Manafort Lawyers Dispute Special Counsel's Claims He Lied To Investigators - Court Filing

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 24th January, 2019) Former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort's lawyers dispute evidence from Special Counsel Robert Mueller's Office that allege he lied in his plea deal in the Russia investigation, a court filing revealed.

"Rather, when placed in proper context, much of the evidence presented by the OSC (Special Counsel's Office) merely demonstrates a lack of consistency in Mr. Manafort's recollection of certain facts and events," the document said on Wednesday.

Manafort believes that the evidence the Special Counsel provided does not demonstrate any intentional falsehoods on his part, the document said.

Last week, Mueller submitted a 31-page court filing, penned by FBI agent Jeffrey Weiland, that sought to provide the evidentiary basis that some of Manafort's statements made as part of his plea bargain were false.

The alleged lies include Manafort's denial of having had contacts with Trump administration officials, the nature of a $125,000 payment to a firm working for him and his interactions with former business associate and translator Konstantin Kilimnik with whom he admitted to have conspired.

Mueller is investigating allegations of Trump-Russia collusion in the 2016 US presidential election as well as allegations that Russia interfered in the US political system.

Russia has repeatedly denied interfering, saying the allegations were made up to excuse the election loss of a presidential candidate as well as deflect public attention from actual instances of election fraud and corruption.

Trump has also denied colluding with Russia, frequently calling Mueller's investigation a political witch hunt that has not produced evidence in two years.