Trump-Manafort agreement raises legal issues

confirmed Wednesday that the president has been briefed on occasion by Manafort’s lawyers about his cooperation with Mueller. Manafort entered into a plea deal with Mueller in September.

“They share with me the things that pertain to our part of the case,” Giuliani said.

Former federal prosecutors say the communications could amount to obstruction of justice if Manafort’s side disclosed information he learned from the special counsel.

Experts said Trump’s legal team may have committed witness tampering if it discussed a pardon for Manafort in exchange for his feeding information. Neither Trump nor Giuliani has ruled out a pardon.

“If the whole purpose was to undermine the Mueller investigation and that was proven in some way, then that would be a violation of law,” Renato Mariotti, a former federal prosecutor in Illinois, said.

On the joint defense agreement, Mimi Rocah, a former federal prosecutor for the Southern District of New York, tweeted: “I saw this conduct in Mafia cases.”

Experts said the pact ceased to be valid once Manafort agreed to cooperate with Mueller, as Manafort’s legal interests were by then no longer aligned with Trump.

Meanwhile, Trump told the New York Post that the Russia probe is akin to McCarthyism.