Manafort Lies May Concern Trump Tower Meeting

News  |  Dec 7, 2018

UPDATE: A federal judge has granted Special Counsel Robert Mueller permission to file his Paul Manafort memo largely under seal, meaning we may not learn much about Manafort's alleged lies and why the government pulled its plea agreement. 

CNN

The filing will be first time prosecutors have summarized why and how they believe Manafort breached his plea agreement. Previously, the prosecutors simply told a federal judge Manafort "committed federal crimes by lying" to the FBI and special counsel's office during his cooperation interviews "on a variety of subject matters."

Manafort says he has been truthful over several meetings with the special counsel's office. 

Paul Manafort filing from Mueller to be largely secret (CNN)


Any news coming exclusively from Rudy Giuliani should be taken with a healthy dose of skepticism given his history of lying to the press, but the president's lawyer tells CNN that Special Counsel Robert Mueller believes Paul Manafort is lying about President Trump and the June 9, 2016 meeting at Trump Tower

"In the questioning of Manafort, they did tell them at the time that they believed he was lying about certain things related to us that he's not lying about," Giuliani told CNN.

(...)

According to Giuliani, investigators told Manafort they don't believe that the President did not know about the 2016 Trump Tower meeting that Manafort attended with Donald Trump Jr., Jared Kushner and a Russian attorney who had promised dirt on Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.

Giuliani, who received this information from Manafort's attorneys, accused Mueller's team of crossing the line by trying to force Manafort to say Trump knew about the meeting.

Giuliani claims investigators dangled removing Manafort from solitary confinement as an incentive for him to lie.

Manafort is being held in solitary confinement not as punishment but for his own safety

Giuliani said he only has limited insight into what Manafort told Mueller. Manafort's lawyers only share with Trump's team information that relates to the President.

Giuliani says Mueller has accused Manafort of lying about Trump (CNN)

Manafort in solitary confinement, lawyers say (CBS/AP)