Franklin, Andrews, Kramer & Edelstein

[BullNBear52]

Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s interest in former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort stemmed in part from his suspected role as a “back channel” between the campaign and Russians intent on meddling in the election, a Justice Department lawyer told a judge.

The disclosure by U.S. prosecutors came Thursday during a hearing on whether Mueller exceeded his authority in indicting Manafort on charges of laundering millions of dollars while acting as an unregistered agent of the Ukrainian government. Manafort’s lawyers say those alleged crimes have nothing to do with Mueller’s central mission -- to determine whether anyone in the Trump campaign had links to the Russian government.

Manafort had already screwed a couple of nefarious people out of millions with his side deals. His best hope of bailing himself out of those jams was for Trump to suck up to Putin and in the end for Putin to fix Manafort's problems.

Of course I could be wrong.