According to a court filing, a key deputy in the Mueller investigation is facing allegations he leaked information to reporters concerning the Russian collusion investigation:

Paul Manafort’s defense attorney Kevin Downing officially leveled the leaking allegation against key Mueller deputy Andrew Weissmann (photo below) as part of a new legal offensive against Mueller’s indictment of Manafort, who served briefly as Trump’s campaign manager.

Downing charges that a flood of media leaks has prevented his client from getting a fair trial. Downing presiding federal Judge T.S. Ellis III on April 30 to convene a hearing on media leaks. The judge has yet to rule on the request.

In the latest filing, Downing charged that a senior Justice Department official — identified as Weissmann in exhibits attached to the filing — briefed Associated Press reporters in spring 2017, which led to four breaking stories about the government’s investigation into alleged Trump-Russian collusion and Manafort.

“There is strong evidence that the highest-level FBI and intelligence officials authorized leaks to the press and, in fact, leaked themselves,” Manafort’s filing asserted.

According to the filing, a “senior Justice Department prosecutor” met with the AP reporters “last spring to discuss an investigation into Paul Manafort’s financial records, a day before the wire service published a major exposé disclosing alleged money laundering made by the former and now-embattled Trump campaign chairman.” Manafort’s attorneys finger Weissmann as the leaker to the AP meeting.

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