The news of Paul Manafort’s compounded legal woes and Michael Cohen pleading guilty to lying to Congress shifted the news cycle into overdrive this week, but the consequences will continue to be felt next week.
Manafort and Cohen aren’t the only cases on special counsel Robert Mueller‘s plate either. Keep an eye on President Donald Trump’s Twitter feed on Monday because on Tuesday, Dec. 4, there will be a sentencing memorandum for former national security advisor Michael Flynn. Flynn has yet to be sentenced for lying to investigators.
The special counsel has pushed back the Flynn’s sentencing multiple times “due to the status” of the investigation. By September 2018, Mueller announced that Flynn was ready to be sentenced. The sentencing memorandum is scheduled to drop a couple of weeks in advance of Flynn’s Dec. 18 sentencing.
Early prognostications on Michael Cohen’s sentencing memo indicate that it will go public by Dec. 5, since Cohen is scheduled to be sentenced a week later, on Dec. 12.
Next up on the list is Mueller’s side of the Paul Manafort story. Mueller accused Manafort on Monday of lying repeatedly to FBI investigators, effectively blowing up the cooperation agreement the two sides agreed to in September.
As Law&Crime noted earlier, Mueller is reportedly considering going for a re-trial of Manafort in the Eastern District of Virginia. Manafort was convicted there in August on eight bank and tax fraud counts, but a lone holdout juror led to a mistrial on the remaining 10 counts. Manafort never faced a second trial because he cut a deal to avoid that, the deal he allegedly breached.
Mueller is scheduled to “detail” Manafort’s “crimes and lies” in a memo, you guessed it, next week.
That likely revealing memo, which may also serve another purpose for the special counsel, represents an opportunity for Mueller to put together an extensive narrative on Manafort’s alleged untruths, which will become a part of public record. That will be submitted on Dec. 7.
Manafort has denied that he lied to investigators.
It remains to be seen what stage Mueller is in regarding the reported perjury charge against right-wing author and Roger Stone contact Jerome Corsi. Corsi backed out of plea negotiations on Monday. On Tuesday, the draft charging document went public. It’s possible there may also be another development on this front soon.
[Image via Alex Wong and Getty Images]
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