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.
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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.
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.
Manafort convicted on 8 counts. Hung jury on 10 counts. But the eight include 5 tax fraud and 2 bank fraud.
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
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 …
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.
A number of people noted overnight that President Trump’s first and second Congressional endorsers in 2016 have now both been indicted. Those are Chris Collins of New York and Duncan Hunter of California. Read More
Watching the Sanders press conference this morning, Sanders seems to have moved another big notch forward in terms of very clipped answers. Basically every answer is, I don’t have anything more for you. In addition, she has rolled out what seems like a new talking point. Each time she’s asked if Trump committed a crime she said repeatedly “he did nothing wrong. There are no charges against him.” Read More