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Real Law Review: Manafort Plea Explodes, Attorney Privilege Breached, Pardon? - YouTube
Channel: LegalEagle
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this episode of real law review was made
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possible by skillshare
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learn to think like a lawyer for free
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for two months by clicking the link in
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the description
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paul manafort lied so much that the
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mueller team is ripping up his plea
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agreement
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this is very unusual and this has huge
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implications for the entire
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trump legal defense team let's think
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like a lawyer
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[Music]
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on today's real law review i want to
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talk about all the implications that
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come as a result of paul manafort
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breaking the terms of his plea agreement
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with the mueller legal team
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including one why manafort is going to
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jail for a
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long time two how he has exposed all of
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his communications with president trump
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and the rest of the trump team
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including those protected by
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attorney-client privilege and three
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why even a pardon won't save paul
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manafort
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this has huge implications for everyone
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including the president
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you may recall that paul manafort was
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indicted in two separate jurisdictions
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he was a defendant in one particular
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criminal case in the eastern district of
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virginia that's federal court
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as well as the district of dc which
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again is another federal district
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the eastern district of virginia because
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of its proximity to dc
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handles a lot of very high profile
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federal cases
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and this is no exception to that the
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virginia case went to trial first
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paul manafort was convicted on most of
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the crimes alleged in
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the eastern district of virginia case
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and the jury hung
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on a few of those claims meaning they
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weren't able to come to an
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unanimous decision on those particular
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claims
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as a result of losing so many of the
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claims in the virginia case
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enough to put him away for the rest of
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his life manafort and his legal team
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decided to plead out in dc meaning he
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took a plea agreement
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where he got a reduced sentence in
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exchange for him cooperating
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with the ongoing mueller investigation
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not surprisingly the plea agreement that
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mueller and manafort entered into
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requires that
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manafort cooperate entirely not only
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into the actual crimes that he was
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indicted and
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convicted of but also for any
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investigations that mueller wants his
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cooperation
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with and that manafort might have some
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information that would help out
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manafort pleaded pursuant to an
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agreement that required his fully
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truthfully completely and forthrightly
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cooperating
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with the government according to the
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sentencing memo that the mueller team
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just filed the plea agreement provides
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that if the defendant
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manafort fails to fulfill completely
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each and every one of his obligations
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under the plea agreement or quote
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engages in any criminal activity prior
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to sentencing
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the defendant manafort will be in breach
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of the agreement
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and of course a breach relieves the
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government of any obligations under the
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plea agreement
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including its agreement to a reduction
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of the sentencing guidelines
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for acceptance and responsibility but
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leaves intact all of the obligations of
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the defendant as well
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as his guilty pleas which means that if
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manafort violated the plea agreement
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he is not entitled to any reduction of
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any of the crimes that he was convicted
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of
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and in fact he cannot withdraw his
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guilty plea as a result
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no matter what manafort is going to be
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stuck with his admission of guilt
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with no reduction in sentence in a
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status report that the mueller team
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recently filed both in dc and virginia
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according to mueller after signing the
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plea agreement manafort committed
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federal crimes by lying to the federal
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bureau of investigation
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and the special counsel's office on a
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variety of subject matters
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which constitute breaches of the
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agreement the government will file a
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detailed sentencing submission to the
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probation department
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and the court in advance of the
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sentencing that sets forth the nature of
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the defendant's crimes and lies
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including those after signing the plea
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agreement hear it
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this is a bombshell filing by the
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mueller team
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it is very rare for these kinds of plea
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agreements to blow up
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and what the mueller team has hinted at
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here is that manafort not only just lied
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once
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and failed to communicate but lied on a
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variety of different
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subjects so what are the consequences of
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this plea agreement blowing up
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well for one the mueller team won't be
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able to use paul manafort as a
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cooperating witness they won't be able
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to rely on his testimony
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at trial they won't get him to waive his
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fifth amendment rights against
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self-incrimination
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and of course paul manafort is going to
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jail for a very very long time
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the reason you enter into one of these
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plea agreements is to get a reduction in
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your sentence you make it easier for the
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government to prove their case you admit
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your guilt and in exchange the
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government gives you
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a letter saying that you should get a
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reduction in sentence a judge has some
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leeway in what sentence is actually
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handed down
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there are federal guidelines federal
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sentencing guidelines that provide a
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certain range
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and the judge is allowed to choose from
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within that range and the government
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states that because you cooperated with
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their investigation you should get a
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reduction in your sentence at the low
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end of the sentencing guideline range
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of course when you back out of a plea
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agreement like this
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the government no longer needs to say
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nice things about you and no longer
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needs to argue that you should get a
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reduction in your sentence and in fact
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they will do exactly the opposite
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instead the government will argue that
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because of your bad conduct
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you should get an enhancement in your
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sentence you should be at the high end
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of the range or
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if you engaged in new crimes then you
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can be sentenced to
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additional time that was not reflected
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in your original guilty plea
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so paul manafort is in a world of hurt
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manafort's breach of the plea agreement
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and lies to federal prosecutors may be
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related to a report coming out of the
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uk's guardian newspaper
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which reports that paul manafort met
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extensively with julian assange of
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wikileaks
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before the 2016 election if that is
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proved to be true that could have huge
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implications for the conspiracy and
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collusion investigation that's going on
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on top of that there is yet another
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bombshell that reports that while
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manafort was acting
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as a cooperating witness with the
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mueller team both manafort
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and his attorneys were passing secret
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information
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to president trump and the other trump
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campaign defendants
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this is a huge bombshell
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generally speaking if you talk to your
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lawyer those communications are
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protected by
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attorney-client privilege no surprise
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there if you talk to
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a third party who is not your attorney
