evidence and indictment, their attorney would be telling them, you don't stand a great chance at trial. your better option is to plead. he has an option not available to most defendants and that's the president of the united states holding out the opportunity for a pardon at the end of this. the usual calculus a defendant might make is up ended here by the fact he has a chance for no jail time at all if he just never cooperates and talks about the president, and the president, you know, comes through on at least what is an implied pardon that he's been talking about publicly and by some reports privately. >> there's also news out of the special counsel's office because all of washington and the rest of the country remains on mueller report watch, right, as the house vote goes down on capitol hill. and betsy, our nbc news team have confirmed that a top prosecutor, andrew weisman, the guy in the courtroom yesterday for the manafort sentencing, is moving on. he's stepping down from that role on the team. he's leaving the special counsel's office and doing something else. that is being read by a lot of