Tag: Paul Manafort

Manafort filing accidentally reveals damning evidence of collusion

Paul Manafort’s attorneys accidentally revealed that their client is accused of sharing polling data from the 2016 election with a Russian operative.

Lawyers for former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort have accidentally revealed information about their client that could provide the strongest evidence yet of direct coordination between the Trump campaign and Russia.

Due to an apparent filing error, Manafort’s lawyers let slip that special counsel Robert Mueller’s team has accused Manafort of sharing polling data from the 2016 presidential election with a Russian operative — while Manafort was working with the Trump campaign — and later lying to Mueller about it.

Manafort’s attorneys submitted a new court filing Monday in response to special counsel Robert Mueller’s allegation that Manafort broke his September 2018 plea agreement by lying to federal investigators.

View the complete January 8 article by Carolin Orr on the ShareBlue.com website here.

‘We have the umbilical cord’: Harvard Law professor explains Don Jr. and Jared Kushner are caught on collusion

President Donald Trump’s eldest child and namesake son, Donald Trump Jr., senior advisor and son-in-law Jared Kushner, and former Campaign Chairman Paul Manafort. Composite image

Constitutional expert Laurence Tribe — who has taught at Harvard Law for half a century — explained how Donald Trump Jr. allegedly violated federal law during the 2016 presidential campaign.

On MSNBC’s “The Beat” with Ari Melber, Tribe explained the significance to Tuesday’s bombshell reports that Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya was charged with obstruction of justiceand Paul Manafort’s attorneys inadvertently revealing how he mislead special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigators.

Tribe has argued before the Supreme Court three dozen times and is the co-author of the 2018 book To End a Presidency: The Power of Impeachment.

View the complete January 8 article by Bob Brigham on the Raw Story website here.

Manafort suspected of sharing polling data with associate linked to Russian intelligence

A major court filing error led to secret details of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort’s criminal case leaking out into the public sphere on Tuesday.

Defense attorneys filed a response contesting special counsel Robert Mueller’s allegations that Manafort lied to federal investigators on a variety of subjects, in breach of his plea agreement. But while portions of the filing were supposed to be redacted and shielded from the public, court watchers were able to view the filing in its entirety by copying and pasting the redacted sections.

The error resulted in Manafort’s attorneys disclosing that Mueller has accused Manafort of sharing polling data during the 2016 presidential campaign with Konstantin Kilimnik, a business associate who is suspected of ties to Russia’s military intelligence unit, the GRU.

Mueller says Manafort lied about contacts with Trump officials

Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort lied to prosecutors about his contacts with the White House and an associate with suspected ties to Russian intelligence, special counsel Robert Mueller‘s office said in a filing Friday.

The heavily redacted report filed in the criminal case against Manafort in Washington, D.C., comes more than a week after prosecutors accused the one-time Trump campaign chief of “committing federal crimes by lying to the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the special counsel’s office on a variety of subject matters” in breach of his plea agreement.

The report released Friday detailing those claims had been highly anticipated for its potential to shed light on Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election and possible collusion with the Trump campaign, an investigation that has been kept tightly under wraps.

View the complete December 7 article by Lydia Wheeler and Morgan Chalfant on The Hill website here.

Key Takeaways from the Manafort Filing

Here are key takeaways from Mueller’s Manafort filing tonight:

REMAINED IN CONTACT WITH SENIOR TRUMP OFFICIALS: Manafort lied about not having contact with anyone in the Trump administration, and actually remained in contact with at least one “senior” official into this year.

Mueller: “For instance, in a text exchange from May 26, 2018, Manafort authorized a person to speak with an Administration official on Manafort’s behalf. Separately, according to another Manafort colleague, Manafort said in February 2018 that Manafort had been in communication with a senior Administration official up through February 2018. A review of documents recovered from a search of Manafort’s electronic documents demonstrates additional contacts with Administration officials.”

Continue reading “Key Takeaways from the Manafort Filing”

Pardon Manafort — and Go to Jail

For more than a year, Donald Trump has dangled presidential pardons before former associates who might provide evidence against him. He teased such miscreants as Mike Flynn, his crooked national security adviser, and Michael Cohen, his bullying ex-lawyer. And today we know how blatantly he has been using that same enticement to lure his former campaign manager Paul Manafort to abandon a plea agreement with the special counsel.

While supposedly cooperating with Robert Mueller’s prosecution team, Manafort and his attorney were revealing to President Trump and his lawyers what questions the prosecutors were asking and how he had answered. In short, he acted as a spy for the White House.

Why would a man facing many years in prison accept such a grave risk during those months of conferring with the Trump lawyers unless he heard a powerful hint of a pardon?

View the complete November 28 article by Joe Conason on the Creators website here.

