Paul Manafort’s lawyers submitted by accident a document in court which suggests that the FBI investigators had an informant inside President Trump’s former campaign chairman consulting firm. Looks like a reporter obtained access to internal information from Davis Manafort Partners International which led to this discovery.
According to Politico, the document looked like it’s prepared by someone working to support a claim of improper contact between prosecutors and the media.
“In the Winter of 2017 (sic 2016) employee of DMI—CS-1 permitted the reporter to view material on a hard drive copy of DMI’s electronic files. Government obtained warrant for the hard drive,” the document says.
The Hill reports that the document does not identify the journalist, citing an Associated Press report that mentions a receipt of payment to Manafort discovered by anti-corruption investigators in Ukraine. Manafort spokesman Jason Maloni refused to give any comments on the memo.
“Financial records newly obtained by The Associated Press confirm that at least $1.2 million in payments listed in the ledger next to Manafort’s name were actually received by his U.S. consulting firm,” said the AP story that was published by reporters Jack Gillum, Chad Day and Jeff Horwitz.
Politico also reported that the same seizure warrant affidavit and the notes filed by Manafort’s defense team show that The Associated Press gave Maloni copies of two memos Manafort wrote to a Ukrainian oligarch in 2005 about his work for Ukraine’s Party of Regions. The defense filing suggests the memos came from one of the reporters who wrote the April 12 AP story.
Manafort was charged by Mueller for several charges including conspiracy against the United States, tax fraud, and money laundering.
Special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian election meddling and possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Moscow has managed to bring a dozen charges against close associates of Trump’s campaign officials.
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