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This week Paul Manafort, the former chair of Donald Trump's presidential campaign pleaded guilty

and agreed to flip and cooperate with Special Counsel Robert Mueller.

This was a significant victory for Mueller after a hard-fought

trial and conviction of Manafort in Virginia. It sends a clear signal that Mueller's investigation will not be over soon.

What does this mean for Mueller's investigation 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 and a CNN legal analyst

and I'm joined by my friend Patty Vasquez, a comedian and WGN radio host who will join us regularly on our podcast.

Hello, this is this crazy time. I know that you were surprised.

It seemed like many people are caught off guard by this announcement weren't they?

I was you know I was not surprised that Manafort was pleading guilty. I think

that was the obvious thing for Manafort to do. He was facing just overwhelming evidence but I was really surprised

that he was cooperating and flipping. I did not see that coming it was definitely a

major turn and strategy for him. Up until Friday that really seemed to me like, you know, he seemed to me like he had a strategy where he was angling for a pardon and then suddenly out of

nowhere, wow he's flipping. That was big news.

And who decides to make that announcement? Who makes that public that he's made that agreement?

So in the criminal case that Maniford had in the Washington, D.C. he had two cases.

One in Virginia, he went to trial and he lost on eight counts was convicted. In the DC case that was

coming up for trial and there he pleaded guilty and part of that that plea of

guilty was a plea agreement.

The plea agreement was made public, the revised charges were made public, and in that plea agreement

...