manafort scared of those Russian mob ties
Mueller’s Team Says Manafort Lied About Business Dealings, Ukraine Contact
Former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort has had a combative relationship with special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigators.
Paul Manafort’s alleged misstatements to special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigators include comments about his personal business dealings and about his contacts with a former associate in Ukraine, say people familiar with the matter.
Those statements—among those described by Mr. Mueller as “lies” and Mr. Manafort as “truthful information” in a court filing Monday—are what led the special counsel this week to take the unusual step of
ending the former Trump campaign chairman’s plea agreement 2½ months after it was reached, the people said.
The content of those statements don’t appear to be central to the allegations of Russian interference in the 2016 election that Mr. Mueller is investigating. It is unclear if prosecutors plan to accuse Mr. Manafort of additional lies.
But Mr. Mueller’s move to end the cooperation deal reflects more broadly a combative relationship that has developed between Mr. Manafort and Mr. Mueller’s investigators, as well as the special counsel’s conclusion that Mr. Manafort fell short of his cooperation agreement, court filings show.
In interviews with Mr. Mueller’s team, Mr. Manafort allegedly made inaccurate statements about his communications with Konstantin Kilimnik, said the people familiar with the matter.
Mr. Kilimnik, who Mr. Mueller charged earlier this year along with Mr. Manafort with trying to influence the testimony of two witnesses against Mr. Manafort, had worked for Mr. Manafort’s lobbying firm in Ukraine. Messrs. Manafort and Kilimnik communicated earlier this year about contacting others who worked with them in an alleged effort to coordinate their stories, according to an indictment Mr. Mueller filed against them.
Mr. Kilimnik, whom the FBI has assessed to have ties to Russian intelligence, according to a filing by the special counsel’s office, isn’t in custody and hasn’t responded to the charges in court.
A spokesman for Mr. Mueller declined to comment.
Mr. Mueller has long been interested in the relationship between Messrs. Manafort and Kilimnik. He has questioned witnesses about a boat trip that Mr. Manafort took with Tom Barrack, a longtime friend of Mr. Trump, after Mr. Manafort was ousted from the Trump campaign in August 2016, say people familiar with the matter. Witnesses believed investigators were seeking to determine whether Mr. Manafort ever met with Mr. Kilimnik on that trip.
In his conversations with Mr. Mueller’s team, Mr. Manafort also allegedly misrepresented information about payments he received related to his lobbying work, the people familiar with the matter said.
A judge plans to set a date on Friday for Mr. Manafort’s sentencing, now that his cooperation with Mr. Mueller has reached an apparent impasse. Before that sentencing, Mr. Mueller’s office will submit a memo outlining Mr. Manafort’s alleged misdeeds in more detail.
Mr. Mueller’s team, in the court filing Monday, accused Mr. Manafort of “lying to the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Special Counsel’s Office on a variety of subject matters.” Mr. Manafort’s lawyers said he had spoken repeatedly to the special counsel’s team and provided information “in an effort to live up to his cooperation obligations.”
With the Mueller-Manafort dispute breaking into public view, some legal experts believe Mr. Manafort’s best hope for leniency is to obtain a presidential pardon. On Wednesday Mr. Trump told the New York Post a pardon for Mr. Manafort was
“not off the table.” Any pardon would likely spark a firestorm among Democrats, who are preparing to take control of the House.
Mr. Manafort’s decision to plead guilty to other crimes in September and cooperate in the continuing investigation into Russian electoral interference and any links to the Trump campaign appeared to be a major win for the prosecutors.
Mr. Manafort’s allies have said for months that the former Trump aide had little to tell investigators about Russia’s 2016 efforts. Mr. Mueller’s actions to end the cooperation agreement signals Mr. Manafort provided little information that prosecutors found useful.
Mr. Manafort’s team maintained an unusual open channel with Mr. Trump’s attorneys even after his plea agreement, briefing the president’s lawyers about its contacts with Mr. Mueller’s office.
Still, attorneys for the president weren’t aware that Mr. Mueller would accuse Mr. Manafort of lying until Monday’s filing, they said. Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani said the legal team has received no indication that any of Mr. Manafort’s allegedly false statements relate to the president.
Mr. Trump recently responded in writing to a set of questions posed by Mr. Mueller’s office, including a few questions related to Mr. Manafort, said a person familiar with the matter. They did include questions about a June 2016 meeting at Trump Tower between top Trump campaign aides, including Mr. Manafort, and a Russian lawyer linked to the Kremlin.
Mr. Trump responded that he didn’t know at the time about the Trump Tower meeting, the person said.
The developments come as some targets of Mr. Mueller’s inquiry are taking an increasingly combative tone in public. Conservative activist Jerome Corsi, who had been in talks with Mr. Mueller’s office to potentially plead guilty to lying to investigators, has publicly rejected a plea and said Wednesday he hired a new lawyer.
In a tweet, Mr. Corsi said he had instructed his legal team to file with Acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker “a criminal complaint against Mueller’s Special Counsel and the DOJ for prosecutorial misconduct in my case.”
On another front, Senate Republicans Wednesday blocked an effort to pass legislation protecting Mr. Mueller’s investigation.
For the second time this month, Sens. Jeff Flake (R., Ariz) and Chris c00ns (D., Del.) tried to pass by unanimous consent legislation designed to protect Mr. Mueller from being fired. They were blocked by Sen. Mike Lee (R., Utah) on Wednesday. Two weeks earlier, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) had objected,
blocking the bill.
The proposed measure would protect a special counsel from removal except for “good cause.”
— Kristina Peterson in Washington contributed to this article.
Write to Aruna Viswanatha at
Aruna.Viswanatha@wsj.com and Rebecca Ballhaus at
Rebecca.Ballhaus@wsj.com
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