Manaforts lawyers want Mueller to name alleged accomplices cited in criminal indictment
Last edited Fri Apr 6, 2018, 08:54 PM - Edit history (3)
Source: Washington Post
Lawyers for Paul Manafort, the onetime chairman of Donald Trumps presidential campaign, asked a federal judge Friday to order special counsel Robert S. Mueller III to release the names of alleged accomplices accused of helping Manafort commit crimes.
Manaforts legal team also asked the court to direct Mueller to specify each allegedly false and misleading statement their client is accused of making, including to his tax preparers about his control of foreign bank accounts and to the Justice Department about his alleged lobbying work in 2016. Without that information, Manaforts lawyers said, he cannot adequately prepare for trial.
Among other details that Manforts lawyers want Mueller to disclose are the identifications of people said to have helped him and his business partner engage in an alleged multimillion-dollar lobbying campaign in the United States. Muellers team says the alleged lobbying campaign was carried out at the direction of Ukraines former president Viktor Yanukovych, his pro-Russian Party of Regions and the government of Ukraine.
A spokesman for Mueller declined to comment. The flurry of activity late Friday in the U.S. District Court in Washington came as Manaforts lawyers faced a motions deadline. Muellers legal team has until April 23 to respond.
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/manaforts-lawyers-want-mueller-to-name-alleged-accomplices-cited-in-criminal-indictment/2018/04/06/f3ba6acc-3915-11e8-8fd2-49fe3c675a89_story.html?utm_term=.f4c69bd6e24f
Here is the TPM's take on the story (and by the way, what does "gasping for straws" mean?). Or is that some kind of Freudian slip?
This story includes the filed document:
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/muckraker/manafort-bill-of-particulars-motion
Paul Manafort in a court filing Friday afternoon asked a federal judge to order Special Counsel Robert Mueller to fill in some of the vaguer details of the grand jury indictment against the former Trump campaign chairman.
Manaforts attorneys said they need more particulars about how Manafort caused quoting the most recent indictment against him various allegedly fraudulent activity. They want more specifics about the false statements Manafort allegedly made in preparing his taxes and in interactions with the Justice Department about his foreign lobbying work. They also requested that the special counsel be ordered to name the anonymous accomplices referenced in the indictment, and the unnamed companies that were allegedly involved in Manaforts foreign lobbying scheme.
Without the particulars, which are within the Special Counsels easy reach to provide, the defendant is left gasping for straws and depleting his limited resources, the filing said.
Link to tweet
"Manafort filed a motion for a bill of particulars, which is a way to ask the prosecutors for more detail about the charges in the indictment. Most of these motions fail, and the indictment against Manafort is already very specific."
Link to tweet
"A common refrain in court rulings on Motions for a Bill of Particulars is they may not be used as a substitute for discovery, which is exactly what Manafort seems to be attempting here. In fact, it seems that he would like the prosecutors to sit down & explain the case to him."
= new reply since forum marked as read
suitable defense for Manafort against the charges they're bringing against him. 
