Manafort Breached Plea Deal by Repeatedly Lying, Mueller Says

By artappraiser on Mon, 11/26/2018 - 7:09pm |

"Breaking" headline story by Sharon LaFreniere @ NYTimes.com, 7 minutes ago (so there will no doubt be edits)

Paul Manafort, President Trump’s former campaign chairman, repeatedly lied to federal investigators in breach of a plea agreement he signed two months ago, Robert Mueller’s office said.
The dramatic development in the 11th hour of Mr. Manafort’s case means, at a minimum, that prosecutors will not ask for a lighter punishment in return for his cooperation.

URL:

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/26/us/politics/mueller-paul-manafort-cooperation.html

7111 reads

Comments

link to recent Ken Vogel tweets on topic on Wolraich's old thread

by artappraiser on Mon, 11/26/2018 - 7:11pm

WaPo: BREAKING NEWS

Mueller says Manafort lied after pleading guilty, should be sentenced immediately

Prosecutors with special counsel Robert S. Mueller III said that Paul Manafort breached his plea agreement by lying repeatedly as they questioned him during the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.

By Spencer S. Hsu and Rachel Weiner

Also has this related link just below above, which is about Alan Dershowitz's statements on ABC This Week on Sunday:

Trump attacks looming Mueller report after an ally predicts it will be ‘devastating’

by artappraiser on Mon, 11/26/2018 - 7:15pm

A more accurate headline would read 'Mueller Fails to coerce Manafort into lying for the witch-hunt', Schumer and the snowflake mob react with tears and rending of garments as their hopes for Trump's devastation dwindle.

by Peter (not verified) on Mon, 11/26/2018 - 7:59pm

So you're saying now Manafort has been truthful? and accepting that he did launder money and hide earnings around the world, as he confessed to? or are you trying to have your cake and eat it too?

by PeraclesPlease on Mon, 11/26/2018 - 11:09pm

Marcy provides more believable summation:

(do note the "Manafort as mole" theory):

https://www.emptywheel.net/2018/11/26/manafort-tests-the-theory-of-an-un...

by PeraclesPlease on Tue, 11/27/2018 - 12:21am

Peter,

The second half of your sentence is fair enough. You abuse us , we abuse you. I like "rending garments."

The first half ?

I assume you know Mueller's story -fought , wounded in Vietnam .Not captured!

And I assume you agree that we - both sides- should go the extra mile to respect such folks.

If you have personal knowledge that Mueller intended to coerce Manafort into lying , go for it tell the truth, . But ,if not, think about withdrawing it. I have no doubt there are similar charges you think we should withdraw, Go ahead. Ask. You might get a winner one day.

by Flavius on Tue, 11/27/2018 - 1:33am

Flav, I respect or disrespect people for what they are doing now not just what they did 50 years ago. Mueller didn't seem to show any respect for another war vet, Mike Flynn, when he framed and persecuted him for having a faulty memory. This was especially egregious because James Comey stated to congress that the FBI agents who interviewed Flynn saw no signs his misstatements were intentional. I had no opinion about Mueller personally when he took this assignment even though the investigation he was assigned to was an obvious political fraud but Mueller quickly turned it into a witch-hunt.

Some of Mueller's targets are feeling strong enough to expose the coercion Mueller and his team are using to try to make them create false narratives to damage Trump. Manafort deserves punishment for the crimes he was convicted of and admitted to and he probably supplied Mueller with useful information for the prosecution of the Podesta brothers. He knows what he faces at sentencing and has no reason to lie to Mueller now but he has good reasons not to lie for Mueller.

by Peter (not verified) on Tue, 11/27/2018 - 12:22pm

Mueller likes war vets who don't lie to the FBI and Congress, and who aren't on the take from foreign governments as unregistered foreign agents.

President Bone Spurs likes war vets who are greedy self righteous toadies and liars, he doesn't like war vets who were captured and tortured by enemies of the US.

by NCD on Tue, 11/27/2018 - 1:42pm

In years gone by presidents didn't put people with "faulty memories" in top positions. Now it seems like a critical requirement. Mike Flynn was supposed to be the National Security Advisor, not the parking lot attendant. Wilbur Ross is supposed to head Commerce, not take naps as an old man in meetings. Nielsen thinks she was hired as a border guard for North Korea's DMZ. Sarah Huckabee Sanders seems to both be the poster child for nepotism and now a winner of the Soviet doctored photo-video competition. Manafort was Trump's campaign manager despite criminal past in Ukraine and elsewhere. Michael Cohen's job was to screw women legally after Trump had screwed them. And then there's poor Jeff Sessions who's just ouy of his league except for ratcheting up racist law enforcement. You think Trump might be hiring such piss-poor people on purpose? How many have already left office?

