including the interactions with the man named konstantin kilimnik. mueller says kilimnik has ties to the russian internet which hacked during the 2016 campaign. we have fred pleitgen with more this morning. fred, what do we know about konstantin kilimnik? >> reporter: not much. he is someone who doesn't like to be in the spotlight. the documents show this man, but he was very important to paul manafort. he worked for manafort for a long time in eastern europe. specifically in ukraine where they did business with the pro russian government of ukraine and also with the russian oligarch. as you mentioned, the mueller investigation says kilimnik has ties to russian intelligence and manafort was caught lying about whether or not he had met kilimnik afterwards. namely when he was chairman of the trump campaign in 2016. i want to read you a bit of the mueller investigation says. quote, the evidence of the above includes electronic communications and the rest is redacted. draft and travel records after told of such evidence. manafort conceded he and kilimnik

and what can we discern about the importance of the konstantin kilimnik stuff here? kilimnik is already charged, but he is believed to be in moscow and therefore out of reach of the justice department. this kilimnik stuff that is in here and the possibility that him meeting with maybe this russian oligarch might have been one of the things that manafort was lying about, what's the significance of that? what's significance of the fact that according to prosecutors, manafort has been concealing contacts with people in the trump administration, including according to the filing, quote, a senior administration official with whom manafort was in contact with up through february of 2018. so there are a bunch of interesting questions raised by the manafort filing. i mean, obviously he appears to be quite cooked when it comes to his own prosecution. we don't know if the judge is going to order that there should be a hearing in his case so the prosecutors can actually prove all of this stuff in court rather than just asserting it in this filing. prosecutors do appear to feel v

manafort lied when he had every incentive to tell the truth was about his conversations with konstantin kilimnikut kilimnik is someone paul manafort said had ties to russia, business partner in russia, they were working together to try to tamper with witnesses in paul manafort's lobbying case and what was his role? that's the person with whom he e-mailed things like how can we use my position on the trump campaign to make ourselves whole, when he was very indebted to russian oligarchs. he talked about arranging for a private briefing for the oligarch. all start to come together and paint a picture to deep connections to russians. when we talk about it as business synergy and political synergy, it does suggest that the business is tied up with the politics and that that was trump's goal, but in exchange what was russia's goal? >> you know, joyce, again, as barbara was speaking, i go back to what our colleague rachel maddow talked about last friday, which was that the business piece here, the trump tower moscow, and the russian interference piece are all part of one big operation being conducted b

another really big curiosity in this whole thing is why was paul manafort lying to protect konstantin kilimnik that kilimnik was his co-conspirator? this is just remarkable. this is a guy who, as garrett said earlier, has been identified by our government as likely to be connected to russian military intelligence. so why is paul manafort protecting him? and, you know, that question begs an answer. >> garrett, president trump likes to say that manafort didn't have a big role in the campaign. i'm not sure if he was exactly a coffee boy. he said he worked for just a very short time and didn't really do that much. that is not true. he was campaign chairman, played a critical role at the convention. so when we learn that he is talking to the white house this year, that is a big deal. >> well, it's a big deal, especially when you begin to realize that he's been under indictment for about a year now. >> mm-hmm. >> which means that for months after he was indicted as part of a $65 million money laundering scheme, even as he was engaging in other witness tampering involving, again, konstantin kilimnik,

another really big curiosity in this whole thing is why was paul manafort lying to protect konstantin kilimnikisting acknowledging that kilimnik was his co-conspirator? this is just remarkable. this is a guy who, as garrett said earlier, has been identified by our government as likely to be connected to russian military intelligence. so why is paul manafort protecting him? and, you know, that question begs an answer. >> garrett, president trump likes to say that manafort didn't have a big role in the campaign. i'm not sure if he was exactly a coffee boy. he said, he worked for just a very short time and didn't really do that much. that is not true. he was campaign chairman, played a critical role at the convention. so when we learn that he is talking to the white house this year, that is a big deal. >> well, it's a big deal, especially when you begin to realize that he's been under indictment for about a year now. >> mm-hmm. >> which means that for months after he was indicted as part of a $65 million money laundering scheme, even as he was engaging in other witness tampering involving, again,

