Jonathan Ernst / Reuters
Paul Manafort
Special counsel Robert Mueller’s office filed papers late Monday accusing Paul Manafort of attempting to tamper with potential witnesses, asking the court to consider changing his release conditions and whether he should be held in jail.
Prosecutors say that after Manafort learned that a grand jury in Washington, DC, had returned a new version of the indictment against him in late February, he attempted to contact individuals connected to his alleged criminal activity “in an effort to secure materially false testimony.”
“Manafort’s efforts to influence the testimony of potential witnesses, both directly and through an intermediary, threaten ‘the integrity of the trial’ even though those efforts have not been violent in nature and the underlying prosecution involves ‘white-collar’ offenses rather than ‘narcotics’ or violent crimes,” lawyers from the special counsel’s office wrote.
Mueller’s office has asked the judge to hold a hearing to consider whether Manafort’s current terms of release are appropriate, and whether detention is necessary. The government contends that Manafort’s actions violated the conditions of release, triggering a “presumption that no conditions or combination of release conditions will assure the safety of the community and of others.”
“At the same time, Manafort’s obstructive conduct — carried out at a time when he was seeking relief from his current conditions of release — instills little confidence that restrictions short of detention will assure Manafort’s compliance with the Court’s orders and prevent him from committing further crimes,” the special counsel’s office argued.
A spokesman for Manafort declined to comment.
Manafort has been on home confinement since he was originally charged in the fall in the US District Court for the District of Columbia. A federal grand jury in Virginia separately returned an…
