Posted on 11/27/2018 6:42:41 PM PST by yesthatjallen
Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort's attorney repeatedly spoke with the president's lawyers about discussions with federal investigators after Manafort agreed to cooperate with special counsel Robert Mueller, The New York Times reported Tuesday.
Rudy Giuliani, who represents Trump in the special counsel's investigation, confirmed the arrangement to the newspaper and argued that the conversations provided valuable insight.
Giuliani said Manafort's lawyer, Kevin Downing, relayed that investigators pressed Manafort on what Trump knew about the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting between Trump campaign associates and a Russian lawyer who had promised dirt on then-Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.
He wants Manafort to incriminate Trump, Giuliani claimed to The Times, referring to Mueller.
Trump's legal team has maintained a joint defense agreement with witnesses in Mueller's investigations, including Manafort. However, it is uncommon for those agreements to continue after a witness reaches a plea agreement with prosecutors, The Times reported.
Downing did not respond to a request for comment from The Times.
Mueller's team said in a court filing on Monday night that Manafort had violated the terms of his plea agreement by lying to federal prosecutors about a number of topics.
Muellers team asked the judge in Manafort's case to schedule a date for sentencing.
Manafort was convicted on eight counts of bank and tax fraud over the summer in a case in Northern Virginia. He agreed to cooperate with Mueller in September to avoid a second, separate federal trial in Washington, D.C., but now faces jail time if he is found to have lied to prosecutors.
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters that she was unaware of discussions about a possible pardon for Manafort.
In an interview with The Washington Post on Tuesday, Trump declined to speak about Manafort's situation on the record. He told the newspaper that he had "no intention" of curtailing the special counsel's investigation, despite his repeated verbal attacks against Mueller.
The president, who regularly decries the Mueller investigation as a "witch hunt," lambasted the special counsel on Tuesday morning as a "conflicted prosecutor gone rogue," and later referred to his probe as a "disgrace."
In addition to Manafort, Mueller's investigation has implicated former Trump associates Michael Flynn, George Papadopoulos and Richard Gates. The special counsel has also obtained indictments against more than 20 Russian nationals.
Why now?
I’m pretty sure Klintoon did the same with the other targets in the the Whitewater investigation.
I see nothing legally improper here. Fake media will pretend there is, of course.
Me anonymous source says: Panic in DC.
And?
My God, Manafort played Mueller. Just like Whitey Bulger did.
Well, gee! This is exactly what competent defense attorneys DO! Malpractice to not discuss the lay of the land with similarly situated suspects/defendants.
Nothing improper at all here. Mueller can’t have EVERYTHING his own way. Tough.
Freedom of speech. First Amendment. Look it up.
If he wants to nail Manafort he’ll have to get him convicted by his buddies at the state level — where a presidential pardon can’t help him.
Is that you, Tonto?
Unless the judge ordered a ban on all communications, this seems like fair game. The Muller team is sure making a lot of money in light of their competence.
Read the last line of this article. That’s where the FAKE NEWS/DISINFORMATION by Brett Samuels, of the leftist The Hill, puts their collective bias in.
He wrote “In addition to Manafort, Mueller’s investigation has implicated (names)... but they had nothing to do with “Russian Collusion”, Mueller’s original authorized investigation.
Bad memory on the part of Flynn, Manafort re taxes, Papadopoulous being setup and entrapped by a perjury trap, Cohe re taxes”.
That is how the Left sticks their biases into a story that concerns something else.
The Hill, which once was a reasonable paper, has NO Honor or Honesty left in its writings despite publishing a few decent conservative writers.
When you piss into the punch, the bad taste dominates the other taste.
This is hilarious. Muellers group starts asking all sorts of questionsand its like Rudys team is in the room.
Mueller is stupid.
That money the Mueller team is making comes from you and I: the taxpayer.
If you think about it...because of the mounting issues for Rosenstein...Trump has him wrapped up and he’s going to do anything that the Trump requests. So they get data via Manafort and Rosenstein.
On some wall in the White House, there’s probably an entire layout of the charges, the questions, and the strategy of Mueller. This whole thing has become some bogus theatrical effort with no real ‘fat lady singing’ at the end. I don’t think Manafort will ever get a single day in any prison.
Trump and company are being smart and the NYT hates that...no hiding or illegal activity involved....
Mine says, EXTREME PANIC IN [DC].
He wants Manafort to incriminate Trump,
As in, if you say what I want to hear, I will make your life a lot sweeter.
The lawyer collaboration is perfectly legal.
Also, it can lay to rest the fiction that Mueller is an upstanding, noble minded, incorruptible dude.
The man is a snake and has been a snake for a long time.
However, Trey Gowdy has assured us that he will NEVER criticize Mueller, as he gets ready to really, I mean this time, after two long years of dithering and fan dancing, REALLY, damn it to hell, nail Comey to the wall.
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