former spokesman at the doj. and former deputy assistant general, tom dupree. tom, what do you make of the reporting from the journal, about this last-ditch effort to try to get paul manafort a plea deal here? interesting in light of the fact that the president praised manafort for not flipping. he was trying to, apparently. it is intriguing. all along, we ve taken the approach, or taken the view, at least it s been my view, that one reason manafort was willing to roll the dice is because he wanted to stand strong and possibly earn a pardon down the road. if fact he s going on trial in virginia, he s trying to negotiate a plea with mueller s team in d.c. they didn t strike the deal. something torpedoed it. the very fact that he was willing to entertain the possibility of cutting a deal is pretty significant. let me get you on what michael avenatti, stormy daniels attorney, said to ari melber last night.