In an insufficiently redacted court filing on Tuesday, lawyers for Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman indicated that he may have provided presidential polling data to an associate Special Counsel Robert Mueller has alleged is a Russian spy.
A block of redacted text—revealed once cut and pasted—pushes back against Mueller’s December allegation that Paul Manafort lied to prosecutors in violation of his cooperation agreement by saying that various issues “were not at the forefront of Mr. Manafort’s mind during the period at issue and it is not surprising at all that Mr. Manafort was unable to recall specific details prior to having his recollection refreshed.”
Manafort’s attorneys continued in text intended to be blacked out: “The same is true with regard to the Government’s allegation that Mr. Manafort lied about sharing polling data with Mr. Kilimnik related to the 2016 presidential campaign.” Konstantin Kilimnik, a business associate of Manafort’s, was described as having “ties to a Russian intelligence service and had such ties in 2016,” in a Mueller filing from March; another defendant claims Manafort’s ex-business partner and co-defendant Rick Gates acknowledged Kilimnik as a “former Russian intelligence officer with the GRU.”
Throughout Tuesday’s filing, Manafort’s attorneys claim that their client did not lie to Mueller’s team, but merely misremembered pertinent details that he promptly corrected after prosecutors showed Manafort contradictory information. They said Manafort suffers from anxiety and depression and suggested his mental health behind bars impacted his memory.
—Spencer Ackerman
