美国国家公共电台 NPR Manafort Intentionally Lied To Special Counsel, Judge Says

 

AUDIE CORNISH, HOST:

Paul Manafort's plea deal is off. A federal judge ruled tonight that a former Trump¹ campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, intentionally² lied to the FBI and to Robert Mueller's investigation³. That violated the plea deal he reached with prosecutors⁴ before his second trial last year. We're joined now by NPR justice correspondent Carrie Johnson. Good evening, Carrie.

CARRIE JOHNSON, BYLINE⁵: Hi, Audie.

CORNISH: Remind us about that plea deal, and tell us what went wrong.

JOHNSON: Sure. In September 2018 just days before a jury was supposed to be selected for his trial in Washington, D.C., Paul Manafort reached a plea deal with federal prosecutors on the special counsel team. Manafort agreed to plead guilty to two criminal conspiracy⁶ charges and to cooperate with the ongoing⁷ investigation by the FBI and the special counsel.

We now know that Manafort met about 12 times with the authorities, and he testified at least two times before federal grand juries. But we also now know that this cooperation was very rocky, and both sides - both the government and Manafort's defense⁸ team - publicly acknowledge now that something very badly went off the rails. Manafort lawyers say he's an old man. He's 69 years old, in ill health and suffering from gout and been in detention⁹ since last year. Any misstatements were merely the result of failures of memory and his ill health. Federal prosecutors on special counsel Robert Mueller's team say Manafort intentionally lied to them.

CORNISH: What are they saying he lied about?

JOHNSON: The authorities say Manafort lied about things large and small - in total, five different categories of things, everything from a payment to a law firm that was doing legal work for Paul Manafort to his contacts with a business associate, Konstantin Kilimnik, who the FBI has linked to Russian intelligence services; to another unspecified ongoing criminal investigation that the Justice Department is conducting.

Tonight, Judge Amy Berman Jackson mostly agreed with prosecutors in this case ruling they had met their burden that Manafort intentionally lied about several of those five subject matters, in particular those contacts with Konstantin Kilimnik, with whom Manafort had done some lobbying work in Ukraine and a guy who had been charged alongside Manafort with witness tampering¹⁰ in the course of this investigation.

CORNISH: Is there the sense that his lack of cooperation actually impeded¹¹ the Mueller investigation somehow?

JOHNSON: We don't know exactly, Audie. A lot of these proceedings¹² have been happening behind closed doors in secret because these investigations¹³ are ongoing. But I think it's clear that authorities would not have taken this step of getting a judge to determine that Manafort had broken up or torpedoed¹⁴ the plea deal unless it was somehow inhibiting¹⁵ their work.

We don't know whose cooperation Manafort was supposed to - whose investigations Manafort was supposed to help advance. There are multiple ongoing lines of inquiry¹⁶ from other people who may have done foreign lobbying alongside Paul Manafort to the central question of whether any Americans in the Trump orbit may have conspired¹⁷ with Russians.

CORNISH: What happens now?

JOHNSON: Manafort's going to be sentenced on March 13 by this judge, and the judge has pointed¹⁸ out that Manafort may be subject to additional penalties or enhancements because he actually did not fully¹⁹ cooperate. But that's a matter they're going to decide in papers and finally at his sentencing in Washington, D.C. on March 13.

CORNISH: That's NPR's Carrie Johnson. Carrie, thank you.

JOHNSON: My pleasure.

1 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

2 intentionally   

ad.故意地，有意地

参考例句：

• I didn't say it intentionally. 我是无心说的。
• The local authority ruled that he had made himself intentionally homeless and was therefore not entitled to be rehoused. 当地政府裁定他是有意居无定所，因此没有资格再获得提供住房。

3 investigation   

n.调查，调查研究

参考例句：

• In an investigation,a new fact became known, which told against him.在调查中新发现了一件对他不利的事实。
• He drew the conclusion by building on his own investigation.他根据自己的调查研究作出结论。

4 prosecutors   

检举人( prosecutor的名词复数 )； 告发人； 起诉人； 公诉人

参考例句：

• In some places,public prosecutors are elected rather than appointed. 在有些地方，检察官是经选举而非任命产生的。 来自口语例句
• You've been summoned to the Prosecutors' Office, 2 days later. 你在两天以后被宣到了检察官的办公室。

