On the same day that special counsel Robert Mueller indicted former Trump campaign chief Paul Manafort and a business associate, he also filed a plea agreement for former Trump advisor George Papadopoulos—setting up a tale of two Trump campaign aides.
One aide stonewalled Mueller's investigation, didn't cooperate, and now faces what some legal experts have framed as an air-tight 12-count indictment that is based on documents, money transfers, and emails rather than resting on the character of a witness.
"All you have to do is put these documents into evidence," MSNBC analyst and former federal prosecutor Nick Ackerman noted Monday.
The charges against Manafort could land him anywhere from 12 to 15 years in prison according to a federal prosecutor—essentially the best remaining years of one’s life for someone who is 68.
The other aide originally lied to the FBI then was arrested in late July under seal and decided to come clean, cooperate, and do everything he could in the intervening months to help Mueller's team build a case. That effort more than likely included him wearing a wire as he dialed up all his former campaign contacts to reminisce about the good ol’ days on the trail. His jail time?
Although Papadopoulos could face up to five years in prison for the crimes to which he has pleaded guilty, the prosecution agreed to seek far less than that—zero to six months—as part of the deal, though a judge will make the final decision.
Already, we are seeing the differences in treatment.
Manafort, at this point, is undoubtedly weighing what he has to offer Mueller in the way of helping his Russia investigation and whether he should offer it to gain any leniency in the charges against him.
But as the former campaign colleagues of both Manafort and Papadopoulos weigh the tale of these two aides, they will certainly be looking at the paths they chose and the respective outcomes of those choices. It’s no accident that Mueller released the Papadopoulos charging documents on the same day Manafort was indicted. Cooperate and you can get a deal; don’t cooperate and have the book thrown at you—those are the choices.