By Chris Sommerfeldt
New York Daily News
Special counsel Robert Mueller called on a federal Washington, D.C., judge on Monday to revoke Paul Manafort’s release conditions, saying the embattled former Trump campaign chairman has attempted to influence potential witnesses while out on bail.
If approved by Judge Amy Berman Jackson, the explosive motion from Mueller’s team could land Manafort back in house arrest, or even behind bars, as he awaits two separate trials on a laundry list of charges relating to his shady business dealings in Ukraine.
A spokesman for Manafort, 69, declined to comment when reached by the New York Daily News on Monday evening.
Mueller charges that Manafort has attempted to “influence the testimony” of two potential witnesses in the special counsel’s investigation into possible collusion between President Donald Trump’s campaign and the Russian government.
The two witnesses, who are only identified as “Persons D1 and D2,” served as intermediaries between Manafort and the Hapsburg group, a public relations company that attempted to lobby the U.S. government on behalf of the pro-Kremlin Ukrainian Viktor Yanukovych regime, according to Mueller.
Mueller filed a superseding indictment against the Hapsburg group and Manafort on Feb. 23, alleging Manafort violated federal laws by not registering as a lobbyist for the Ukrainian government.
Since that indictment, Mueller alleges that Manafort has on multiple occasions tried to get in touch with the two unnamed intermediaries to relay a message to members of the Hapsburg group: “they should say that their lobbying and public relations work was exclusively in Europe.”
Mueller charges this constitutes an attempt on Manafort’s part to secure “materially false testimony.”
Manafort’s outreach attempts were primarily made via encrypted messaging applications, according to Mueller.
The longtime political consultant, who headed Trump’s campaign between June and August 2016, has been out on $10 million bail since he was first indicted in October.
Manafort has pleaded not guilty to all charges, which includes conspiracy against the U.S., money laundering, bank and wire fraud. He’s slated to go on trial in Washington on Sept. 17.
Trump has recently tried to distance himself from his beleaguered former campaign head, tweeting on Sunday that “Manafort came into the campaign very late and was with us for a short period of time.”
