Mueller says Manafort lied about contacts with Trump officials
The filing also says that Manafort made “inconsistent statements” to investigators about a $125,000 payment he made to an unnamed firm working for him in 2017.
Finally, prosecutors allege that Manafort misled Justice Department officials working on a separate investigation, that is not described, by providing different versions of events about a subject relevant to the probe before and after his plea agreement.
Mueller said Manafort told “multiple discernible lies” in interviews with the special counsel’s office and the FBI that “were not instances of mere memory lapses.”
“If the defendant contends the government has not acted in good faith, the government is available to prove the false statements at a hearing,” he wrote.
Judge Amy Berman Jackson, an Obama appointee on the federal district court for the District of Columbia, said in court last week that she will likely hold a hearing in mid-to-late January to decide if Manafort breached his plea deal.
Manafort pleaded guilty in September to two felony charges — conspiracy against the U.S. and conspiracy to launder money — and agreed to fully cooperate with Mueller’s probe to avoid a second criminal trial after he was convicted on eight felony counts of tax and bank fraud in a federal court in northern Virginia.
In return, prosecutors agreed to drop five other charges, including failure to register as a foreign lobbyists, making false statements and tampering with witnesses.
Reports that surfaced after the deal broke down last week said Manafort’s attorneys had met with Trump’s personal lawyers and shared details on the investigation, which is said to have inflamed tensions with the special counsel’s office.
Speculation has swirled since that Trump could pardon his former campaign chairman. The president has said he hasn’t discussed it but wouldn’t rule it out.
Many had hoped Friday’s report would shed light on Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference with the 2016 presidential election and possible collusion with the Trump campaign, an investigation that has been kept tightly under wraps.
At 5 p.m. on Friday, District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson granted Mueller’s request to file the report under seal and ordered a redacted version to be published on the public docket. The public will now have to wait to see the unredacted filings.
Copyright 2023 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.