Paul Manafort, 69, is reportedly discussing a plea deal with prosecutors in DC
Former Donald Trump campaign chair Paul Manafort pleaded guilty to two federal criminal charges in a Washington D.C. courthouse Friday – and is now cooperating with federal prosecutors, according to the latest high-stakes turn in the case.
The stunning development that Manafort will assist prosecutors who went after him on a raft of money laundering and tax charges follows a series of earlier indications that Manafort would not cooperate with special counsel Robert Mueller.
His cooperation, depending on the extent of it, could provide prosecutors with a valuable tool as they forge ahead with the Russia probe.
The existence of a cooperation was stated in court by a member of Mueller's team, Andrew Weissmann, CNN reported Friday.
President Donald Trump has railed against the Robert Mueller probe as a 'witch hunt' and has hailed Manafort as 'brave' for refusing to make a deal.
WHITE HOUSE RESPONDS: 'MANAFORT'S CASE IS NOTHING TO DO TRUMP'
White House press secretary Sarah Sanders issued a statement following the bombshell development in court.
'This had absolutely nothing to do with the President or his victorious 2016 Presidential campaign. It is totally unrelated,' Sanders said.
A cooperation agreement would bind Manafort to answering questions from prosecutors about the gamut of questions about what he knows as they pursue their probe of Russian election interference in the elections and connections between President Donald Trump's team and Russians.
Manafort attended the infamous Trump Tower meeting with Russian in June of 2016 that got set up after a British music publicist reached out to Donald Trump Jr. after getting an offer of dirt on Hillary Clinton.
MANAFORT LOSES TRUMP TOWER PAD AND FACES 10 YEARS IN PRISON
Manafort also will be required to forfeit assets as part of the plea. Prosecutors say he deprived taxpayers of $15 million and laundered $30 million in assets. Manafort used overseas income to purchase homes in the U.S., then took out millions in bank loans to fund purchases here without declaring the money as income.
He faces up to ten years in jail.
Manafort also agreed to forfeit five properties he owned in New York, including his apartment at Trump Tower and his sprawling estate in the Hamptons.
In addition, he will give up a Brownstone he owned in Brooklyn, his SoHo condo, and an apartment in Chinatown. He must also forfeit two bank accounts at Federal Savings Bank and an account at Capital One.
Manafort also owns a home in Alexandria Virginia and a home in Florida.
Manafort bought his upper-floor apartment in Trump Tower in November 2006, using an LLC he controlled called John Hannah LLC. Public records show a purchase price of $3.675 million.
Kathleen Manafort arrives at court as her husband prepares to plead guilty to federal charges
WHAT'S THE DEAL? Trump tweeted weeks ago that Manafort refused to 'break' in order to get a 'deal.' On Friday he reached a cooperation agreement with prosecutors
Manafort will give up a Trump Tower apartment with an original of purchase price of $3.675 million
MANAFORT'S WIFE SHOWS NO EMOTION AS SHE WATCHES HIM FLIP
While in court, Manafort appeared to be in good spirits, flashing a wide grin when he walked into the D.C. federal courtroom wearing a black suit and dark purple tie.
He exchanged no glances with his wife, Kathleen, who sat in the second row and looked unemotional as prosecutors read off the accusations against her husband.
When Judge Amy Jackson asked Manafort if this was a 'true and accurate statement of what you did in this case,' Manafort replied, 'It is.'
The former Trump campaign chairman pleaded guilty to two counts of conspiracy against the United States, charges that carry a maximum of five years in prison each. The judge noted that these sentences could not be served concurrently.
He will also face up to three years of supervised release on each count and a maximum $250,000 fine on each count.
Judge Jackson said she will wait to sentence Manafort until she receives a report on the sentencing guidelines from the Probation office. She will also allow on both sides to file objections if they wish to do so.
She also told Manafort that the law will require her sentencing guidelines to be more severe because his actions involved money laundering, obstruction of justice, and off-shore accounts and other 'sophisticated means.'
She said the enhanced guidelines would mean Manafort should face between 210 and 262 months in prison – an amount of time that would have to be capped due to the 10 year maximum sentence.
Judge Jackson also noted that Manafort would not be eligible for parole because it has been abolished for federal cases.
Manafort's defense team agreed that the statutory 10-year maximum 'would be reasonable in this case.' Prosecutors will still have a chance to file a motion asking for a lower sentence, and this could depend on the extent of Manafort's cooperation with the special counsel's office.
Judge Jackson gave attorneys on both sides 60 days to return to file a joint status report in the case.
'Once again an investigation is concluded with a plea having nothing to do with President Trump or the Trump campaign. The reason: the president did nothing wrong,' Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani said in a statement, CNN reported.
MANAFORT'S ATTORNEY: HE DID IT FOR HIS FAMILY
Manafort attorney Kevin Downing told reporters: 'He's accepted responsibility. And he wanted to make sure that his family was able to remain safe and live a good life. He's accepted responsibility and this is for conduct that dates back many years, and everybody should remember that,' he said.
