It took longer than Robert S. Mueller III probably wanted — and longer than Paul Manafort probably should have waited — but Mueller on Friday finally landed his golden goose. Manafort’s plea deal with prosecutors includes a requirement that he cooperate with Mueller’s Russia investigation. As I argued last month, it was readily apparent that Mueller was keeping the Manafort case for himself because of Manafort’s potential to flip. Manafort was special, and his case was evidence that Mueller had hardly thrown in the towel on the collusion question. So why would Mueller refer the Cohen case (along with Podesta-Weber-Craig) to SDNY but not the Manafort one?

Source: Washington Post September 14, 2018 17:37 UTC