Prosecutors say Manafort broke plea deal with Mueller
WASHINGTON — Prosecutors with special counsel Robert Mueller said Monday that Paul Manafort breached his plea agreement, accusing President Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman of lying repeatedly to them in their investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.
Manafort denied doing so intentionally, but both sides agreed in a court filing that U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson of the District of Columbia should set sentencing immediately.
The apparent collapse of Manafort’s cooperation agreement is the latest turnaround in his case, exposing the longtime Republican consultant to at least a decade behind bars after he pleaded guilty in September to charges of cheating the Internal Revenue Service, violating foreign-lobbying laws and attempting to obstruct justice.
The filing also indicated that Mueller’s team may have lost its potentially most valuable witness in Manafort, a top campaign official present at discussions at the heart of the special counsel’s mission to determine if any Americans conspired with Russia’s efforts to sway the U.S. election.
Still, prosecutors may know more about Manafort’s interactions than he realized, allowing them to catch him in alleged lies.
Separately Monday, conservative author Jerome Corsi, who has ties to a longtime Trump adviser, said he rejected a deal offered by Mueller to plead guilty to one count of perjury because, he said, he did not intentionally lie to investigators.
It was not clear what the men already have told investigators or whether their lack of cooperation would mark a significant setback for Mueller’s investigation.
In interviews with CNN, NBC and other news organizations, Corsi said he was merely forgetful when investigators spent hours pressing him about his contacts with WikiLeaks, which released hacked Democratic emails during the 2016 campaign. He said that he does not want to plead guilty to intentionally lying.
Also on Monday, President Donald Trump sought to cast doubts about an expected report from Mueller, asking in a series of morning tweets why his team has not spoken with “hundreds of people” who saw no evidence of coordination with Russians during his 2016 campaign.
Trump also once again accused Mueller of having conflicts of interest, which he did not describe, and suggested his report should include recommendations about unspecified “crimes of many kinds” committed by Trump’s adversaries.
Corsi’s apparent rejection of a plea offer is the latest twist in a monthslong effort by Mueller’s team to secure the cooperation of the author and conspiracy theorist.
Corsi provided research during the 2016 White House race to Roger Stone, a longtime adviser to Donald Trump. For months, the special counsel has been scrutinizing Stone’s activities to determine whether he coordinated with WikiLeaks in its release of Democratic emails. Stone and WikiLeaks have repeatedly denied any such coordination.
Stone has said that Corsi also has a relationship with Trump, built on their shared interest in the falsehood that President Barack Obama was not born in the United States.
A spokesman for the special counsel declined to comment.
Meanwhile, former Trump campaign foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos began serving his two-week prison sentence Monday after a judge rejected his last-minute bid to remain free.