AP’s Julie Pace: It’s ‘Unknown’ What Manafort Cold Tell Mueller and that Has the W.H. ‘Nervous’

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: He worked for me for a very short period of time, but you know what? He happens to be a very good person and I think it’s very sad what they’ve done to Paul Manafort.

KEVIN DOWNING, MANAFORT ATTORNEY: Tough day for Mr. Manafort, but he’s accepted responsibility. And he wanted to make sure that his family was able to remain safe and live a good life.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHRIS WALLACE, FOX NEWS HOST: Well, President Trump last month expressing support for his former campaign chairman and Manafort’s attorney on Friday explaining why his client took the plea deal, agreeing to cooperate with the special counsel.

And it’s time now for our Sunday group. GOP strategist Karl Rove, former Democratic Congresswoman Jane Harman, director of the Woodrow Wilson Center, Julie Pace, Washington bureau chief for The Associated Press, and author of “The Deep State,” former Republican Congressman Jason Chaffetz.

Well, Julie, Paul Manafort has long ties to pro-Russian Ukrainians. He was one of the people who attended the Trump Tower meeting in June of 2016. How significant, potentially, is his decision to cooperate with the special counsel, and how concerned are they in the White House by Manafort’s decision?

JULIE PACE, WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF, ASSOCIATED PRESS: I think there are a lot of unknowns here still. If we don’t know the extent of what Paul Manafort is going to be telling Bob Mueller. We don’t know what Mueller’s team is hoping to get out of Paul Manafort.

But it actually is that unknown that I think is really unnerving the White House, because despite what the president and a lot of his advisors say about Manafort playing just a small role in the campaign, he was the campaign chairman and he was there for a significant period of time, both during the Trump Tower meeting. And also, one thing that hasn’t gotten quite as much attention is he was there during the Republican convention when there was a change in language on the platform that related to Ukraine and Manafort was directly involved in it.

And so, the unknown, what he could tell Bob Mueller and what Bob Mueller is after in this deal with Paul Manafort is what does have the White House nervous right now.

WALLACE: And we should point out it’s not like Mueller just bought on speculation. The fact is to get a deal, lawyers have to offer something called a proffer, where they in effect say, if you were to give us a deal, here’s what our client would say. So, they —

PACE: Exactly. Bob Mueller knows what Paul Manafort can offer him. It’s the White House that doesn’t know. They’re the ones that are in the dark right now, but Bob Mueller would not have made this deal with Manafort presumably unless they thought there was some amount of information that would be helpful to their case.