Paul Manafort Hit With New Charges In Indictment

Paul Manafort, President Donald Trump's former campaign chairman, has been hit with a superseding indictment by Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller III accusing him of obstruction of justice. The indictment also names Konstantin Kilimnik, a Russian political consultant.

According to the indictment, Manafort and Kilimnik attempted to persuade another person "with intent to influence, delay, and prevent the testimony of any person in an official proceeding." Manafort and Kilimnik are accused of obstruction of justice and conspiracy to obstruct justice.

The charges come on top of those already filed by Mueller's team in October 2017, which include conspiracy to defraud and commit offenses against the United States, conspiracy to launder money, failure to file reports of foreign bank accounts, making false and misleading statements, and acting as an unregistered agent of a foreign principal. He has been under house arrest after pleading not guilty to those charges.

In February, a superseding indictment accused Manafort of paying former European politicians, informally known as the "Hapsburg Group," to lobby on behalf of Ukraine.

Earlier this month, Mueller's team said in court documents that Manafort violated the terms of his release and asked the judge in the case to revoke or revise the terms of his release. In court documents filed June 4, the Mueller team said that Manafort and his associate, "Person A" repeatedly contacted two people who acted as intermediaries between Manafort, Rick Gates, "Person A" and the "Hapsburg Group."

The documents say Manafort and "Person A," now known to be Kilimnik, used encrypted message applications to talk to the two people. Mueller's team said the two intermediaries understood that they were being reached in an effort to influence the testimony of potential witnesses.

Mueller was appointed to lead the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election after the firing of former FBI Director James Comey. Over the course of a year, his team has indicted Manafort, Gates, former national security advisor Michael Flynn, former Trump campaign aide George Papadopoulos and 13 Russian nationals and three Russian companies. A California businessman, Richard Pinedo, and Dutch attorney Alex van der Zwaan have also been charged in the investigation. Van der Zwaan was sentenced to 30 days in prison and after completing his sentence, he was deported.

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