Court Reveals Damning Lies That Paul Manafort Told Federal Investigators

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Court filings from the case against former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort have newly been unsealed, providing a look at five areas of his lies to authorities. Manafort has since received a pardon from then-President Donald Trump, but as his case was ongoing, authorities revealed that they believed that he had lied to them “in multiple ways and on multiple occasions.” A newly available set of filings from 2018 and 2019 outline some of this deception. The lies, the government said at the time, covered Manafort’s “interactions with” Russian oligarch Konstantin Kilimnik, “Manafort’s contact with Administration officials” (meaning officials of the then-Trump administration), and more.

As for his communications with Kilimnik — to whom Manafort furnished internal polling data from the Trump campaign — the government said in a filing that Manafort “lied about the fact and frequency of his discussions with Kilimnik about a Ukraine peace plan,” which, authorities revealed, involved the creation of an autonomous region in eastern Ukraine, where the Crimean peninsula (which Russia has taken over) is located. Manafort initially claimed that he only discussed the plan with Kilimnik once, but in fact, the two repeatedly discussed the proposal to the point that they worked on developing a poll of Ukrainians that included questions relating to the plan.

As recapped by the government, Manafort also told authorities following his plea agreement that he had “no direct or indirect communications with anyone in the [Trump] Administration while they were in the Administration” — but that’s simply incorrect. The government found evidence revealing that Manafort had been in contact with officials in the Trump administration, although an initial 2018 filing revealing his lies doesn’t identify the then-officials. The government did say, however, that they had viewed a text exchange in which Manafort “authorized” another individual to speak to an administration official on his behalf. Authorities also found evidence in Manafort’s “electronic documents” of “additional contacts” with then-current officials, according to the filing.

Manafort was not the only corrupt Trump ally who eventually received a pardon from the then-president. Trump also issued pardons for Michael Flynn, Roger Stone, and others. When Manafort received his pardon, he had already been found guilty by a jury and sentenced to time in prison.