Special counsel says Paul Manafort lied "on a variety of subject matters"

The special counsel filed a memo Friday revealing more about what former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort lied about when he was supposed to be cooperating with federal investigators. His cooperation with the government was part of a plea agreement to avoid his second trial, focused in part on allegations related to money laundering and his foreign lobbying.

According to the special counsel's memo, Manafort lied about several things in breach of his plea deal, including his contact with Konstantin Kilimnik, who ran Manafort's office in Kiev. Kilimnik, who has ties to Russian intelligence, was indicted in June. Much of the information about Kilimnik was redacted in the filing, although Manafort admitted he conspired with Kilimnik to obstruct justice.

The special counsel also alleged that Manafort lied about a payment made toward a debt incurred by him to a firm that was working for him in 2017. According to the filing, he also provided false information to the Justice Department about another investigation.

And while Manafort said he had no "direct or indirect communications" with anyone in the Trump administration and never "asked anyone to try to communicate a message to anyone in the Administration," the special counsel says he was lying about this, too. He asked someone to speak with an administration official on his behalf by text on May 26, 2018 and had been in communication with a senior administration official through February 2018.

In late November, the special counsel said that Manafort had breached his plea agreement with the government by lying to federal investigators.


More at CBSNews.com.


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