfeit $46 million in assets — including a Trump Tower apartment and properties in Soho, Chinatown, Brooklyn and the Hamptons — as well as three bank accounts and a life-insurance policy. After Friday’s hearing, his lawyer Kevin Downing said Manafort “wanted to make sure his family remained safe and live a good life.” In charging papers, prosecutors said Manafort tried to plant a story in The Post in 2012 painting a “senior Cabinet official” as anti-Semitic for backing ex-Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko. “I have someone pushing it on the NY Post. Bada bing bada boom,” he wrote to an associate, according to the papers. It was unclear who that “someone” was. The story was never published.<doc-sep>
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. Manafort's plea deal with Mueller dramatically ramps up the legal and political danger already facing Trump, who is being eyed by the special counsel for possible obstruction of justice. The deal came three days before the scheduled start of jury selection in U.S. District Court in Washington for Manafort's second trial. It also came several weeks after Trump blasted the practice of "flipping" — prosecutors getting defendants to cooperate against other people by offering them a plea deal — and said the commonly used tactic "almost ought to be illegal." Prosecutors said the Manafort's own deal, which will require him to forfeit an estimated $46 million in assets, includes a 17-page cooperation agreement with Mueller in which he will help the special counsel cooperate "in any and all matter as to which the government deems the cooperation relevant." Specificially, Manafort must participate in interviews with investigators, provide documents and testify, if needed. The guilty plea by Manafort, 69, relates to money earned from consulting work on behalf of pro-Russia politicians in Ukraine and predate his tenure as chairman of Trump's presidential campaign. However, during his time on the campaign, he participated in a controversial meeting with Trump's son, Donald Trump Jr., and son-in-law, Jared Kushner, with a Russian lawyer who supposedly had negative information about Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton. Mueller is investigating Russia's interference in the 2016 election and possible collusion by members of Trump's campaign in that effort. Mueller is also looking into whether Trump obstructed justice in an effort to influence the Russia probe. The special counsel previously obtained guilty pleas to crimes from Trump's ex-national security advisor Michael Flynn, campaign advisor George Papadopoulos and former Trump campaign official Rick Gates, who was a Manafort associate. Last month, Trump's former personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, pleaded guilty to charges brought by federal prosecutors in New York. Those included tax crimes and a campaign finance charge related to the $130,000 hush-money payment Cohen said he gave to porn star Stormy Daniels at Trump's behest to keep her quiet about an affair she says she had with the president, who denies that tryst occurred. A courtroom sketch showing Paul Manafort agreeing to a guilty plea on Sept. 14th, 2018. Artist: Art Lien "This had absolutely nothing to do with the President or his victorious 2016 Presidential campaign," said press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders as the plea hearing was still going on. "It is totally unrelated." Rudy Giuliani, Trump's lawyer for the Russia probe, said: "Once again an investigation has concluded with a plea having nothing to do with President Trump or the Trump campaign." "The reason: the President did nothing wrong and Paul Manafort will tell the truth," Giuliani said. Within minutes of Giuliani issuing that statement, another Trump lawyer, Jay Sekulow, sent a "corrected statement" to reporters that said the same thing but omitted the words "and Paul Manafort will tell the truth." Manafort, wearing a dark suit, white shirt and purple tie, admitted guilt to revised charges of just two counts of conspiracy, which will effectively consolidate and resolve the two criminal cases against him in Washington and in Virginia federal courts. The two charges are conspiracy against the United States and conspiracy to obstruct justice by witness tampering. The first count relates to a wide array of underlying criminal conduct. "Is what the prosecution said true?" Judge Amy Berman Jackson asked Manafort. "I did. It is," Manafort replied. The judge then asked, "Are you ready to tell me if you plead guilty?" "I am. I plead guilty," Manafort replied. After the plea hearing in the E. Barrett Prettyman courthouse, Manafort's defense lawyer Kevin Downing told reporters it was a "tough day for Mr. Manafort, but he's accepted responsibility, and he wanted to make sure that his family was able to remain safe and live a good life." "He has accepted responsibility, and this is for conduct that dates back many years, and everybody should remember that," Downing said. No sentencing date was set for Manafort, who faces up to 10 years in prison, but who would likely get much less time behind bars than that. He also faces fines of up to $500,000 when sentenced. He will not be sentenced until his cooperation with Mueller is completed.