The judge’s finding that Manafort, 69, breached his cooperation deal with prosecutors by lying after his guilty plea could add years to his prison sentence
WASHINGTON – Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort lied to prosecutors with special counsel Robert Mueller III about matters close to the heart of their investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, a federal judge ruled Wednesday.
The judge’s finding that Manafort, 69, breached his cooperation deal with prosecutors by lying after his guilty plea could add years to his prison sentence and came after a set of sealed court hearings.
Manafort’s lies, the judge found, included “his interactions and communications with (Konstantin) Kilimnik,” a longtime aide whom the FBI assessed to have ties to Russian intelligence.
U. S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson of the District of Columbia said Manafort also lied to the special counsel, the FBI and the grand jury about a payment from a company to a law firm – which he previously characterized as a loan repayment – and made false statements that were material to another Justice Department investigation whose focus has not been described in public filings in Manafort’s case.
Manafort’s actions mean Mueller’s office “is no longer bound” by the plea agreement including prosecutors’ promise to support a possible sentencing reduction for Manafort accepting responsibility for his crimes.
Jackson said she would factor in his deception at sentencing March 13 and will make public her reasoning about her findings as early as Friday in another filing.
Manafort had denied intentionally lying after his plea deal and through his attorneys attributed any conflicting statements to confusion or faulty recollection.
Manafort pleaded guilty Sept. 14, on the eve of jury selection for his trial in Washington, to conspiring to defraud the United States, violate lobbying laws and obstruct justice – by witness tampering – in connection with years of undisclosed work in Ukraine for a pro-Russian political party and Ukrainian politician, Viktor Yanukovych.
