Special counsel Robert Mueller has been looking into a 2017 meeting between former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and Ecuador’s President Lenin Moreno, according to a report that came the same day news broke that Manafort repeatedly met with Julian Assange at London’s Ecuadorian Embassy.
CNN reports that Mueller is probing whether Manafort and Moreno discussed Assange, the founder of Wikileaks, during the meeting last year in Quito, which was previously revealed by Moreno after facing criticism from Ecuador’s former president.
Moreno told reporters of the meeting last year, explaining that the two discussed a bid by Chinese businessmen for a stake in Ecuador’s state-owned power company, a plan which was ultimately rejected. He did not say last November if other topics were discussed, according to the Associated Press.
The meeting occurred before Manafort’s indictment later that year on charges related to his lobbying work in Ukraine and efforts to hide profits made during that time from U.S. authorities.
News of Mueller’s interest in Manafort’s contacts with Moreno comes just hours after The Guardian reported that Assange and Manafort met several times, including once in 2016 months before Wikileaks would post stolen emails obtained illegally from the DNC by Russian intelligence operatives.
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#BREAKING: Mueller probing 2017 meeting between Manafort, Ecuadorian president for mention of Assange https://t.co/GuMmlRmU3b pic.twitter.com/RwbJ1p6K53
— The Hill (@thehill) November 27, 2018
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