Manafort lied to Mueller on Russia link, judge rules
SAYS FORMER TRUMP AIDE BREACHED PLEA DEAL BY MAKING FALSE STATEMENTS
US President Donald Trump’s former presidential campaign chairman Paul Manafort lied about his interactions with an alleged Russian intelligence operative even after agreeing to cooperate with Robert Mueller’s inquiry, a judge ruled on Wednesday.
Manafort was found to have breached his plea deal by making false statements to the special counsel’s team, the FBI and a grand jury about his dealings with Konstantin Kilimnik.
The finding means that Mueller’s team is no longer obliged to endorse the lighter punishment that Manafort was promised for his crimes when he agreed to cooperate with investigators and tell them the truth. Manafort denied lying.
Judge Amy Berman Jackson issued the order on Wednesday evening at the federal court in Washington DC.
Jackson said Mueller’s team had established that Manafort lied about three disputed issues — his interactions with Kilimnik, a payment he took from a pro-Trump campaign group and another investigation that has not been identified.
She said Mueller’s team had failed to establish that Manafort lied on two other subjects — his recent contacts with Trump administration officials, and Kilimnik’s role in a conspiracy to obstruct justice for which they were both indicted.
Mueller is investigating Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential election, which US intelligence agencies concluded was aimed at boosting Trump’s bid for the White House, and any coordination between Russian operatives and Trump’s team.
Manafort, 69, was accused by Mueller of lying about the fact he had shared polling data on the 2016 election with Kilimnik, a former colleague on election campaigns for pro-Kremlin politicians in eastern Europe. Special counsel Robert Mueller is looking into whether the Trump campaign coordinated with Russia and whether the president obstructed the investigation. Trump also plays a central role in a separate case in New York, where prosecutors have implicated him in a crime. They say Trump directed his personal lawyer Michael Cohen to make illegal hush-money payments to two women as a way to quash potential sex scandals during the campaign.
Paul Manafort lost his bid to shrug off prosecutors’ claims that he intentionally lied to investigators and a federal grand jury in the Russia probe.
US District Judge Amy Berman Jackson’s ruling Wednesday mostly sided with prosecutors, a decision that hurts Manafort’s chance of receiving a reduced sentence, though Jackson said she would decide the exact impact during his sentencing next month. Jackson found there was sufficient evidence to say Manafort broke
Manafort is also said to have misled investigators about plans that he and Kilimnik were developing for a settlement relating to Russia’s aggressive actions in Ukraine. Kilimnik, 48, trained at a university connected to Russia’s military intelligence agency, formerly known as the GRU, ■
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What’s it all about?
the terms of his plea agreement by lying about three of five matters that prosecutors had singled out. The ruling was largely a rejection of Manafort’s attorneys’ argument that he had forgotten some details until his memory was refreshed.
There is no smoking gun when it comes to the question of Russia collusion. But which allegedly spearheaded the Kremlin’s effort to disrupt the US election in 2016.
Mueller has also previously said that Rick Gates, Manafort’s deputy on the Trump campaign, described Kilimnik as “a former Russian intelligence officer with the GRU”.
The special counsel moved the evidence so far shows that a broad range of Trump associates had Russiarelated contacts during the 2016 presidential campaign and transition period, and several lied about the communication.
There is evidence that some people in Trump’s orbit were discussing a possible email dump from WikiLeaks before it occurred. to tear up Manafort’s plea deal in November, alleging that the former campaign chairman had breached the agreement by continuing to lie. Mueller said the lies amounted to new crimes.
Manafort was known to have met Kilimnik twice during 2016. He passed the polling data to Kilimnik during an August meeting in New York, according to investigators. Mueller’s team also found Manafort met Kilimnik in Spain during 2017.
Manafort’s attorneys did not deny that Manafort gave Kilimnik the polling data, instead stating that he had not lied about it but was merely “unable to recall specific details before having his recollection refreshed”.