MSS W media.

This week Special Counsel Robert Mueller

told a federal judge that former Trump campaign chair

Paul Manafort repeatedly lied to Mueller and the FBI and that as a result

Mueller was voiding Manifort's cooperation deal.

Then the British newspaper The Guardian reported

that Manifort secretly met with WikiLeaks leader Julian Assange three times. The last visit was it was in early

the last visit was in early 2016 in the midst of the presidential race

and mere months before WikiLeaks released hacked Democratic emails.

What does this mean for Paul Manafort, Robert Mueller, and the Trump presidency, let's get on topic. Welcome to On Topic, a weekly in-depth look at a topic that helps us understand the week's news.

My name is Renato Mariati. I'm a former federal prosecutor, a

practicing lawyer, and a CNN legal analyst. And I'm joined by my friend Patty

Vasquez, a WG on radio host who will join us regularly on this podcast.

So Patty, I have to say this week is a lot busier than I thought it would be but for a different reason. I anticipated

when we saw that initial status report a week ago from Mueller and the defense in Manafort's case that Manafort we had been

cooperating that we'd see indictment soon as the result of his

cooperation. It seemed very tidy. There you go I thought things for

proceeding on one road and while we've been dealt such a curveball and and for that reason I am so

Fortunate and honored that we are able to bring back Joyce Vance who is you know one of our first return guests on this

podcast Joyce is the former United States attorney head federal prosecutor in the Northern District of Georgia.

She's an MS NBC legal analyst.

I really enjoy listening and reading her commentary both on MS NBC and in Twitter and elsewhere.

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