Manafort Pleads Guilty, Agrees to Cooperate With Mueller
- Manafort admits laundering $30 million related to Ukraine work
- Stunning turn for aide who had denied crimes for years
Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s team scored a significant victory as President Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman pleaded guilty to conspiring against the U.S. and agreed to cooperate in the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.
The former campaign aide, Paul Manafort, admitted Friday to a decade of crimes related to his work as a consultant for pro-Russia politicians in Ukraine. While none of the charges relates to his work for the president, he was Trump’s campaign chairman for several months, and his links to Russian and Ukrainian oligarchs have been a focus of Mueller’s prosecutors. Manafort joins several other Trump aides who have pleaded guilty and are helping Mueller, including Trump’s former national security adviser, Michael Flynn, and Manafort’s former right-hand man, Rick Gates.