The Daily - What’s Going On With Paul Manafort?

The special counsel’s office says that Paul Manafort, the president’s former campaign chairman, repeatedly lied to investigators, even after agreeing to cooperate in the Russia inquiry. Meanwhile, The Guardian is reporting that Mr. Manafort met with Julian Assange, the head of WikiLeaks, in 2016 — a meeting the special counsel seems to know nothing about. Guest: Michael S. Schmidt, who has been covering the special counsel investigation for The New York Times. For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily.

Duration: 22m
Broadcast on: 28 Nov 2018
Audio Format: other

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

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This podcast is supported by the Capital One Venture X Card. Venture X offers the premium benefits you expect, like a $300 annual Capital One travel credit for less than you expect. Elevate your earn with unlimited double miles on every purchase, bringing you one step closer to your next dream destination. Plus, enjoy access to over 1,000 airport lounges worldwide. The Capital One Venture X Card, what's in your wallet? Terms apply, lounge access is subject to change. See CapitalOne.com for details. From the New York Times, I'm Michael Barbaro. This is the Daily. Today, the Special Counsel's Office says that Paul Manafort repeatedly lied, even after agreeing to cooperate in the Russia investigation. Meanwhile, the Guardian is reporting that Manafort met with Julian Assange in 2016, a meeting that the Special Counsel seems to know nothing about. What's going on with Paul Manafort? It's Wednesday, November 28. Mike Schmidt, as of Tuesday morning, what's our reporting on Paul Manafort's show? On the show? What do you mean? He genuinely doesn't know what you said. Oh, what is the show? What is our reporting about? Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh. I'm trying again. Mike Schmidt, I heard it like it's the Paul Manafort show. Dun, dun, dun, dun, dun. Yeah, no, I'm serious. I'm a serious guy. I'm serious. Yeah, no, no, I know you are. Mike Schmidt, on Tuesday morning, what is our reporting on Paul Manafort? The last time we were concentrating on Paul Manafort was this summer when he accepted a plea agreement to cooperate with the Special Counsel's office because he was trying to reduce the amount of time he would spend in prison. He's 69 years old. He faced up to 10 years in prison for a string of fraud charges that had been unearthed by the Special Counsel's investigation. And he was trying to show Mueller's office that he had something to offer, that he could help the investigation. As part of that process, he began meeting with investigators. Now, Manafort is in solitary confinement at a jail, but he would get pulled out and sit in a room with these prosecutors for Mueller and try and tell them everything that's gone on in the past few years, whether it was his contacts with Russians, what was going on inside the campaign. But what we learned on Monday was that Manafort in that process had lied to the investigators, at least in the investigator's eyes. And Mueller's saying, "Hey, Manafort, we entered into a deal where you said you were going to help me and tell me the truth about everything you knew. You didn't hold up your end at the bargain. You lied to me.

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