New obstruction charges filed against Manafort in Mueller’s Russia probe
>> WASHINGTON: Special counsel Robert Mueller has brought new obstruction charges against President Donald Trump’s campaign chairman and a long-time associate who prosecutors have said has ties to Russian intelligence.
The indictment was unsealed on Friday against Paul Manafort and Konstantin Kilimnik just days after prosecutors accused the two men of attempting to tamper with witnesses as Mr Manafort awaits trial on charges related to his foreign lobbying work.
The latest charges increase Mr Manafort’s legal jeopardy if he continues an aggressive battle with prosecutors, and could be an effort by Mr Mueller to induce a guilty plea and secure the testimony of a critical campaign adviser to Mr Trump. They also come as Mr Trump and his attorney, Rudy Giuliani, have heaped public criticism on the Mueller investigation in an attempt to undermine it.
The charges do not relate to Mr Manafort’s work on the Trump campaign or involve allegations of Russian election interference, a fact that the president has routinely noted as he tried to distance himself from his former top campaign adviser.
On Friday, Mr Trump also dismissed any talk of pardoning Mr Manafort or his longtime personal attorney, Michael Cohen, who is under investigation by federal prosecutors in New York. “They haven’t been convicted of anything. There’s nothing to pardon. It is far too early to be thinking about it,’’ Mr Trump told reporters.
The new indictment charges Messrs Manafort and Kilimnik with obstruction of justice and conspiracy to obstruct justice related to contacts they had with two witnesses earlier this year.
The witnesses, who had worked with Mr Manafort as he represented a pro-Russian political party in Ukraine, have told the FBI that they believed the pair were were trying to get them to lie about the nature of their work.
The charges mark the second time since his October indictment that Mr Manafort has faced additional criminal charges.
Mr Manafort, 69, has maintained his innocence. His spokesman, Jason Maloni, said on Friday that Mr Manafort and his attorneys were reviewing the new charges.
Mr Kilimnik, 48, has previously declined to comment on the allegations and denied being connected to Russian intelligence agencies.
The new charges will factor heavily into whether US District Judge Amy Berman Jackson allows Mr Manafort to remain on house arrest. Critics want her to put him in jail as he awaits trial.
In a filing on Friday night, Mr Manafort’s lawyers called the allegations “dubious.’’
They said prosecutors had conjured a “sinister plot’’ in accusing him of witness tampering and said most of the communication cited by Mr Mueller’s team are “irrelevant, innocuous and unsupportive’’ of the government’s accusation.
A hearing is set for next week.