Lawyers for Trump campaign chair and all around consultant to the world’s greatest torturers Paul Manafort returned to federal court on Friday morning following allegations earlier in the week that Manafort has breached his plea deal by “repeatedly lying” to investigators. As covered live by Buzzfeed reporter Zoe Tillman and NBC producer Charlie Gile the courtroom drama was mostly free of drama, though it did contain at least one big moment that could be … momentous.
Manafort was not present at the hearing, which was intended only for scheduling, not the actual sentencing. Special Counsel Attorney Andrew Weissmann made it official that Robert Mueller believes Manafort to be in breach of his deal, lifting the government from any responsibilities under the deal and subjected Manafort to the full range of charges and sentences on his original indictment. Manafort's attorney Kevin Downing requested more time to look at the government allegations and the implications for his client, including the opportunity to review the information the government is providing to prove that Manafort deliberately lied. Both sides agreed fairly quickly that the government would provide a report on the allegations by December 7—a date that seemed to please Weissmann, Downing, and Federal District Judge Amy Berman Jackson.
The day ended with a minimum of wrangling and only a modest amount of cross-aisle glaring. In fact, there was only one moment that really stood out.
Part of the agreement with Manafort was that, in exchange for his cooperation, the government would not file additional charges related to the matters covered under the arrangement. Judge Jackson asked Weissmann if, now that government contended that Manafort was in breach of that agreement, they would be filing additional charges.
Weissmann: That’s yet to be decided.
If everything the government wanted from Manafort is already on the table—if Rudy Giuliani and Kevin Downing were really ahead of the special counsel’s office—then the idea that more charges might be filed against Manafort is likely a minor threat. However, if the government had more information on Manafort that they had been holding back … say, that he had been involved in planning the Russian hacks and dissemination of information from the very start this would be the point where the government might come forward with a raft of new charges. And for that to happen, Mueller doesn’t have to wait until December 7.