Robert Mueller nails Paul Manafort for conspiring with Donald Trump’s White House

| 6:31 pm EST December 7, 2018
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Special Counsel Robert Mueller has just released a partially redacted sentencing memo for Paul Manafort. It reveals, among other things, that Manafort lied about his contacts with alleged Russian spy Konstantin Kilimnik. But the part we’re zeroing in on is where Mueller spells out that Manafort was in regular communication with Donald Trump’s White House in 2018.

Here’s the key passage from Robert Mueller’s memo tonight: “In a text exchange from May 26, 2018, Manafort authorized a person to speak with an Administration official on Manafort’s behalf.” In addition, “Manafort was in communication with a senior Administration official up through February 2018.” Manafort apparently lied to Mueller about all of this in the hope of protecting the Trump regime. So where does this get us?

It’s tempting to try to fill in the blanks with names, but it’s not necessarily easy to parse. These contacts took place before Paul Manafort cut his cooperating plea deal, meaning this is something entirely different from Mueller’s recent assertion that Manafort and his attorney were conspiring with Trump in violation of Manafort’s deal. So who was authorized by Manafort to conspire with the Trump White House, and which “senior official” was in on the conspiracy?

Yes, the “senior official” could be Donald Trump himself. It could also be any of perhaps a dozen other people working in Trump’s White House who fit that description. That said, it’s difficult to imagine any of Trump’s top White House people conspiring with Paul Manafort, unless Trump himself was in on it. The real upshot is that Robert Mueller left this part unredacted, presumably to send a message to the people involved, that they need to come in and cut a plea deal while they still can.