Lawyers for the former head of Trump's headquarters accidentally declassified details about his ties with Russia

Former head of the election headquarters of Donald Trump, Paul Manafort, transmitted sociological data related to the presidential elections in the United States to his business partner from Russia, Konstantin Kilimnik. He is in the United States suspected of having links with Russian intelligence. Details about Manafort's connections with Kilimnik were revealed because of the mistake of the lawyers of the political consultant.

Photo: CBS News screenshot

On Tuesday, the defense of Manafort sent its position to the DC court regarding the allegations that their client had violated the terms of the deal with the investigator, having lied during interrogations.

Defense attorneys say all of Manafort's "false statements" were "unintentional."

The fact that Manafort lied to investigators and thus lost the right to commutation of sentences was announced in November by the office of Special Prosecutor Robert Muller, who is investigating Russia's alleged interference in the presidential election of 2016 of the year and Trump's possible deal with the Kremlin.

In December, Mueller released documents that partially revealed what Manafort tried to hide from investigators. Kilimnik was mentioned there - according to the special prosecutor's office, Manafort did not talk about one of the meetings with him.

However, the part of the documents where Muller described in detail the alleged lieutenant of a political consultant was classified.

On Tuesday, the hidden information became available to the public. The defense apparently formatted the court document incorrectly, and classified portions were visible—the retouched text could be copied and read in another program. (The Air Force has the document with the secret part revealed).

On Tuesday, Manafort’s attorneys didn’t respond to calls from the Air Force.

Manafort passed the data of opinion polls to Kilimnik

It turned out that Special Prosecutor’s Office Muller accuses the former head of Trump’s headquarters of allegedly passing sociological data from the United States to his business partner Konstantin Kilimnik from Russia during the 2016 presidential campaign of the year. Manafort, according to the special prosecutor, hid this fact. The defense of the political technologist claims that he simply forgot about it.

“The mere fact that Mr. Manafort could not remember or misremembered certain episodes of his relationship with Mr. Kilimnik, but often (after being shown relevant documents or other evidence) clarified his answers, does not prove that he was intentionally lying,” - said his defenders.

The phrase, “This also applies to the Government's claim that Mr. Manafort lied about sharing polling data related to the 2016 presidential campaign with Mr. Kilimnik,” should have remained hidden, but accidentally became public knowledge.

Manafort discussed with Kilimnik a plan to resolve the conflict with Ukraine

Another episode that the lawyers accidentally declassified was information that Manafort discussed a plan for a peaceful settlement of the Ukrainian conflict with Kilimnik and met with him in Madrid.

Previously it was only known that Muller accuses Manafort of trying to hide one of the meetings of the political consultant with Kilimnik.

“After being shown the documents, Mr. Manafort “admitted” that he had discussed or may have discussed the Ukraine peace plan with Mr. Kilimnik on more than one occasion (..) After being informed that Mr. Kilimnik came to Madrid on that On the same day that Mr. Manafort was in Madrid, Mr. Manafort “admitted” that he and Mr. Kilimnik had met while they were both in Madrid,” a phrase that was classified in the Mueller documents but was mistakenly revealed by the spin doctor’s lawyers. They cited Mueller's memo, noting that their client had extensive travel, countless meetings and email exchanges, and was "often unable to remember details."

Kilimnik Special Prosecutor Muller suspects in connection with Russian intelligence. The media called him "Manafort's right-hand man" and "Manafort's own Manafort." The political strategist himself called Kilimnik his “Russian brain” - he was a contact person in Manafort’s negotiations with Russian businessman Oleg Deripaska during the 2016 presidential campaign.

What happens to the Manafort affair?

Manafort is a participant in the most famous case of contacts between Trump’s entourage and people who could represent the interests of Russia.

In June 2016, at the height of the election campaign, he went to a meeting with Russian lobbyists and lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya. The meeting was also attended by the son of the future president, Donald Trump Jr., and Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner.

The intermediary who organized the meeting wrote to Trump Jr. that Veselnitskaya was going to bring “dirt on Hillary” [Clinton is a presidential candidate from the rival US Democratic Party] to this meeting.

Manafort made a deal with Special Prosecutor Muller in the fall. He pleaded guilty to conspiracy against US money laundering, tax fraud, hiding foreign bank accounts, violating the rules of registration as a foreign agent (talking about his work on the ex-president of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych), and perjury and pressure on witnesses.

In exchange for commutation of the sentence, Manafort should have told the team of investigators led by Mueller about a possible Trump team collusion with the Kremlin. The investigation accused him of lying and violating the terms of the deal.

“Manafort lied significantly on numerous occasions—this was not an accident and these were not lapses of memory,” Mueller’s team said in December.

Now the former head of Trump's campaign faces up to 10 years in prison in the case of Russian interference. However, in another case - bank fraud and tax evasion - he could receive seven years in prison.

Gout, Depression and Wheelchair

Manafort has been in prison since June 15. In a statement released on Tuesday, the lawyers noted that the conditions of detention of the 69-year-old political strategist “caused damage to his physical and mental health.”

“To take just one example, Mr. Manafort has been suffering for months from severe gout, which at times has confined him to a wheelchair. He also suffers from depression and anxiety and, due to restrictions on family visits, has very little contact with his family,” the political strategist said in a statement of defense.

Trump has previously said several times in the media that he might pardon Manafort. He constantly calls the “Russian investigation” itself a “witch hunt.” The President stated that he could close it completely.

From time to time he comments on Twitter with the words “THERE WAS NO COLLUSION.”

Russia denies all allegations of interference, Russian President Vladimir Putin calls them invented.

Read also on ForumDaily:

From false testimony to ties with Russia: for what trump’s close associates face jail

Advisor trump told the interrogation of the death of a Russian official

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