by PeraclesPlease on Tue, 11/27/2018 - 3:40pm

@bartongellman I saw the Manafort news and had the same thought as @JeffreyToobin: Manafort is outflanked. Maybe there is lost info, but why asssune a net loss for Mueller? https://t.co/ouyPeKz0Jd
— Daniel Benjamin (@Benjamin05055) November 27, 2018

by artappraiser on Mon, 11/26/2018 - 8:46pm

Manafort expects a pardon from Trump

by rmrd0000 on Tue, 11/27/2018 - 9:55am

Manafort held several secret meetings with Assange in the Ecuador embassy, including one near the time he joined the Trump campaign

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/nov/27/manafort-held-secret-talks-with-assange-in-ecuadorian-embassy

by rmrd0000 on Tue, 11/27/2018 - 10:40am

2014:Facebook knew Russians hacking massive amounts of data

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-11-27/facebook-knew-of-russ...

by PeraclesPlease on Tue, 11/27/2018 - 11:08am

Some widespread suspicion that this is crap mixed disinfo from Trump - conflicting data, discredit the Guardian..

by PeraclesPlease on Tue, 11/27/2018 - 1:10pm

.@KenDilanianNBC: If this happened it's almost certain that the US govt would have known about it because the British were surveilling that embassy both electronically and physically. So if US intelligence knew about it, then Robert Mueller would have known about it all along. https://t.co/zGusEne8Ap
— Jesse Rodriguez (@JesseRodriguez) November 27, 2018

by artappraiser on Tue, 11/27/2018 - 1:57pm

Manafort continues to deny; Assange tried to bet a million bucks. Again may be an attempt to rickroll The Guardian. New Republic weighs in (note story beneath where Fox hands interview subject the script):

https://newrepublic.com/minutes/152435/explosive-report-alleges-paul-man...

by PeraclesPlease on Tue, 11/27/2018 - 4:56pm

FWIW reading this update from that piece reminded me how in the UK there is much less protection there than there is here for the press from libel suits:

UPDATE II: After the publication of this post, Manafort issued a statement denying ever meeting with Assange: “I have never met Julian Assange or anyone connected to him. I have never been contacted by anyone connected to Wikileaks, either directly or indirectly. I have never reached out to Assange or Wikileaks on any matter. We are considering all legal options against the Guardian who proceeded with this story even after being notified by my representatives that it was false.”

by artappraiser on Tue, 11/27/2018 - 5:32pm

MANAFORT's 2017 meeting in ECUADOR with future president @LENIN MORENO was part of Manafort's effort to become a broker for the China Development Fund & its liaison to the TRUMP administration, as I reported here: https://t.co/KUD27JFX1k & here: https://t.co/KYT69V5c1g
— Kenneth P. Vogel (@kenvogel) November 27, 2018

by artappraiser on Tue, 11/27/2018 - 2:00pm

Agreed, Laurence, though it was in fact a Stone-Manafort-Assange-Trump rectangle. Stone is the one who pushed for Manafort to join the campaign, and Stone was in contact with WikiLeaks. Now we know Manafort was also. And Trump obsessively campaigned on WikiLeaks in October 2016. https://t.co/iYeBHYAKEJ
— Seth Abramson (@SethAbramson) November 27, 2018

by artappraiser on Tue, 11/27/2018 - 2:02pm

Bush 41/McCain/Kasich strategist suggests:

New York State should indict Manafort asap and put an end to this pardon talk.
— John Weaver (@jwgop) November 27, 2018

And FWIW in the first press briefing in a long time, Sarah Sanders sez:

Full @PressSec answer:

“Certainly I remain confident in the White House’s assertion that the president was involved in no wrongdoing, was not involved in any collusion. The things that have to do with Mr. Manafort, I’d refer you to his attorneys.”
— Aaron Blake (@AaronBlake) November 27, 2018

by artappraiser on Tue, 11/27/2018 - 2:16pm

NYT headline published 1 hr. ago: Manafort’s Lawyer Said to Brief Trump Attorneys on What He Told Mueller

By Michael S. Schmidt, Sharon LaFraniere and Maggie Haberman

WASHINGTON — A lawyer for Paul Manafort, the president’s onetime campaign chairman, repeatedly briefed President Trump’s lawyers on his client’s discussions with federal investigators after Mr. Manafort agreed to cooperate with the special counsel, according to one of Mr. Trump’s lawyers and two other people familiar with the conversations.

