Exclusive: Robert Mueller met with Trump's pollster

Source: CNN | January 10, 2019 | Sara Murray and Katelyn Polantz

Washington (CNN) – Special counsel Robert Mueller sought information directly last year from one of Donald Trump’s campaign pollsters who is also a former business associate of Paul Manafort’s.

Mueller’s team met with pollster Tony Fabrizio in February 2018, an interview that has not been previously reported and takes on new significance after Manafort’s attorneys revealed Tuesday that Mueller’s team is still interested in how Manafort shared polling data with his Russian intelligence-linked colleague.

CNN journalists observed Fabrizio leaving the special counsel’s office on the first of February last year and have since confirmed he was meeting with Mueller’s team. At the time, the special counsel had been digging into Manafort’s finances and political work ahead of his trial.

In a filing Tuesday, Manafort’s attorneys tried to redact the fact that prosecutors knew Manafort shared polling data related to the 2016 presidential election with his Russian intelligence-linked associate Konstantin Kilimnik while Manafort was running Trump’s presidential campaign. The information was supposed to remain secret because it’s part of an ongoing investigation, but it was revealed because of a formatting error in the filing.

Fabrizio’s involvement with Mueller is intriguing because he’s one of the few people in Manafort’s orbit with knowledge of the inner-workings of the Trump campaign as well as Manafort’s Eastern European connections.

A veteran pollster and political strategist, Fabrizio worked on Ukrainian elections with Manafort and went on to serve as the Trump campaign’s chief pollster beginning in the spring of 2016.

A source familiar with the special counsel’s interest said Fabrizio’s interview included questions about his polling work for Manafort in Ukraine rather than his internal Trump campaign polling. It is not clear what other topics were broached in the interview or whether it solely focused on Fabrizio’s knowledge of Manafort’s business dealings.

The Justice Department initially asked Mueller to look into Manafort’s political ties in Ukraine because they may relate to other allegations of Russian coordination with the Trump campaign.

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