Even as Hurricane Florence battered the East Coast, Trump was briefed by his legal team on the bombshell developments Friday.
Under the terms of the agreement revealed by Judge Amy Berman Jackson, Manafort has agreed to submit to further interviews with the special counsel, share documents in his possession, testify in other court proceedings, and waive his right to have a lawyer present during interviews, CNN reported.
Charges where a Virginia jury deadlocked would go away, but only following 'successful cooperation,' according to Judge Jackson. He would serve no more than 10 years in jail, and he will remain incarcerated.
The deal not only spares Manafort the expense of a second trial – it spares Trump the spectacle of another court proceeding of his former campaign chair in the weeks before the November elections.
'Is what the prosecutor just said a true and accurate description of what you did in this case?' Judge Jackson asked him.
'I did. It is,' he replied.
An earlier indictment laid out how Manafort lied to get home loans and then used properties to harvest cash.
He 'falsely represented the amount of debt he had by failing to disclose on his loan application the existence of' another mortgage on his Union Street [a $3 million townhouse in Brooklyn] home, for example,' according to the indictment.
When the document [a loan application] was first submitted to Lender B, a conspirator working at Lender B replied: 'Looks Dr'd. Can't someone just do a clean excel doc and pdf to me??' A subsequent version was submitted to the bank,' according to prosecutors.
The cooperation deal comes after Manafort has already been convicted of federal crimes in a Virginia courthouse, and faces sentencing. It follows speculation that Manafort was following a different path, potentially pursuing a simple guilty plea or even seeking a pardon from Trump.
Prosecutors filed a new superseding indictment against Paul Manafort Friday, as the former Donald Trump campaign chair agreed to plead guilty to federal crimes.
Manafort appeared in court Friday morning in what Special Robert Mueller's office announced was an arraignment and plea agreement hearing that began around 11:00 am.
Special Counsel Robert Mueller's office sent out the new superseding criminal information laying out a series of charges against Manafort Friday morning.
New exhibits contained in the indictment show Manafort pushing an 'action plan' to go on 'offense' and show 'what Ukraine is doing' – actions that would appear to indicate a U.S. lobbying effort.
Also included is a 2010 memo Manafort wrote to pro-Russian Ukrainian president Victor Yanukovich touting a 'Public and Government Relations program' Manafort said he created.
MANAFORT'S JAW-DROPPING MEMOS: HE WROTE ABOUT 'OBAMA'S JEWS'
One newly revealed document showed Manafort 'orchestrated a scheme to have …'[O]bama jews' put pressure on the administration' to support Yanukovych and 'disavow' his rival, Tymoshenko.
This involved putting out stories that 'a senior Cabinet official' who previously criticized Yanukovych 'was supporting anti-Semitism because the official supported Tymoshenko, who in turn had formed a political alliance with a Ukraine party that espoused anti-Semitic views.'
The government charged Manafort 'coordinated privately with a senior Israeli government official' to issue a statement publicizing the story.
'I have someone pushing it on the NY Post. Bada bing bada boom,' he wrote.
He sought to have the administration 'understand that 'the Jewish community will take this out on Obama on election day if he does nothing,' according to prosecutors.
The New York Times reported that prosecutors charged Manafort with one count of conspiracy and another of conspiracy to obstruct justice – a charge related to witness tampering in the case. The times reported they were dropping five charges dealing with money laundering and lobby disclosure violations.
President Donald Trump lauded Manafort following his conviction by a jury in Virginia
However the superseding indictment stated Manafort failed to register as a foreign agent, laundered funds, and hid Ukrainian payments that reached $60 million.
Typically in such cases the defendant must admit to all of the charges against him, even if he does not plead guilty to all the charges.
A plea allows Manafort to avoid a trial in Washington, D.C. Manafort has already been convicted in a federal court in Virginia.
A hearing set for Friday morning was pushed back to 11:00 am, signaling last minute maneuverings in the case.
Manafort's criminal indictment was changed to a plea agreement, special counsel Peter Carr told the Post Friday morning.
The Special Counsel's office released an official statement Friday that did not yet confirm the guilty plea.
'A superseding criminal information against Paul J. Manafort, Jr., 69, of Alexandria, Va., has been filed today in the District of Columbia, which alleges a conspiracy against the United States (money laundering, tax fraud, failing to file Foreign Bank Account Reports, violating the Foreign Agents Registration Act, and lying and misrepresenting to the Department of Justice) and a conspiracy to obstruct justice (witness tampering),' according to Mueller's office.
'Additional information will be provided in the near future.'
RUDY'S ALREADY CLAIMED TRUMP IS RELAXED ABOUT PLEA DEAL
Trump's attorney Rudy Giuliani had earlier told Politico the president isn't worried about Manafort possibly accepting a plea.
