Paul Manafort’s lawyers on Wednesday strongly disputed claims by prosecutors working for the special counsel that Mr. Manafort repeatedly lied to them, including about the transfer of campaign polling data to a Russian citizen with ties to Kremlin-run intelligence services in spring 2016.

The lawyers argued in a new court filing that the prosecutors had wrongly interpreted honest memory lapses and innocent misstatements by Mr. Manafort as deliberate attempts to deceive them about his interactions with the Russian citizen, Konstantin Kilimnik, who received the polling data in 2016 as Donald J. Trump was closing in on the Republican presidential nomination.

“Failure of memory is not akin to a false statement,” Mr. Manafort’s lawyers said.

If the federal judge in Washington who is overseeing the case, Amy Berman Jackson, decides that Mr. Manafort intentionally misled the prosecutors working for the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, after agreeing to cooperate with them, she would presumably be less likely to show leniency on March 5, when she is to sentence him on two conspiracy charges.

But as a practical matter, Mr. Manafort, 69, stood little chance of receiving less than 10 years for those crimes even before prosecutors accused him of breaching his plea agreement by lying to them about his dealings with Mr. Kilimnik and other matters. He is also awaiting sentencing for eight other felonies.