Following the guilty plea of Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort on Friday, came word that another Trump associate was also working on a cooperating agreement. According to Vanity Fair, attorney Michael Cohen, who has already pleaded guilty to eight counts of tax evasion and violation of campaign finance laws, is still willing to sign onto Team Mueller. Cohen’s willingness to cooperate isn’t exactly a surprise. He’s been signalling it with everything short of a box of chocolates and a message carved into the Moon. But word that Mueller’s team is actively drafting up papers for Cohen shows just where this investigation really is: Solidly in the middle.
Paul Manafort has a plea agreement. Michael Cohen is getting a plea agreement. Michael Flynn has a plea agreement. Rick Gates has a plea agreement. George Papadopoulos has already provided what he knew and been sentenced. Long-time Trump Organization accountant Allen Weisselberg is testifying for federal prosecutors under a limited immunity agreement.
And here’s the critical thing about all those agreements: Except for some of what was learned from Papadopoulos, and the parts of Rick Gates’ testimony directly related to Manafort, we know nothing that Mueller has learned from these agreements. Keep in mind that in every one of these cooperating agreements, the person under indictment has to first offer up information of value then make a deal with prosecutor. By almost any measure, Robert Mueller has handed out some very good deals. That’s particularly true for Gates and Flynn, both of whom look to be all but dodging a list of potential charges longer than the average phone book. Very good deals imply some very big information.
The more interesting list at this point may be everyone who doesn’t have a plea agreement. Specifically Donald Trump, Donald Trump Jr, Jared Kushner, Roger Stone, Steve Bannon, Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III, Aaron Nevins, Brad Parscale, Sam Clovis, Sarah Sanders, Walid Phares, Corey Lewandowski, Hope Hicks and … easily a dozen others. Any of these people who haven’t already secretly signed some paperwork with Mueller have to be thinking “How do I get me one of those agreements?”
When Bob Woodward was trying to break the Watergate story, it required him to skulk around in basement parking garages and conduct clandestine meetings along Washington sidewalks. To document the can-something-that-was-never-raveled-unravel? Trump White House, all Woodward had to do was sit by the phone and wait for the calls to come in. Woodwards’ experience serves as a vivid reminder: No one who knows Trump likes Trump. And certainly no one is willing to burn for him. As Robert Mueller continues to cut through the thicket of this investigation, he may want to consider using some of the millions brought in by Manafort’s $46 million asset forfeitures — to install some new phone lines.
On Friday, Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort became the latest member of Trump’s team to plead guilty to felonies in federal court. Manafort pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy against the United States centered around bringing into the country $60 million in unreported cash, and one count of Conspiracy to Obstruct Justice through witness tampering. Surprising almost everyone, Manafort’s deal was not a simple plea of guilty to avoid the cost and burden of a second trial, but was accompanied by a 17-page cooperation agreement in which Manafort agrees to cooperate extensively. Extensively.
Your client shall cooperate fully, truthfully, completely, and with the Government
and other law enforcement authorities identied by the Government in any and all matters as to which the Government deems the cooperation relevant.
Included is an agreement to be questioned on the record about any subject, to provide any document in his possession, and to testify truthfully, fully, and completely before any jury where he is requested. It’s a genuine everything-to-the-walls agreement to cooperate on every point at any time. It’s also something that clearly took some time to negotiate and draft, making it all the more amazing that the agreement was a stone cold secret right up until Manafort stepped into court on Friday. Robert Mueller apparently keeps his team in a submarine, because they do not leak.
What does Manafort know? Well, he was there in the Trump Tower meeting. He was there when Papadopoulos offered up a meeting with Putin and exchanged messages over the potential for getting the stolen DNC emails. Manafort was in near continuous contact with his Russian handlers during the campaign, was directly involved in modifications to the Republican platform that softened language related to Russia, and offered up a personal briefing on the Trump campaign to his favorite oligarch, Oleg Deripaska.
That’s just Manafort. That’s just the parts we know. Multiply that by Gates, who was there longer and involved in the transition team. By Flynn, who was not only partying with Putin but nursing his connections to other autocrats. By Cohen, who didn’t just set up a company to handle Trump’s adultery fees, but directly sold his influence for dollars. And by Weisselberg, who wrote the checks to cover everything Trump was up to since forever.
When it’s all put together, Robert Mueller is going to have a fantastically detailed picture of Donald Trump and everyone involved in Donald Trump’s campaign. He’s going to know Trump’s business, his phony charity, his campaign, his transition, and his family.
Paul Manafort’s first trial, the second set of charges, and the cooperating agreement are all a snapshot of not just Manafort, but Mueller. They’re a picture of how he’s operating this investigation: Diligently, step-by-step, piling one piece of evidence on another, confirming each item again and again, providing detailed transactions and just plain overwhelming information. The agreement shows that what we know of the Muller investigation remains not even the visible part of a vast, inexorable iceberg grinding steadily ahead.
In making his deal with Mueller, Paul Manafort put in a special request. According to CNBC, Manafort “told prosecutors he preferred that they seize his apartment in Trump Tower than give up one of the four bank accounts.” Giving up his Trump Tower apartment was likely a good move for Manafort. After all, even should he emerge from prison in just a few years, it’s not somewhere he’s likely to feel comfortable living.
And Trump Tower … could always show up on a list of assets under forfeiture should it turn out that one of the things Robert Mueller knows, is just how much Trump has used money-laundering of illegal foreign funds to finance his US deals.