Manafort might not fight allegations he lied to Mueller

Dec. 12 (UPI) -- Defense attorneys for Paul Manafort might not refute claims the former campaign manager of President Donald Trump lied to members of the Justice Department's Russia investigation and broke a plea agreement with prosecutors.

During a hearing Tuesday in Washington, D.C., District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson asked attorney Richard Westling if the defense agrees Manafort's responses to those topics were false.

Westling said he couldn't answer that yet and it's not clear whether they plan to rebut the allegations.

He said he wants to know if the government determines whether Manafort's violation of the plea deal will impact his sentence.

In Mueller's pre-sentencing memo released Friday, the office details incidences in which it says Manafort lied. Last month, Mueller said Manafort "committed federal crimes" by lying to the FBI and Mueller's office "on a variety of subject matters."

Berman Jackson ordered Manafort's team to respond to the memo by Jan. 7, if there is anything they dispute. She said the government's memo didn't provide her with sufficient information to make a factual finding as to whether the allegations are true.

Berman Jackson ordered the government by Jan. 14 to file a supplemental pleading, including facts and evidence, to back up its claims.

"It's a summary of your allegations," she told prosecutor Andrew Weissmann.

And a tentative hearing was set for Jan. 25 if they need to dispute any of the allegations.

In September, Manafort agreed to plead guilty to charges of unregistered foreign lobbying and money laundering in exchange for agreeing to cooperate with Mueller.

Last week, Berman Jackson scheduled a tentative March 5 date to sentence Manafort to the two felonies he pleaded guilty to in the D.C. case.

"I don't want to get to sentencing and they say, 'He wasn't truthful.' And he says, 'Yes, I was,'" said Jackson.

On Feb 8, Manafort is scheduled to be sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge T.S Ellis III in Northern Virginia for his conviction on eight felony counts of bank and tax fraud.

Since June, he's been held in a detention center in Alexandria, Va.