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the general rule is
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there is no attorney-client privilege
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whatsoever those communications are not
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privileged and they are discoverable
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however when you have multiple
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defendants on one side
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often they share what's called a common
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interest which means that
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what's good for one defendant is also
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good for the other defendants and as a
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result
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it's very favorable to be able to share
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information
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among different defendants and their
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lawyers and you wouldn't want to share
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that information if it breached
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attorney-client privilege and those
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communications
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were exposed so the court recognizes
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what's called a
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common interest doctrine which allows
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those defendants to communicate back and
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forth
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to do that you have to sign what's
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called a joint defense agreement which
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basically just codifies that
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relationship
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and allows communications to go back and
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forth however the wrinkle comes
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when one of those defendants no longer
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shares a common interest with the other
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defendants
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when one of those defendants enters into
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a plea agreement
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that defendant's interests are no longer
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aligned with the other defendants the
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other defendants presumably want to
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fight the case and want to be proven
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innocent whereas the defendant who has
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pled guilty
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wants a reduction in sentence and wants
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to make the prosecution's case as easy
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as possible
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so in that circumstance those defendants
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are no longer
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in the same common interest so what
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generally happens is that when
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one defendant pleads out they remove
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themselves from the joint defense
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agreement so that their communications
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are not
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exposed and discoverable and the other
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defendants communications are no longer
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exposed and discoverable
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but apparently that did not happen here
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even after manafort entered into his
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plea agreement
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was a cooperating witness with the
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mueller team and had pled guilty
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to the crimes alleged in the district of
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columbia
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case he was still part of the joint
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defense agreement with the rest of the
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trump team
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that means that the communications that
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any of the trump lawyers and trump
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defendants
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had with manafort or his attorneys while
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under the guise of this joint defense
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agreement are no longer
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protected if those communications and
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that work product is no longer protected
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by the joint defense agreement and no
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longer protected by
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the attorney-client privilege then they
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are discoverable
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if i was one of mueller's investigators
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i would simply send a written request
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over
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to not only paul manafort's lawyers but
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to all of the trump defendant lawyers
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demanding that they turn over any
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communications and any work product that
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was shared amongst themselves
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while paul manafort was a cooperating
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witness because paul manafort doesn't
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have the same interests as the rest of
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the defendants and potential defendants
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in this investigation
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the common interest doctrine doesn't
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apply and the joint defense agreement
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can't protect
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all of their communications and their
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work product not only does this have
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malpractice written all over it if the
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clients weren't apprised of the fact
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that they could be subject to these
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disclosures as a result of these secret
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communications
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but on top of that i don't think that
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paul manafort's lawyers are really going
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to be able to practice in federal court
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anymore
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because no prosecutor would ever trust
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them
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to keep the terms of a plea agreement
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secret and if you can't negotiate
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with the government then your value as a
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federal criminal defense lawyer is
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really going to plummet
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so why would someone do this well a lot
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of people are speculating that paul
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manafort is angling for a presidential
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pardon and
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that may be true there are two schools
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of thought here
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the first is that paul manafort thinks
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he is the smartest guy
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in the room and he can beat the federal
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prosecutors it's not uncommon for
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criminals to think that they are smarter
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than they are and smarter than the
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prosecutors who are going to put them in
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jail
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especially when it comes to white-collar
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criminals like paul manafort who are
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used to getting away with serving the
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law and beating regulators
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so it may be that manafort just thinks
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he can get away with it he
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lied his way into the situation and he
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can lie his way out of this situation
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we'll see the second school of thought
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on this is that manafort is angling for
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a presidential pardon
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if he works with mueller he can get a
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reduction in sentence but the theory is
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that if he works with president trump
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who can pardon him he can avoid jail all
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together
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that could be but there are some
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problems with that because remember
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manafort has been charged in both
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virginia and dc
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and there have been credible reports
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that manafort is guilty of all kinds of
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crimes in new york
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as well and the problem for manafort is
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that a lot of the same
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conduct for which he has already pled
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guilty
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could give rise to state-level charges
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specifically
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in the case of virginia and new york he
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could be convicted of
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tax fraud and remember a presidential
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pardon
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can only pardon federal crimes which
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would still leave manafort
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on the hook for any state law crimes on
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top of that the mueller team is probably
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going to retry manafort on all of the
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crimes for which the jury hung
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in virginia and they will argue for an
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enhancement of sentencing
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for the crimes that manafort has already
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pled guilty
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in the latest status report the mueller
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team has promised to lay out
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all of manafort's lies and failures to
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cooperate in great detail it's going to
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be fascinating to read that document we
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don't have those details right now
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but they're going to argue for a
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sentence enhancement but the bottom line
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is that paul manafort is going to spend
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a long time in either federal or state
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prison
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of course he could put that time to good
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use by learning a new skill like
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learning how to draw he could take
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classes on how to draw comic book
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characters by robert marzullo on
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skillshare
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in fact he could learn how to draw a
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whole comic about a guy named super paul
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who
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resides in the mana fortress skillshare
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is an online learning community that has
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over 20 000 classes on
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everything like design technology
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business you name it
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and the first 500 legal eagles to click
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on the link below will get two free
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months of skillshare
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just by clicking the link the free
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premium membership gives you unlimited
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access to must-know topics
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so you can improve your skills and learn
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new things
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just like paul manafort will when he
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goes to prison
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so click on the link and start learning
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today and until next time
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i'll see you in court
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