Paul Manafort To Plea To New Charges Filed By Special Counsel
(CBS) -- Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort is expected to plead guilty to charges filed special counsel on conspiracy against the U.S. and conspiracy to obstruct justice.
The former includes money laundering, tax fraud, failing to file Foreign Bank Accounts, and the latter includes the charge of witness tampering.
On Friday morning, the hearing was changed from a pretrial hearing to an arraignment and plea hearing the D.C. District Court announced.
The hearing is expected to reveal whether Manafort has agreed to cooperate with prosecutors. Doing so could jeopardize his chances of a presidential pardon.
The charges were filed in a superseding criminal information -- a formal criminal charge -- which lays out the facts of the offense and is often the precursor to the announcement of a deal. Manafort reached a deal with federal prosecutors to avoid his upcoming trial on charges related to his foreign lobbying work, CBS News reported Thursday.
The charges in the information say that Manafort will have to forfeit property that was derived from or traceable to his offenses. The special counsel listed some of the property that he could have to give up, including the following:
- Brooklyn, New York apartment on Union Street
- New York apartment on Howard Street
- Watermill, New York property at 174 Job Lane
- Arlington, Virginia property on Edgewood Street.
- Funds from three bank accounts, a life insurance policy and an investment account
In August, Manafort was found guilty on eight out of 18 counts of financial crimes in his first trial in Virginia. The jury was deadlocked on the remaining 10 counts, which ended in mistrial.
The plea deal precludes the need for the second trial, sparing Manafort the steep legal fees of a second round of prosecution.
In August, Manafort's attorneys filed a motion requesting the trial be moved from Washington to Roanoke, Virginia. A judge denied the request. Manafort has been in jail since June 15 when a judge revoked his bail for violating the terms of his release.
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