(Image source from: The Wall Street Journal)
The United States President Donald Trump's former campaign chairman Paul Manafort will cooperate with Special Counsel Robert Mueller's probe of Russian election meddling as part of a plea deal, prosecutors told a federal court on Friday in Washington.
Manafort, 69, as well pleaded guilty to two criminal counts, becoming the most prominent former Trump campaign official to plead guilty in Mueller's investigation.
In a statement, the White House distanced Trump from the veteran Republican operative who earlier in 2016 aided get him elected against the odds.
"This had absolutely nothing to do with the president or his victorious 2016 presidential campaign," White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said of the Manafort news on Friday. "It is totally unrelated."
The investigation has cast a shadow over the Republican's presidency.
Manafort's decision to cooperate deals a political setback to Trump ahead of congressional elections on November 6.
Before taking an unpaid position with Trump's campaign for five months, Manafort made millions of dollars working for pro-Russian Ukrainian leaders.
He led the campaign in mid-2016 when Trump was selected as the Republican presidential nominee at the party convention.
Moscow has denied interfering in the 2016 election and Trump has said there was no collusion.
On Friday, Manafort pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy against the U.S. and one count of conspiracy to obstruct justice brought by Mueller's team. However, other counts were dropped.
A Virginia jury convicted Manafort last month on bank and tax fraud charges.
Prosecutors had accused him of hiding from the U.S. tax authorities $16 million he earned as a political consultant in Ukraine to fund an opulent lifestyle and then lying to banks to secure $20 million in loans.
The jury, in that case, deadlocked on 10 counts that on Friday were dropped as part of the plea deal.
In a second Manafort trail, Jury selection was due to begin on Monday on charges including conspiring to launder money, failing to register as a foreign agent, conspiring to defraud the U.S., and witness tampering.
Instead, Manafort entered the plea.
Earlier this month, Trump praised his former aide for not entering into an agreement with prosecutors, as the president's former personal attorney Michael Cohen had.
Related content: Donald Trump's Former Attorney Cohen Pleads Guilty to 8 Federal Counts
On Twitter on August 22, Trump wrote: "Unlike Michael Cohen, he refused to 'break' - makeup stories in order to get a 'deal. Such respect for a brave man!
By Sowmya Sangam