The arrangement was highly unusual and inflamed tensions with the special counsel’s office when prosecutors discovered it after Mr. Manafort began cooperating two months ago, the people said. Some legal experts speculated that it was a bid by Mr. Manafort for a presidential pardon even as he worked with the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, in hopes of a lighter sentence.

Rudolph W. Giuliani, one of the president’s personal lawyers, acknowledged the arrangement on Tuesday and defended it as a source of valuable insights into the special counsel’s inquiry and where it was headed. Such information could help shape a legal defense strategy, and it also appeared to give Mr. Trump and his legal advisers ammunition in their public relations campaign against Mr. Mueller’s office.

For example, Mr. Giuliani said, Mr. Manafort’s lawyer Kevin M. Downing told him that prosecutors hammered away at whether the president knew about the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting where Russians promised to deliver damaging information on Hillary Clinton to his eldest son, Donald Trump Jr. The president has long denied knowing about the meeting in advance. “He wants Manafort to incriminate Trump,” Mr. Giuliani declared of Mr. Mueller.

While Mr. Downing’s discussions with the president’s team violated no laws, they helped contribute to a deteriorating relationship between lawyers for Mr. Manafort and Mr. Mueller’s prosecutors, who accused Mr. Manafort of holding out on them despite his pledge to assist them in any matter they deemed relevant, according to the people. That conflict spilled into public view on Monday when the prosecutors took the rare step of declaring that Mr. Manafort had breached his plea agreement by lying to them about a variety of subjects [....]

by artappraiser on Tue, 11/27/2018 - 11:00pm

There's a question whether Downing served his client well or just Trump. If he sold out his client, he could lose his license.

by PeraclesPlease on Wed, 11/28/2018 - 3:12am

How Rudy Giuliani’s Latest Blabbermouth Session May Have Turned Him into a Witness to Obstruction https://t.co/mGCxundEnx pic.twitter.com/qIJb07raD7
— Law & Crime (@lawcrimenews) November 29, 2018

by artappraiser on Wed, 11/28/2018 - 7:32pm

CNN Exclusive: President Trump told Mueller in writing that Roger Stone did not tell him about WikiLeaks, nor was he told about the 2016 Trump Tower meeting between his son, campaign officials and a Russian lawyer promising dirt on Hillary Clinton https://t.co/UIjdAFsOv5
— Amanda Golden (@amandawgolden) November 28, 2018

by artappraiser on Wed, 11/28/2018 - 1:29pm

This corsi interview with @AriMelber is a hot mess. Corsi won't break the con.
— Rick Wilson (@TheRickWilson) November 28, 2018

(Interview just finished about 10 mins. ago on MSNBC, they have talking heads on it now.)

by artappraiser on Wed, 11/28/2018 - 6:47pm

New York Post asked Trump why he tweeted a meme of Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein behind bars. "He should have never picked a special counsel," Trump said. https://t.co/1g0bp5zXVo
— Josh Dawsey (@jdawsey1) November 29, 2018

by artappraiser on Wed, 11/28/2018 - 7:40pm

I find myself increasingly baffled by what's happening. It's going to make a great story when it all comes out.

by Michael Wolraich on Wed, 11/28/2018 - 8:29pm

History's written by the winners (look at China and Turkey and imagine). So, *if* it all comes out, inch'allah and all that. But so far I'm optimistic.

by PeraclesPlease on Thu, 11/29/2018 - 12:22am

Hey All. Please have a look at my take on the “Manafort-The-Mole” development. #Manafort #Cohen #TrumpRussia #MuellerInvestigation https://t.co/ELNgw9D2WS
— Glenn Kirschner (@glennkirschner2) November 29, 2018

by artappraiser on Thu, 11/29/2018 - 1:08pm

Mueller's office has a Friday deadline to explain to the court why it accused Manafort of lying to investigators and breaking his cooperation deal. Separately, the special counsel's office and federal prosecutors in New York have to provide memos to recommend a sentence for Cohen -- filings that are expected to detail how he has cooperated in multiple investigations.

more @ CNN: Mueller poised to reveal new details on Russia probe in Manafort, Cohen filings, Dec. 6, 8:46 pm ET

by artappraiser on Fri, 12/07/2018 - 2:20am

Manafort Breached Plea Deal by Repeatedly Lying, Mueller Says

Comments

Sections

Bloggers