Posted on 01/08/2019 6:29:25 AM PST by yesthatjallen
Attorneys for President Trump’s former campaign chairman Paul Manafort appear to have missed a court-ordered deadline to reply to special counsel Robert Mueller’s accusations that Manafort breached a plea agreement by lying to federal prosecutors.
A filing responding to the claims was due Monday, but the midnight deadline came and went without any submission appearing on the court’s docket. This could mean Manafort’s attorneys either missed the deadline or filed the entire document under seal, though attorneys normally would announce their intention to do so and the docket would reflect that.
Manafort’s attorneys did not respond to a request for more information following the lapse of the deadline.
Mueller in November accused Manafort of lying to the FBI and the special counsel’s office on a variety of subject matters, including Manafort's contacts with Trump administration officials; his interactions with an associate who has suspected ties to Russian intelligence; the associate's role in tampering with witnesses; a $125,000 payment made to a firm working for Manafort; and information he provided related to another Justice Department investigation.
In a court hearing in December, Manafort’s attorneys had said they may not contest Mueller’s claims, which they had initially denied.
Prosecutors on Mueller’s team at the time told Judge Amy Berman Jackson, an Obama appointee overseeing Manafort’s case in the federal District Court for the District of Columbia, they were considering bringing new charges against Manafort for the crimes he committed by breaching the deal.
Berman Jackson has scheduled March 5 as a tentative date to sentence Manafort to the two felonies he pleaded guilty to as part of the plea agreement, which allowed him to avoid a second criminal trial in return for his full cooperation in the Muller’s Russia investigation.
Monday’s filing is the latest flashpoint in Manafort’s case and comes well over a year after Mueller first charged him with a series of offenses related to his lobbying on behalf of pro-Russian forces in Ukraine.
A jury in Alexandria, Va., convicted Manafort of eight counts of bank and tax fraud over the summer.
Manafort was viewed as a key witness for Mueller as he investigates Russian election interference in the 2016 elections and possible collusion between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin. But Manafort's cooperation with the probe was short-lived.
It sounds to me like Mannafort better get used to jail food or throw himself on the mercy of the Presidential pardon.
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