Manafort was scheduled to go on trial in D.C. on September 17, on charges including money laundering and failing to register as a foreign agent. Jury selection begins that day with opening arguments to follow a week later.
Before the deal emerged, Giuliani said: 'We can see a reason why he might want to do that. What's the need for another trial?
'They've got enough to put him in jail. His lawyer is going to argue they shouldn't. The judge should decide this. Not Mueller. I think it's pretty clear if they were going to get anything from him, they'd have gotten it already.
'What's the point of further harassing him?'
Manafort was convicted on eight counts in his first trial last month, and was said to be discussing a plea deal ahead of the second trial - which he has now made
Manafort was found guilty on eight counts of tax and bank fraud at an August trial in Virginia court. He has yet to be sentenced.
Trump and his team are unconcerned about a possible plea deal, Giuliani said, because they're convinced Manafort has no damaging info on the president.
'From our perspective, we want him to do the right thing for himself,' Giuliani said. 'There's no fear that Paul Manafort would cooperate against the president because there's nothing to cooperate about and we long ago evaluated him as an honorable man.'
A plea deal could benefit Trump in that it would keep Manafort and the Russia investigation out of the news ahead of the upcoming midterm elections.
And, given the nature of the charges he was convicted on in Virginia, at 69 Manafort could be facing life in prison simply from those convictions.
Even though Manafort's charges stem from his lobbying business and not his campaign work for Trump, the prosecution came from the Mueller probe of Russia's election meddling.
And Manafort was part of the infamous June 2016 Trump Tower meeting where he, Donald Trump Jr., and Jared Kushner met with a Kremlin-connected lawyer who claimed to have dirt on Hillary Clinton.
Giuliani confirmed that Trump's legal team and Manafort's are in regular contact and that they are part of a joint defense agreement that allows confidential information sharing.
Such an agreement would allow frequent communication between the two men's lawyers. Those contacts could inform Manafort's decision-making as he weights whether to make a deal, whether to cooperate, and whether he believes he is likely to secure a presidential pardon.
Trump personal attorney Rudy Giuliani said the president isn't worried about Paul Manafort possibly flipping
The president has expressed sympathy for Manafort, unlike his reaction to his former personal attorney Michael Cohen, who pleaded guilty to eight counts the same day Manafort was convicted.
'I feel very badly for Paul Manafort and his wonderful family,' Trump tweeted after the Virginia trial's verdict. 'Justice' took a 12 year old tax case, among other things, applied tremendous pressure on him and, unlike Michael Cohen, he refused to 'break' - make up stories in order to get a 'deal.' Such respect for a brave man!'
There has been speculation the president could pardon Manafort, which the president has not tamped down.
He has praised his former campaign chairman for not flipping.
'One of the reasons I respect Paul Manafort so much is he went through that trial — you know they make up stories. People make up stories. This whole thing about flipping, they call it, I know all about flipping,' Trump told 'Fox & Friends' last month.
'It's called flipping, and it almost ought to be illegal. ... For 30, 40 years I've been watching flippers. Everything's wonderful and then they get 10 years in jail and they — they flip on whoever the next highest one is, or as high as you can go.'
Link textbacklinkexchanges.com
https://textbacklinkexchanges.com/ex-campaign-chair-manafort-turns-rat-on-trump-in-dramatic-deal-with-robert-muellers-prosecutors/
News Pictures Ex-campaign chair Manafort turns RAT on Trump in dramatic deal with Robert Mueller's prosecutors
You don’t have to pack away your bikini just because you’re the wrong side of 20. These body-beautiful stars reveal their secrets to staying in shape and prove you can smoulder in a two-piece, whatever your age. Read on and be bikini inspired!
TEENS
Hayden Panettiere
Size: 8
Age: 18
Height: 5ft 1in
Weight: 8st
To achieve her kick-ass figure, Hayden – who plays cheerleader Claire Bennet in Heroes – follows the ‘quartering’ rule. She eats only a quarter of the food on her plate, then waits 20 minutes before deciding whether she needs to eat again.
Hayden says: “I don’t have a model’s body, but I’m not one of those crazy girls who thinks that they’re fat. I’m OK with what I have.”
Nicollette says: “I don’t like diets – I see it, I eat it! I believe in eating healthily with lots of protein, vegetables and carbs to give you energy.”
kim cattrall
Size: 10-12
Age: 52
Height: 5ft 8in
Weight: 9st 4lb
SATC star Kim swears by gym sessions with Russian kettle bells (traditional cast-iron weights) and the South Beach Diet to give her the body she wants. To avoid overeating, Kim has a radical diet trick – squirting lemon juice on her leftovers – so she won’t carry on picking.
Kim says: “I am no super-thin Hollywood actress. I am built for men who like women to look like women.”
https://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/newpix/2018/09/13/22/500E43C900000578-0-Paul_Manafort_69_is_reportedly_discussing_a_plea_deal_with_prose-a-74_1536872446617.jpg
Комментариев нет:
Отправить комментарий