It's Mueller Time, Con't

The Washington Post is confirming Friday's Bloomberg News article that Paul Manafort is indeed in talks with Robert Mueller's team for a plea deal ahead of imminent jury selection in his federal trial next week.

Days before in-person jury ­selection is set to begin in his second trial, President Trump’s former campaign chairman Paul Manafort is in talks with the special counsel’s office about a possible plea deal, according to two people with knowledge of the discussions.

The people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to ­describe the conversations, cautioned that the negotiations may not result in a deal with special counsel Robert S. Mueller III, who is prosecuting Manafort for alleged money laundering and lobbying violations.

But the discussions indicate a possible shift in strategy for Manafort, who earlier this year chose to go to trial in Virginia, only to be convicted last month in Alexandria federal court on eight counts of bank and tax fraud. He had derided his former business partner, Rick Gates, for striking a deal with prosecutors that provided him leniency in exchange for testimony against Manafort.

“I had hoped and expected my business colleague would have had the strength to continue the battle to prove our innocence,” Manafort said in February.

The specifics of Manafort’s current negotiations with prosecutors were unclear, including whether he would provide any information about the president.

However, Manafort’s willingness to engage in talks could be a setback for Trump, who in the past has praised his former campaign chairman for his unwillingness to cooperate with the special counsel.

Prosecutors “applied tremendous pressure on him and . . . he refused to ‘break’ - make up stories in order to get a ‘deal,’ ” the president tweeted last month. “Such respect for a brave man!”

Manafort spokesman Jason Maloni and Mueller spokesman Peter Carr declined to comment. Manafort’s attorneys, Kevin M. Downing and Thomas E. Zehnle, did not immediately return calls for comment.

As I said on Friday:

This could be Manafort fishing for a pardon now, but it's a dangerous game, ask Michael Cohen, who's going to be in jail for quite some time, about that.  Still, Republicans probably want the Manafort trial to go away ASAP rather than a long drawn out trial smack in the middle of midterm campaigns, and Manafort knows it.

So Manafort does have some leverage.  Remember, this trial is all about Manafort's connections to Trump, not just tax fraud and other white collar crimes...and Manafort is going into this already being a convicted felon.  Daily news coverage on this going into October is definitely going to have an effect on Republicans.

They want this trial gone.    They can do it the easy way with a full Trump pardon, or the ugly way and Manafort cuts that deal (or the really ugly way, where Manafort is on trial for the six weeks leading up to the elections with a nasty verdict right before the midterms for Democrats to seize on.)

We'll see what happens, but whatever the decision is, it'll happen this week.