Special counsel Robert Mueller filed a document late Friday explaining why he believes former Trump campaign chair Paul Manafort has lied to investigators in recent months.
Read: Mueller’s new filing accusing Paul Manafort of lying to the government
The former Trump campaign chair agreed to cooperate — but the special counsel says he continued to lie.
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Andrew Prokop is a senior politics correspondent at Vox, covering the White House, elections, and political scandals and investigations. He’s worked at Vox since the site’s launch in 2014, and before that, he worked as a research assistant at the New Yorker’s Washington, DC, bureau.
After being convicted of financial crimes at a Virginia trial in August, Manafort struck a plea deal with Mueller to avoid a second trial on separate charges in September — and, as part of that deal, committed to cooperate with the government.
But the deal fell apart because, Mueller claims, Manafort lied to them on at least five separate matters. (Manafort’s lawyers have denied that he deliberately lied.)
Two of these alleged lies relate to Konstantin Kilimnik, a longtime business associate of Manafort’s whom Mueller has claimed is tied to Russian intelligence. The special counsel asserts that Manafort lied about his interactions with Kilimnik, including an apparent meeting they’d had.
The details are redacted, but Mueller claims to have electronic communications to prove that Manafort lied about what happened. The special counsel also claims Manafort falsely denied that he conspired with Kilimnik to try and witness tamper.
Third, Mueller alleges that Manafort lied about a certain payment of $125,000 in 2017 — though the details, again, are redacted.
Fourth, the special counsel says Manafort lied regarding another (redacted) Justice Department investigation.
And finally, Mueller says Manafort claimed not to have been in contact with Trump administration officials in 2018, when he in fact was. (The officials are not identified.)
You can read the filing below, or at this link:
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