Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort on Friday pleaded guilty to two felony criminal charges lodged against him in Washington, and agreed to “cooperation” with prosecutors as part of his plea agreement.
U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson accepted Manafort’s guilty plea in federal court after special counsel Robert Mueller unveiled a superseding indictment against him and a plea agreement in a court document on Friday morning.
When reading from what he called a “cooperation agreement,” Andrew Weismann, a prosecutor on Mueller’s team, said part of the agreement includes “the completion of successful cooperation.”
When asked if he agreed to “fully and truthfully” cooperate with Mueller, Manafort said, “I do.” That cooperation is expected to include interviews, document production and testifying in other proceedings.
President Trump is not named in Friday’s filing, nor is his role with the campaign. But Trump and his allies have been worried that Manafort might agree to cooperate in Mueller’s investigation into possible Trump-Russia collusion in the 2016 election as part of his plea deal.
Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s lawyer, said today’s plea has “nothing to do with President Trump or the Trump campaign,” because “the President did nothing wrong.”
Manafort, 69, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit a number of offenses against the United States and one count of conspiracy to obstruct justice — two of the seven crimes he was originally charged with in October. He is facing a maximum of 10 years in prison.
As part of the deal, federal prosecutors will drop the five remaining charges against him: money laundering, tax fraud, failing to disclose foreign bank accounts, violating federal foreign lobbying law and lying to the Justice Department, but the court filing suggests that Manafort has admitted to all of those actions.
Wearing a purple tie and black suit, a clean-shaven Manafort accepted the new indictment against him, and then pleaded guilty just before 11:30 a.m.
“I do,” he told Jackson when asked if he was pleading guilty.
As part of the plea, Manafort will forfeit his home in the Hamptons, and properties in in New York City and in Alexandria, Va. He’ll also forfeit all funds contained in four banking accounts and a life insurance policy.
Jury selection for the trial was slated to begin Monday, and opening arguments were set to start Sept. 24.
The veteran Republican political operative was convicted last month in Alexandria federal court on eight of the 18 charges of bank and tax fraud brought against him. He has not yet been sentenced. As part of the Washington plea deal, federal prosecutors have agreed to drop the remaining 10 charges on which the jury was deadlocked.
Manafort’s bond was not discussed Friday, which means he will remain jailed in an Alexandria detention center. He has been behind bars since July after Jackson revoked his bond for witness tampering allegations.
All charges stem from Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference and possible connections to the Trump campaign. Manafort could have combined both cases into one but declined.
