Manafort, the "fall guy" ?

[kentuck]

There was a discussion on MSNBC earlier today where this theory came up.

One of the people in the discussion believed that Trump and Manafort had already made a deal. Manafort would plead guilty to everything and would not incriminate Trump. He would say that he alone was responsible for any Russian collusion. Then, Trump would pardon him.

Also, the "pardon-proof" plea deal was legally questionable, he thought. Mueller had threatened to take Manafort to court on the previous charges if he went back on his plea deal.

It was an interesting theory. Would Manafort be the "fall guy" for Donald Trump if he was promised a pardon at the end?

[meadowlark5]

1. I doubt Mueller would have accepted any of that

Mueller probably knows that Trump is involved and Manafort wasn't a lone player. Manafort is probably corroborating a lof of what Mueller knows and is just adding some extra goodies to the investigation.

[RDANGELO]

2. He got too good a deal from Mueller.

The only way he would have gotten the deal he did was if he implicated Trump.

[FM123]

3. Interesting question, maybe he would be the fall guy if Putin asks him to...

I would think that Manafort would do whatever he had to do to prevent Putin from having him poisoned or thrown down a flight of stairs. He probably fears him more than Mueller.