White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders quickly responded to former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort Paul John ManafortOur Constitution is under attack by Attorney General William Barr Bannon trial date set in alleged border wall scam Conspicuous by their absence from the Republican Convention MORE’s plea deal with special counsel Robert Mueller Robert (Bob) MuellerCNN's Toobin warns McCabe is in 'perilous condition' with emboldened Trump CNN anchor rips Trump over Stone while evoking Clinton-Lynch tarmac meeting The Hill's 12:30 Report: New Hampshire fallout MORE, saying Friday it was “unrelated” to President Trump Donald John TrumpBiden on Trump's refusal to commit to peaceful transfer of power: 'What country are we in?' Romney: 'Unthinkable and unacceptable' to not commit to peaceful transition of power Two Louisville police officers shot amid Breonna Taylor grand jury protests MORE’s 2016 campaign.

"This had absolutely nothing to do with the president or his victorious 2016 presidential campaign,” Sanders said in a statement. “It is totally unrelated.”

Manafort pleaded guilty to two charges from Mueller on Friday, and reached a cooperation agreement as part of the deal.

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He pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy against the United States and one count of conspiracy to obstruct justice by witness tampering.

Trump has often claimed that Mueller's investigation into possible collusion between his 2016 campaign and Russia is a "witch hunt."

The White House has previously said that Mueller's charges against Manafort are unrelated to the Trump campaign or to the president.

Trump last month called Manafort a "good person" after the businessman was convicted on eight counts of bank and tax fraud, but told reporters that the convictions had "nothing to do with Russian collusion."

"Doesn’t involve me but I still feel, you know, it’s a very sad thing that happened," the president said at the time. "This has nothing to do [with] what they started out looking for, Russians involved in our campaign. There were none."