Paul Manafort provided advice to Trump and senior White House officials on how to undermine and discredit the FBI’s investigation into whether Trump, his campaign aides, and family members conspired with Russia during the 2016 presidential campaign. vox.com/2018/12/14/181…
Manafort and Trump were working together to discredit the investigators as well as potential witnesses. 
Manafort advised Trump and his political surrogates to more aggressively and directly attack the FBI and other elements of the federal law enforcement apparatus investigating his administration.
Manafort also advised a senior administration official, through an intermediary, to attack the Justice Department, the FBI, and Obama administration officials for seeking FISA warrants to eavesdrop on Manafort and a second campaign aide to Trump, Carter Page.
Manafort counseled the White House to allege — albeit with no evidence to back up said charges — that the pro-Western Ukrainian government had colluded with the Democratic National Committee to try to help Hillary Clinton win the 2016 presidential election.
Manafort provided information to the White House as to how to discredit the so-called Steele dossier. Manafort provided background to the White House’s attorneys about specific allegations and information in the dossier that he said was suspect.
Manafort’s contacts with the W.H. continued even after his cooperation with Mueller. Manafort’s defense attorneys were secretly providing details of their client’s cooperation to Trump’s legal team, in an effort to undermine the investigation or perhaps win a pardon from Trump.
Of obvious interest to the special counsel is whether others, most notably White House officials, conspired with Manafort to lie, mislead investigators, and possibly obstruct justice, and what, specifically, Trump knew about all of this.
