Robert Mueller Reportedly Thinks Paul Manafort Lied About Russian Meeting & Lobbying Income
Special counsel Robert Mueller is said to believe that Paul Manafort, Donald Trump’s former campaign manager, lied about a number of things, including his personal business dealings, lobbying income, and meeting with a former Russian-Ukrainian associate.
According to Business Insider, Mueller’s team filed a court report on Monday which claimed Manafort had provided untruthful statements to the FBI and the special counsel’s side several times “on a variety of subject matters.” They claim his statements offered several inaccuracies, including his relationship and communications with Konstantin Kilimnik, a Russian-Ukrainian political operative and one of his oldest associates, who he reportedly met in Ukraine.
Robert Mueller indicted Manafort, as well as Kilimnik, earlier this summer on obstruction of justice charges. He also accused the duo of attempting to engage in witness testimony tampering back in February shortly after their associate Rick Gates pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors. Now, Mueller is trying to figure out if Manafort met with Kilimnik during a boat trip he took with Trump’s friend Tom Barrack after stepping down from his campaign chairman role in August 2016.
Manafort also allegedly provided untruthful information with regards to the income he made from his lobbying work. When he was arrested last August, he became one of the star cooperators in the Russia investigation by agreeing on a plea deal with the FBI. But the special counsel’s team announced on Monday that “the nature of the defendant’s [Manafort’s] crimes and lies, including those after signing the plea agreement,” meant they weren’t obliged to abide to the plea agreement anymore.
As previously reported by the Inquisitr, sources also claimed that Manafort met with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange at the Ecuadorian embassy in London several times, including one in the spring of 2016, around the same time he became a prominent figure in Trump’s push for the presidency. The visit happened in March, just months before WikiLeaks released a series emails from the Democratic party, which were hacked by Russian intelligence officers. Manafort has denied any involvement in the hacking and said the accusations were “100 percent false.”
However, a document produced by Ecuador’s Senain intelligence agency listed him as a “well-known guest” and mentioned “Russians,” and while all visitors must log in with security when entering the embassy, sources in Quito said Manafort’s name was not registered.
On Tuesday, Donald Trump took to Twitter once again to criticize the Russian investigation, saying, “The Fake News Media builds Bob Mueller up as a Saint, when in actuality he is the exact opposite. He is doing TREMENDOUS damage to our Criminal Justice System, where he is only looking at one side and not the other.”
