NEW YORK _ Paul Manafort's uphill legal battle seems to be getting steeper.
A guilty plea by Manafort's former protege, Rick Gates, and a mound of new charges could spell disaster for the former Trump campaign chair's defense in a towering money laundering case.
Legal experts told the New York Daily News that developments in the last week could nudge the 68-year-old veteran lobbyist to make his own deal with the government, but even that could spell danger for Manafort.
Gates' plea and the new indictments "just put a lot more pressure on him to seek a plea deal himself," said Rebecca Roiphe, a former Manhattan prosecutor and now a professor at New York Law School.
Special counsel Robert Mueller's team hit Manafort and Gates with a 32-count indictment in northern Virginia last Thursday, accusing them of manipulating tax and bank documents.
Both were charged in an elaborate offshore money laundering scheme last year in Washington, D.C.
Gates pleaded guilty Friday as part of a deal with the Mueller probe, which will "make it much more difficult for him (Manafort) to try to fight this indictment," Roiphe said.
Manafort has denied wrongdoing, and has indicated he'll take the charges to a jury.
The fact that Manafort faces a two-front legal battle in Washington, D.C., and northern Virginia could potentially exhaust his efforts, said Seth Abramson, a University of New Hampshire law professor and vocal critic of President Donald Trump who's opined on his campaign's suspected collusion with Russia.
"Now that Manafort's alleged co-conspirator is working alongside Bob Mueller, Manafort's own chances for acquittal appear remote," Abramson said via email.
That's because federal prosecutors now have a human source in Gates, the legal experts said, who can guide them through the elaborate paper trails investigators have built.
"It seems like they have a very strong case," Roiphe said. "If I were him or I were his lawyers, I would be looking at a plea deal."
An agreement with Mueller is one of three options Manafort has at this point, Abramson said.
He could also hold out for a pardon from Trump, the law professor said, "or go to trial, lose, and spend what would likely be the rest of his life in federal prison."
"None of those options are palatable, especially as it's not clear Mr. Trump can politically afford a pardon of Manafort or will necessarily be in a position to grant one in a year's time," he said.
Trump's lawyers have maintained they've been cooperative with Mueller's probe, and pointed out Manafort's charges are outside his work for the campaign.
His supporters have pointed out that most of the cooperators in the probe have pleaded guilty to misleading the FBI, which might potentially harm their credibility as a witness.
White House senior adviser and first daughter Ivanka Trump, in an NBC News interview that aired Monday, insisted her father would walk away exonerated in the probe.
"There was no collusion," she said. "And we believe that Mueller will do his work and reach that same conclusion."
Kevin Downing, a Manafort lawyer, didn't immediately return an emailed request for comment.
A potential deal between Mueller's investigators and Manafort's lawyers would also have to give substance to the special counsel's sweeping Russia probe, which is investigating possible collusion within the Trump campaign, the law professors said.
Federal prosecutors offered a tentative plea agreement with lobbyist Todd Howe, who's agreed to testify against New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo's former aide Joseph Percoco, but the deal would fall through if he was caught lying. He was arrested this month for admitting on the stand that he tried to swindle the Waldorf Astoria hotel, violating the terms of his plea deal.
"It is very similar to what's going on in the Percoco trial," Roiphe said.
An agreement could also involve a lot of bartering, "during which Manafort will publicly assert his innocence all the while," Abramson said.
"To get the best deal, Manafort and his attorneys must do everything possible to convince Mueller that Manafort intends to take this to a jury," he continued.
A Manafort plea would likely have to involve a protection guarantee, given Manafort's past dealings with overseas clients.
Roiphe said it's "a little less likely his life would be at stake," however, because the case is so heavily in the public spotlight.
Yet some of those clients were also close with Russian President Vladimir Putin and could view his cooperation as a slight, said William Browder, a London-based hedge fund manager who previously worked in Moscow.
"Manafort is not a Russian ... but he was part of their inner circle," said Browder, who was ousted from the country after clashing with Putin. "Those people view betrayal as the ultimate sin, and are merciless with people who they believe have betrayed them."
While Manafort might not face any dangers under house arrest, he added, going to prison is dangerous unless he's in solitary confinement.
Retribution, Browder said, might be "anything up to and including murder."