there are two circumstances where they allege that manafort lied about konstantin kilimnik.ooperation with manafort to tamper with witnesses in the foreign agent registration case to which he pleaded guilty and the other is heavily redacted and so we don't know what is going on there. there have been reports of things like paul manafort offering to give a briefing on the campaign to a russian oligarch. there are reports of a change in the platform of the republican party at the convention. how did those things come about? are those some of the things that konstantin kilimnik was talking about and that they're redacting? hard to say. >> the scenes they talk about are striking, where they say paul manafort's lawyers showed him and said this is what you said the first time, you have to find your way back to that and then the part where the prosecutors say in the whole month of november when they were talking about ripping up this deal with paul manafort, paul manafort's lawyers never once, never once said oh, no, he's not lying to you, he's telling you the truth. they never con

according to the court papers manafort lied about his contacts with konstantin kilimnik an aide withlleged ties to russian intelligence. >> and prosecutors said manafort did not tell the truth when he hadn't been in contact after the inauguration with the trump officials. it came three days after mueller recommended no jail time for the president's former national security adviser michael flynn and on the same day federal prosecutors in new york said the president's former lawyer should go to jail. paula reid has that part of the story. >> what do you think is going to happen today? >> reporter: michael cohen was spotted in new york shortly before federal prosecutors told a judge he deserves a substantial prison term. in case involving campaign finance violations, prosecutors did not advocate for leniency because they allege cohen's crimes reveal a man who knowingly sought to undermine core institutions of our democracy in order to profit personally. the president's former personal attorney had been cooperating in special counsel mueller's investigation into the 2016 election. in a s

konstantin kilimnik. ties to moscow intelligence agencies. manafort lied about meeting kilimnik in a heavily redacted filing, the evidence of the above includes electronic communications, including detailed descriptions, draft and travel records. after being told of such evidence. manafort conceded that he and kilimnik discussed or may have discussed at each meeting. he's a shadowy figure. this picture that manafort is also in, one of the few known photos showing him. kilimnik was manafort's right handman for years. they did business with russia in ukraine. and a russian oligarch, said to be close to vladimir putin. manafort denies including with russians, questions continue to swirl around his interactions with kilimnik. the mueller team saying they were in contact with russian intelligence services, meddling in the 2016 election. when asked about cnn today, putin spokesman with a vehement denial. >> we are quite tired of following these jaw dropping investigations. we don't know these persons mentioned

remember, konstantin kilimnik was involved in those communications with paul manafort where he talked about how can we use my new position on the campaign to make ourselves whole? let's talk to the russian oligarch and see if he wants a private briefing about the campaign. those are some of the kinds of things that go to the core of this russian influence and interference in the election including the change in the gop platform to be more favorable to russia. and so i'd be very curious to hear his take on why he believes he was truthful. we might find some little tidbits of information that come out of that. >> yeah, the presence of russians at the gop convention in cleveland is an oddity that continues to stand out in our recent history. hey, chris, i know that federal judges have never reached out to you and said, which questions can we answer for you this week in open court, but if you had the chance, what are the questions you have that you would like answers for this week? we have three federal court opportunities. >> well, i really wish they would call me and ask me. because i d

>> well, i think the important player here is konstantin kilimnik. you'd be forgiven on a friday night for confusing your veselnitskaya's and your kilimniks and other names. he was indicted by the special counsel back if june for trying to witness tamper and there's clearly something that manafort is trying to do to minimize his relationships with this individual and this individual was one of the individuals who was trying to set up briefings during the campaign for people like oleg deripaska, who's obviously a close putin ally, and there's something in the kilimnik relationship that loops back to the kremlin that paul manafort deems too big of a secret to confess to at this hour. >> well, frank, speaking of secrets, again today, the terror of the black line as of redacti. what do you read into the black lines of redaction in these documents? >> yeah. while many folks might be disappointed that we didn't learn more specific details today, the reality is those black lines of redaction tell us mueller has reached a level of target and a level of sensit

this is konstantin kilimnik. the fbi say he is a gru spy.ructing justice. in 2016, he worked with paul manafort. paul manafort was running trump's campaign. here again, cohen could cause his old boss no end of pain. kilimnik is reputedly a former member of the russian military security service. but in russia, nobody is ever former member of the security service, they are always attached to the service, and he had close relationships with manafort while manafort was serving as a campaign adviser to trump. therefore, these relationships between manafort and the intelligence service of russia look highly suspicious. the third danger is what cohen knows about trump's women. the president denies having affairs with both pornstar stormy daniels and former playboy model karen macdougal. prosecutors say that cohen ponied up $130,000 for stormy and fixed a $150,000 payoff to karen to gag their mouths with gold. they say cohen did so on behalf of individual one — trump. cohen says trump ordered the hush money and he'd taped the calls. colluding with a

