Paul Manafort’s legal team disputed special counsel Robert Mueller’s allegation that he lied and breached his plea deal, arguing that the former Trump campaign chairman merely demonstrated a “lack of consistency.”
“When placed in proper context, much of the evidence presented by the [special counsel] merely demonstrates a lack of consistency in Mr. Manafort’s recollection of certain facts and events,” lawyers for Manafort wrote in court filings Wednesday. “Indeed, many of these events occurred years ago, or during a high-pressure U.S. presidential campaign he managed when his time was extraordinarily limited, or during the difficult time that followed his departure from the 2016 presidential campaign because of the allegations leveled at him and the investigations that followed.”
In September, Manafort, 69, pleaded guilty in federal court in Washington to two charges after he was convicted in August in a separate federal case in Virginia for bank and tax fraud.
In the plea deal, Manafort said he would “cooperate fully, truthfully, completely, and forthrightly” with the special counsel and any other government investigators. In November, Mueller first accused Manafort of lying about a “variety of subject matters.”
In December, the special counsel further detailed what prosecutors said were Manafort’s “multiple discernable lies.”
Manafort is awaiting sentencing in both cases, scheduled for Feb. 8 in Alexandria, Va., and March 5 in Washington. Manafort has been jailed in Alexandria since June due to allegations of witness tampering.
Last week, Mueller’s team presented evidence to support its allegation that Manafort breached his plea deal by lying — and revealed that a large focus on the probe has been on Manafort’s relationship with a Russian associate.
Prosecutors also have “documentary evidence” that Manafort lied when he said he had no direct or indirect contact with officials in the Trump administration, the lengthy, but heavily redacted court filing revealed.
Last week’s filing by Manafort’s team was in response to one earlier this month by Manafort’s defense team — in which they failed to properly redact their initial response to the special counsel’s allegations. That filing showed Manafort, while serving as the campaign manager for Trump’s campaign, shared political polling data with a business associate who also had ties to Russian intelligence: Konstantin Kilimnik.
Kilimnik said he “thought it was crazy that he had been indicted,” according to Wednesday’s filing.
Manafort has waived his appearance Friday before U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson in Washington, where both sides will discuss moving forward with the plea deal breach allegations and eventual sentencing.
