This afternoon, just as all hell was starting to break loose, I talked to John Dean about Watergate, Trump Russia and similarities between the two. Listen here.
Here is a transcript and video of Trump’s brief comments on today’s news. Note that there’s no discussion of Cohen, only Manafort – transcript per pool report.
"Nothing to do with Russian collusion, continue with the witch hunt." Trump briefly talks Manafort; mum on Cohen. pic.twitter.com/8x8YswReFQ
— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) August 21, 2018
Transcript after the jump …
Developing: Cohen appears to directly implicate a “candidate” in the campaign finance violations he is currently pleading guilty to.
Very bad news here for President Trump in the Cohen pleas. Directly implicates an unnamed "candidate" in his campaign finance crimes. https://t.co/1676SxkUnM pic.twitter.com/qDYvnsp9UJ
— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) August 21, 2018
Manafort convicted on 8 counts. Hung jury on 10 counts. But the eight include 5 tax fraud and 2 bank fraud.
The Manafort jury has apparently reached verdicts on 8 of the 18 charges. Unclear yet whether that means a hung jury on those 10 charges, whether they will continue to deliberate, whether anything will be announced today.
Update – 4:33 PM: It seems like we may be moving toward a hung jury on as many as 10 of the Manafort counts. And we may be about to hear the results this afternoon.
Sens Burr and Warner just appeared jointly to announce they’ve “recently re-engaged with [Michael] Cohen” after recent reports about Trump Tower meeting. More shortly.
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Just to catch you up, we’re looking at two major stories possibly moving this afternoon. The Manafort jury appears to have reached a verdict on all but one of the eighteen charges. Separately, we’re now hearing reports that Michael Cohen may reach a plea deal with federal prosecutors in New York (SDNY) as early as this afternoon.
More soon.
We’re getting more information on that note from the jury David noted below. The jury asked the judge what they should do if they “cannot come to a consensus for a single” count and if they can’t what does that mean for the “final verdict.” This strongly suggests (though who knows?) that they have reached consensus on most or all of the remaining 17 charges. They’re hung up on a single charge. In other words, they’ve made a lot of progress. We’d now expect the judge to ask them to take more time and try to reach consensus on that final charge.
There’s some ambiguity that some have noted that perhaps the jury meant they can’t come to agreement on even one count. In other words, they’re totally hung. That seems like a strained reading of the note. But it’s just a couple sentences and the version of the text we have are what reporters heard in open court, not reading the actual note. Seems like the former, but who knows.
Update: Some more news out of the courtroom appears to confirm that this is about lack of consensus on a single charge.
Some possible movement in the Manafort jury deliberations.
There was a knock on the door from the jury room into the courtroom, Tierney Sneed reports.
Subsequently we learned there is a new note from the jury, according to special counsel Robert Mueller’s office.