Special counsel saying Paul Manafort is breaching his plea agreement by lying "on a variety of subject matters"
As reported in this ABC News piece, "Prosecutors with special counsel Robert Mueller’s legal team told a judge Monday night that President Donald Trump’s one-time campaign chairman Paul Manafort has breached his cooperation agreement and lied to investigators." Here is more about the latest trouble for Manafort, which became public via this filing:
“After signing the plea agreement, Manafort committed federal crimes by lying to the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Special Counsel’s Office on a variety of subject matters, which constitute breaches of the agreement,” the filings says.
Manafort’s legal team has disputed that charge, telling a federal judge that the embattled former Trump adviser “believes he has provided truthful information and does not agree with the government’s characterization or that he has breached the agreement.”
The DC court filing brings to a head weeks of speculation that Manafort’ s cooperation with the special counsel could be breaking down. Earlier this month, there were mounting tensions between Mueller and Manafort over Manafort’ s apparent lack of cooperation with the investigation, multiple sources familiar with the matter told ABC News.
Manafort had been fielding questions about a wide range of topics since September when he initially agreed to cooperate, the sources said. But special counsel prosecutors were “not getting what they want,” one source with knowledge of the discussions said.
As noted in this post from September, Manafort's plea deal seemed to cap his sentencing exposure at 10 years despite a calculated guideline sentencing range much higher. This latest filing does not ensure that the feds will now seek or secure a sentence higher than 10 years for Manafort, but it certainly suggests that the special counsel office will object strongly to Manafort's likely arguments for a much lower sentence.
Some prior related posts:
- Appreciating ugly sentencing realities facing Paul Manafort and Rick Gates after federal indictment
- Paul Manafort has bail revoked ... and has not (yet) gotten rescued from jail by Prez Trump's clemency pen
- Paul Manafort found guilty of 8 of 18 counts ... and now faces real possibility of spending many years in federal prison
- Reported sentencing details in Paul Manafort's plea deal to wrap up his various federal prosecutions
- Paul Manafort's DC plea agreement has a calculated guideline range of 17.5 to 22 years (though he can only get 10)
- Paul Manafort seemingly poised to get "senior discount" at upcoming sentencing
Comments
Post a Comment