Manafort facing obstruction of justice charge News
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Manafort facing obstruction of justice charge

Prosecutors added new obstruction of justice charges [superseding indictment, PDF] Friday against President Donald Trump’s former campaign manager Paul Manafort, his third indictment since Special Counsel Robert Mueller was appointed to probe into possible Russian influence in US political affairs.

The charges also include the addition of a new defendant—Konstantin Kilimnik, a Russian partner of Manafort’s—for trying to persuade witnesses to lie to the jury.

The grand jury says that Manafort and Kilimnik worked together to “knowingly and intentionally attempt[] to corruptly persuade” witnesses in official proceedings, and the two worked together to assemble teams that would advocate for the former Ukraine president Viktor Yanukovych.

A hearing has been scheduled in the US District Court for the District of Columbia [official website] for June 15.

These new charges come in addition to two other indictments: the first [JURIST report] in October for conspiracy to launder money, making false statements, and conspiracy against the US; and the second [JURIST report] in February for false individual income tax returns, failure to file reports of foreign bank and financial accounts, bank fraud, and others.

On Monday, Special Counsel Robert Mueller filed a motion accusing Manafort of using an encrypted messaging application to tamper with a witness [JURIST report].