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Paul Manafort ghost-wrote draft of op-ed with colleague thought to have ties to Russian intelligence
Last Updated Dec 4, 2017 5:59 PM EST
Special Counsel Robert Mueller's team says Paul Manafort and a Russian colleague were ghost-writing an English-language editorial about Manafort's work for Ukraine, and that colleague is "assessed to have ties to a Russian intelligence service," according to documents filed by the special counsel.
The government said in a brief that the ghost-written draft op-ed would constitute a violation of the court's order banning statements to the press. U.S. District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson has already reprimanded Manafort's attorney, Kevin Downing, for talking to the media after Manafort appeared in court for his indictment. "This is a criminal trial, not a public relations campaign," she said in November.
It's not clear where Manafort hoped to have the op-ed placed, but just the fact that he wrote it shows he intended to "violate or circumvent" the court's orders, the special counsel argued.
"The editorial clearly was undertaken to influence the public's opinion of Manafort, or else there would be no reason to seek its publication (much less for Manafort and his long-time associate to ghostwrite it in another's name)," the special counsel wrote. "It compounds the problem that the proposed piece is not a dispassionate recitation of the facts."
Just how stupid can one man get?
Last Updated Dec 4, 2017 5:59 PM EST
Special Counsel Robert Mueller's team says Paul Manafort and a Russian colleague were ghost-writing an English-language editorial about Manafort's work for Ukraine, and that colleague is "assessed to have ties to a Russian intelligence service," according to documents filed by the special counsel.
The government said in a brief that the ghost-written draft op-ed would constitute a violation of the court's order banning statements to the press. U.S. District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson has already reprimanded Manafort's attorney, Kevin Downing, for talking to the media after Manafort appeared in court for his indictment. "This is a criminal trial, not a public relations campaign," she said in November.
It's not clear where Manafort hoped to have the op-ed placed, but just the fact that he wrote it shows he intended to "violate or circumvent" the court's orders, the special counsel argued.
"The editorial clearly was undertaken to influence the public's opinion of Manafort, or else there would be no reason to seek its publication (much less for Manafort and his long-time associate to ghostwrite it in another's name)," the special counsel wrote. "It compounds the problem that the proposed piece is not a dispassionate recitation of the facts."
Just how stupid can one man get?
