Former Trump campaign chief Paul Manafort pleads guilty and agrees to co-operate with Russia probe to avoid second trial
Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman Paul Manafort has agreed to “fully” cooperate with the Russian election meddling investigation in a plea deal to avoid a second criminal trial.
Manafort will have to conduct interviews and debriefings with the probe’s prosecutors, hand over documents and testify in future cases as part of the agreement, a judge said on Friday.
It means that a member of the Trump campaign’s inner circle has now agreed to tell Robert Mueller, the special counsel leading the Russia investigation, what really happened behind closed doors during the presidential race.
Manafort pleaded guilty to two criminal charges - one for conspiracy against the United States and another for conspiracy to obstruct justice - but saw five other charges dropped as part of the deal.
It brings the total number of Trump aides who have pleaded guilty to crimes to five. The others are his former attorney Michael Cohen, former national security adviser Michael Flynn, former deputy campaign chairman Rick Gates and former campaign foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos.
The White House attempted to put distance between Mr Trump and Manafort, whose crimes relate to his business dealings in Ukraine as a political consultant before he joined the campaign.
Sarah Sanders, Mr Trump’s press secretary, said: "This had absolutely nothing to do with the President or his victorious 2016 Presidential campaign. It is totally unrelated."
Manafort, who served as campaign chairman during the summer of 2016 and helped guide it through a turbulent Republican National Convention, has repeatedly refused to co-operate with the Mueller probe in the past.
But last month he was found guilty of eight counts of tax fraud, bank fraud and failure to report a foreign bank account. He was expected to face a prison term of up to a decade.
Mr Trump praised him shortly after the convictions as being "brave" for not ‘flipping’ - agreeing to hand over information to prosecutors in turn for leniency.
There were reports that the US president had discussed using his executive powers to pardon Manafort in private with aides. In public he did not rule out such a move.
However with Manafort facing a second criminal trial - jury selection was due to take place on Monday - reports begun to surface that the former aide was considering a deal.
On Friday morning, Mr Mueller’s team filed a new document outlining two criminal charges, down from an original seven - the first solid indication a plea agreement was coming.
The first charge related to money laundering, tax fraud, foreign bank accounts, lobbying and making misrepresentations to the Justice Department. The second was linked to witness tampering.
Appearing in court in Alexandria, Virginia - just across the river from Washington DC - Manafort pleaded guilty to the crimes.
Judge Amy Berman Jackson said that as part of the plea deal he would have to cooperate "fully and truthfully" with Mr Mueller's investigators.
It remains unclear exactly what information Manafort has that was deemed of value to the prosecutors. It is also unclear whether the information relates to Mr Trump or other campaign figures.
Kevin Downing, Manafort’s lawyer, said that his client cut a deal with prosecutors "to make sure that his family was able to remain safe and live a good life”. He added that Manafort has "accepted responsibility".
Rudy Giuliani, Mr Trump's attorney, said: "The president did nothing wrong. Once again an investigation has concluded with a plea having nothing to do with President Trump or the Trump campaign."
