LEGAL/PAUL MANAFORT/ROBERT MUELLER/TRUMP PEOPLE: “Paul Manafort, the former Trump campaign chairman embattled by criminal indictments, may no longer fight the charges related to his Ukrainian lobbying operation. He and the special counsel’s office are close to a deal for a guilty plea ahead of his upcoming trial, according to a source familiar with the matter. A deal is expected but the source cautioned the two sides have been close before. The incentive appears to be to reach a deal ahead of a pretrial motion hearing scheduled for Friday [9-14-18] and before jury selection begins Monday [9-17-18] in DC District Court. That’s also a week before Manafort and prosecutors make new filings in Virginia to discuss the charges and convictions he faces there. A plea Friday would bring to an end to one of the most active criminal cases in the DC federal court system this year. Manafort’s lawyers have filed hundreds of pages in courts to fight prosecutors’ allegations and have brought two appeals unsuccessfully, and his legal fees mounted to more than a million dollars, according to two people familiar with his case. Proceedings scheduled for Monday would kick off a second grueling, expensive, politically explosive three-week-or-longer trial in federal court.”
–Evan Perez and Katelyn Polantz, “Paul Manafort and special counsel close to deal for guilty plea,” CNN Politics, CNN.com, September 13, 2018 9:49 pm