It is Doom for Paul Manafort: Could Trump Be the Problem?

On February 13, a federal judge ruled Wednesday that former campaign chairman of President Donald Trump Paul Manafort deliberately lied to special counsel Robert Mueller‘s office, breaking his plea agreement.

Justice Amy Berman Jackson wrote that Manafort “made multiple false statements to the FBI, the OSC and the grand jury concerning matters that were material to the investigation” into interference by Russia in the 2016 presidential election, when he worked for Trump.

Jackson stated in his ruling that Muller’s office had established “by a preponderance of the evidence” that Manafort intentionally lied in four out of five instances that it had laid out in December.

The judge ruled that Manafort intentionally made misleading statements that were ‘material’ to another Department of Justice investigation, lied about legal fees payment and whether he had made some contacts to Trump administration officials as recently as the start of 2018, about two years after resigning as campaign chairman.

Jackson also found that Mueller’s team had proved Manafort’s lie about his interactions and communications with Kilimnik, though couldn’t prove if he intentionally lied about the role of Kilimnik in the obstruction of justice conspiracy.

Manafort had entered a plea agreement with the Mueller team, saying he would cooperate with prosecutors in his Washington, D.C., money laundering and foreign lobbying case on Sept. 14.

The judge also cited a portion of the agreement noting that the lies would constitute a breach of the agreement.

“Your client understands and agrees that, if after entering this Agreement, [he] fails specifically to perform or to fulfill completely each and every one of [his] obligations under this Agreement, or engages in any criminal activity prior to sentencing or during his cooperation …, [he] will have breached this Agreement,” it stated.

Manafort will be sentenced in March.

However, Jackson stated that the ruling does not address “the question of whether the defendant will receive credit for his acceptance of responsibility” in sentencing guidelines.

This case comes few months after Trumps former lawyer Michael Cohen was sentenced to three years in prison for offenses including paying women to silence them during the 2016 election.