*By Amanda Weston*
As a jury deliberates the guilt of President Trump's former campaign chair for the third day, GOP strategist Rick Wilson said Paul Manafort's chances don't look good.
"I think the judge in this case has been somewhat of a wildcard, but in the large picture here I think Manafort is facing something that federal prosecutors are pretty good at putting people behind bars for," Wilson, author of "Everything Trump Touches Dies," said Monday in an interview on Cheddar.
Manafort [faces more than a dozen charges](https://www.cnn.com/2018/08/20/politics/paul-manafort-trial/index.html), including tax evasion and the concealment of foreign bank accounts. He has pleaded not guilty.
Wilson said the real star of the proceedings is a "gigantic paper trail" that Manafort left behind. And it marks the first trial from Special Counsel Robert Mueller in the Russia investigation.
"Manafort has always had a choice," said Wilson. "He can either flip and cooperate with Robert Mueller and cooperate with this investigation and do the right thing for his country, or he can die in prison. Right now, he's going to die in prison."
President Trump has repeatedly slammed the Mueller probe on Twitter, calling it [a "Rigged Witch Hunt!"](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1031154974942810114) on Sunday morning.
While Manafort's trial, the first in Mueller's investigation, may not be a defining moment for the overall probe, it's life-altering for the defendant.
"I view this, as I think most people do, as a point of leverage for Paul Manafort to get a wake-up call and to understand that unless he cooperates, he's going to die in jail," said Wilson. "Because he's not a young man, and he's going to go to prison at some point, and they've got a whole separate case, by the way, they can bring after this one. So the pressure on Paul Manafort isn't over. This isn't a make or break for the Mueller investigation at all."
For full interview [click here] ( https://cheddar.com/videos/manafort-jury-enters-third-day-of-deliberations).
The Department of Justice has informed former Vice President Mike Pence 's legal team that it will not pursue criminal charges related to the discovery of classified documents at his Indiana home.
Fending off a U.S. default, the Senate gave final approval late Thursday to a debt ceiling and budget cuts package, grinding into the night to wrap up work on the bipartisan deal and send it to President Joe Biden's desk to become law before the fast-approaching deadline.
He wasn't hurt and later joked that he "got sandbagged."
Canada will soon become the first country in the world where warning labels must appear on individual cigarettes.
Vice President Kamala Harris said Thursday that federal agencies are taking new steps to stop racial discrimination in appraising home values by proposing a rule intended to ensure that the automated formulas used to price housing are fair.
Centrist Democrats and Republicans pushed it to approval over blowback from conservatives and some progressives. The Senate is expected to act quickly by the end of the week.
The Oklahoma Supreme Court ruled on Wednesday that two state laws banning abortion are unconstitutional, but the procedure remains illegal in the state in nearly all cases except life-threatening situations.
A New York City police officer is speaking out against the use of “courtesy cards” by friends and relatives of his colleagues on the force, accusing department leaders of maintaining a sprawling system of impunity that lets people with a connection to law enforcement avoid traffic tickets.
A Pennsylvania restaurant owner who screamed death threats directed at then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi while storming the U.S. Capitol was sentenced on Tuesday to more than two years in prison.
Hard-fought to the end, the debt ceiling and budget cuts package is heading toward a crucial U.S. House vote as President Joe Biden and Speaker Kevin McCarthy assemble a coalition of centrist Democrats and Republicans to push it to passage over fierce blowback from conservatives and some progressive dissent.
