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Lawyers for ex-Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort are raising questions about whether the "grand jury secrecy" was violated and revealing memos that the reporters even offered investigators " code "pertaining to their client's storage facility.
The details emerged in a series of recent filings, including an effort by Manafort's attorneys to get his criminal trial moved from Northern Virginia, citing pretrial publicity.
"Mr. Manafort's legal issues and the daily media coverage have become a theater in the continuing controversy surrounding President Trump and his Election, "Manafort's lawyers wrote Judge TS Ellis, who is overseeing the bank and tax fraud case in Northern Virginia. Similar charges, is underway in Washington, DC
Arguing for a trial in Roanoke, Va., Manafort's legal team said an "inside-the-beltway jury" would be biased against their client.
Purpose Manafort's defense also is April 19, 2009 with the participation of the FBI and the Justice Department. memos documenting the April 2017 meeting .It included three FBI agents; a Justice Department trial attorney; an assistant US attorney and Andrew Weissmann, then chief of the D Robert Mueller's Russia probe. The meeting also included AP reporters Chad Day, Jack Gillum, Ted Bridis and Eric Tucker.
"The meeting raises serious concerns about whether a violation of grand jury secrecy occurred," Manafort's lawyers wrote in the paper. "Now based on the FBI's own notes of the meeting, it is beyond question that a hearing is warranted."
While both FBI was in the news and was not reporting, they did the AP did get some information.
"At the conclusion of the meeting, the AP reporters asked if we would be willing to tell them if they were [off base] or on the wrong [track] and they were advised that they appeared to have a good understanding of Manafort's business dealings, "FBI agent Karen A. Greenaway writes.
The following day, the AP reported an exclusive story titled, "Manafort firm received Ukraine ledger payout." Two reporters at the meeting shared the byline with a third journalist.
The memo written by senior FBI agent Greenaway is seven pages long and provides the most detail about t he meeting of Greenair states that the April 2017 meeting was convened by Weissmann and the "purpose of the meeting," he explained to SSA Greenaway, "we were able to obtain documents from the AP report that were related to their investigative reports on Paul Manafort." However, the FBI memo describes how the reporters discussed details of their wide-ranging investigation in Manafort, storage facility in Virginia. "Greenaway claims the reporters knew the locker unit number and address.
A second FBI agent penned a short memo about the meeting that differs on a key point. Agent Jeffery Pfeiffer says the reporters offered the "gate code" to access the storage unit.
The same agent recently testified that it may have been a critical development leading to the identification of Manafort's Virginia storage locker that was later searched. On the stand, Pfeiffer said he was not sure that the FBI's own investigation.
Fox News asked the AP if it was accepted or disputed the FBI's account of the April 2017 meeting.
"Associated Press Journalists in the Department of Justice in the United States of America, a spokesperson said in a statement. They are reporting, as reporters do, "an AP spokesperson explained. "During the race of the meeting, they asked for questions about Manafort's portfolio."
Meanwhile, on the reporters' questions about Manafort's business activities involving Cyprus, one FBI memo states FBI / DOJ did not respond, but Andrew Weissmann suggests that they ask the Cypriots if they had provided everything they had access to when they provided them with the necessary information. "
The reporters also offered to the FBI and DOJ officials that [Russian oligarch Oleg] "Deripaska's current lawyer is threatening to sue them over their article about his relationship with Manafort." The FBI agent notes that, just prior to the April meeting, the author of a report on the AP report.
Manafort's lawyers first requested records about the 2017 meeting, including notes documenting the discussion, in January and February, telling Judge Ellis that the special counsel's office produced the FBI
"On January 23, 2018 and again on February 21, 2018 … Mr. Manafort's defense team sent letters to the Office of Special Counsel ('OSC Request for information about contacts between the government, members of the prosecution team and the OSC, and the media No information was provided with respect to Mr. Manafort's request until last Friday, in anticipation of this The OSC produced two FBI electronic communications on April 11, 2017, meeting between prosecutors from the Department of Justice, supervisory spec Special Agents of the FBI International Corruption Unit, and reporters for the Associated Press. "
A spokesperson for the special counsel of the Office of the United States. potential witness. At the most recent Manafort hearing in Virginia, Weissmann was not seated at the prosecution table.
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