It’s often been observed that special counsel Robert Mueller, assigned to investigate alleged Trump-Russia collusion in the 2016 presidential campaign, has yet to charge anyone with a crime involving Trump-Russia collusion in the 2016 presidential campaign.
The biggest of Mueller’s indictments, that of one-time Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, has no connection at all to collusion. And until a few days ago, it appeared to have no connection to Donald Trump, either.
Now, though, Mueller has revealed why he believes the Manafort prosecution is related to the 2016 Trump campaign. It’s a small part, a very small part, of the overall charges against Manafort. And it has nothing to do with any actions by the candidate — now the president — himself.
Mueller’s revelation came in an argument he is having with the Manafort defense over what subjects can and cannot be discussed in front of jurors in Manafort’s upcoming trial. (Manafort is charged in both Virginia and the District of Columbia with various counts of bank fraud, tax evasion and failure to register as a representative of foreign interests; the Virginia trial is scheduled to begin later this month.) – READ MORE
[divider][/divider]Two FBI memos obtained by the legal team of President Trump’s former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, appear to indicate that Justice Department officials exchanged information about their probe with Associated Press reporters, Politico reports. While Manafort’s lawyers are attempting to argue that the reporters were leaked information about the investigation during the April 2017 meeting, violating Justice Department policies and possibly the law, the AP reporters also apparently gave the FBI information in return — including the access code for a storage unit where Manafort kept records of his business dealings.
Manafort has been accused of financial crimes, like conspiracy to launder money, as well as conspiracy against the United States. He was jailed in June 2018 over witness tampering, and is now reportedly in solitary confinement at a jail in Virginia.
Both of the FBI memos claim that investigators learned the access code for Manafort’s storage unit from the reporters, although one memo said the reporters did not share the number or location of the storage unit. One of the memos’ authors, Jeff Pfeiffer, has testified that the information from the reporters possibly led to their discovery of the locker. – READ MORE
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