Paul Manafort officially agrees to cooperate with Mueller, and Donald Trump is officially screwed

| 11:55 am EDT September 14, 2018
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As expected, Paul Manafort finalized a plea deal this morning. However, in an unexpected move, Manafort has officially agreed to cooperate with Special Counsel Robert Mueller, according to NBC News and the Wall Street Journal among others. Palmer Report has explained that a deal doesn’t need a cooperation clause in order to include informal cooperation (see Michael Cohen). But it’s a big deal that Manafort is formally cooperating. Why?

The nature of a cooperating plea deal means that Paul Manafort has almost certainly already done a proffer session. That’s a legal term for Manafort spilling his guts to prosecutors, so they could decide how valuable he was going to be, and thus what kind of leniency to offer him. Any legal expert will tell you that once a proffer session has taken place, there’s no going back. Let’s say Donald Trump wakes up from his nap today and panics and tries to issue a pardon for Manafort. It would be too late, because prosecutors already have whatever evidence and testimony Manafort gave them. It gets even worse for Trump.

Michael Cohen cut a plea deal that did not officially mention any cooperation. Instead it was set up so that if he did cooperate, his prison sentence could be reduced. Sure enough, Cohen ended up naming Trump as an unindicted co-conspirartor, and he’s since been cooperating with the Feds and New York State. But Paul Manafort is being far more aggressive here. He’s formally agreeing to provide cooperation right out of the gate, which means he’s sure he wants to sell everyone out.

Paul Manafort is making a blatant effort at getting the shortest prison sentence possible. He’s even giving up all his money to asset forfeiture, in the hope of getting out of prison before his natural life is over. He’s desperate to cooperate. The biggest chip Manafort can give up, by far, is Donald Trump. And now we know he’s going to do it.