Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort will be arraigned on a new witness-tampering charge leveled against him by special counsel Robert Mueller in Washington on Friday.
Judge Amy Berman Jackson set the arraignment time for 10 a.m. at U.S. District Court in Washington, where Manafort will enter in his plea on the new obstruction charge brought against him last week.
Manafort was charged alongside Konstantin Kilimnik, a Russian businessman, for allegedly attempting to influence the testimony of two witnesses in the case against them.
Manafort’s legal team accused Mueller’s lawyers of “heavy-handed tactics” in a Friday night court filing.
“From a scant record, the Special Counsel conjures a sinister plot to ‘corruptly persuade’ two of Mr. Manafort’s former business associates to perjure themselves at the upcoming trial in September,” Manafort’s attorneys wrote. “Mr. Manafort asked no one to provide a false affidavit or false testimony at trial, or perjure themselves, and he has not given — nor offered to give — any potential witness anything in exchange for false testimony.”
They added: “The Court should not condone such heavy-handed gamesmanship by the Special Counsel. The new charge of witness tampering made by the Special Counsel should be seen for what it is: an attempt to derail the modified conditions of release at the eleventh hour.”
Manafort still faces five charges brought against him by Mueller this year in Washington: Conspiracy against the United States, conspiracy to launder money, unregistered agent of a foreign principal, false and misleading Foreign Agents Registration Act statements, and false statements.
