The U.S. special counsel's probe into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election is focusing on a meeting by Donald Trump's then-campaign chairman and a business associate who prosecutors say has ties to Russian intelligence.
"The Office of Special Counsel contends that Mr. Manafort lied about the number of times they discussed it, that he and Mr. Kilimnik had not just discussed it once on August 2nd, 2016, but also in December of 2016; in January 2017, in person, in Washington, D.C., when Kilimnik was here for the inauguration; in February of 2017, including in person on [REDACTED]; and even in the winter of 2018", Weissmann said, according to the transcript.
In the same court documents, Manafort's defense counsel wrote that their client "discussed a Ukraine peace plan with Mr. Kilimnik on more than one occasion", but details of the alleged plan and the timeframe in which Manafort and Kilimnik discussed it were not described.
At one point in the discussion, Weissmann describes how Manafort told prosecutors that his topic of discussion with Kilimnik was a "backdoor [REDACTED]. and because of that, he was not going to countenance it".
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At the hearing, attorneys discussed whether Manafort may have been motivated to lie in one unspecified instance "to at least augment his chances for a pardon", the transcript states. They also revealed that in 2017 and 2018- years when Manafort was under federal investigation and later indictment for his work in Ukraine- he arranged for polling in the country on behalf of an unnamed Ukrainian political figure.
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While many conservative critics of the investigation - most notably Trump - have dismissed the idea that there was any "collusion", criminal or otherwise, between the campaign and Russia's efforts to interfere in the election, the special counsel's office made clear in the hearing that it is still interested in these questions. It makes clear that prosecutors have homed in on the repeated contacts between Manafort and his longtime associate, Konstantin Kilimnik, who the Federal Bureau of Investigation says has ties to Russia's military intelligence agency.
Kilimnik told the Washington Post that his meeting with Manafort on August 2 was "in no way related to politics or [the] presidential campaign in the U.S".
Jackson is set to sentence Manafort on March 13 for two conspiracy counts. Gates also spoke to investigators about Manafort sharing the polling data, according to the transcript.
President Trump's former campaign manager Paul Manafort has some big problems.
At the hearing, Weissmann also said that prosecutors believe that Manafort was lying about a $125,000 payment. The New York Times has reported the payment involved Manafort's use of money from a pro-Trump political action committee to help pay his legal bills.
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