Paul Manafort’s defense team had talks with prosecutors to resolve a second set of charges against the former Trump campaign chairman just days before his conviction, but didn’t reach a deal, The Wall Street Journal reported.
The talks were aimed at forestalling a second, related trial for Manafort to open Sept. 17 in Washington, the Journal reported.
The Journal, citing unnamed sources, said the talks took place as a Virginia jury huddled to deliberate tax and bank fraud charges against Manafort. That jury convicted the former Trump campaign chairman of tax and bank fraud.
But the negotiations stalled over issues raised by special counsel Robert Mueller, the Journal reported, adding neither the issues raised nor the terms of the plea deal were clear.
According to the Journal, the talks, however, were a softening in the position of Manafort, who’s fought Mueller’s 15-month investigation “longer and more aggressively” than other defendants in the Mueller probe.
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