Ex-Trump campaign chair Manafort denies meeting with WikiLeaks' Assange

U.S. President Donald Trump'sformer campaign manager, Paul Manafort, staunchly denied evermeeting with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange on Tuesday, afterthe Guardian newspaper published a story alleging the two met atleast three times, including once in 2016 around the timehe was made a key figure in Trump's election team.

If confirmed, the report Tuesday would suggest a direct connection between the Trump campaign and WikiLeaks, which released tens of thousands of emails stolen by Russian hackers during the 2016 U.S. presidential election. The campaign seized on the emails to undermine Trump's rival, Hillary Clinton.

"This story is totally false and deliberately libellous. Ihave never met Julian Assange or anyone connected to him,"Manafort said through a spokesperson.

"We are considering all legal options against the Guardian,who proceeded with this story even after being notified by myrepresentatives that it was false."

Assange's Ecuadorean lawyer, Carlos Poveda, also said the Guardian report was false.

Manafort's statement came one day after special counselRobert Mueller's office told a federal judge that Manafort hadbreached his plea agreement by lying repeatedly to the FBIdespite pledging to co-operate with the probe.

In the same court filing, Manafort denied lying, but bothsides agreed the court should move ahead and set a date tosentence him for his crimes.

Prosecutors said they plan to file a report beforesentencing laying out the alleged crimes Manafort committedafter pleading guilty in September.

The surprise development came as Mueller is working towardfinalizing a report on his probe into whether Russia and Trump'scampaign colluded in the 2016 presidential election.

Part of that probe has involved looking into whether any ofTrump's associates may have had advance notice before WikiLeakspublished emails stolen by Russian hackers from Democraticcomputer networks to damage the Clinton campaign.

In recent months, Mueller's team has subpoenaed associatesof Trump's political adviser and Manafort's former businesspartner, Roger Stone, who has denied having access to theemails.

In the Guardian's story published on Tuesday, the paperreported that Manafort held secret talks with Assangeat the Ecuador Embassy in London in 2013, 2015 and March 2016 before the damaging emails were released months later.

The Trump campaign announced it had hiredManaforton March 29, 2016. He served as Trump's convention manager tasked with lining up delegates for the Republican National Convention. He was promoted to campaign chairman in May, 2016.

WikiLeaks also denounced the story on Twitter Tuesday,saying it was "willing to bet the Guardian a million dollars andits editor's head that Manafort never met Assange."

It also reported that it has launched a legal fund to suethe newspaper for publishing a "fabricated story."