White House responds to Manafort guilty plea agreement – [ALSO here’s more on Manafort’s cooperation]

The White House has responded to Manafort’s guilty plea agreement by releasing as statement, which points out that this has nothing to do with Trump:

AP – The White House says former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort’s decision to plead guilty and cooperate with special counsel Robert Mueller is “totally unrelated” to the president.

Press secretary Sarah Sanders says in a statement, “This had absolutely nothing to do with the President or his victorious 2016 Presidential campaign. It is totally unrelated.”

The AP affirms this is true, saying…

The charges against Manafort are related to his Ukrainian consulting work — not Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, which is the central issue in the special counsel’s investigation.

The AP also further defines what this cooperation agreement means for Manafort:

A judge says former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort’s plea deal requires him to cooperate “fully and truthfully” with the special counsel’s investigation.

Judge Amy Berman Jackson said in court Friday that Manafort must participate in interviews and debriefings, provide documents and testify in future cases.

The reporting doesn’t specify the scope of Manafort’s participation, whether it just deals with his Ukrainian consulting work or whether Mueller will have his cooperation on anything he needs, like Russian collusion. I would guess the latter, but I really don’t know.

UPDATE: Catherine Herridge reports on Fox News that there doesn’t seem to be any boundaries or limitations on Manafort’s plea agreement. So yeah, probably the latter above.


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