Trump is not King

Paul Manafort’s agreement to cooperate with Mueller’s investigation marks a crucial turning point for the RussiaGate.

Many charges against Manafort were not directly about RussiaGate. Instead, they were mainly about Manafort’s unregistered foreign lobbying work.

Mueller was using these charges to pressure Manafort to cooperate in the RussiaGate investigation — to flip on Donald Trump. And on Friday, Mueller finally landed that fish.

The deal delivers the highest-profile cooperator yet.

Who, after all, is a bigger fish than Manafort — other than Trump?

Mueller started off by trying to “flip” key Trump associates, getting them to agree to plea deals in which they’d cooperate.

Four people fall into this category. George Papadopoulos and Michael Flynn both struck plea deals. Then Rick Gates and Paul Manafort struck plea deals after being charged in relation to their Ukrainian lobbying work. Flynn and Gates have been cooperating for months now.

Manafort’s cooperation has only just begun.

Mueller is using these flippers as building blocks for his larger case on that central matter. He’s lined up his cooperating former Trump aides, and he’s indicted some Russians.

Mueller’s team (and government officials the team has contacted) have made clear the special counsel has been delving deep into Trump and his associates’ ties to Russia.

• Trump’s inauguration: The special counsel has also investigated Russia-tied donations to Trump’s inaugural committee.
• The Seychelles meeting and Gulf money: Shortly before Trump’s inauguration, Erik Prince held a meeting in Seychelles with a Russian fund manager. The meeting was facilitated by the crown prince of the United Arab Emirates and his adviser, George Nader. Keep an eye on this one.
• Roger Stone’s associates: Mueller has questioned people in the orbit of longtime Trump adviser Roger Stone. Stone was in contact with WikiLeaks and the Guccifer 2.0 persona (which was run by Russian intelligence) during the campaign.
Manafort knows a lot about these avenues of investigation. He chaired the Trump campaign, attended the Trump Tower meeting, was a longtime business partner of Roger Stone, and also worked for a Russian oligarch.