Mueller Believes Manafort Shared 2016 Polling Data With Alleged Russian Intel Agent

Moments ago, a court filing was unsealed in the case alleging that Paul Manafort had violated his plea agreement by lying to federal agents. Manafort’s attorneys redacted several key parts of the filing, but appear to have made an error by allowing the redacted portions to still be read online.

While some of the redacted information was not a big deal, there was one section of the failed redaction that appears to shed light on Mueller’s understanding of Manafort’s roll in the 2016 presidential election.

The second portion of the failed redaction reads:

In fact, during a proffer meeting held with the Special Counsel on September 11, 2018, Mr. Manafort explained to the Government attorneys and investigators that he would have given the Ukrainian peace plan more thought, had the issue not been raised during the period he was engaged with work related to the presidential campaign. Issues and communications related to Ukrainian political events simply 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. 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. (See Doc. 460 at 6).

Konstantin Kilimnik, is a Russian-Ukrainian political consultant and is suspected by the FBI as being a Russian intelligence operative. Kilimnik has also already been charged by Mueller with witness tampering.

The failed redaction clearly shows that investigators believe Manafort lied to them about his ties to the alleged intel operative working for the Kremlin. While it is unknown if the 2016 polling data was related to the Trump campaign, the fact that Manafort was the chairman of the Trump campaign during 2016, certainly doesn’t bode well for those still denying that there was no collusion between the campaign and Russia. While the redactions don’t specifically mention the Trump campaign by name, they do mention the “2016 presidential campaign.”