Two veteran journalists who previously worked with embattled former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort reportedly offered information to special counsel Robert Mueller that resulted in recent accusations that Manafort attempted to tamper with witnesses.
The journalists previously helped lead consulting and lobbying work in an attempt to prop up the reputation of former Russia-aligned Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych in a business endeavor that Manafort funded with $2.4 million from overseas accounts, according to The New York Times.
The journalists’ decision to turn on Manafort is what prompted special counsel Robert Mueller to accuse Manafort earlier this week of attempting to tamper with witnesses, according to the report. Manafort will appear in court on Friday at a hearing on the witness tampering allegations.
The former Trump campaign chair has pleaded not guilty to multiple charges related to his pre-campaign work, including money laundering, tax fraud and conspiracy against the United States.
The business partners are just the latest Manafort associates to turn on him, the most significant being his former business associate Richard Gates. Gates, who was named in the same indictment as Manafort, pleaded guilty in February to two charges and is cooperating with Mueller.
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Three Times sources identified the two journalists as Alan Friedman and Eckart Sager.
According to the filings, Manafort and another of his associates with ties to Russian intelligence tried to reach Friedman and Sager via phone calls and encrypted texts. Rather than engaging with Manafort, the men informed Mueller that their former associate had tried to persuade them to “suborn perjury” and lie to investigators.
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Manafort sought to influence what journalists told Mueller: report https://t.co/NuhllcWI5y pic.twitter.com/InMfJ61Ghr
— The Hill (@thehill) June 8, 2018
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