Fox News’s Judge Napolitano Explains How Manafort Is Screwed Because His Plea Deal Is Pardon Proof

Napolitano

If Paul Manafort seriously thought that he would be saved by a pardon from President Donald Trump, he was seriously wrong because Special Counsel Robert Mueller made his plea deal pardon proof, as Fox News legal analyst Andrew Napolitano explained on Tuesday.

Earlier in the day, Mueller’s team accused Manafort of violating the plea deal he signed by lying. If a judge rules that Manafort did, indeed, lie to federal prosecutors his deal would go out the window and he could end up in prison for a very long time.

Napolitano told Fox anchor Shep Smith that there will now be a “mini trial” to determine Manafort’s guilt. Manafort will have to answer questions, some of which could be damaging to Trump, who threw a temper tantrum aimed at Mueller and the Russia investigation as soon as he realized the legal peril Manafort is now in.

Of course, Trump could pardon Manafort for his federal crimes, but he’s still screwed because Mueller crafted a plea deal that brilliantly includes admissions of guilt to state crimes, which makes the deal pardon proof because the president cannot pardon someone who commits state crimes.

“The guilty plea is 175 pages long. In my career, I have never seen one like this,” Napolitano marveled. “It was so carefully crafted by Bob Mueller and signed by Paul Manafort, that at the time he pleaded guilty to the charges he was indicted for — which was basically bank fraud, money laundering, and some form of commercial bribery of foreign officials in federal court. He also pleaded guilty to uncharged state crimes in New Jersey, in Virginia and in California. Why did they do that? To make it pardon proof so if President Trump, which he can do, does pardon him for the federal crimes the state prosecutors in those states already have his guilty plea.”

Oops. Now Manafort is forced to tell prosecutors what he knows if he ever wants to see his family outside of prison walls again. And that could include ratting out Trump, which would cripple his presidency and his legal defense.

Here’s the video via Twitter.

This is the reason why Trump has been desperately attacking Mueller in recent days. He knows Manafort could potentially sink his presidency with what he knows, and he could certainly doom Donald Trump Jr. because he was with him during a Trump Tower meeting with Russian agents in June 2016. Manafort may even be able to tell us if Trump himself knew about his son’s activities. This could be the biggest domino to fall yet in this investigation, and it’s all because Mueller is running a tight ship and and has a much better grasp of the law than Trump does.

Featured Image: Screenshot