Trump makes clear that he is still considering a pardon for Paul Manafort — deepening his own legal peril

“Obstruction of justice out in the open.”

This week has been full of Paul Manafort-related bombshells. On Monday, November 26, the news broke that Special Counsel Robert Mueller was terminating Manafort’s plea deal because he had been lying repeatedly to federal investigators. And the following day, the New York Times reported that Manafort (President Donald Trump’s former campaign manager) had been funneling information on Mueller’s investigation to Trump’s attorneys—a major breach of the plea deal. But with Manafort now facing the possibility of spending the rest of his life in federal prison, Trump is not ruling out the possibility of a presidential pardon.

During a Nov. 28 Oval Office interview with the New York Post, Trump explained that a pardon for Manafort “was never discussed, but I wouldn’t take it off the table. Why would I take it off the table?”

Other reports have suggested that Trump has discussed the idea of pardoning Manafort.

View the complete November 28 article by Alex Henderson on the AlterNet.org website here.

Giuliani’s bizarre bragging about the Manafort-Trump alliance highlights new obstruction questions

This post has been updated.

The first two paragraphs of this New York Times story are remarkable enough: Despite Paul Manafort having agreed to cooperate with special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s Russia investigation, his lawyer, Kevin Downing, continued to brief President Trump’s legal team. That’s a highly unusual setup, and one that is generally frowned upon in legal circles.

The next two paragraphs, though, might take the cake. In them, Trump lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani practically brags about having pulled one over on Mueller by gleaning key information from the arrangement.

Via Times reporters Michael S. Schmidt, Sharon LaFraniere and Maggie Haberman: Continue reading “Giuliani’s bizarre bragging about the Manafort-Trump alliance highlights new obstruction questions”

Mueller says Manafort lied after pleading guilty, should be sentenced immediately

Special counsel Robert S. Mueller III said on Nov. 26 that former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort lied to investigators and breached his plea agreement. (Reuters)

Prosecutors with special counsel Robert S. Mueller III said Monday that Paul Manafort breached his plea agreement, accusing President 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 should set sentencing immediately.

The apparent collapse of Manafort’s cooperation agreement is the latest stunning 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.

View the complete November 26 article by Spencer S. Hsu, Rachel Weiner and Devlin Barrett on The Washington Post website here.

Want to Know More About: Paul Manafort Plea Deal Collapse?

Jeffery Toobin: President Trump “Is Telling Paul Manafort In Effect, Hang In There, You Don’t Have To Cooperate And You Don’t Have To Worry About Mueller Because You May Be Getting A Pardon Is Wildly, Wildly Inappropriate.” JEFFERY TOOBIN: “This is an incredibly inappropriate thing to say. Whether it’s actually an obstruction of justice or part of an impeachable offense, you know, that requires greater analysis and knowledge of the full facts but the fact that he [President Trump] is telling Paul Manafort in effect, hang in there, you don’t have to cooperate and you don’t have to worry about Mueller because you may be getting a pardon is wildly, wildly inappropriate.” [New Day, CNN, 11/29/18; Video]

Willie Geist: “Just Days After We Learned The Special Counsel Wants To Scrap Paul Manafort’s Plea Deal, President Trump Is Now Publicly Discussing A Possible Pardon For His Former Campaign Chairman.” WILLIE GEIST: “Let’s dive right in. Just days after we learned the special counsel wants to scrap Paul manafort’s plea deal, president trump is now publicly discussing a possible pardon for his former campaign chairman. In an oval office interview, president trump left open the possibility of a pardon telling the paper, it was never discussed, but I wouldn’t take it off the table. Why would I take it off the table?” [Morning Joe, MSNBC, 11/29/18; VIDEO]

Willie Geist: “The President Floating The Idea Of A Pardon When He Was Asked. He Said It’s Not Off The Table. That Has To Be Music To Paul Manafort’s Ears Who Is Now Without His Cooperation Deal.” WILLIE GEIST: “In that interview, the president criticized Robert Mueller’s investigation claiming that manafort, Roger stone, and stone associate Jerome Corsi were all asked to lie. If you tell the truth, you go to jail, trump said. You know this flipping stuff is terrible. But I had three people, manafort, Corsi, I don’t know Corsi, but they refuse to say what he demanded. It’s actually very brave, the president said, of the trio and I’m telling you, this is McCarthyism. We are in the McCarthy era. This is no better than McCarthy, says the president of the united States talking about the special counsel’s investigation. Joyce, let’s pick through that a little bit and start with you on the president floating the idea of a pardon when he was asked. He said it’s not off the table. That has to be music to Paul Manafort’s ears who is now without his cooperation deal.” [Morning Joe, MSNBC, 11/29/18; VIDEO] Continue reading “Want to Know More About: Paul Manafort Plea Deal Collapse?”