Paul Manafort, the disgraced former campaign chairman for Donald Trump who was convicted on eight counts of fraud in August, met with Robert Mueller's office on Monday as part of his cooperation agreement, according to Politico.
It is unclear what exactly Manafort will discuss with Mueller's team. After the initial plea hearing, a source close to Manafort said that "the cooperation agreement does not involve the Trump campaign. ... There was no collusion with Russia," according to a piece by Politico in September. However, the plea agreement that was accepted by the Mueller team and Manafort team said that the former political adviser "shall cooperate fully, truthfully, completely and forthrightly with the Government and other law enforcement authorities identified by the Government in any and all matters to which the Government deems the cooperation relevant."
One of the reasons for concern about Manafort's involvement in Trump's campaign was that he had spent many years as a close adviser to Viktor Yanukovych, the former prime minister of Ukraine who was widely believed to be a puppet of Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to The Washington Post. The Post also included this sobering anecdote about the amount of power that Manafort wielded in the pro-Russia Ukraine of Yanukovych:
Manafort persuaded the Ukrainian government to change its grain policies in a way that benefited a U.S. agribusiness giant, and to consider deals with Exxon and Chevron for oil exploration. He also got involved in some lucrative side deals with Russian and Ukrainian oligarchs, but many of them fizzled, and some of the actors he worked with are under scrutiny by U.S. investigators.
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