Manafort plea deal nullified due to perjury

[CharlesPhipps]

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa- ... SKCN1Q232Y

NEW YORK/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump’s former campaign manager Paul Manafort breached his plea agreement with Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s office by lying to prosecutors about matters which are material to its Russia probe, a federal judge ruled on Wednesday.

The ruling concludes weeks of wrangling between Manafort’s lawyers and the special counsel over whether he had intentionally lied to prosecutors, impeding their investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election and possible collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign.

U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson, who is overseeing the Manafort case in a Washington court, found there was a “preponderance” of evidence that Manafort lied on three different topics, including his communications with his former business partner Konstantin Kilimnik, whom prosecutors say has ties to Russian intelligence. Kilimnik has denied such ties.

Jackson cleared Manafort of allegations that he intentionally lied on two other subjects - Kilimnik’s role in an obstruction of justice charge and statements Manafort made about his contacts with members of the Trump administration.

Nevertheless, the ruling will almost certainly deal a blow to any hopes Manafort had of avoiding an extended term of incarceration. Mueller’s prosecutors are now released from their obligation to support a lighter sentence.

“His sentence has the potential of being very lengthy,” said David Weinstein, a former federal prosecutor in Florida.

The judge found that Manafort lied about his interactions with Kilimnik including about the sharing of polling data on the Trump campaign and their discussions over a “Ukrainian peace plan,” a proposal that envisioned ending U.S. sanctions on Russia - long an important objective of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s government.

A court transcript released last week showed that Mueller’s team believed those lies to be “at the heart” of their investigation into potential collusion, which Trump and Russia have both denied.

In a court filing ahead of Wednesday’s ruling, Manafort’s lawyers repeated their argument that their client never intentionally lied to prosecutors and stressed that he corrected any mistakes once they were pointed out to him.

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

Tough break, they say.

[CharlesPhipps]

Sadly it means any testimony he's given is suspect since he's a perjurer.

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

That's odd. I'd imagine a lot of cases involve people lying to save their own butt, under oath or if just by pleading innocent when guilty. I wouldn't think that anything someone says thereafter isn't considerable.

I guess I've just never heard of that provision. Weird considering how often TV cases involve rats.

Now that I think about it, if a lawyer's failed defense comes off as apparent and utter lying, I'm starting to wonder why they'd even be able to retain a job like that.

[CharlesPhipps]

That's odd. I'd imagine a lot of cases involve people lying to save their own butt, under oath or if just by pleading innocent when guilty. I wouldn't think that anything someone says thereafter isn't considerable.

I guess I've just never heard of that provision. Weird considering how often TV cases involve rats.

Now that I think about it, if a lawyer's failed defense comes off as apparent and utter lying, I'm starting to wonder why they'd even be able to retain a job like that.

Perjury is a very serious crime as it basically renders any testimony you've given completely worthless as you're a proven liar. When you lie under oath like this, it nullifies any sort of deal you might have made and means the maximum penalty for whatever crimes you've committed is liable to be levied.

Manafort's only hope now is a pardon.

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

That's odd. I'd imagine a lot of cases involve people lying to save their own butt, under oath or if just by pleading innocent when guilty. I wouldn't think that anything someone says thereafter isn't considerable.

I guess I've just never heard of that provision. Weird considering how often TV cases involve rats.

Now that I think about it, if a lawyer's failed defense comes off as apparent and utter lying, I'm starting to wonder why they'd even be able to retain a job like that.

Perjury is a very serious crime as it basically renders any testimony you've given completely worthless as you're a proven liar. When you lie under oath like this, it nullifies any sort of deal you might have made and means the maximum penalty for whatever crimes you've committed is liable to be levied.

Manafort's only hope now is a pardon.

Hmm yeah not sure what I was thinking. When Mueller's investigation was brought up here I just kind of imagined him as a detective, in which case people lie to them all the time. So I guess I wasn't really expecting perjury to come about.

Usually I associate perjury with people that are willingly cooperating with the state, so I see the severity there, though I'm just not familiar with how a suspect succumbs to perjury.

[CharlesPhipps]

Hmm yeah not sure what I was thinking. When Mueller's investigation was brought up here I just kind of imagined him as a detective, in which case people lie to them all the time. So I guess I wasn't really expecting perjury to come about.

Usually I associate perjury with people that are willingly cooperating with the state, so I see the severity there, though I'm just not familiar with how a suspect succumbs to perjury.

Well in the case of Manafort, he was arrested for all the evidence of the crimes he did.

Then Manafort made a deal to roll on other people (probably including the President).

Then he started lying about a bunch of these people (probably including the President).

He's also been kicked down from a very nice minimum security "luxury prison" with his own gym to a general prison cell because he's withheld information and violated terms of his deal before.

His behavior is, honestly, manifestly stupid and very rare.

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

K that's making sense. It was coming off as a bit of a porous investigation system somehow, though I guess if it was only based on spoken testimony and no smoking gun or anything, then yeah what you gonna do?

[CharlesPhipps]

It'll be interesting given other campaign officials like Roger Stone and longtime workers Cohen.