DragonI

Judge voids Paul Manafort plea deal, says he 'intentionally' lied to the FBI, special counsel and grand jury

Paul Manafort, President Donald Trump's former campaign chairman, lied to special counsel Robert Mueller, a federal judge ruled Wednesday.

www.cnn.com|Katelyn Polantz, CNN

1. Manafort was working with former Russian GRU Intelligence Officer  Konstantin Kilimnik while he was Trump’s Campaign Manager
2. Manafort continued working with the Russians while he was ‘co-operating’ with the Mueller investigation. Including former Russian intelligence officer Victor Boyarkin on behalf of Russian Oligarch Oleg Deripaska
3. Manafort was working with Trump’s lawyers including Rudy Giuliani while he was ‘co-operating’ with the Mueller investigation

Manafort is still bound by what he agreed to in the plea, so he will not be able to retract his guilty pleas. But the finding frees Mueller's office from its contractual obligations in the plea, like asking for a reduced sentence for him because of his cooperation.

Mueller spokesman Peter Carr declined to comment.

Manafort's lawyers have maintained that he did not intentionally lie.  😏

Jackson's ruling is another stunning turn in Mueller's efforts to uncover Russian interference in the 2016 election, as the first man the special counsel indicted then pursued as a potential cooperator for a year sees the end of any benefits he tried to gain through a guilty plea.

Manafort was convicted of various financial crimes in August, and then cut the deal to plead guilty to two charges of conspiracy and witness tampering in September.

In all, Jackson determined Manafort intentionally lied about $125,000 he received for the legal bills, about another unnamed Justice Department criminal investigation and about his interactions with his longtime Russian associate Konstantin Kilimnik while he was campaign chairman and later.

Jackson noted twice in her order that two of the topics Paul Manafort lied about, Kilimnik and payments he received for his legal bills were "material to the investigation."

Manafort kept working in Ukraine after Mueller indictment, transcript shows

A prosecutor also said he believed Manafort had told one lie to "at least augment his chances for a pardon."

www.nbcnews.com

1. Lie to get a pardon from Trump 
2. Continue being treasonous knowing in his mind, he’d be pardoned again
3. Nothing wrong with working with his former business partner and former Russian GRU intelligence officer Konstantin Kilimnik *** “Collusion is not a crime.”, Rudy Giuliani

A newly released transcript reveals that former Trump campaign chair Paul Manafort continued working for a political client in Ukraine into 2018, after he had already been indicted in Robert Mueller's probe — and that prosecutors think Manafort may have told one lie to up his chances of a pardon.

During a sealed hearing Monday, which was held to discuss Manafort's alleged lies to the special counsel, prosecutor Andrew Weissman referred to "2018 work that he did with respect to polling in Ukraine," according to the redacted transcript.

The redacted transcript of the hearing released Thursday, which describes some of the alleged lies, is 143 pages long.

The transcript indicates that Manafort lied about interactions with former colleague Gates in regard to what a prosecutor called "an extremely sensitive matter," the nature of which is redacted.

The prosecutor told Judge Amy Berman Jackson that Manafort lied about what he had told Gates, and said Manafort lied because telling the truth would "have I think, negative consequences in terms of the other motive that Mr. Manafort could have, which is to at least augment his chances for a pardon." Only the president can pardon someone convicted of a federal crime.

"This goes, I think, very much to the heart of what the special counsel's office is investigating. And in 2016. there is an in-person meeting with someone who the government has certainly proffered to this court in the past, is understood by the FBI, assessed to be — have a relationship with Russian intelligence, that there is REDACTED. And there is an in-person meeting at an unusual time for somebody who is the campaign chairman to be spending time, and to be doing it in person," Weissman said.

Opinion | Distinguished person of 2018: His results speak for themselves

Who stood tall?

www.washingtonpost.com|https://www.facebook.com/JenniferRubinBlogger

Robert S. Mueller III has indicted 33 individuals and three companies. He obtained convictions on eight counts against former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, obtained cooperation from former national security adviser Michael Flynn and pierced Trump’s inner circle by enlisting the assistance of Michael Cohen and Allen Weisselberg.

By spinning off the campaign finance crimes involving Cohen to the Southern District of New York, he further insulated his investigation from political interference.

In performing his duties with such professionalism and ruthless efficiency, he reminds us that no matter what blather Trump, Rudolph W. Giuliani and the Fox News propagandists spew, facts and the law matter. Mueller, his prosecutorial team and the courts prove week after week that the rule of law, while battered, hasn’t been demolished under Trump.

For nearly two years, we’ve seen an administration more incompetent, dishonest and lawless than any in our lifetime (including Richard M. Nixon’s). Watching Mueller operate with unparalleled competence, honesty and respect for the law should reassure us that American democracy remains battered but not broken.

For all of this we can say, well done, Mr. Mueller, and godspeed.

Robert Mueller: TIME Person of the Year Runner Up

The special counsel has Trump in his sights, and where he’s taking the investigation has no precedent or protocol

time.com|Brian Bennett, Tessa Berenson

Even in his own domain, Robert Mueller is often silent. When witnesses arrive at the special counsel's office in southwest Washington, they are ushered through an underground parking garage and up to an austere, windowless conference room. Mueller's prosecutors do the talking. The man in charge, if he appears at all, greets visitors with a polite handshake and then retreats to a seat against a wall.

Since becoming special counsel for the Russia probe, Mueller has spoken only through his work: in the hundreds of pages of known court filings, some of which laid out Moscow's alleged plots to help Donald Trump win the presidency; in the 34 people and entities he charged with crimes this year; in the plea deals he made with Trump's former lawyer, former campaign chairman and another top campaign aide. Beyond that: Nothing. No interviews. No press conferences. No tweets. No leaks.

So it is instructive to hear friends and former colleagues talk about Robert Swan Mueller III. Not because they portray a perfect person, but because they describe a complicated one: relentless but circumspect, impatient but thorough, difficult but respected. Mueller, they say, is the kind of man who flicks the lights off and on at his home to inform guests that it's time to leave a social gathering, and who is so keenly aware of any appearance of impropriety that he won't even enter the same room as friends who are working on the other side of the Russia case. As FBI director, he twice threatened to resign over matters of legal principle, winning the standoff both times, and was infamous for eviscerating ill-prepared underlings. 

"If indicting his own mother was the right thing to do, he would do it.", former FBI assistant director Tom Fuentes 

Winning the cookie party tonight.  #somuchwinning

— Shara Kaplin‏ @iamshara

Trump says he's written answers to Mueller questions

President Donald Trump said Friday he was personally crafting the answers to special counsel Robert Mueller and denied he was agitated by the state of the probe.

www.cnn.com|Maegan Vazquez, CNN

"I write the answers. My lawyers don't write answers. I write answers. I was asked a series of questions. I've answered them very easily -- very easily. I'm sure they're tripped up, because you know they like to catch people,"

— president Donald J Trump  #RussiaGate #TRE45ON