Errant court filing suggests feds had informant at Manafort firm

[DonViejo]

By JOSH GERSTEIN 01/24/2018 09:10 PM EST

A document that former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort's attorneys appear to have accidentally filed in court Wednesday suggests that federal investigators had an informant inside Manafort's consulting firm who provided information about his financial dealings.

The one-page memo submitted along with a routine scheduling motion seems to have been prepared by a defense lawyer or investigator trying to assemble information that could support a claim by Manafort's defense of improper contacts between the prosecution team — now headed by special counsel Robert Mueller — and the media.

The document, titled "DOJ, OSC and the Press," says that a reporter appeared to have obtained access to internal documents from the firm Manafort founded, Davis Manafort Partners International.

The memo indicates that an affidavit for a seizure warrant obtained by prosecutors on the same day Manafort was indicted in October says that a Davis Manafort staffer acknowledged allowing a journalist to look at the firm's digital records.

more
https://www.politico.com/blogs/under-the-radar/2018/01/24/mueller-manafort-errant-court-filing-suggests-informant-367464

[unblock]

1. it doesn't "suggest", it *claims*.

it was a document prepared by manafort's defense attorneys, and it puts forth a theory for the defense.

it's not clear from the article that they have any evidence to support the notion any improper contacts.

so it's just a claim.