Paul Manafort, former chairman of US President Donald Trump’s election campaign, intentionally lied to investigators and a federal grand jury in the special counsel’s Russia probe, a judge ruled on Wednesday.
US District Judge Amy Berman Jackson’s decision was another loss for Manafort, a once-wealthy political consultant who rose to lead Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign and now faces years in prison in two criminal cases filed in US Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation.
The four-page ruling hurts Manafort’s chance of receiving a reduced sentence, although Jackson said that she would decide the exact effects during his sentencing next month.
It also resolves a dispute that had provided new insight into how Mueller views Manafort’s actions as part of the broader probe into Russian election interference and any possible coordination with Trump associates.
Prosecutors have made clear that they remain deeply interested in Manafort’s interactions with a man the FBI has said has ties to Russian intelligence.
However, it was unclear what has drawn their attention and whether it relates to election interference, as much of the dispute has played out in secret court hearings and redacted court filings.
In her ruling, Jackson provided few new details, as she found that there was sufficient evidence to say Manafort broke the terms of his plea agreement by lying about three of five matters that prosecutors had singled out.
The ruling was largely a rejection of Manafort’s attorneys’ argument that he had not intentionally misled investigators, but rather forgot some details until his memory was refreshed.
The judge found that Manafort did mislead the FBI, prosecutors and a federal grand jury about his interactions with Konstantin Kilimnik, the codefendant who the FBI has said has ties to Russian intelligence.
Prosecutors had accused Manafort of lying about several discussions the two men had, including about a possible peace plan to resolve the Russia-Ukraine conflict in Crimea.
Jackson found that in addition to his interactions with Kilimnik, there was sufficient evidence that Manafort had lied about a payment to a law firm representing him and about an undisclosed US Department of Justice investigation.
However, prosecutors failed to show Manafort intentionally lied about Kilimnik’s role in witness tampering or about Manafort’s contacts with the Trump administration in 2017 and last year, Jackson said.
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