President Trump apparently has gotten a window into special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe of Russian election meddling — thanks to a lawyer for Paul Manafort, who has been communicating with Trump’s legal team about the investigation, a report said Tuesday.
In an unusual though not illegal arrangement, Manafort lawyer Kevin Downing talked to the president’s lawyers after Manafort, a former Trump campaign manager, agreed to cooperate with Mueller earlier this year, The New York Times reported.
The talks between legal teams came to light Tuesday amid speculation that Manafort is seeking a pardon from the president.
The discussions have upset the special counsel’s office, the Times said, citing sources.
Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani confirmed to the Times that the two camps were communicating and said Mueller “wants Manafort to incriminate Trump.”
One of the examples Giuliani cited was that Mueller prosecutors have been probing whether the president knew about a June 2016 Trump Tower meeting between Russians and Donald Trump Jr.
The president has claimed he did not know of it beforehand.
Meanwhile, Mueller’s team in court filings Monday said Manafort breached his agreement to cooperate with investigators and now faces a harsher sentence.
The team did not immediately detail what Manafort lied about, saying his “crimes and lies” “on a variety of subject matters” would be revealed later.
Manafort’s legal team disputed Mueller’s claims, saying Manafort believes he was providing “truthful information.” Manafort was found guilty of eight counts of financial fraud after a federal trial in August in Virginia.
He then pleaded guilty in September to conspiring to defraud the US and conspiring to obstruct justice, and, in order to avoid a second trial, agreed to cooperate with Mueller’s investigation.
The charges were connected to Manafort’s work in Ukraine for a Kremlin-connected politician for which he was paid millions of dollars.
Manafort then used off-shore bank accounts to get around paying US taxes on the money.
Manafort, who is being held behind bars, is scheduled to be sentenced on Feb. 8.