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Mueller to Reveal New Details in Manafort and Cohen Inquiries Manafort Lied About Contacts With Trump Officials, Mueller Says
(about 9 hours later)
WASHINGTON — The special counsel’s office is expected to reveal more details on Friday about separate investigations that have ensnared President Trump’s personal lawyer and his former campaign chairman. WASHINGTON — Federal prosecutors on Friday accused Paul Manafort, President Trump’s former campaign chairman, of lying to them about his contacts with Trump administration officials and other issues, including his interactions with Konstantin V. Kilimnik, a Russian tied to Moscow’s intelligence services.
Federal prosecutors working for the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, will submit a sentencing memorandum in Manhattan federal court outlining how much time Mr. Trump’s former lawyer Michael D. Cohen should spend in prison for admitting he lied to Congress. Mr. Cohen is scheduled to be sentenced next week and has agreed to cooperate with Mr. Mueller’s team as well as prosecutors in Manhattan investigating the president’s inner circle. After signing a plea agreement in September, Mr. Manafort “stated he had no direct or indirect communications with anyone in the administration while they were in the administration and that he never asked anyone to try to communicate a message to anyone in the administration on any subject matter,” prosecutors working for the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, wrote in a memo to Judge Amy Berman Jackson of United States District Court for the District of Columbia.
In the case of Paul Manafort, the former Trump campaign chairman who was convicted of financial fraud and who agreed to cooperate with the special counsel rather than face a second trial, Mr. Mueller’s team has accused him of repeatedly lying to investigators. Prosecutors pulled out of their plea deal with him because, they said, he was repeatedly untruthful. They were expected to disclose details about his falsehoods on Friday. But, they said, Mr. Manafort hid information from them about his contacts with Trump administration officials, telling “multiple discernible lies — these were not instances of mere memory lapses.”
Mr. Mueller’s team has left open the possibility that it could file new charges for lying against Mr. Manafort. Mr. Manafort’s lawyers say he has been honest with prosecutors. They also accused Mr. Manafort of lying about a $125,000 transfer of funds.
Also on Friday, George Papadopoulos, a former Trump campaign foreign policy adviser, is scheduled to be released from federal prison in Wisconsin. Mr. Papadopoulos was sentenced to 14 days after he pleaded guilty to lying to federal investigators about his contacts with Russian intermediaries during the 2016 presidential race. He was the first Trump adviser to be sentenced in the special counsel investigation. Mr. Mueller’s team has left open the possibility that it could file new charges for lying against Mr. Manafort. Mr. Manafort’s lawyers say he believes he was honest during his interviews with them.
Mr. Trump has attacked the special counsel’s investigation into whether any Trump associates conspired with Russia in the 2016 presidential election. He has repeatedly called it a witch hunt and a hoax, including on Friday, in an apparent effort to undermine public perception and trust in the inquiry. Mr. Mueller’s office also filed a recommendation for the sentencing of Michael D. Cohen, Mr. Trump’s former lawyer, alongside a scathing attack from prosecutors in Manhattan who rejected Mr. Cohen’s request to avoid a prison term and accused him of using his power and influence “for deceptive ends.”
On Friday, the president unleashed his frustration in a series of tweets, attacking Mr. Mueller and another key prosecutor on the team, Andrew Weissmann. The prosecutors sought about four years in prison for Mr. Cohen when he is sentenced next week for lying to Congress about the extent of Mr. Trump’s business dealings in Moscow, as well as for campaign finance violations and other charges.
James B. Comey, the former F.B.I. director whom Mr. Trump fired in May 2017, was scheduled to testify privately before Congress after being subpoenaed by Republican lawmakers from the House Judiciary and the Oversight and Government Reform committees. Lawmakers are investigating possible F.B.I. wrongdoing. Once Mr. Trump’s highly trusted aide, Mr. Cohen has met seven times with prosecutors for the special counsel who are investigating Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential election and whether anyone tied to the Trump campaign conspired with the Kremlin-run operation. He also assisted federal prosecutors in New York in an inquiry that focuses on payments to cover up a potential sex scandal that could have ruined Mr. Trump’s chances of becoming president.
Mr. Comey had initially rebuffed attempts to force him to appear behind closed doors but ultimately reached a deal with lawmakers, who agreed to make a transcript of his testimony public. Mr. Trump, who routinely attacks the special counsel’s investigation, continued Friday to try to undermine public trust in the prosecutors. In a series of Twitter messages, he derided Mr. Mueller as a friend of James B. Comey, the former F.B.I. director who said the president fired him in May 2017 after demanding “loyalty.”
The developments cap a busy week for Mr. Mueller’s team. On Tuesday, his prosecutors disclosed that Michael T. Flynn, the president’s former national security adviser, had provided substantial assistance with several investigations. Mr. Flynn was convicted of lying to the F.B.I. about his conversations during the presidential transition with the Russian ambassador to the United States at the time. Mr. Trump also claimed that Andrew Weissmann, a senior prosecutor on Mr. Mueller’s team, had “wrongly destroyed people’s lives” and is “doing the same thing to people now.”
Unlike for Mr. Papadopoulos, prosecutors have asked for little to no prison time for Mr. Flynn, the former general who served more than 33 years in the military, citing his cooperation with the special counsel. Asked why the president was so upset about the special counsel, Roger J. Stone Jr., a friend and fellow critic of Mr. Mueller, said it had dawned on Mr. Trump that the inquiry is not going away, his lawyers’ promises notwithstanding. “He has finally figured out that this is about him,” he said. “I think he has finally woken up.”
Spurred on by the White House, House Republican lawmakers grilled Mr. Comey on Friday on what they claim is a pattern of abuse of power by the F.B.I. Mr. Comey reluctantly agreed to testify behind closed doors after the House Judiciary and Oversight and Government Reform Committees agreed to later release a public transcript of his testimony.
The developments capped a busy week for Mr. Mueller’s team. On Tuesday, his prosecutors disclosed that Michael T. Flynn, the president’s former national security adviser, had provided substantial assistance with several investigations. Mr. Flynn pleaded guilty last year to lying to the F.B.I. about his contacts with the Russian ambassador during the presidential transition.
They took a harsher approach with other defendants, including George Papadopoulos, a former Trump campaign aide who was released Friday from a federal prison in Wisconsin after serving 14 days. After he pleaded guilty to lying to federal investigators about his contacts with Russian intermediaries during the 2016 presidential race, prosecutors asked a judge to sentence him to prison, saying he cooperated only grudgingly.
Caroline Polisi, his lawyer, wrote in an email that Mr. Papadopoulos is “doing well, and looking forward to moving on with his life.”