Former Trump Campaign Chair Manafort Will Cooperate with Mueller
*By Carlo Versano*
President Trump's former campaign chair Paul Manafort is, as of Friday, the latest of the president's ex-associates to plead guilty to felony charges.
Manafort was convicted in federal court in August of eight financial fraud charges, though "this is the first time time Paul Manafort has ever admitted to committing a crime," Ben Dreyfuss, editorial director of Mother Jones, said.
Friday's plea deal was related to a separate set of charges for which the former political consultant was awaiting trial.
As part of the plea, Manafort will cooperate with Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.
That is "massive news," Dreyfuss said.
Trump praised Manafort as a "brave man" when he was found guilty of bank and tax fraud last month ー roughly the same hour when Trump's former consigliere Michael Cohen was offering to cooperate, much to the chagrin of the president.
Manafort's lawyer said Friday his client had offered "full cooperation," though as Dreyfuss noted, no details have been made public yetー and what specifically Manafort could offer prosecutors remains unknown.
"No one knows what he could say except for Trump himself," Dreyfuss said.
A bill that would try to abolish the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and eliminate federal income tax was reintroduced on Tuesday by Georgia Republican Rep. Buddy Carter.
The Justice Department is reviewing a batch of potentially classified documents found in the Washington office space of President Joe Biden’s former institute.
The House passed the chamber's rules package with all but one Republican vote while all GOP members voted for its first bill, which would strip funding from the IRS.
At the top of Kevin McCarthy’s to-do list as he begins his role as House Speaker is adopting a new rules package for the chamber when it convenes Monday evening.
Brazilian authorities were vowing to protect democracy and preparing to mete out punishment Monday after thousands of ex-President Jair Bolsonaro’s supporters stormed Congress, the Supreme Court and presidential palace then trashed the nation’s highest seats of power.
