Paul Manafort Pleads Guilty, Agrees to Cooperate with Mueller Investigation

Washington: Paul Manafort, US President Donald Trump’s former campaign manager embattled by criminal indictments, is close to a deal with Special Counsel Robert Mueller for a guilty plea ahead of his upcoming trial, according to an informed source. Manafort may no longer fight the charges related to his Ukrainian lobbying operation, CNN quoted the source as saying on Thursday. The incentive appears to be to reach a deal ahead of a pre-trial motion hearing scheduled for Friday and before jury selection begins on September 17 in the Washington D.C. District Court. The plea would bring to an end to one of the most active criminal cases in the DC federal court system this year. Manafort faces seven counts of foreign lobbying violations, money laundering conspiracy and witness tampering, CNN said. (IANS)