and out for himself. and he s been out for himself and he was in debt millions of dollars to some of those people. i think the question here is one of motivation, was manafort trying to show these people he was close to trump and therefore could give them access? that would suggest manafort was, as you say, out for himself, or was he doing it in order to try to give the gru information they could use in a social immediate ka campaign with a little intention? that might suggest there was a broader concept in the campaign of wanting to clud with tollude russians and did trump know about it? given manafort s own past record on this and his often past of looking out for himself and trying to look out for himself, not perhaps very well, i don t think we can assume from this trump knew and there was some coordinated effort to give the gru information. and perhaps the republicans had leverage over paul manafort as well. congressman costello, can we talk briefly about the political impli
pretty bad financial straits went to work as a volunteer for the trump campaign. then he would have handed this over. why would he do that without talking to the campaign. that would seem a little irrational to me. and fast forward to what we ve seen him do now to wait until he gets a go all the way through trial and then agree to cooperate, and then not be fully cooperative, when i was in court with watching him and his lawyers just a month ago, his lawyers said we don t even know what he lied about and if he intentionally did so, we need more time with our client. it s not clear he had the full picture. he could be lying to his lawyers too. manafort has a very long history of relationships with sleazy people, in dubious bits of the world. and out for himself. and he s been out for himself and he was in debt millions of dollars to some of those people. i think the question here is one of motivation, was manafort trying to show these people he was close to trump and therefore c
could potentially add more charges, given manafort s alleged breach. the request from manafort s team to hold off on releasing specifics about manafort s alleged lies came after the judge told the special counsel s lawyers she needs more details beyond what was laid out in that ten-page filing friday. besides a lot of blacked outlines, mueller s team specified five different subjects where manafort lied, including about meetings manafort had with his former business associate who has ties to russian intelligence and about his contacts with white house officials up to and including in february 2018, well after he had been indicted, and in may 2018, one month before he was thrown in jail for alleged witness tampering. while manafort s attorneys argued the 69-year old has been truthful, prosecutors argued in the papers they have proof to back up their claims. they cited text messages to prove manafort s contacts with administration officials including a senior administration official, as
want some kind of cooperation gremd as pard of any deal. we doend know where the two sides have come down on this. again, what we re told is this is a very close to a deal and final agreement has not yet been done but that s one of the things we re all looking for to see what kind of terms are reached and whether or not he s going to cooperate with the special counsel s investigation. perhaps against the president or other people who may be implicated in that investigation. that s a critically important element. standby. i want to get some more on this breaking story unfolding. joining us on the phone is jeffrey toobin. we don t know whether paul manafort will cooperate with federal investigators. usually that s the case, isn t it? cooperation usually is the case. frankly, given manafort s lack of leverage at this point, i
should have been. reporter: and then there s paul manafort. i have great respect for what he has done in terms of what he has gone through. reporter: winning praise from the president for not cooperating with prosecutors. it is called flipping and it ought to be illegal. reporter: the feds often make their case with star witnesses that turn on their bosses. the president s lawyer tells the washington post , trump tower asked about the possibility of pardoning manafort several weeks ago but his legal team told him he should wait until all of the investigations are over. given manafort has another trial next month on the president s refusal to rule out a pardon amount to witness tampering? it is evidence of witness tamper. buying a ski mask is not a crime, but if i use it in a bank robbery it is evidence of a rhyme. reporter: democrats are slamming what they call a gop culture of corruption, but they re not talking impeachment yet. not that the president is worried.