Roger Stone and Paul Manafort suddenly have one alarming thing in common

| 12:12 pm EDT May 31, 2018
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What do Roger Stone and Paul Manafort have in common? They used to collaborate on shady international political efforts. They were both key players in Donald Trump’s campaign. They both got caught red handed trying to conspire with Russia during the election. They’re both denying it. Manafort is under house arrest and awaiting trial. Stone is about to get indicted and arrested. But we already knew all of that. Now it turns out they have one particularly alarming thing in common.

When we say alarming, it’s actually “alarming” for them. Paul Manafort has apparently now blown through whatever personal fortune he was counting on when he decided to hire high priced lawyers and fight his dozens of felony charges at trial. Instead, Manafort seems to be broke. How broke? According to Politico, his political allies are setting up a legal defense fund for him to help pay his bills. He’s not the only one who’s broke, either.

This matters, because Manafort’s defense is based entirely around being able to afford the kind of lawyers who have a snowball’s chance of getting him off on technicalities, no matter how overwhelming the evidence against him might be. If he doesn’t get enough donations, he’s toast. The minute he can’t afford his expensive attorneys, his only remaining option is an immediate plea deal, before Robert Mueller decides he’s already flipped enough people. Strangely, even though Manafort is in a desperate situation, he’s not the one setting this up; his friends are having to step in. It suggests Manafort’s head (or heart) isn’t even in the game anymore.

Then there’s Roger Stone. He just posted a video claiming that he’s also basically broke due to the legal bills he’s incurring, though we’re not sure we believe him. For one thing, in the video, he appears to be dressed as some kind of French waiter. It’s also difficult to imagine that he’s spent all that much yet on legal fees, as he hasn’t been indicted, and hasn’t even been interviewed. There’s almost nothing for his attorneys to be doing right now, except maybe give him better fashion advice than whatever happened here:

Maybe Roger Stone needs the money for better clothes?

The bottom line is that while we don’t know if Roger Stone is truly broke from legal bills or merely trying to cash in on his own impending arrest, it’s a safe bet that Paul Manafort really is out of money. These are two guys who really wanted to go to trial, if only to be obstinate about it. But if they’re truly out of money to pay their lawyers this soon, that’s usually a sign that plea deals are coming sooner than later.