CNN: Manafort worked on op-ed with Russian while out on bail, prosecutors say
Washington (CNN)Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort was ghostwriting an op-ed while out on bail last month with a Russian who has ties to the Russian intelligence service, Justice Department Special Counsel Robert Muller's team said Monday.
In a new filing Monday afternoon, Mueller's investigators said Manafort was working on an editorial in English as late as last Thursday and that it related to his political work for Ukraine, which factored into his money-laundering and foreign lobbying criminal charges.
The filing asks for the court to revisit a bail agreement Mueller's office and Manafort's lawyers made jointly last week. The court had not yet approved a change to his $10 million unsecured bail and house arrest.
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Update: Manafort’s recent Russian contact endangers bail deal (Washington Times)
WNU Editor: Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort is under a gag order .... so yes, this is a violations of his bail conditions.
1 comment:
"The government was already going to ask that the Court “make the bond forfeitable upon a breach of any condition of the defendant’s release, not just his failure to appear (a provision that is on the Court’s standard form but is not checked off in the submission made by the defense),” something that, it seemed, Manafort was already trying to pull a fast one to avoid.
In other words, there’s a good chance that the next time Manafort violates the Courts conditions, he’ll lose a house.
But that’s not the part I’m most amused about here. It’s the way in which the government revealed it knew about the op-ed, with first the call to his counsel, the notice it was rethinking the adequacy of his bail proposal, the with this description in the court filing (which predictably instantly lit up cable news).
As a surveillance wonk, this is the question I most want answered: how did the government find out about this op-ed, and what thought process went into revealing that it had found out? After all, if it was to be ghost-written, Manafort intended to hide that he had written it. But he has to know he’s wired up with surveillance like a Christmas tree. So via what means was Manafort collaborating with his Russian intelligence friend?"
https://www.emptywheel.net/2017/12/05/via-what-surveillance-intercepts-is-the-government-chasing-manaforts-ghost-writing/
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