including the interactions with the man named konstantin kilimnik. mueller says kilimnik has ties to the russian internet which hacked during the 2016 campaign. we have fred pleitgen with more from moscow this morning. good morning. what more can you tell us about kilimnik? >> reporter: alison, he was an important figure to paul manafort. he worked for manafort in eastern europe. they did business in ukraine with the pro russian ukraine government and with a russian oligarch with ties to vladimir putin. all of this becomes interesting for the mueller investigation because manafort allegedly lied about meeting with kilimnik in 2016 when he was the head of the trump campaign. keep in mind, the mueller investigation says kilimnik has ties to the russian intelligence at the time russian intelligence was meddling in the election process. that is a big problem and apparently kilimnik also tried to tamper with witnesses after manafort got arrested. a couple of minutes ago, alison, i promised we would get reaction from the kremlin. we spoke to the spokesman

was directed and lastly, the manafort/russian connection, he was lying about his contact with konstantin kilimnik is the court of the russian infection into the campaign, into trump, and president trump should be very very concerned today. >> craig unger who is an investigative journalist, author of house of trump, house of putin, what language stood out to you? >> well, i think frank was absolutely right. that manafort was lying about his conversations with kilimnik, known as k.k. affectionately, manafort's right hand man, manafort does not speak russian or ukrainian, so he was absolutely crucial to him. through kilimnek he worked to install president victor in ukraine. when we say manafort is working for ukraine, he's working for vladimir putin, and he's being paid over $65 million and they helped install yanakovich as president in ukraine, and that seems a dry run for what he did in the united states in 2016 with trump. >> 15 seconds here, what does this tell you about mueller's thinking and what is ahead for us? >> yeah, i think we're going to see more indictments, there's no question, but it

documents, we learned there are all these previously undisclosed contacts with somebody named konstantin kilimnikgn financial violations don't appear to have a russian nexus, but just as every week, we're learning yet more this week about contacts between the russians and the trump campaign. >> if you could told on with me, i'm getting news in from outside federal court in washington, when we're talking about russia, accused russian spy maria butina in court to strike a plea deal with federal prosecutors and investigators. jessica schneider is out front and has more breaking news coming in. what do you have? >> one hour into this hearing, it was one word that maria butina said. she just said it to the judge, guilty. maria butina has pleaded guilty to conspiracy against the united states, acting as an illegal foreign agent of russia. this is all unfolded amid tremendous detail from prosecutors. prosecutors talking about the fact that maria butina started this conspiracy in march 2015. she actually drafted a policy proposal. she called it description of the diplomacy project. in that proposal, she

. >> the special counsel is saying manafort lied about his interactions with konstantin kilimnik. in previous filings it was said kilimnik had ties to russian intelligence. there's an individual's name blacked out in the filing and the special counsel alleged manafort lied about that. robert mueller alleged manafort lied about a wire transfer to a firm linked to manafort, about another separate department of justice investigation that manafort offered information about and lastly the special counsel says manafort lied when he said he wasn't in contact with anyone from the trump administration, it turns out he was up until may of this year and because of all of that the special counsel has canceled manafort's plea agreement and he's facing 15 years in prison. >> when you look at that line does that relate in your view or is it possible to say to obstruction or the potentially collusion-related things since kilimnik is one of the potential russian-linked handlers here? to ken. >> oh, sorry. i mean, i think -- sorry, ari, i thought you were talking to someone else. >> i'm the anchor,

that the special counsel is saying paul manafort lied about his interactions with a man named konstantin kilimnik, that's important because the special counsel said kilimnik had ongoing ties to russian intelligence. there's a reference to a meeting between kilimnik and an individual whose name is blacked out in the filing. paul manafort lied about that. the special counsel also alleged that paul manafort lied about another separate department of justice investigation that manafort offered information about. and lastly the special counsel counsel said manafort lied when he said he wasn't in contact with anyone from the trump administration. turns out he was until may of this year. and because of all of that, the special counsel has cancelled manafort's plea agreement and he's now facing up to 15 years in prison. >> when you look at that line, does that relate in your view or is it possible to say, to obstruction or potentially collusion related things since capitol hill ne kilimnik is one of the, potentially, russian-linked handlers? to ken. >> i'm sorry i thought you were talking to someone else.