Paul Manafort is not interested in pleading guilty to the charges brought against him by special counsel Robert Mueller, and he’s definitely not interested in providing any testimony on his boss.
The indicted former Trump campaign chairman is trying to decrease the number of charges filed against him regarding his work in Ukraine, arguing that various charges are duplicated or outside of the scope of Mueller’s investigation. But Manafort is also trying to avoid a guilty plea, unlike his counterpart, deputy Rick Gates.
Gates has pled guilty to a conspiracy charge related to Manafort as well as lying to the FBI, but Manafort is trying to fight the charges. Perhaps he thinks they’re worth fighting - he could get up to 300 years, depending on how the dominos fall. But what he really has at risk is the fact that he may be forced to give up information about Trump’s Russian dealings as part of any plea bargain - and that might be potentially damaging for President Donald Trump.
One of the things we know about President Trump is that he demands unwavering and absolute loyalty from his subjects. People are expected to do or say anything in support of him. It’s why KellyAnne Conway, Sean Spicer and multiple other people who might once have given the impression that they know better were willing to step up to podiums and microphones and repeat blatant falsehoods. Deviating from the Trump message is unforgivable, and the goal is always to protect his image.
Another thing we know about him is he is 100 percent willing to backstab absolutely anyone. We’ve seen him do it over and over again. People who help him get chewed up and spit out unceremoniously. While they’re in, they might feel like they have special access to something worth the public shame. Once they’re out, they’re out for good unless they grovel shamelessly enough.
We know his lawyer, Michael Cohen, is taking the fall for his mess with Stormy Daniels, insisting that he paid $130,000 to silence her without Trump’s knowledge and without reimbursement. If it’s not true, it shows the level of bullshit Cohen is obligated to spin to help Trump, including lying in court. If it is true, Cohen was expected to literally shoulder the economic burden of Trump’s problems by virtue of being his lawyer.
So when Paul Manafort doggedly fights back against charges based on arguments as weak as “it’s outside the scope of an investigation that was explicitly told to prosecute any crimes uncovered during the course of the investigation,” yeah, I think there’s more to his fight than his belief that he’s not guilty.
I think it absolutely has to do with the fact that he believes he has information on Trump he just cannot give up. He’s willing to risk a longer prison sentence to protect it.
Mueller’s investigation still hasn’t publicly revealed anything suggesting he has collusion charges on the way, but evidence that people like Manafort were already deeply, secretively entwined in the world of Russian politics paints a picture.