Rosalind S. Helderman and Spencer S. Hsu
The Sydney Morning Herald
DECEMBER 5 2017
Trump Campaign Manager and registered foreign agent Paul Manafort
Washington: Donald Trump's former campaign chief Paul Manafort has apparently come up with a novel way to try to salvage his reputation amid money laundering and conspiracy charges. As recently as last week, Manafort was ghost-writing an editorial with a longtime colleague with ties to a Russian intelligence agency, which sought to put a positive spin on his work for the Ukrainian government, according to prosecutors for Special Counsel Robert Mueller. The piece flouts a judge's order "to not try the case in the press" and is grounds for denying Manafort's bid for freedom from house arrest, prosecutors wrote in a court filing Monday. "Even if the ghostwritten op-ed were entirely accurate, fair and balanced, it would be a violation of this court's November 8 order if it had been published," prosecutors said, adding that the proposed opinion piece was "not a dispassionate recitation of the facts". Federal prosecutors working for Mueller revealed the plan as they withdrew their support for a joint bail deal filed last week that would have released Manafort from home detention and GPS monitoring while he awaits trial on charges including money laundering and fraud. Manafort, 68, and his longtime deputy, Rick Gates, 45, have both pleaded not guilty to charges filed on October 30.
In the four-page filing Monday, prosecutor Andrew Weissman urged the judge to reject the bail deal. They said Manafort worked on the draft as recently as last week with "a long-time Russian colleague . . . who is currently based in Russia and assessed to have ties to a Russian intelligence service." They indicated they would file further supporting evidence under seal. The Russian colleague was not identified in court papers. However, Manafort has had a long-standing Russian employee named Konstantin Kilimnik who ran Manafort's office in Kiev during the 10 years he did consulting work there. The piece "clearly was undertaken to influence the public's opinion of defendant Manafort," prosecutors wrote, noting there would be no other reason for Manafort and the colleague to have it published under someone else's name. On Monday, the special counsel asked US District Judge Amy Berman Jackson either to reject the deal, keeping Manafort under home confinement pending further negotiations, or impose additional restrictions, including making the $US10 million forfeitable for other breaches of the terms and requiring Manafort to remain under GPS monitoring.