Ex-Trump manager lied to Russia probe
FORMER Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort intentionally lied to investigators and a federal grand jury in the special counsel’s Russia probe, a judge has ruled.
US District Judge Amy Berman Jackson’s decision was another loss for Manafort, a once-wealthy political consultant who now faces years in prison in two criminal cases brought in special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation.
The judge found that Manafort did mislead the FBI, prosecutors and a federal grand jury about his interactions with Konstantin Kilimnik, the codefendant who the FBI says has ties to Russian intelligence.
Mueller prosecutor Andrew Weissmann said one of the discussions at an August 2, 2016, meeting at the Grand Havana Room club in New York went to the “larger view of what we think is going on” and what “we think the motive here is.”
“This goes, I think, very much to the heart of what the Special Counsel’s Office is investigating,” Weissmann said
Kilimnik is believed to be in Moscow.
(AP)