It seems as if the Mueller investigation may actually finally be coming to a close.

explosive reporting this week revealed that former Trump campaign chair Paul Manifort

breached his plea deal with Special Counsel Robert Mueller for, according to Team

Mueller, crimes and lies about a variety of subject matters and his cooperation has now

ended as well as his deal to avoid significant jail time.

Manifort is widely seen as the key witness, someone who has a lot on the line in

this investigation, so why risk life behind bars? What does Robert Mueller know and what is Paul

Manifort lying about? Has President Trump assured Manifort a pardon?

Will he issue one? Are we headed toward a constitutional crisis?

This is Radio Atlantic. Hello listeners it's Alex Wagner. Today we are going to get into the micro

and macro of this week's news in and around the Mueller investigation. Later in the episode we will get to the big picture with someone who knows well the inside of the White House Council's office.

But first, our staff writer Natasha Bertrand national security, and in particular, the Mueller

investigation.

It is a great pleasure to have the tenacious and brilliant Natasha Bertrand on this

podcast.

Thanks so much for having me, Alex. So this has been I mean every week where there is news pertaining to the

Mueller investigation feels seismic but this feels monumental in terms of the developments of the week.

Let's just start first with the fact that on Monday, court filing a status report

revealed that prosecutors

that Paul Manafort has lied and committed crimes unspecified in breach of the

plea agreement he signed with investigators two months ago. Do we know when we're

going to get a full accounting of these alleged lies on the part of Manifort and

...