Paul Manafort reaches ‘tentative’ plea deal with Robert Mueller

Paul Manafort reaches ‘tentative’ plea deal with Robert Mueller

Wait a sec. Trump and Manafort may have outsmarted Mueller on this one. Paulie Numbnuts has not necessarily taken a deal. He may have just agreed to plead guilty to all the charges. That’s what I would do in his position.

That is a better option than either going to trial or agreeing to co-operate.

—- It’s better than a trial because he saves the massive legal fees he’d face from this trial plus the re-trial of the hung jury charges.

—- It’s better than an agreement to co-operate because:

* if he can avoid flipping, he can probably expect a pardon in return for his loyalty, which means freedom and no jail time on any charges, including the ones he’s already been convicted on.

* but if he trades co-operation for reduced charges or a lesser sentence, he would actually have to serve that sentence, because Trump would view co-operation as a sign of disloyalty.

I think changing his plea to guilty (with no co-operation agreement) might be the smart play, so let’s not assume he’s going to co-operate until we’ve actually seen the details.