Washington, US President Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman Paul Manafort had sought a plea deal before his trial in a federal court next month, but the talks stalled over issues raised by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, a media report said.
Manafort was found guilty on August 21 in a separate trial in Virginia federal court on eight counts of financial crimes, including tax fraud, bank fraud and hiding foreign bank accounts, CNN quoted The Wall Street Journal as saying on Monday.
He faces a second set of criminal charges next month in Washington of failure to register his foreign lobbying and money laundering conspiracy.
The talks between the defence and prosecutors occurred last week as the Virginia jury was deliberating, sources told The Journal.
The daily said it was unclear what issues Mueller raised or what terms for a potential plea might have been proposed.
The second trial is scheduled to begin on September 17 and is also related to Manafort’s political consulting work in Ukraine.
Mueller’s office has almost three times as many exhibits it wants to show a jury as it did in the Virginia case, indicating how expansive the special counsel’s investigation of Manafort has been.
