Kevin Downing, Paul Manafort's lawyer, spoke briefly with reporters after his client pleaded guilty, saying Manafort has accepted responsibility and cut a deal to make sure "his family was able to remain safe and live a good life."
Rudy Giuliani, President Trump's lawyer, told The Hill the president has nothing to worry about even though Paul Manafort has accepted a plea deal that includes telling Special Counsel Robert Mueller everything he wants to know.
Giuliani said that if Manafort had incriminating evidence on Trump, special counsel Robert Mueller’s team “would have had him plead to a conspiracy that would encompass the president.”
(...)
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders had already sought to minimize the significance of the Manafort news as it pertained to Trump.
“This had absolutely nothing to do with the President or his victorious 2016 Presidential campaign. It is totally unrelated,” Sanders said in a statement.
(...)
Asked whether it was possible that Manafort could cooperate against the president, even while pleading guilty on unrelated charges, Giuliani replied, “Technically it’s possible to do everything, but I happen to know it’s not going to happen.”
Giuliani declined to comment on whether there had been any discussion of a possible presidential pardon for Manafort.
Longtime Trump political advisor and Manafort associate Roger Stone spoke to the New York Daily News and said he is not concerned about Manafort's cooperation. However, given what we know of the Mueller investigation so far and Manafort and Stone's decades-long relationship, Stone probably should be.
“Neither Paul Manafort or anyone else can testify truthfully that I am involved in Russian collusion, WikiLeaks collaboration or any other illegal act pertaining to the 2016 election,” Stone said.
(...)
Manafort’s plea agreement stipulates he cooperate “fully and truthfully” with Mueller’s investigation into possible collusion between Trump’s campaign and the Russian government. He is required to sit down for interviews with the special counsel’s investigators, hand over troves of documents and testify in other proceedings.
It was not immediately clear what proceedings Manafort may be asked to give testimony in but Mueller is rumored to be building a case against Stone and has already subpoenaed or interrogated more than a dozen of his associates.
(...)
Stone and Manafort cofounded an eponymous Washington lobbying firm in 1980 and worked together there until it was sold in 1996.
The firm, which had extensive connections to the Clinton and George W. Bush administrations, has a checkered history.
A damning 1992 report by the Center for Public Integrity revealed the firm received over $3 million for their lobbying work on behalf of murderous dictators such as Ferdinand Marcos of the Philippines, Mobutu Sese Seko of Zaire and Jonas Savimbi of Angola.
The firm also retained the government of Bahamas as a client while it was being accused of working with drug smugglers in the 1980s.
The Plum Line's Greg Sargent spoke with Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, after news broke of the Manafort deal, and the congressman had some ideas as to what Mueller may get from Trump's former campaign chairman.
First, Schiff noted, Mueller would likely want to know from Manafort as much as possible about the infamous June 2016 Trump Tower meeting, in which Donald Trump Jr., Jared Kushner and Manafort attended with the full expectation of getting dirt on Hillary Clinton supplied by the Russian government.
The congressman also noted that Mueller would want to know what Manafort can tell him about the “background to the Trump Tower meeting, what took place at the Trump Tower meeting, and what took place after the Trump Tower meeting.” It has not been established that Trump himself knew about this meeting at the time, but Manafort might be able to testify to that, as well.
On another conspiracy-related front, as Natasha Bertrand points out in the Atlantic, Manafort might be in a good position to shed light on what exactly former Trump campaign aide George Papadopoulos — who has testified as part of his own plea deal that he learned Russia had stolen information on Clinton in the form of “thousands of emails” — might have told campaign higher-ups about this at the time, another big unknown.
Schiff suggested that Manafort might also be able to shed light on any other illegal activity by the campaign ...
(...)
“There’s potentially a range of other illegal conduct that Manafort could shed light on, in much the way Michael Cohen did,” Schiff told me.
Schiff also pointed out that Manafort could conceivably open up about the joint-defense agreement he previously had with Trump, under which the two shared confidential information in a privileged setting.
(...)
“If the president or his team were dangling a pardon in conversations with Manafort, that would go to the issue of obstruction of justice as well,” Schiff said. And Manafort could conceivably fill Mueller in on that, if it happened.
Senate Intelligence Committee Vice Chairman Mark Warner (D-VA) also issued a statement:
“Today’s admission of criminal guilt by Paul Manafort clearly demonstrates that the President’s 2016 campaign manager conducted illegal activity in conspiracy with Russian-backed entities and was beholden to Kremlin-linked officials. The guilty plea also underscores the seriousness of this investigation. The Special Counsel must be permitted to follow the facts wherever and however high they might lead, because in the United States of America no one is above the law. Any attempt by the President to pardon Mr. Manafort or otherwise interfere in this investigation would be a gross abuse of power and require immediate action by Congress.”
Giuliani: Trump has nothing to be concerned with on Manafort's deal (The Hill)
What can Paul Manafort tell Mueller? Adam Schiff offers some suggestions. (The Plum Line)
Senate Intel Vice Chair Warner on Manafort (press release)
Trump ally Roger Stone says Paul Manafort's cooperation deal doesn't concern him: 'It has no bearing on me' (NY Daily News)