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Devlin Barrett
Reporter focused on national security and law enforcement
Former president of President Trump's presidential campaign, Paul Manafort, agreed to plead guilty to federal crimes at a hearing on Friday morning, ending his long-standing battle with special advisor Robert S. Mueller III.
The plea provided, if it is accepted by a judge, will bypass his second trial which is due to start this month in the district for money laundering and lobbying violations. He should file his guilty plea this morning in federal court.
It was unclear whether, in the case of Mueller's advocacy case, Manafort was cooperating and providing information to the Special Advocate's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 elections.
People familiar with the advocacy discussions have already stated that Manafort has no intention of cooperating with Mueller. It is therefore possible that any agreement allows him to admit his guilt without providing information to the investigators.
Criminal information filed prior to the plea agreement shows that Manafort intends to plead guilty to two of the seven crimes he suffered at trial: conspiracy to defraud the United States and conspiracy to obstruct justice.
The paper says it will admit having channeled millions of dollars in payments into offshore accounts to conceal its revenue from the Internal Revenue Service. "Manafort has deceived the United States over $ 15 million in taxes," says the information.
The move to a plea of guilty is another setback for Manafort, who fought vehemently – but unsuccessfully – against Mueller's investigation. The 69-year-old political consultant was sentenced last month to the Alexandria Federal Court for bank and tax fraud.
The selection of the jury in person for his trial in Washington was to begin Monday, with opening statements scheduled on September 24 before US District Judge Amy Berman Jackson. Any agreement would not be final until Manafort admits his guilt before the judge, who should approve the plea.
Another conviction would be a dramatic fall for the international power broker and confidant of Ronald Reagan's Republican presidents. Manafort's decision could be a mixed story for Trump, who hired the consultant to serve as chairman of his campaign in June 2016 as he ran for the GOP presidency.
If Manafort were to cooperate with Mueller, it could provide new evidence to investigators or lead to prosecution; However, a plea of guilty would prevent weeks of headlines about the trial in the month leading up to the parliamentary elections.
The long-time lobbyist resigned as president of the campaign in August 2016, as his work was increasingly being monitored on behalf of a pro-Russia political party in Ukraine.
Over its 40-year career, Manafort has redefined and expanded the industry's influence nationally and internationally, leading successful campaigns to lobbying opportunities. But by the mid-2000s, there were signs that his consulting career had dropped and that his finances sometimes seemed shaky. It was in Ukraine that he relaunched both, in violation of the laws.
The two cases brought against Manafort by the special council stem from his work in Ukraine. The jury in Virginia found that Manafort had hidden millions of dollars he had made in Ukraine to avoid paying taxes and lied to get loans when the political party that was paying him was ousted and the funds were reduced to nothing.
In the Washington trial, Manafort is charged with conspiracy against the United States, money laundering, not registering as a lobbyist, making false statements and plotting to obstruct justice by trying to influence the witnesses.
Manafort had the choice of grouping the two cases into one but declined. He had been jailed since June for accusations of falsifying witnesses.
He has not yet been sentenced in Virginia, where legal experts say he risks eight to ten years in prison under the federal guidelines on eight of the 18 counts of indictment on which he was found guilty. A nil trial was declared on the remaining 10 charges after the jurors were unable to reach a unanimous verdict.
It is unclear how a plea of guilty could change his final conviction, and some lawyers wondered whether he was concentrating on a stay elsewhere. Law enforcement officials have come to suspect that Manafort is hoping that he will be pardoned by the president, according to people familiar with the matter, under the guise of anonymity to discuss the situation. 39, a delicate question.
Trump sought advice from his lawyers on the possibility of forgiving Manafort and other collaborators accused of crimes, his lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani told The Washington Post, and it was inadvisable to forgive anyone involved in Mueller investigation. The president agreed to wait until at least until the investigation ends, Giuliani said.
Several accused cooperated or pleaded guilty to the Special Council's investigation, including former Manafort right-hand man Rick Gates; former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn; Alex van der Zwaan, a lawyer who worked with Manafort; W. Samuel Patten, who admitted to arranging for a Ukrainian businessman to make an illegal donation to the inauguration of Trump; and Trump's former foreign policy advisor, George Papadopoulos, who was sentenced to 14 days in jail last week after pleading guilty to lying to the FBI.
The decision by Trump's personal attorney Michael Cohen to plead guilty last month in a federal inquiry in Manhattan particularly irritated the president, who denounced him as a "pinball".
[How Trump adviser Manafort revived his career — and business fortunes — in Ukraine]
Earlier this year, Manafort accused its former trading partner, Gates, of having reached an agreement with prosecutors who granted him an indulgence in exchange for testimony against his former partner.
"I had hoped and I expected my business colleague to have the strength to continue the battle to prove our innocence," Manafort said in February.
Kevin M. Downing, a lawyer for Manafort, also said this summer that there is "no chance" that his client will switch and cooperate with prosecutors.
This posture attracted the praise of Trump, who congratulated his former campaign chairman for his reluctance to cooperate with the special council.
Prosecutors "exerted tremendous pressure on him and. . . he refused to "break" – invent stories to get an "agreement," tweeted the president last month. "Such respect for a brave man!"
Tom Hamburger and Rachel Weiner contributed to this report.
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