Trump was saying such nice things about Manafort just a week or two ago.

[Bob Schroeck]

Praising him for "being strong" and assuring anyone likely to believe him that Manafort would never turn state's evidence like "that rat" Cohen.

Well...

Mueller Wins Manafort’s Cooperation in Plea Deal

Time until Trump fires off a tweet painting a man who last week was his "good, great friend" who'd "never turn on" him as another rat he barely knew who has nothing to do with him?  Five, four, three...

[Dartz]

I'm waiting for the Pardon.

It might be the only option Gropaz has to keep the whole shebang from blowing up. Once he's pardoned he's no reason to cooperate, right? |Which, OTOH, would be tantamount to admitting something dirty was going on....

[hazard]

Well... (IANAL etc.)

Actually, there's an argument to be made that someone who has been pardoned has no access to the Fifth Amendment.

You see, the Fifth Amendment notes that you can't be compelled to incriminate yourself in a crime and thus cause yourself to be prosecuted. But when you've been pardoned? You can't be prosecuted for what you've done.

You can be prosecuted for not answering a subpoena though. Or for lying to the court or the FBI.

Which means that Manafort has every reason to cooperate. The best the pardon does is keep him out of jail when he cooperates, but if he doesn't cooperate even though the government can (now) compel him to answer and answer honestly he has to, because otherwise he's in contempt of court or committing perjury.

He just can't win anything more than a lesser sentence.

[Labster]

You guys are all talking about Manafort as if the U.S. government sending him to jail for life is the worst scenario. It's totally not. Russia has access to poison, and they're not afraid to use it. Manafort is a man who knows too much. If they decide that he's gone too far, then one day Manafort ends up beaten to death in prison, or maybe one of his daughters just disappears?

Honestly I suspect that if he is cooperating, then Russia has decided the jig is up, and to create as much chaos on the way down as possible.

[classicdrogn]

I'd like to say that's taking the paranoia a little too far... but then, I thought Trump was a joke candidate who had no chance of being elected dog catcher, let alone president - my comment at the exit poll was that he'd done a great job campaigning for Hillary and Gary Johnson. Clearly I am not paranoid (or just cynical) enough.

[Epsilon]

I'd like to say that Trump having Manfort poisoned by his Russian buddies would be the final end to him but I am convinced that if Trump shot him live on national television his fans would only laugh at how the liberals were triggered.

[robkelk]

He'd have to shoot Manafort in Times Square. That's what he boasted about, after all.