After Paul Manafort goes to jail, Michael Cohen signals his plea deal decision to family and friends

| 6:15 pm EDT June 15, 2018
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Earlier today, a federal judge sent Donald Trump’s campaign chairman Paul Manafort to jail. Considering the charges against him, unless Manafort cuts a plea deal, he’ll likely never see another day of freedom for the rest of his life. This appears to have had an impact on Trump’s fixer Michael Cohen, who has reportedly been leaning toward a plea deal for at least a few days, as he’s now signaling his decision to his family and friends.

It was ABC News who originally reported earlier in the week that Michael Cohen was heading toward a plea deal. Last night Cohen made the surreal move of trying (and ultimately failing) to get a retraining order against Stormy Daniels’ attorney Michael Avenatti, which Palmer Report characterized at the time as having been a last ditch attempt at trying to avoid having to cut a deal.

Now, six hours after Manafort was sent to a cell, CNN says that Michael Cohen is now telling his family and friends that he’s “willing to cooperate with federal investigators.” The only way for Cohen to “cooperate” is to cut a formal plea deal against Donald Trump, so if Cohen is “willing” to cooperate, then it means the plea deal is going to happen. What stands out here is that Cohen’s friends and family are floating his words publicly, which they seemingly wouldn’t do without his blessing – which means that he now wants everyone to know he’s flipping. There may be a reason for that.

By all accounts, Michael Cohen is now up against a very tight deadline for getting a plea deal into place. NBC News reported earlier in the week that the Feds had informed Cohen that he was just days away from being arrested. That means he could be getting the knock on the door any minute now. If Manafort’s incarceration has indeed spooked Cohen, he may be suddenly floating his decision to cut a plea deal in the hope that the Feds will give him a hot minute to finalize things on his end, rather than simply dragging him away in front of his kids.