Paul Manafort’s Sentencing Isn’t a Moment of Closure

Updated on March 7 at 7:06 p.m. ET

What did Robert Mueller want from Paul Manafort? Last September, the special counsel cut a deal with the former chair of Donald Trump’s campaign: If Manafort truthfully provided guidance to prosecutors, they would suggest a less onerous sentence for his crimes. There was a clear assumption in the trade, that Mueller believed Manafort had information valuable to his broader investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election. In the months that followed the deal, Manafort became a regular visitor to Mueller’s office, often sitting for six hours at a time.

But Manafort proved to be the archetype of the unreliable witness. Last month, U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson, who had initially approved Manafort’s plea agreement, accused him of a pattern of “withholding facts if he can get away with it.” With his