FRUITFUL ROLL-UPS:

Paul Manafort vowed he'd never flip on Donald Trump. After Manafort's conviction in federal court last month in Virginia, the president declared he had "such respect for a brave man!" because his former campaign chairman hadn't folded.

About three weeks later, Manafort broke.

The longtime GOP operative, who pleaded guilty Friday in a Washington D.C. federal courtroom days before he was set to go on trial, is now the third close Trump associate to reverse course and throw himself at the mercy of government prosecutors.

The surprise twist provided further evidence of the overwhelming power of special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation, before which a growing roster of defendants are finding resistance to be futile.

While Mueller passed up the opportunity for a public trial that would bring to light more proof of wrongdoing, legal experts say Manafort's plea agreement contained important new details that continue what has been a public education campaign of sorts by the special counsel.

"The Mueller team is the A team, for real," said Paul Rosenzweig, a senior fellow at the nonprofit R Street Institute and a former senior counsel to independent counsel Kenneth Starr. "And they are using a series of speaking indictments to, in effect, file their final report."

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