Paul Manafort Flips on Trump as Plea Deal Unveiled
The cooperation agreement requires Manafort to participate in interviews, provide documents in his control, testify and agree to delays for his sentencing.
September 14, 2018 at 09:32 AM
4 minute read
The original version of this story was published on National Law Journal
Paul Manafort, the onetime chairman of Donald Trump's presidential campaign, agreed to cooperate with prosecutors Friday as part of a deal in which he pleaded guilty to reduced charges from Special Counsel Robert Mueller III's office, heading off a second trial less than a month after a Virginia jury found him guilty of tax and bank fraud.
The plea deal, read aloud in a Washington, D.C., federal courtroom by Judge Amy Berman Jackson, will require Manafort to participate in interviews, provide documents in his control, testify in grand jury proceedings and agree to delays for his sentencing. Jackson noted that Manafort also agreed to waive the right to have his lawyers present during meetings with prosecutors.
The longtime lobbyist and Republican operative pleaded guilty to two conspiracy counts. The first covered a variety of offenses, including money laundering and failing to disclose his lobbying work for Ukraine to the U.S. Justice Department. The second involved allegations he conspired with associate Konstantin Kilimnik to tamper with witnesses earlier this year.
Manafort, 69, appeared in court Friday with grayer hair and wearing a suit and light purple tie. He admitted to the offenses lead prosecutor Andrew Weissmann outlined from the lectern. Weissmann said Manafort failed to register as a foreign agent in connection with a multimillion-dollar lobbying campaign he led in the United States, even though he knew he was required under the Foreign Agents Registration Act to disclose his activity to the Justice Department.
“He did so intentionally and did so without registering as required by law,” Weissmann said.
After coming under scrutiny by federal authorities for his lobbying activities, Manafort lied to the Justice Department, falsely stating that his work for Ukraine did not involve outreach inside the United States and that his firm did not retain records of communications beyond 30 days. Weissmann added that an attorney helped Manafort with those submissions but was not aware that “what was being sent to the department at the time was false.”
Weissmann did not identify the attorney, whom he described as an “unwitting legal counsel,” but it was a reference to Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld partner Melissa Laurenza, who was ordered in October 2017 to testify before a grand jury convened as part of the special counsel's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.
Manafort has been in a Virginia jail since June. Jackson ordered him detained after prosecutors alleged Manafort and Kilimnik sought to persuade two public relations professionals involved in their Ukrainian lobbying efforts to misrepresent their work as based in Europe, and not the U.S.
Friday's guilty plea came three weeks after he was convicted by a jury in Alexandria, Virginia, on fraud charges, along with one count of failing to disclose a foreign bank account.
Sentencing for those convictions will be delayed, according to the plea agreement.
Additionally, Manafort admitted guilt on Friday to 10 remaining counts that had resulted in a mistrial in Virginia. Jurors could not reach a verdict on those charges, which mostly consist of bank fraud and bank fraud conspiracy charges. Prosecutors have agreed to drop those counts, according to Jackson.
Read the Plea Agreement:
Read more:
This content has been archived. It is available through our partners, LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law.
To view this content, please continue to their sites.
Not a Lexis Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
Not a Bloomberg Law Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
NOT FOR REPRINT
© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
You Might Like
View AllAfter 2024's Regulatory Tsunami, Financial Services Firms Hope Storm Clouds Break
GC Pleads Guilty to Embezzling $7.4 Million From 3 Banks
Trending Stories
- 1The Key Moves in the Reshuffling German Legal Market as 2025 Dawns
- 2Social Media Celebrities Clash in $100M Lawsuit
- 3Federal Judge Sets 2026 Admiralty Bench Trial in Baltimore Bridge Collapse Litigation
- 4Trump Media Accuses Purchaser Rep of Extortion, Harassment After Merger
- 5Judge Slashes $2M in Punitive Damages in Sober-Living Harassment Case
Who Got The Work
Michael G. Bongiorno, Andrew Scott Dulberg and Elizabeth E. Driscoll from Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr have stepped in to represent Symbotic Inc., an A.I.-enabled technology platform that focuses on increasing supply chain efficiency, and other defendants in a pending shareholder derivative lawsuit. The case, filed Oct. 2 in Massachusetts District Court by the Brown Law Firm on behalf of Stephen Austen, accuses certain officers and directors of misleading investors in regard to Symbotic's potential for margin growth by failing to disclose that the company was not equipped to timely deploy its systems or manage expenses through project delays. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Nathaniel M. Gorton, is 1:24-cv-12522, Austen v. Cohen et al.
Who Got The Work
Edmund Polubinski and Marie Killmond of Davis Polk & Wardwell have entered appearances for data platform software development company MongoDB and other defendants in a pending shareholder derivative lawsuit. The action, filed Oct. 7 in New York Southern District Court by the Brown Law Firm, accuses the company's directors and/or officers of falsely expressing confidence in the company’s restructuring of its sales incentive plan and downplaying the severity of decreases in its upfront commitments. The case is 1:24-cv-07594, Roy v. Ittycheria et al.
Who Got The Work
Amy O. Bruchs and Kurt F. Ellison of Michael Best & Friedrich have entered appearances for Epic Systems Corp. in a pending employment discrimination lawsuit. The suit was filed Sept. 7 in Wisconsin Western District Court by Levine Eisberner LLC and Siri & Glimstad on behalf of a project manager who claims that he was wrongfully terminated after applying for a religious exemption to the defendant's COVID-19 vaccine mandate. The case, assigned to U.S. Magistrate Judge Anita Marie Boor, is 3:24-cv-00630, Secker, Nathan v. Epic Systems Corporation.
Who Got The Work
David X. Sullivan, Thomas J. Finn and Gregory A. Hall from McCarter & English have entered appearances for Sunrun Installation Services in a pending civil rights lawsuit. The complaint was filed Sept. 4 in Connecticut District Court by attorney Robert M. Berke on behalf of former employee George Edward Steins, who was arrested and charged with employing an unregistered home improvement salesperson. The complaint alleges that had Sunrun informed the Connecticut Department of Consumer Protection that the plaintiff's employment had ended in 2017 and that he no longer held Sunrun's home improvement contractor license, he would not have been hit with charges, which were dismissed in May 2024. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Jeffrey A. Meyer, is 3:24-cv-01423, Steins v. Sunrun, Inc. et al.
Who Got The Work
Greenberg Traurig shareholder Joshua L. Raskin has entered an appearance for boohoo.com UK Ltd. in a pending patent infringement lawsuit. The suit, filed Sept. 3 in Texas Eastern District Court by Rozier Hardt McDonough on behalf of Alto Dynamics, asserts five patents related to an online shopping platform. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Rodney Gilstrap, is 2:24-cv-00719, Alto Dynamics, LLC v. boohoo.com UK Limited.
Featured Firms
Law Offices of Gary Martin Hays & Associates, P.C.
(470) 294-1674
Law Offices of Mark E. Salomone
(857) 444-6468
Smith & Hassler
(713) 739-1250