'Mueller has never stopped working': CNN panel expects 'forthcoming indictments' from special counsel soon

Special counsel Robert Mueller's office has been very quiet ever since it secured the guilty plea of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort -- but a CNN panel on Thursday predicted that wouldn't last much longer.

While discussing what they expect from the Mueller probe after the 2018 midterm elections, the panel noted that Manafort and his attorneys have met with Mueller's team on nine separate occasions in the last month alone, which indicates that he is delivering a significant quantity of information.

CNN legal analyst Laura Coates explained that the nine meetings were a very high number for Manafort to have with Mueller's team because it was very unlikely that he was giving more information on the crimes for which he'd already been convicted.

"Up to that point, they've already been able to build a case against him for two trials," she said. "Now they need to have nine additional meetings with him, in addition to what they already know about him from trials? What do they want to know? It's not about his own personal legality, of course, it would be about things involving other people."

Coates also said that, based on everything she's seen, "there certainly are forthcoming indictments."

New York Times columnist Frank Bruni agreed that something is definitely up with Manafort meetings, and he said it was remarkable the way the special counsel's office has continued to plow ahead while the news cycle has been focused on the midterm elections and Brett Kavanaugh's Supreme Court confirmation.

"Mueller has never stopped working," he said. "While we've been looking in other directions, he has continued to chip away at this. Nine meetings? That's a really high number."

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