WASHINGTON ― An attorney for Paul Manafort, the former Trump campaign manager facing a variety of federal charges, argued Thursday that ghostwriting an op-ed with a business partner linked to Russian intelligence doesn’t violate a court order, and that in fact, a ban on such activity would be unconstitutional. Prosecutors working for Special Counsel Robert Mueller alleged earlier this week that Manafort was “ghostwriting an editorial” with “a long-time Russian colleague of Manafort’s, who is currently based in Russia and assessed to have ties to a Russian intelligence service.” Talking Points Memo obtained and published a draft of the op-ed, which was intended to be published by the Kyiv Post. The editor of the Kyiv Post called the piece “blatantly pro-Manafort.”Manafort is currently on house arrest as he works out a bail package. U.S. District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson, who is overseeing the case, had challenged Manafort to explain how his behavior wasn’t a violation of her prior order to “refrain from making statements to the media or in public settings that pose a substantial likelihood of material prejudice to this case.”Just before the court’s deadline on Thursday, Manafort’s lawyer filed a memo stating that Mueller’s team “misreads the breadth” of the order, and arguing there “has been no violation of the Order and no basis for the Government’s withdrawal of its consent to the modified bail package.”Additionally, the government’s interpretation of the order, wrote attorney Kevin Downing, “would unconstitutionally vitiate Mr. Manafort’s rights to defend himself and his reputation, and to correct the public record.”

Source: Huffington Post December 07, 2017 22:52 UTC