The power of a real threat of a lifetime in prison should not be underestimated to convince President Donald Trump's former campaign manager Paul Manafort to cooperate with special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation, Nick Akerman, former assistant special Watergate prosecutor, wrote in an opinion piece for NBC News on Wednesday.
Earlier this month, Mueller's office agreed with the probation department's guideline that Manafort should be sentenced to a prison term of between 19 to 24 years, meaning that for the 69-year-old Manafort it would essentially be a life sentence.
Akerman wrote the press has virtually ignored the possibility of Manafort cooperating due to this threat on the wrong assumption his "long trail of lies and duplicitous dealings with the government nullifies his ability to be an effective witness."
Ackerman stressed his experience as a prosecutor demonstrates this is not necessarily the case.
First of all, Ackerman points out it is not too late for Manafort to cooperate, because he has up to one year after his sentencing to ask the court for a reduction of sentence based on cooperation.
Although lying does not help a witness' credibility, Ackerman said that as a prosecutor he regularly won convictions with witnesses whose past crimes and lies did not preclude them from being effective witnesses and telling the truth.
This is because, he said, "The closeness of their relationships to the criminals they testified against made them insiders, with unique access and knowledge . . . and were able to describe in detail to juries the inner workings of those organizations."
Regarding the credibility of Manafort's testimony, Ackerman said much of what he says will also be able to be corroborated by more reliable sources.
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