PAUL MANAFORT/ROBERT MUELLER/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT/TRUMP PEOPLE: “Paul Manafort, the former Trump campaign chairman, was working through mystery intermediaries in January 2017 to get people appointed in President Donald Trump’s new administration, according to a court filing released Tuesday [1-15-19]. Manafort described the hiring effort to Rick Gates, his longtime deputy, who in turn revealed the clandestine outreach to special counsel Robert Mueller’s team after pleading guilty and agreeing to cooperate with investigators to lessen his own sentence. According to Gates, Manafort continued speaking with the unidentified people — their names are redacted in the court filing submitted by Mueller’s prosecutors — through about February 2018, several months after the longtime GOP operative had first been indicted in the special counsel’s Russia inquiry on charges of money laundering, making false statements and other crimes. Manafort was convicted on eight felony charges in August and is awaiting sentencing. In a deal with Mueller, he also pleaded guilty to other charges in September and agreed to cooperate with the special counsel.”
–Darren Samuelsohn, “Mueller: Manafort worked behind scenes to stock Trump administration,” Politico, January 15, 2019 7:12 pm