MOSCOW, December 10. /TASS/. The Kremlin is refraining from commenting on new data in the case against Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman Paul Manafort, since it does not know anything about the individuals involved in it and is generally tired of following such investigations in the US conducted by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, Russian Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov has told reporters.
"I can offer no comment on the issue. Frankly speaking, we are pretty fed up with following these striking investigations," the Kremlin spokesman said answering a question about new accusations against Manafort. "We do not even know those individuals who are mentioned in the probe, so I have nothing more to say here."
Special Counsel Robert Mueller earlier said that Manafort had told "multiple discernible lies" after agreeing to cooperate with prosecutors, including about his contacts with administration officials and his business partner, Konstantin Kilimnik.
The Russian-Ukrainian political consultant allegedly worked for Manafort’s lobbyist firm in Ukraine. Mueller's team believes that he tried to influence two witnesses in the Manafort case. In addition based on the allegations, Manafort and Kilimnik purportedly got in touch with each other earlier this year to agree to synchronize their watches on giving testimony with former colleagues.
Manafort, 69, is the defendant in two court cases, one in Virginia and the other in the District of Columbia. Earlier a jury in Virginia found him guilty on eight out of 18 charges that include hiding foreign bank accounts, income tax fraud, money laundering and tax evasion, especially while working in Ukraine.
Manafort joined the Trump campaign team in March 2016, headed it in June, but on August 19 he was fired after Kiev brought accusations against him of illegally receiving large sums of money from 2007 to 2012.