Mueller accuses ex-Trump campaign chair Paul Manafort of lying, breaching plea agreement

U.S. President Donald Trump's formercampaign chairman Paul Manafort lied to the FBI and specialcounsel investigators after pleading guilty to federal charges,in breach of his plea agreement, according to a court filing onMonday.

Manafort said in the same filing he disagreed with special counsel Robert Mueller's assertion that he lied toinvestigators.

Both the special counsel and Manafort's attorneys agreedthere was no reason to delay his sentencing and asked the courtto set a date for that.

Mueller, who is probing Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S.presidential election and possible collusion between Moscow andthe Trump campaign, said in the filing that after signing a pleaagreement: "Manafort committed federal crimes by lying to theFederal Bureau of Investigation and the Special Counsel's Officeon a variety of subject matters."

Mueller said in the filing that those lies breachedManafort's plea agreement.

Manafort's attorneys said in the same filingsubmitted to U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson in Washington, D.C., that Manaforthad met with the government on several occasions and "provided truthful information" in efforts to "live up to his co-operationobligations."

They said Manafort disagreed with the characterization thathe had breached the agreement.

'Angling for the pardon'

The breakdown in the plea deal raises the prospect that Manafort is seeking to protect others who worked on Trump's campaign and to curry favour with the president, said former federal prosecutor David Weinstein.

"It seems to me he's angling for the pardon," he said.

Manafort, a longtime Republican political consultant whomade tens of millions of dollars working for pro-Kremlinpoliticians in Ukraine, ran the Trump campaign as it took off inmid-2016.

He attended a meeting at Trump Tower in June 2016 with agroup of Russians offering damaging information on Democraticcandidate Hillary Clinton, who lost in an upset to Trump in thepresidential vote that November.

Russia denies U.S. allegations it hacked Democratic Partyemails and ran a disinformation campaign, largely on socialmedia. Trump denies any campaign collusion and calls theinvestigation a political witch hunt.

Manafort had started co-operating with Mueller's prosecutors in September after pleading guilty to conspiracy against the United States a charge that includeda range of conduct from money laundering, to unregistered lobbying, and to attempting to tamper with witnesses.

The deal required him to co-operate completely with the government, including testifying before any grand juries or at any trials. In return, Mueller promised to argue for leniency at sentencing.

The agreement pertains to one of two cases against Manafort. Hewas convicted by a jury in August on tax and bank fraud charges in the other case in Virginia.

Rudy Giuliani, who represents Trump in the Russia investigation, told Reuters in October that he had periodically spoken withManafort'slawyer, Kevin Downing, and that he believedManaforthad not provided any information to prosecutors that was damaging to the president.