WASHINGTON – Special counsel Robert Mueller began November with a public lull in his Russia investigation to avoid influencing the midterm election, but a flurry…
WASHINGTON – Special counsel Robert Mueller began November with a public lull in his Russia investigation to avoid influencing the midterm election, but a flurry of recent activity suggests more indictments and revelations are likely in the coming weeks.
The special counsel is probing whether anyone from President Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign coordinated with Russia to try to sway the election and whether there was any obstruction of justice.
Here are some developments to watch.
More details could emerge as early as Friday to explain what Paul Manafort has told investigators and why his plea agreement with Mueller collapsed.
Mueller dropped a bombshell Monday in a court filing that voided the plea deal by arguing that Manafort had lied repeatedly to investigators. Mueller didn’t specify the lies, but said he would file a detailed description before Manafort is sentenced.
Manafort denied lying, but both sides said there was no longer any reason to postpone sentencing.
U. S. District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson has a hearing Friday to get an update on the case and to set sentencing.
Manafort pleaded guilty in September to obstructing justice and conspiracy with a pro-Russian faction in Ukraine.
Manafort also faces sentencing Feb. 8 in U. S. District Court in Virginia, after jury found him guilty of bank and tax charges in August.
Manafort, Trump’s former campaign chairman, has been a key figure in the probe because he attended a June 2016 meeting in Trump Tower with Russians.
After the plea agreement blew up came revelations that Manafort has been sharing information with Trump about Mueller’s investigation, according to The New York Times .
Manafort’s continued cooperation with Trump sparked speculation that he might be hoping for a presidential pardon. Trump said Wednesday that he’s never discussed pardoning Manafort, but that it’s “not off the table.”
“It was never discussed, but I wouldn’t take it off the table,” he told the New York Post in an Oval Office interview. ‘Why would I take it off the table?”
Trump’s former national security adviser, Michael Flynn, is scheduled to be sentenced Dec. 18 after he pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his contacts with Russia during the presidential transition.
