UPDATE: Paul Manafort's defense team asked the court Wednesday night for more time to review and reply to Mueller's filing, pointing out the unredacted version contains more than 800 pages of exhibits.
Manafort's team would like to move its reply date from January 18th to January 23rd and says the special counsel's office does not object to this request.
Extension of Time to File Response/Reply, USA v. MANAFORT
Special Counsel Robert Mueller's Tuesday filing explaining how the government knows Paul Manafort has been lying to prosecutors – putting him in breach of his plea agreement – is heavily redacted, but with a little time to read between the black lines, news organizations have been able to decipher some valuable information.
For instance, Mueller appears to remain focused on Manafort's interactions with Konstantin Kilimnik.
CNN:
The 31-page filing gives an unprecedented window into Mueller's work with the grand jury, which is typically secret. It's also the first confirmation from prosecutors that Kilimnik is still central to the grand jury's efforts.
Based on recent filings from Mueller's team, Kilimnik appears to be at the heart of pieces of Mueller's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.
Mueller's filing also shows Manafort's work with Kilimnik on a peace plan for Ukraine, which we learned about from Manafort's attorneys' redaction mistake last week, continued into 2018.
... [A]n exhibit included with the heavily redacted court filing showed that Manafort worked on a Microsoft Word document titled “new initiative for peace” in February 2018 as part of his continuing discussions with Kilimnik.
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Mueller’s team said on Tuesday that Manafort and Kilimnik discussed the Ukraine peace plan in person and in messages from 2 August 2016. Kilimnik has previously said the pair met in New York around that date.
Manafort told prosecutors he had no contact, either directly or indirectly, with the Trump administration, but Mueller's document proves that is a lie.
CNN:
Despite being heavily redacted, some details of the communications are discernable. Manafort tried to get people appointed to the administration at the start of Trump's presidency, according to [Rick] Gates, and was talking to someone whose name is redacted through February 2018 when Gates pleaded guilty.
In May 2018, after he was indicted, Manafort was involved in some outreach to the administration that prosecutors accuse him of lying about.
In addition, prosecutors provided more detail on a text between an unnamed person and Manafort asking if he could mention that he knew Manafort in conversation with the President.
Manafort responded "[y]es" and said it was okay to mention even if not just "one on one" with the President. Manafort's team has downplayed this as a meaningless interaction but prosecutors mention this was a matter discussed at the grand jury.
In a footnote, prosecutors say there are more contacts not mentioned in the filing.
Manafort has provided information, albeit inconsistently, about a separate investigation into something that took place during his tenure with the Trump campaign:
The filing in federal court in Washington asserts that Manafort shifted answers to questions posed by the FBI and Mueller probe investigators, prompting his lawyers to pull him aside on several occasions to review statements.
In one interview with investigators and prosecutors in October 2018, the filing states, Manafort’s attorneys requested a break to speak with Manafort after he contradicted his prior statement — even after his lawyers had shown him a typewritten summary of it.
The statement came in a separate criminal investigation by a U.S. attorney outside the District and described events around an incident that Manafort said occurred before he left the Trump campaign on Aug. 19, 2016, according to information in the new filing.
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Judge Amy Berman Jackson of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia set a Jan. 25 hearing to determine whether Manafort breached a plea deal in which prosecutors agreed to recommend leniency that could slice years from Manafort’s time behind bars if he cooperated fully and truthfully with them.
The longtime Republican consultant already faces a possible maximum 10-year prison sentence in his District case under federal guidelines for conspiring to cheat the IRS, violate foreign-lobbying laws and tamper with witnesses. That time could come in addition to his punishment for the tax and bank fraud charges in Virginia.
Manafort faces sentencing March 5 on the charges in Washington and Feb. 8 on those in Alexandria.
Mueller confirms Kilimnik a focus of grand jury investigation (CNN)
Mueller: Manafort worked with alleged Russian agent even after criminal charges (The Guardian)