Manafort’s Lawyer Accidentally Exposes New Allegations in Court Filing.

Tuesday unsealed court documents filed on behalf of Paul Manafort, inadvertently revealed that Special Counsel Robert’s Mueller’s Office accused the one-time campaign manager for Donald Trump of sharing 2016 polling data with Russian Nationalist Konstantin Kilimnik, who investigators allege has ties to Russian Intelligence.

Courthouse News explains the “allegations became apparent,” when documents submitted by Manafort’s Attorney Kevin Downing, “made visible sections of the document that were,” meant to be redacted.

Downing, who filed the brief with a D.C., court, was responding to allegations that Mueller’s Office made in November of 2018, when they accused Manaort of breaching the plea agreement after he lied to investigators and the Special Counsel’s Office on a “variety of subjects,” including meetings and conversations with Kilimnik.

Highlights From the Document:

Regarding the Government’s allegation that Manafort lied about his interactions with Kilimnik:

• It is accurate that after the Special Counsel shared evidence regarding Mr. Manafort’s meetings and communications with Konstantin Kilimnik with him, Mr. Manafort recalled that he had – or may have had – some additional meetings or communications with Mr. Kilimnik that he had not initially remembered. (pg. 5)
• The simple fact that Mr. Manafort could not recall, or incorrectly recalled, specific events from his past dealings with Mr. Kilimnik – but often (after being shown or told about relevant documents or other evidence) corrected himself or clarified his responses – does not support a determination that he intentionally lied. (pg. 6)

Regarding the Government’s allegation that Manafort lied about Kilimnik’s role in conspiracy to obstruction justice by contacting Government Witnesses:

• The parties agree that Mr. Manafort pleaded guilty to Count Two of the superseding information, which charged him and Mr. Kilimnik with conspiracy to obstruct justice by attempting to contact two potential government witnesses. (pg. 6)
• Mr. Manafort was asked to agree that Mr. Kilimnik, too, possessed the requisite state of mind to legally establish his guilt. Mr. Manafort balked at this characterization, because he did not believe he could confirm what another person’s internal thoughts or understandings were, i.e., another individual’s state of mind. (pg. 6)
• In fact, he acknowledged his understanding of Mr. Kilimnik’s role in the offense; that is, that he and Mr. Kilimnik agreed with each other to try to contact witnesses so that the witnesses’ views of the facts would be closely aligned with Mr. Manafort’s anticipated defense at trial. (pg. 6/7)

Regarding Manafort’s contacts with the Trump Administration:

• Mr. Manafort was briefly asked several questions related to contacts with the Administration and explained that, although he knew many individuals who had been appointed to positions within the Administration, he did not believe that he had any direct or indirect communications with any of them during the time that those individuals actually served in the Administration. (pg. 8)

There is what appears to be a properly redacted portion of the document that relates to Manafort’s communication with Trump administration officials.

Downing explains in the court filing that Manafort is suffering from ill health, both mentally and physically due to being in solitary confinement.

Downing also explains that at this time, Manafort, “despite,” his “position that he has not made intentional misstatements,” is “not requesting a hearing on the breach issue.”

For what it’s worth: The document is redacted, however, when you use the find search on the internet browser for the words, “polling,” and “data,” they are highlighted behind the redaction.