I Think His Arrogance Is Making Him Stupid...
Posted: Tue Jun 05, 2018 8:37 pm
http://www.businessinsider.com/paul-man ... rge-2018-6A federal judge could soon revoke Paul Manafort's bail after Mueller charged him with witness tampering
On Tuesday, a federal judge scheduled a hearing for June 15 about whether to revoke or revise bail for Paul Manafort, the former chairman of President Donald Trump's campaign.
US District Judge Amy Berman Jackson's decision came after the special counsel Robert Mueller's office asked the court to restrict the conditions of Manafort's release in a bombshell motion filed Monday. The reason, the FBI said, was that Manafort had attempted to influence witness testimony in the Russia probe.
FBI special agent Brock Domin said Manafort attempted to communicate via phone and encrypted messaging with two people associated with the Hapsburg Group — a group of former senior European politicians who work to advance Ukraine's interests. They were named in the court filing as Person D1 and Person D2.
Jackson has asked Manafort's lawyers to respond to Mueller's filing by June 8.
"Mr. Manafort is innocent and nothing about this latest allegation changes our defense," Manafort's spokesperson said in a statement to Business Insider on Tuesday. "We will do our talking in court."
In February, the FBI accused Manafort of secretly paying the Hapsburg Group more than 2 million euros, through four different offshore accounts, to lobby on behalf of the Ukrainian government in 2012 and 2013, when it was controlled by the pro-Russian strongman Viktor Yanukovych.
In addition to Manafort, Mueller's office also said another person, denoted in Monday's court filing as "Person A," reached out to witnesses associated with the Hapsburg Group.
While Person A's identity is also not clear, other details provided by the FBI in previous court filings indicate the individual is an associate of Manafort's, and the description bears similarities to that of Konstantin Kilimnik, a Russian-Ukrainian operative who has long been suspected to have ties to Russian intelligence.
Persons D1 and D2 told the FBI that they believed Manafort and Person A reached out to them in an effort to coax them to alter their testimony to line up with Manafort's version of events.
The identities of Person D1 and Person D2 are not clear. But media reports suggest the witnesses could be Romano Prodi, the former prime minister of Italy, and Alfred Gusenbauer, the former chancellor of Austria.
