That goes without saying but still doesn’t come close to getting to the crux of my lack of understanding. Why has Mueller chosen to announce this. Did Manafort ever cooperate or did he not and never intend to? And if he never intended to, why enter into a plea agreement.
What I’m saying is a whole lot of it does not make sense and Mueller has a tough road to hoe proving Manafort lies and having to prove it now that he has announced it.
It's very simple. Manafort went to the Trump Tower meeting. You know, the one with the Russian lawyer, oligarch, translator and others who Glenn Simpson met with the day before and the day after. That was Glenn Simpsons linchpin and it is now Mueller's (they are all on the same team). Manafort supposedly has notes about the meeting that the FBI siezed but they want him to say something else or something more or he said something that wasn't in the notes or something like that.
In short Mueller wants Manafort to lie and say that the meeting was about collusion with Russia to swing the election, maybe asking Russia to release emails they "stole" or something like that. Manafort is probably telling them truthfully that the meeting was a setup and about nothing particularly important.