Mueller Seized Manafort Testimony on Russian Oligarch Deripaska

• April 24 2018
• David Voreacos

Special Counsel Robert Mueller and FBI agents seized tens of thousands of items from the home of Paul Manafort last July, including testimony that he gave in a civil lawsuit about a protracted business dispute with Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska.

Special Counsel Robert Mueller and FBI agents seized tens of thousands of items from the home of Paul Manafort last July, including testimony that he gave in a civil lawsuit about a protracted business dispute with Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska.

Mueller, who is investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election, disclosed his seizure of the Deripaska-related testimony in a court filing defending an FBI raid on the home of Manafort, President Donald Trump’s former campaign manager. The disclosure shows the depth of Mueller’s interest in understanding the links between Manafort and Deripaska.

Manafort once worked as a political consultant for Deripaska, who was considered close to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Deripaska then invested $18.9 million with Manafort in a cable-television venture in Ukraine, and paid him more than $7 million in management fees. The deal ultimately soured, and Deripaska sued to try to get an accounting of the money.

Deripaska, the billionaire founder and majority shareholder of En+ Group, was among the most prominent tycoons penalized with sanctions this month by the Trump administration. The moved followed passage of a law last year to retaliate against Moscow for meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

In the raid, agents seized the 2015 testimony, in video form as well as written transcripts, by Manafort and his former right-hand man, Rick Gates, according to a filing late Monday in federal court in Washington. The contents of that testimony, which is sealed, are unknown. Early this year, Deripaska filed a fraud lawsuit against Manafort and Gates.

Manafort now faces two indictments, but neither accuses him of crimes related to Russia.

Fraud Charges

In the Washington case, he’s charged with laundering profits from tens of millions of dollars that he made as a political consultant to former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych and other politicians there, as well as of failing to register in the U.S. as a lobbyist. In Alexandria, Virginia, he’s accused of tax and bank fraud. Gates has pleaded guilty and is cooperating with Mueller.

In a court filing earlier this month, prosecutors said that any investigation of links between Russia and the Trump campaign “would naturally cover ties that a former Trump campaign manager had to Russian-associated political operatives, Russian-backed politicians, and Russian oligarchs.”

Prosecutors said they properly searched Manafort’s home after learning about its contents from an employee, according to the filing.

Seized Material

A court exhibit showed that prosecutors had searched emails, bank accounts, computers and other electronic devices. They gave Gates material seized from nine devices at Manafort’s home, and they also turned over a hard drive with 80,000 items. Both Gates and Manafort had also been interviewed by U.S. authorities in 2014, according to prosecutors.

In a separate filing, prosecutors defended a May 2017 search in Alexandria of a rental storage unit containing Manafort’s files, refuting assertions that an FBI agent gained access to the records through an employee who didn’t have the authority to allow such an entry. Manafort had asked a judge to throw out all evidence from the search, which underpinned charges against him and Gates.

In asking the judge to throw out evidence seized in the storage unit, Manafort argued that the employee lacked authority to consent to the search. But the agent believed the worker could allow the warrantless search because he signed the lease, held a key, and had moved files into and out of the space, prosecutors argued in a filing in federal court in Washington.

Unit Access

The employee “had the right and capability to gain access to the unit at any time” without Manafort’s knowledge or permission, according to the filing. “This is not like a situation in which an employee quits his job, keeps a copy of the key to the job site, and then invites the police to enter,” prosecutors wrote.

The employee, who previously worked for Davis Manafort Partners Inc., a political consulting firm, was working then for another Manafort company, Steam Mountain LLC, the U.S. wrote.

Nothing about the change in the business name would have signaled to the agent that the worker’s “access to and authority over the storage unit had suddenly ceased,” prosecutors wrote. “Indeed, it did not change anything about the employee’s services to Manafort or access to the unit.”

Ukraine Work

Manafort’s lawyers asked U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson for a hearing to determine whether the consent to search was “freely and voluntarily given’’ by the ex-employee. Prosecutors argued that no such hearing is necessary. They said the agent who wrote the search warrant is “currently stationed overseas and arrangements would have to be made for him to return” for a hearing, which would probably occur on May 23.

The cases are U.S. v. Manafort, 18-cr-00083, U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Virginia (Alexandria), and U.S. v. Manafort, 17-cr-00201, U.S. District Court, District of Columbia (Washington).

— With assistance by Pamela A Maclean, and Greg Farrell