5 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

6 conspiracy   

n.阴谋，密谋，共谋

参考例句：

• The men were found guilty of conspiracy to murder.这些人被裁决犯有阴谋杀人罪。
• He claimed that it was all a conspiracy against him.他声称这一切都是一场针对他的阴谋。

7 ongoing   

adj.进行中的，前进的

参考例句：

• The problem is ongoing.这个问题尚未解决。
• The issues raised in the report relate directly to Age Concern's ongoing work in this area.报告中提出的问题与“关心老人”组织在这方面正在做的工作有直接的关系。

8 defense   

n.防御，保卫；[pl.]防务工事；辩护，答辩

参考例句：

• The accused has the right to defense.被告人有权获得辩护。
• The war has impacted the area with military and defense workers.战争使那个地区挤满了军队和防御工程人员。

9 detention   

n.滞留，停留；拘留，扣留；(教育)留下

参考例句：

• He was kept in detention by the police.他被警察扣留了。
• He was in detention in connection with the bribery affair.他因与贿赂事件有牵连而被拘留了。

10 tampering   

v.窜改( tamper的现在分词 )；篡改；（用不正当手段）影响；瞎摆弄

参考例句：

• Two policemen were accused of tampering with the evidence. 有两名警察被控篡改证据。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• As Harry London had forecast, Brookside's D-day caught many meter-tampering offenders. 正如哈里·伦敦预见到的那样，布鲁克赛德的D日行动抓住了不少非法改装仪表的人。 来自辞典例句

11 impeded   

阻碍，妨碍，阻止( impede的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• Work on the building was impeded by severe weather. 楼房的施工因天气恶劣而停了下来。
• He was impeded in his work. 他的工作受阻。

12 proceedings   

n.进程，过程，议程；诉讼(程序)；公报

参考例句：

• He was released on bail pending committal proceedings. 他交保获释正在候审。
• to initiate legal proceedings against sb 对某人提起诉讼

13 investigations   

（正式的）调查( investigation的名词复数 )； 侦查； 科学研究； 学术研究

参考例句：

• His investigations were intensive and thorough but revealed nothing. 他进行了深入彻底的调查，但没有发现什么。
• He often sent them out to make investigations. 他常常派他们出去作调查。

14 torpedoed   

用鱼雷袭击（torpedo的过去式与过去分词形式）

参考例句：

• Her comments had torpedoed the deal. 她的一番话使得那笔交易彻底告吹。
• The battle ship was torpedoed. 该战列舰遭到了鱼雷的袭击。

15 inhibiting   

抑制作用的，约束的

参考例句：

• The high cost of borrowing is inhibiting investment by industry in new equipment. 借款的高成本抑制了企业对新设备的投资。
• The pesticides affect the nervous system by inhibiting the enzyme cholinesterase. 这类农药抑制胆碱酯酶而影响神经系统。

16 inquiry   

n.打听，询问，调查，查问

参考例句：

• Many parents have been pressing for an inquiry into the problem.许多家长迫切要求调查这个问题。
• The field of inquiry has narrowed down to five persons.调查的范围已经缩小到只剩5个人了。

17 conspired   

密谋( conspire的过去式和过去分词 )； 搞阴谋； （事件等）巧合； 共同导致

参考例句：

• They conspired to bring about the meeting of the two people. 他们共同促成了两人的会面。
• Bad weather and car trouble conspired to ruin our vacation. 恶劣的气候连同汽车故障断送了我们的假日。

18 pointed   

adj.尖的，直截了当的

参考例句：

• He gave me a very sharp pointed pencil.他给我一支削得非常尖的铅笔。
• She wished to show Mrs.John Dashwood by this pointed invitation to her brother.她想通过对达茨伍德夫人提出直截了当的邀请向她的哥哥表示出来。

19 fully   

adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地

参考例句：

• The doctor asked me to breathe in,then to breathe out fully.医生让我先吸气，然后全部呼出。
• They soon became fully integrated into the local community.他们很快就完全融入了当地人的圈子。