President Donald Trump should be "very, very worried" at the news that his former campaign aide, Paul Manafort, is cooperating with special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation, as the deal is "bulletproof" from a presidential pardon, Fox News judicial analyst Judge Andrew Napolitano said Monday.
"I've never seen this before," Napolitano told Fox Business' "Varney and Company."
"When Paul Manafort pleaded guilty to two crimes, witness tampering and conspiracy to defraud the government, basically not paying taxes, he also admitted to 18 other crimes."
Many of those were federal crimes, or all state crimes, said Napolitano, making it "bulletproof" from being shot down by a pardon.
"If President Trump were to pardon Paul Manafort, to prevent him from spilling the beans against the president to Bob Mueller, he would be immediately indicted by the attorneys general, appropriate authorities in the four states where the bank fraud occurred," Napolitano said of Manafort. "This is part of the Mueller method of operating."
Last Friday, Manafort pleaded guilty to two federal crimes after he made a deal with prosecutors and agreed to cooperate with Mueller's Russia probe, allowing him to avoid a second criminal trial.
Last month, Manafort was convicted of eight financial crimes during a trial in Virginia, and faces 7-10 years in prison in that case.
Prosecutor Andrew Weissmann said Manafort will plead guilty to charges related to his Ukrainian political consulting work.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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