"As said at the beginning of the case, there is no evidence of Russian collusion," Manafort's lawyers wrote in the court filing Monday night. His defense lawyers argued that Manafort would have never been prosecuted as harshly had it not been for Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein's appointment of Mueller in May 2017. "His case is not about murder, drug cartels, organized crime, the Madoff Ponzi scheme or the collapse of Enron," Manafort's defense attorneys wrote Monday. He has accepted full responsibility by pleading guilty to this conduct," Manafort's lawyers wrote. His defense team notes on Monday that he was truthful during the "majority" of his 50 hours of interviews.

Source: CNN February 26, 2019 02:14 UTC