Special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia probe has been firing on all cylinders since late November — and looks poised to keep up the pace this week.
Key legal moves are scheduled in cases involving at least three central figures in the ongoing investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, potential collusion between Russia and Trump campaign and possible obstruction of justice by President Donald Trump.
The recent disclosures in Mueller's cases have intensified questions about whether House Democrats plan to draft articles of impeachment against Trump in the next Congress, whether the president might exercise his pardon power for some of Mueller's targets or even if he faces legal risks himself.
Here's what's coming up this week.
On Tuesday, attorneys for Trump's former campaign chairman Paul Manafort are scheduled to head to U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., where a federal judge is expected to hear defense lawyers respond to Mueller's accusation that Manafort breached the terms of his plea deal by lying to investigators.
Manafort, 69, signed that deal in September, admitting guilt on conspiracy charges stemming from work he did for a pro-Russia political party in Ukraine years earlier. The deal came less than a month after Manafort was convicted on eight criminal counts lodged by Mueller in a separate trial in Virginia federal court.
As part of the agreement, Manafort promised to fully and truthfully cooperate with the investigators. But in a late-night court filing Nov. 26, Mueller rescinded the deal, alleging that the former Trump campaign boss committed "crimes and lies" after signing the plea bargain. Manafort, however, said he had "provided truthful information," according to the filing.
In a heavily redacted submission to the docket Friday, Mueller laid out five different lies Manafort is alleged to have told. The alleged lies are related to: contacts with individuals in the Trump administration at the time they worked there; a meeting with suspected Russian spy Konstantin Kilimnik; a wire transfer to a firm working for Manafort; and incongruent information he told Justice Department investigators in another district.
Manafort's lawyers will have an opportunity to push back on the special counsel's allegations in court Tuesday at 3 p.m. ET before Judge Amy Berman Jackson. But Mueller already warned in the Friday filing that "if the defendant contends the government has not acted in good faith, the government is available to prove the false statements at a hearing."
Manafort's sentencing date is scheduled for March 5 next year.
Meanwhile, Trump recently said in a New York Post interview that he "wouldn't take" a possible pardon for Manafort "off the table."
Trump in that interview said that Manafort, as well as two other people in Mueller's sights, were "very brave" and claimed Mueller has pressured them to lie.
A day after Manafort's hearing, another Trump-related figure will appear in court to face sentencing on charges brought by both Mueller and federal prosecutors in New York: Trump's former personal lawyer, Michael Cohen.
In August, Cohen pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Manhattan to campaign-finance charges brought by the federal prosecutors; in late November, he returned to the same courthouse to admit to a charge of lying to Congress brought by Mueller.
Lawyers for Cohen had asked Judge William Pauley not to send him to jail for his crimes. They argued that Cohen's cooperation with investigators demonstrated his decision to change his life for the sake of his country and family.
But that argument received a blistering rebuke from federal prosecutors in their sentencing memo Friday. They called for the judge to impose a "substantial term of imprisonment" on Cohen, citing guidelines of 51 to 63 months in prison.
Cohen's crimes, specifically his involvement in payments made in 2016 to two women who claim they had affairs with Trump, were intended "to influence the election from the shadows," prosecutors said.
They added: "He did so by orchestrating secret and illegal payments to silence two women who otherwise would have made public their alleged extramarital affairs" with Trump, who is referred to as "Individual-1." The White House denies the allegations.
Cohen's sentencing hearing is scheduled for Wednesday at 11 a.m. ET.
The special counsel's office took a softer tone in its sentencing document filed minutes later.
Cohen, 52, had given the special counsel "relevant and useful information" about contacts with people connected to the White House, that filing. He also gave Mueller "information about attempts by other Russian nationals" to contact the Trump campaign as far back as November 2015.
The special counsel did not provide a suggested sentence for Cohen's charge of lying to Congress about a proposal to build a Trump Tower development in Moscow. But they added that any sentence should be concurrent with the charges brought by federal prosecutors in New York. Cohen's discussions about that project had continued as late as June 2016, Mueller wrote in a previous court document – six months after Cohen told U.S. lawmakers that the project had ended.
Court deadlines in the case of Trump's former national security advisor Michael Flynn are also coming due this week.
Mueller said in a court filing in D.C. federal court last week that Flynn's "substantial assistance" over 19 interviews with Mueller's team and Justice Department attorneys warrants a light criminal sentence, and possibly no jail time at all.
Flynn, 60, pleaded guilty in December 2017 to Mueller's charge that he lied to the FBI about his contacts with then-Russian ambassador to the U.S., Sergey Kislyak. Flynn spoke to Kislyak during the presidential transition period about sanctions imposed on Russia by President Barack Obama in December 2016, in retaliation for that country's attempts to interfere in the presidential election.
Flynn's attorneys will file their sentencing document on Tuesday, giving Mueller until Friday to respond. Flynn's sentencing date is set for next Tuesday, Dec. 18.
Outside of the charges lodged by the special counsel, other Russia- and Mueller-related cases loom large.
On Sunday night, right-wing conspiracy theorist Jerome Corsi filed a federal lawsuit in D.C. accusing the special counsel of illegally searching his phone records and leaking grand jury information. He is demanding damages totaling $350 million from Mueller and a handful of other agencies, including the CIA and the FBI.
Corsi, 72, recently said he had rejected a plea deal offer from Mueller's team. He has claimed that investigators tried to coerce him into lying about his knowledge of whistleblower site WikiLeaks during the 2016 election. The site, led by Julian Assange, published thousands of Democratic National Committee emails that U.S. intelligence officials have concluded were stolen by Russian sources.
Corsi has denied that he knew ahead of time about WikiLeaks' plans to publish the emails.
A draft court filing, which was reportedly prepared by Mueller's team before plea deal negotiations with Corsi were scrapped, showed emails sent by Corsi to longtime Trump confidant and Infowars colleague Roger Stone about WikiLeaks.
On Monday, gun activist and alleged Russian agent Maria Butina filed a joint motion with federal prosecutors to change her not-guilty plea in her ongoing case.
A plea agreement hearing has been set in D.C. federal court for 3:15 p.m. ET on Wednesday.
Butina, 30, is charged with conspiracy and failing to register as a foreign agent. She is a accused of plotting with her former boss to infiltrate American political organizations, including the National Rifle Association, to promote Russia's agenda.
--CNBC's Dan Mangan contributed to this report.
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